Association football and soccer Essay Example for Free

Association football and soccer Essay Soccer is the world’s most popular sport. It is the national sport of most European and Latin-American countries and many other nations. Millions of people in more than 140 countries play soccer. Soccer is one of the most famous international sports. There are three distinct reasons that soccer is so widely popular. I- Soccer is a relatively easy game to learn and play. II- It provides many physical benefits and III- Has the ability to benefit cultures by bringing countries together. I- Soccer is an easy game to learn. Many children start to play the game around the age of three. Actually, as soon as most kids learn to walk they learn to kick a ball around which is a key component of soccer. Very little equipment is needed to play soccer. This adds to its accessibility to the masses. All that is needed to play the game of soccer is a soccer ball, shin guards, and goalie equipment. A soccer game may be played either indoors or outside. It is played on a rectangular field with a goal net on each short side of the field. A soccer team is comprised of 11 players. All players must hit the ball with their feet or body and only the goalie is allowed to touch the ball with his or her hands. A soccer game begins with a kick off en the center of the field. A coin is flipped to decide which team will kickoff. The other team kicks of at the start of the second half. At this time the teams also switch sides or nets. After a team scores the other team gets to kickoff to begin play again. The kickoff takes place in the middle of the field. When the ball is kicked it must travel the circumference of the ball and touch another player before the kicker can touch the ball again. After the ball is in play it remains in play unless it crosses a goal line or a touch line. All players attempt to stop the ball from coming in there zone while at the same time trying to score a goal. A player may kick the ball into the net with any part of the body except the hands and arms. If the ball goes out of bounds the play is restarted with a corner kick, a goal kick, or a throw-in. The referee decides what type to use. If the ball crosses the goal line and the defensive team touched it last then there is a corner kick by the offense. If the offense touches the ball last and crosses the goal line then it is a goal kick. A throw in happens when the ball crosses the touch line. When it crosses the touch line the team that did not touch it last throws the ball in bounds. The ball is thrown over their head with two hands. Fouls are called when a player does not obey the rules and acts unsportsmanlike. When a foul is called the opposite team receives a either a penalty kick, a direct free kick or and indirect free kick. Although, it may sound complex, very young children are able to learn the game quite easily. II- Soccer is a good sport to play if you like to stay physically fit. There are many exercises that are required for the soccer player to be at their peak performance. Exercises that strengthen your legs and improve flexibility are ideal. Physical conditioning is important if you plan on being good at soccer. Here are five important exercises I will discuss that are ideal for soccer: 1. Running: running helps to improve cardiovascular fitness. In soccer there is lots of running for the ball so endurance and a speed is a must. 2. Leg Extension: using weights can help strengthen the legs. Using weights makes you kick harder and makes the ball travel farther; as a result you become a better player. 3. Leg Machines: exercising all muscles in the leg makes you kick harder and prevents injury when you are diving all over for the ball. The strong muscles help prevent injuries. 4. Stretching: stretching allows you to be more flexible. Sometimes soccer players need to kick the ball in the most awkward positions. Flexibly helps the player to kick the ball in those positions more effectively. 5. Weight Training: all around weight training makes a soccer player even better. A stronger body helps prevent injury and improve all around performance. Practice helps the soccer player become more skillful and physically fit. Soccer drills like dribbling the ball and head butting add to a players endurance and physical agility. Soccer can be a very demanding sport. A players strength, flexibility, and overall physical condition is put to the test. Soccer players are able to stay healthy, strong, and obtain â€Å"life long† fitness due to their preparation and participation in the game. Another added benefit is the stress relief that is found in participating in a strenuous sport such as soccer. III- Lastly, soccer has the ability to be a great unifier. Soccer can be a unifier of countries, their people, and spirit. In every society and culture, there are many things in common and many differences but there is one thing that links us all. The link is the world of sports. Sports are a way of life in many nations and cultures. There are many types of sports, but there is one sport that is known in every corner of the world. This sport is soccer. Soccer is a sport that is played in every continent in the world; it is the one and only sport without borders. Millions of people watch soccer, which is why people know other cultures. I am from Pakistan. Our national game is field hockey, but everybody prefers to watch cricket. I remember in the year 1992 when Pakistan won the first and only world cup of cricket. Everybody praised the team because they were the heroes of the nation. After two years, in 1994, Pakistan had four world cups in four different sports: field hockey, cricket, snooker and squash. After that, Pakistan never won another world cup in any sport till now. In the 1999 cricket world cup final Pakistan suffered a humiliating defeat by the Australians that disheartened the people. After a bad 2003 world cup performance, Pakistanis took less interest in cricket and took more interest in soccer. Now days most people prefer to watch soccer, even though Pakistan does not have a soccer team that plays an international game. Why do I like soccer? The main reason is the passion and the thrill of the game. Millions of soccer fans like me like soccer because of tactics: how the player tackles ball, how they make moves, how they use skills. The more skillful the soccer player the better. That’s my life experience. Now I watch soccer more than cricket. It takes less time to watch and it is an interesting game. My cousins and friends are also fans of soccer. We are all fans of different teams and players. We all watch mostly European Leagues such as English Premier League, UEFA Cup etc. Why those leagues? We prefer these leagues because the clubs pay high prices to buy world class players to play for the clubs. Those leagues play every year. We have a craze for soccer. When we watch games how we support the team or players we like, wearing the shirts, shouting and even praying for them. Soccer has the ability to unify  us as a people, to unify our hearts and minds. When I was over there, and even here, when I talk to someone we always talk about soccer. My opinion is that soccer affects the Pakistani culture very much. How does soccer affect the culture of the United States? Outside the United States and Canada the game of soccer is called football. Soccer is very popular among American youth and has the most professional players out of any nation in the world. Chuck Klosterman in â€Å"George Will vs Nick Hornby† writes â€Å"Soccer will soon become part of the fabric of this country and will be as popular as any other game here. † â€Å"According to the Soccer Industry Council of America, soccer is the No. 1 youth participation sport in USA. There are more than 3. 6 million players under the age of nineteen registered to play and that number has been expanding at over 8 percent a year since 1900†. Those are going to be a fans, players, referees, coaches etc. for the future of United States Soccer. His favor is a critic. Klosterman criticizes soccer in â€Å"George Will vs Nick Horby. † He says we will never care about soccer in United States because soccer is inherently un-American, is it Outcast Culture. He also mentions is most that children do not love soccer. Most youth soccer players end up joining the debate team before they turn fifteen. Youth do not like soccer the way it is played. He compares soccer with baseball. Baseball is most common sport played by youths. He wonders why we care that soccer is the most popular game on the earth and is played by millions of people. To love soccer is to say you believe in enforced equality more than you believe in the value of competition and the capacity of the human spirit. I disagree with his criticism of soccer because most people like soccer. Why did the soccer star David Beckham come here to teach soccer? Why does America have a soccer team play in almost every World Cup? I agree that soccer is not as common as other games, but still people play soccer here. In fact, the biggest reason for soccers failure in the United States is that it doesnt conform easily to the demands of television. The reason soccer isnt as popular in the US is not because it isnt physical enough. I play and I know for certain that it is, and I used to live in US. I just recently moved to Pakistan in Asia. I used to watch soccer all the time, of course it was international soccer, but I watched it on ESPN sports. Soccer hasnt reached its peak in the US, to be frank. I see people beginning to take interest in it. Of course, the most unrecognized form of soccer is womens soccer, but that is a different subject all together. The reason is because the major US sports Baseball, Football (Rugby) , Basketball seasons take up the entire year. I think there may be 1-2 days in a year where none of the sports is played. Also, the major sports cover everything that soccer does, scoring in a net NBA, physical roughness NFL Football, hitting an object MLB. The major US sports had already established themselves in the US, so there is not really a good entry point for soccer. In conclusion, you can see that I am crazy about soccer. It is a sport that is very easy to learn and takes very little money to participate in. It is a sport that can easily get a person into top physical shape and develop â€Å"life long† fitness. But most importantly, it is a sport that allows many countries to become unified through their love of the game. That is why I love soccer.