Here’s a little history for you:
The term “soccer” is a shortening of the term “association football” which is one of seven codes in the football family. The Brits coined the word because the name of the code was too long to keep saying.
Football as a sport refers to any team sport that involves – to varying degrees – kicking a ball to score a goal. Soccer has the only code of football that says strictly no use of hands.
Now that you know the origins of the term “soccer”, it’s time to learn how to play the sport, called “The Beautiful Game”.
What Are the Basic Soccer Rules?
Before we go into the basic soccer rules, i.e. what you must know before you play the game, I must tell you something important.
“Football” as a term is used to refer to the most dominant code of football in any region.
Yes, “soccer” was coined in Britain, the nation responsible for standardizing the sport and colonizing half of the world.
However, it became obsolete because, as a code, soccer became so popular that it relegated other codes. For a very long time, very few people in Britain or the nations it colonized knew about any other football codes.
This is why when you mention or refer to “football” in many parts of the world, nine out of ten times, everyone thinks of soccer.
Great! Let’s learn all about the rules of the sport!
You Have to Play With Your Feet, No Use of Hands
There is no clear reason why association football—soccer—chose to eliminate the use of hands. However, this decision meant that only people with a lot more skill and coordination would be able to play the sport.
The basic action of soccer is kicking the ball. Players are required to kick the ball with varying degrees of power to move it around to score a goal.
Being able to do this means that a soccer player must possess excellent feet-eye coordination because one look away from the ball or the opponent could result in a loss of the ball or worse, an injury.
You have to constantly be aware of your surroundings while making sure the ball is not too far from your feet.
When you pass the ball, you have to be aware of the power behind your kick so that your teammate can receive it well.
When you shoot the ball with the aim of scoring, you have to be aware of the power behind your kicks so that you can beat the defense of your opponents.
11 Players Will Play the Game for Each Team
Soccer can be played by anyone. However, only semi-professionals, professionals, and adults who are soccer enthusiasts are allowed to play the game with 11 players.
This is because the size of a standard soccer field is more than what kids or non-enthusiasts can handle.
Professionals are players who have signed contracts and are career soccer players. Semi-professionals are those who have at least completed youth soccer training.
This means they have played football until the U-15 level and are at that phase in their lives where they have to decide to either go pro or change paths in life.
Adults who are soccer enthusiasts refer to any adult who is fit and enjoys the game.
Any soccer team of players in this category that has more than 11 players means that the others must stay on the sidelines to be called in as substitutes.
Pickup games between friends can be played with any number of players ranging from three to seven. These types of games do not require a standard soccer field, and not all rules of the game apply.
Kick-off From the Center of the Field to Start Each Half
A soccer game starts from the center of the field. This area is marked by a big circle and a line that equally divides the field into two halves, where each team calls their home for the game.
A small dot is painted into the centre of that circle and the ball is placed there. A coin is tossed to determine which team gets to kick the ball first because soccer kick-offs must be uninterrupted.
After the coin toss-winning team kicks off, the other team can invade their home to steal the ball and position themselves to score a goal.
This kick-off style is prevalent even at the youth soccer level, where the field is smaller and the number of players per team, fewer. Any game involving a ball that does not follow this pattern of kick-off is not a soccer game. It is probably a game from another football code.
Pickup games between friends may not follow this kick-off method, however. There are no stakes involved, so the friends can choose how they want to enjoy the game.
The Referee Can Call Fouls When Players Break the Rules of the Game
As with every sport, soccer has officials who keep law and order.
Soccer has referees—five of them—who are on the field with the players, watching their every move to ensure that they follow the Laws of the Game as determined by the IFAB (International Football Association Board), the body in charge of safeguarding and standardizing the sport’s guiding laws.
In this era of technology, there is another group of five referees who are locked up in a room with monitors connected to the cameras on the field.
This group is known as the Video Assistant Referee (singular) and they have to review every footage captured by the on-field cameras to help the on-field referees with decisions and calls they must have missed due to human limitations.
Some of the calls to be made include fouls, which the leading referee has to make when players go against the rules.
Some of the rules that can lead to referees making foul calls include:
- Using hands
- Excessively aggressive tackling
- Verbal abuse of officials or other players
- Deliberate obstruction of goalscoring opportunities
Play for a Total of 90 Minutes
Even with the great strides made in sports science, having professional athletes play a sport for as long as they can is problematic.
Their bodies will not heal in time for the next game and the fatigue they accumulate will lead to weakened bodies.
This is why soccer is played within a set time frame.
That time frame is 90 minutes, which is divided into two halves of 45 minutes each.
The first 45 minutes – called the first half – is kicked off by the team that wins the coin toss before the first blast of the official’s whistle.
The next 45 minutes – called the second half – is kicked off by the team that lost the coin toss. The game is expected to be won in this period.
Officials can add time to make up for those times the ball wasn’t in play.
In soccer tournaments where teams have to be knocked out, a separate clock of 30 minutes (divided into two halves of 15 minutes each) is added. This clock is only started when the teams cannot find a winner in the regular 90 minutes.
Throw-in Will Be Given if the Ball is Out of the Sidelines
Sometimes, the ball goes out of bounds. When it goes out through the sidelines, a throw-in is awarded.
The referee awards the throw-in to the defending team because the attacking team is always responsible for the ball going out of bounds.
The defending team can also cause the ball to go out of bounds and have a throw-in awarded against them. This happens when their defense is tight but cannot effectively deal with their opponent’s attacking threat.
The sidelines on either side of the pitch are where the throw-ins are awarded. They can be awarded at any point on the line and at any time. Throw-ins can also be the last action of a soccer game.
One important thing to note is that throw-ins are the only time outfield players can use their hands in play.
The ball is considered out of bounds, so hands can be used to return it into bounds at throw-ins. It was not a part of the sport originally but was introduced in 1863 when the laws of the game were standardized.
Set Up a Corner Kick or a Goal Kick if the Ball Goes Over the Goal Line
Corner kicks are given when the defending team causes the ball to go out of the field from the goal line.
The goal line is one of three lines on a soccer field, the others being the sideline (one on each side of the pitch, where other officials, the substitutes, and the coaching staff watch the game from) and the halfway line (the line dividing the field into two halves, which each team calls their home for each half of the 90-minute time duration).
Goals are placed on specific spots on each goal line. The ball must cross the goal line where the goal is to be considered a goal for any of the teams.
If the ball crosses the goal line at any other point by any fault of the defending team, a corner kick is awarded to the attacking team. This is a way to help the attacking team with another scoring opportunity.
At corner kicks, a player kicks the ball into the defending team’s penalty box and hopes his teammates guide it into the defending team’s goal.
You Have to Score More Goals Than the Opponent to Win the Match
This is as clear as day and applies to any sport.
In athletics, you have to run a faster time, perform a higher jump, or throw a longer shot. In swimming, you have to swim faster. In tennis, you have to score more points. In basketball, you have to score more points.
Winning in any sport means that you have outscored your opponent in the points system used in that sport. Goals are the points system in soccer and this means that the winner of a soccer game must have more goals on the scoresheet than their opponents.
Offside Will Be Given if a Player is in Front of the Backline
Offside is Law 11 of the game, and it states that a “player is in an offside position if any of their body parts, except the hands and arms, are in the opponents’ half of the pitch, and closer to the opponent’s goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent (the last opponent is usually, but not necessarily, the goalkeeper).”
That’s a lot to process, right?
I understand. Even pundits get confused by this law.
However, what you should know about the rule is that a player shouldn’t be ahead of the last defender on the opposing team.
What Are the Basic Soccer Skills?
The basic soccer skill is kicking the ball.
There are different kicking techniques a person has to learn. There is also a need to understand how much power to put into kicks. This difference in kicking power not only determines how far a ball will go but also what kind of a kick it will be.
Outside kicking, the following are the skills you must master to be able to play soccer at any level.
Passing the Ball
Passing a soccer ball is a type of kick. The difference between this and other kicks is in the power put behind the kick and the technique used in the kick.
Passing is not a new concept to anyone who follows sports. Even if you don’t follow any sports, you pass things to people daily.
You pass the dishes to your kids, you pass your pen to your colleagues, and so on. This is the same concept behind passing in soccer – kicking the ball to another teammate.
To learn this, start by facing a wall with your soccer ball. Play it to the wall so that it bounces back to you.
This is how you regulate the power of your kicks because if you use too much force, you may not be able to receive the ball when it bounces off the wall.
Increase the distance between yourself and the wall to help you get more control over the power of your kicks.
Then, find a friend and practice with them, slowly increasing the distance as you practice your passing.
Dribbling Past Defenders
Soccer, like every team sport, involves constant movement. It is also very restrictive because it is a sport that is played solely with the legs, which is how a human moves.
This is why dribbling is a basic skill.
No, I’m not talking about tricks and flicks like you see on YouTube. Those are cool, but for beginners, dribbling simply means moving the ball with your feet from one point to another. Most times, it involves beating a defender or two who will try to get the ball off you.
To learn dribbling, first, learn how to run with a soccer ball. Kick it slightly in front of you and run after it. Control the power of your kicks so that the ball does not go too far away from you.
Next, get some obstacles – practice cones, rocks, shoes, anything. Line them up a few feet from each other so there’s enough space for you to maneuver. Dribble the ball in between these spaces and increase your speed as you practice.
With time, you can add the tricks and flicks.
Scoring Goals
A goal is said to have been scored in a soccer game when one team puts the ball in the back of the other team’s net.
All the players on a soccer field are there to make this happen for their team while preventing it from happening for the other team. This is how the winning team of any soccer game is decided.
At the start of a soccer game, the team that wins the coin toss gets possession of the ball first. They move it around, trying to keep it and catch their opponents off-guard so they can score.
To be able to score a goal, they must know how to kick the ball with enough power and accuracy into the opponent’s net.
Do the following to learn and improve your goalscoring.
- Kick the ball into an empty net from different angles. Pick a point in the goal and aim at it.
- Place obstacles to help you improve target practice.
- Use different goal sizes to finetune your accuracy.
- Practice with a goalkeeper.
- Practice with a goalkeeper and a defender.
Defend
While one team is trying to score, another team is trying to prevent them from scoring. This back-and-forth is so exciting, and the excitement is what gets the crowd going at every soccer game.
This is what many coaches spend time preparing for because defense is what wins soccer games. It doesn’t matter how many you score if your opponent scores just as much or even more.
In essence, defense means being able to anticipate potential goalscoring opportunities that could be created by your opponents and working to thwart them.
It starts by being able to take the ball off your opponent. To practice this, do the dribbling drill where you weave through obstacles, as explained in the “dribbling past defenders” section above. This helps you with your footwork and anticipation of your opponent’s footwork.
Improve your reaction time with reaction drills as well. You can download an alarm that sounds off at random times and react to it as it goes off. This helps you react to changes in an opponent’s movement quickly.
Finally, practice interceptions with wall passes.
Controlling the Ball
Kicking is the most basic soccer skill. The power of your kicks makes it a pass or another type of kick. Passing is a basic soccer skill that involves kicking the ball to your teammate. Your teammate will have to control the ball upon receiving it.
Controlling the ball in soccer means being able to bring it to a stop or manipulating it to a point where you can do something else with it.
Good ball control can be the difference between conceding a goal and scoring one in a professional soccer game – this is how important mastery of this skill is.
Good ball control can help players receive any kind of pass or intercept it. It can also help start attacks or end them. Good ball control also helps in turnovers, slowing the pace of the game down to rebuild your team’s attack and defense.
Wall passes, ball juggling, dribbling practice and trapping practice are the best ways to improve your ball control. All soccer players, regardless of the level, must continuously practice this skill.
Soccer Players Position
Soccer is played by two teams of 11 at the professional level. Youth soccer starts at age 4 and ends at age 15. At these stages of a player’s development, only learning the skills above matters. The coaches set teams accordingly until they reach age 15 when they are expected to have imbibed all the basics.
Transitioning to the professional level means that a player is ready to fill one of the four main positions a player must fill on a soccer field. Read more about soccer players’ positions below.
Goalkeeper
The main aim of soccer is to kick a ball into a net, also referred to as a goal. The soccer goal sizes vary from youth football to professional football. You can read all about soccer goal sizes by clicking this link.
At the professional level, the goal sizes must be 24 feet wide by 8 feet high. Only one player is in charge of keeping the ball out of this massive goal for a team, and that is the goalkeeper.
Remember we learned at the beginning that soccer is the only football code that has a strict “no-hands” policy? The goalkeeper is the only exception to that rule among soccer players.
The size of a soccer goal requires that any part of the goalkeeper’s body, especially the hands, be used to keep balls out.
Defender
Soccer player positions are divided into two main roles:
- The goalkeeper
- The outfield players
A defender is one of the subdivisions of the outfield players who play close to the goalkeeper.
The goalkeeper’s primary job is to stop the ball from going into the goal but the goal is so wide that it is an almost impossible task. The defender’s role on the pitch is to make it easier for the goalkeeper.
Opponents who try to score must make it past the defender to get a clean shot at the goal.
If the defenders are good enough, they will either frustrate the opponents’ efforts or force them to attempt shots from unfavorable angles, which makes things a little easier for the goalkeeper.
It is arguably the most important outfield soccer player position.
Midfielder
Midfielders play ahead of the defenders.
As outfield players, their primary role is to keep the ball outfield. This is why players with the most technical ability, intelligence, and vision are made midfielders.
One of the primary roles of the midfielder is to be the link between the defenders and the rest of the team.
They receive the ball, keep it away from the opponents and work it into a favorable position on the field where their teammates can attempt to score a goal by kicking it into the opposing team’s net.
There are three subdivisions of midfielders: Center Midfielder, Defensive Midfielder and Attacking Midfielder. These three subdivisions require particular skill sets.
One thing they must all have as midfielders is vision. This is because they are responsible for circulating the ball among their teammates.
Attackers
Sport is an endeavor where someone gets the better of another to win in friendly or competitive circumstances. Soccer, being a team sport, means that some players are tasked with this responsibility – getting the better of the opponents.
The players tasked with this responsibility are called attackers.
Attackers are outfield players who play further up the soccer field and attempt to maneuver the ball into positions where they can shoot at their opponent’s goal.
They receive the ball from midfielders, outmuscle the opponents and shoot at the goal, hoping that their shot is accurate enough to beat the reach of the goalkeeper or powerful enough to force the goalkeeper to make an error.
There are two subdivisions of attackers: Strikers and Wingers. These subdivisions require particular skills, but they must all have speed and strength.
Final Thoughts
You just finished reading “How to play soccer 101”.
This should equip you with basic knowledge about the sport, the one that’s called “The Beautiful Game” the world over.
You should know that playing soccer goes beyond this, however. It is tactical and grueling, which means that you must be physically fit and mentally sound.
Rarely has there been a soccer coach whose appearance didn’t change over the course of a season. That’s how demanding it can be.
On a final note: Soccer is the sport with the lowest entry barrier. Anyone – including you – can play and enjoy the game!
