What Is Soccer?


a form of football played between two teams of 11 players, in which the ball may be advanced by kicking or by bouncing it off any part of the body but the arms and hands, except in the case of the goalkeepers, who may use their hands to catch, carry, throw, or stop the ball.
by Kevin Bliss • Sept. 11, 2017

The game of soccer -- more commonly referred to outside the United States as football -- has long been one of the most popular sports in the world. With origins that date back many centuries, soccer is played by young children, college students and professionals. Amateur clubs and weekend warriors add to the passion that swells up every four years for the most-watched sporting event in the world, the World Cup.
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History

Although soccer's international governing body, the International Federation of Association Football, recognizes the birth of the modern game as 1863 in England, the deepest origins go back centuries. The Han Dynasty in the second century B.C. saw the emergence of a game similar to soccer called tsu' chu. Several centuries after that, the Japanese game Kemari began. Kemari was less competitive, with participants passing the ball from one another using their feet, trying to keep it from touching the ground. Much later, a violent town game emerged called mob football in Europe during the Middle Ages.
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Premise and Rules

The game of soccer is built around the pursuit of scoring goals. Teams move the the ball up and down the field in an attempt to kick it within the goal, a framework that measures 8 feet in height and 24 feet in width at the professional level. The player guarding the goal, the goalkeeper, is the only player on a team typically allowed to touch the ball with his hands. Except during a throw-in, the other players must use their feet, knees, head and chest to control and advance the ball. A regulation game is played in two 45-minute halves.
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Players and Boundaries

Eleven players, including the goalkeeper, are allowed on the field at one time for each team. These players must keep the ball in play on a rectangular field that measures between 100 and 130 yards in length and 50 and 100 yards in width. The builders of an individual stadium or field determine the dimensions for their facility based on how close they want the fans to the field, the style of game -- a smaller field provides greater advantage to the technical, rather than fast, players -- and the attendance capacity they hope to manage.
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Corner Kicks

If the ball crosses the goal line -- the line creating the width of the field -- and the defense touches it last, its opponents are allowed a corner kick. On a corner kick, the ball is placed within an arc laid out at one of the two corners on the side where it went out. A player from the offensive team kicks it from there, typically aiming it to an area in front of the goal in the hope that one of his players can deflect it into the goal for a score.
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Penalty Kicks

Fouls and penalties committed by one team can lead to penalty kicks for the opposing team. This occurs when a foul is committed inside the penalty area -- anywhere 18 yards and in from the goal line -- and the player suffering the foul receives a penalty kick. For such a kick, the ball is placed 12 yards from the goal line and the fouled player kicks toward the goal, facing the goalkeeper only -- a great chance to score.
Free Kicks

Free kicks occur when a foul is committed -- usually a player tripping or pushing an opponent inside the penalty area. This type of kick does not feature the one-on-one matchup against the goalkeeper. Instead, the opposing team may line its players up no closer than 10 yards from the ball. If the referee determines that the free kick should be a direct free kick, the player taking the free kick may kick the ball in the goal without having it touch another player first. An indirect free kick must touch another player before going in the goal. The type of free kick is determined by the nature of the foul.


Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately 9.4 inches (24 cm) in diameter) through the defender's hoop (a basket 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter mounted 10 feet (3.048 m) high to a backboard at each end of the court) while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own hoop. A field goal is worth two points, unless made from behind the three-point line, when it is worth three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one or more one-point free throws. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play (overtime) is mandated.


Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.[1] It has been a part of the official program of the Summer Olympic Games since 1964.

Tennis is a racket sport that can be played individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to maneuver the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player who is unable to return the ball will not gain a point, while the opposite player will.


Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball back and forth across a table using small bats. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net. Except for the initial serve, the rules are generally as follows: players must allow a ball played toward them to bounce one time on their side of the table, and must return it so that it bounces on the opposite side at least once. A point is scored when a player fails to return the ball within the rules. Play is fast and demands quick reactions. This high intense sport consists of [3]Spinning the ball alters its trajectory and limits an opponent's options, giving the hitter a great advantage.

Rugby union, commonly known in most of the world as rugby,[3] is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century.[4] One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15 players using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped goalposts on each try line.