The Way to Play

              

               Though it seems confusing to those who have never played, soccer is a relatively simple game to understand once the rules are learned.  There are major rules set to keep players safe and minor rules to keep the game fun.  Most soccer rules are relatively simple. When the ball crosses the goal line, it’s a goal. When the ball goes outside the out-of-bounds lines, the play stops. Victims of fouls get free kicks. A few are more unique to soccer, and to understand the game, spectators need to know common rules.

                When a player fouls a player on the opposing team, the ref will stop the play by blowing his whistle and award the victim with a free kick to restart the play.  However, if it is clear the victim will benefit from allowing the play to keep going, the ref can opt not to stop play and not award any fouls. This means he has called the “advantage” and allowed the players to keep playing. 

Another regularly-occurring call is “off-sides.”  This means that a player on the attacking team has received the ball while he was behind the last defender. Any attacker who receives the ball behind the last defender on the opposing team is in the “off-sides” position.  However, if the attacker receives the ball on his side of the defenders, he would not be off-sides.  When a player receives the ball, he can always run past the defenders, he just can’t receive the ball from a teammate while he is standing behind the defenders.  This rule is in place to prevent “cherry-picking”, or in other words, waiting in front of the goal for the ball to come. There are exceptions to this rule however.  On throw-ins and kick-ins from the corner arc, attackers are allowed to be past the last defenders.