Let's (finally) talk about football?
Football is the most popular sport in the world. It takes almost 4 billions(that is right, billions) of fans worldwide. The purpose of this publication is to "know" football. However, since this is the most popular sport in the world, I will focus on the most important parts of the sport.
Resume:
Football is played by two teams of 11 players. A goalkeeper and 10 other players in the line, distributed in the defense, midfield and attack. The match has 90 minutes total, divided into two 45-minute half, with 15 minutes halftime between the halfs, and the referee can give additional minutes at the end of each half. Obviously who wins is who score the most.
Time for History Class:
Between the second and the third century b. C., there was a sport activity similar to the football we have nowadays. In the ancient China’s Han dynasty, there was a game called tsúh Kúnthat consisted of kicking a ball into a small net. The game had its variations rooted across the planet. In Japan, it was called Kemari. Harpastumin Rome and Epislcyrosin Greece.
Flying over the centuries before Christ and stopping in the Middle Ages on the British Isles, football was former as the way we know it. Besides that, it was given rise to other sports like Rugby, American Football and others. However, the football played at the time was characterize by its aggressiveness.
The year was 1872, it was autumn on that November 30, when the first official match between national teams took place. England and Scotland drew 0-0. A year earlier in July a British newspaper suggested the creation of a tournament organized by the Football Association of England. This was the first step to what we know today as the FA Cup. And the Premier League, which we also know well, had its first season in 1888/1889 and the winner was the Preston North End (now in the English 2nd division) who won undefeated.
At the end of 1880, the sport began to leave the British Isles and quickly expanded. The first countries to have their own football associations were the Netherlands and Denmark in 1889, New Zealand in 1891, Argentina in 1893, Chile, the Helvetic Confederation and Belgium in 1895, Italy in 1898, the Germany and Uruguay in 1900, Hungary in 1901, Norway in 1902 and Sweden in 1904.
It's 1904, football had already reached the world level, so FIFA was create on May 21. The founding associations were those of Belgium, Spain, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.
I think you are good at history class, right?
Let’s go to what matters...
Rules:
As I said at the beginning of the text, I will explain the details of football. I will explain important points that have not been given the necessary value. So just like me, you love this sport, let's learn in this part important things that almost nobody knows.
I’m going to separate into topics to make life easier, okay?
Field:
The penalty arc, that half circle that is outside the penalty area, serves to that players who will not do the penalty kick are exactly 9.15 meters from the penalty spot. Only the player who will shoot and the goalkeeper can stay ahead of this line.
The goal box is 5.5 meters and serves to delimit the collection space of the goal shot, so the goalkeeper cannot take the ball from the small area to hit the target. The penalty box is the space that the goalkeeper (can) use his hands, in case the goalkeeper uses his hands outside the area, can be punish with red card.
(It is no wonder that today you pay dearly for working with goalkeepers who know how to use their feet)
If the ball exceeds the goal line, (line behind the goal) two things can happen. One: If team A that puts the ball out of the line of their goal, team B is entitled to a corner kick. Two: If team A puts the ball out of the line of team B, team B is entitled to one goal. Now, if the ball lands on the side, a player must leave the field and throw it into the field with his hands. You should put the ball behind your head before you throw, if you do not, the reversal happens and the side throw goes to the other team.
There are few things, speaking of the central circle. That ball is where a boat is to start or restart a game. The circumference is to delimit those who start the match and that line is just to separate the fields.
Positions and players
We know that in the gross there are five positions. Goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, full back and forward. However, these functions are raw and they are easily stoned. There are other positions such as center-forwarders, defensive midfielder, winger, sweeper and playmakers.
Going to fast definitions ...
Center-forwards are the ones who finish the most. Usually they are the most advanced players in the field. They are the famous scorers. Live examples include Uruguayan Luis Suarez, Barcelona, Polish Robert Lewandowski, Bayern Munich *, Argentine Kum Aguero, Manchester City, Frenchman Antoine Griezmann, Atletico Madrid *and Brazilian Roberto Firmino,Liverpool.
The winger are basically striker who act more by the side. It's an offensive full back. The winger play better by the sides. Featured examples include Chilean Alexis Sánchez, Arsenal, German Marco Reus, Borussia Dortmund, Egyptian Mohamed Salah, Liverpool, Brazilian William, Chelsea, and Frenchman Franck Ribery, Bayern Munich.
Detail: Despite what everyone thinks, the Brazilian Neymar, Paris-Saint-German, is a left-winger and not a playmaker. Despite carrying the 10 shirt both in the club and in the national team, Neymar always had better results when it uses the left to mount his plays.
The playmaker is nothing more than the good old 10 shirt of the team. He is the one who thinks the plays and makes the team work well. Examples? Okay. Belgian Eden Hazard, Chelsea, Dutch Arjen Robben, Bayern Munich, German Mesut Özil, Arsenal (but he is the 10 shirt in the national team), and Argentina's Lionel Messi, Barcelona.
The person who does the position of the defensive midfielder has a key role: to connect the defense to the attack. The steering defensive midfielder can also be offensive. Breathing examples are better to understand. The Brazilian Paulinho, Barcelona, and Germany's Toni Kroos, Real Madrid, are offensive, they work harder on the attack; however, Kroos prefers to stay in midfield to keep the ball in the opponent's field while Paulinho goes ahead give a center forward. The Spaniard, Sergio Busquets, Barcelona, is a defensive midfielder; he helps more defense than the attack.
Main championships:
Obviously, there are tournaments for this much teams that run the world. There are clubs and national team’s tournaments. Those of national teams are: World Cup, Copa America, Euro Cup, Confederations Cup, Olympic Games, Asian Nations Cup, Africa Cup of Nations and of course the world friendly between national team’s all over the world.
Between clubs there are plenty more, so many that we would stay here for days (being humble) to list all. Generalized, we have the national and regional championships of each country. We have continental championships, we have national cups and we have world cups. I’ll cite the most important championships; however, I'm not basing this list on my personal tastes, but on the English magazine World Soccer.
They are:
10th. Brasileirão (Brazilian Championship); Primera Division (Argentine Championship); Liga MX (Mexican Championship);
9th. Rosískaya Futbólnaya (Russian Championship);
8th. Major League Soccer (North American Championship);
7th. Eredivisie (Dutch Championship);
6th. First League (Portuguese League);
5th. Ligue 1 (French Championship);
4th. Serie A (Italian League);
3rd. Bundesliga (German Championship);
2nd. La Liga (Spanish League);
1st. Premier League (English League).
In addition, the most coveted international championships are Champions League, LibertadoresCup (It’s a soul America championship), Europa League, South American Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
See you soon, guys
-Elisa Dias
Of course not only that, we have the second part of this post, click the link below
