Soccer, What is the Deal with?

[Latrinsorm]

I have taken to watching Arsenal games recently, and I cannot for the life of me figure out the way the season works. There is an English Premier League: ok. There is also an FA Cup and a UEFA Champions League, which unlike traditional 'Murrcan postseasons seem to be going on throughout the regular season? I have also heard announcers reference the Carling Cup, which is...? And my boy Gervinho is out for the African Nations Cup? Why would they schedule what I assume is a regional precursor or at least analogue to the World Cup during the EPL season? Is there an EPL off-season?

So I am hoping someone can help me figure out what the deal is with soccer. Thanks in advance, Bob's your uncle, God save the Queen.

[Rinualdo]

Soccer balls. How do they work?

[Drew]

Premiere League is won solely based off standing, no playoffs. The various cups are tournaments. FA Cup is all the English teams competing in a tourney (this includes lower league teams, similar to if minor league baseball clubs could compete with the Majors), the biggest teams are given byes while the smaller ones play in. The Carling Cup is similar to the FA Cup except only the top 2 divisions are eligible to play and is considered less prestigious than the FA Cup.

[Drew]

The Champions League (the commercials for this with the operatic singers droning on about THE CHAAAAAAAMPIONS still haunt me) is a yearly competition of all the European clubs. It's like a championship of champions (except the big leagues get more than 1 qualifier). Why all this is played during the regular season is beyond the scope of my knowledge.

[Asha]

http://youtu.be/VF_uOgyBK1c

[Drew]

http://youtu.be/VF_uOgyBK1c

Excellent, I'm a little disappointed they didn't mention the side I support, John O'Groats FC.

[Asha]

Hahaha! Not a lot of televised coverage for you, man.

[TheEschaton]

I think world cup qualifying takes place in the "off-season", along with international friendlies etc. The tournament season plus EPL (La Liga, Bundesliga, et al) is "the season." I'm not entirely sure there's a down season for soccer players, unless you're from a country which just sucks at football and you haven't yet expatriated (?) yourself to a Latin American country.

Also, the African Cup is not a qualifier for the World Cup, it's just a regional tournament for Africa. Europe has one every 4 years, called the UEFA European Championship (which is different from UEFA CHampions League, which is a club competition) halfway between World Cups. Should be one coming up this year iirc, Spain won in 2008 before winning the WC in 2010.

[DoctorUnne]

I found the Champions League to be really fun to follow (in addition to the World Cup and Euro Cup) for these reasons:

- It's manageable for casual fans since the schedule is similar to the World Cup with a group stage and a knockout round only it's spread over the entire year so it's easy to fit in alongside the other sports you follow

- It has most of the best clubs and players in the world but enough teams have an opportunity to qualify that you get cinderella stories. Theoretically a club from Malta could win the Champions League. And every year usually has some unexpected club from a small country make the knockout stage.

- You can buy a pass at uefa.com for $30 I think for the entire season which has full videos of every single game as well as shorter highlight versions and you can watch them on your own time

- I went to the Champions League final in Milan in 2001 and the atmosphere was 10x better than any other sporting event I've been to in my life

[Latrinsorm]

Ok thanks all: it's crazy and soccer people are crazy. Makes sense now.

[Traelin]

I like baseball.

Used to ref soccer years ago. The parents became unbearable. I was assaulted by a 40 year old man when I was 13. He didn't like my call.

Soccer just brings back bad memories.

[gs4-PauperSid]

I dont get how the clock counts UP in soccer matches.

And then, some magical amount of time is added to extend to the agreed upon, what, 90min game? With no apparent stoppage of play, how do the players know how much magic extra time is added?

Though, it's never bothered me enough to actually look things like this up.

Sad too, having lived in England as a kid. (lets not get started on crickett)

[Middian]

I was always brought up that soccer is for girls and American football rules. Then I moved to England for 5 years and my boss had season tickets to Arsenal. Wow did my views change. I thought to myself; This is INTENSE! Furthermore, the extensive amount of drinking/singing before and after in the “Ye Old Triangle Pub” outside of the stadium was the best!! The veil has been lifted, I am forever change!

[Traelin]

I was always brought up that soccer is for girls and American football rules. Then I moved to England for 5 years and my boss had season tickets to Arsenal. Wow did my views change. I thought to myself; This is INTENSE! Furthermore, the extensive amount of drinking/singing before and after in the “Ye Old Triangle Pub” outside of the stadium was the best!! The veil has been lifted, I am forever change!

You're now a hooligan.

[Drew]

I dont get how the clock counts UP in soccer matches.

And then, some magical amount of time is added to extend to the agreed upon, what, 90min game? With no apparent stoppage of play, how do the players know how much magic extra time is added?

Though, it's never bothered me enough to actually look things like this up.

Sad too, having lived in England as a kid. (lets not get started on crickett)


The ref decides basically "how much time have both these teams wasted" and then adds that much. An assistant ref holds up a board displaying the amount of extra time added. It's not really the exact amount of time wasted, but if you waste a little time, you get 1 extra minute, if there have been a ton of injuries and penalties and what not, 4 minutes.

[Gibreficul]

First thing I'll say is I'm not a fan of soccer. That said... here's a few reasons why I'm not.

First, I don't understand "off sides" in soccer. My father has explained it to me many times over, he used to referee up until I was in middle school or thereabout. Apparently it has to do with the position of the defenders or some shit.

Second is that I only played a little bit... I never went past the "under 10" league. When I played "under 8" I was goalie, and I liked it. After that, they wanted me to run around the field and shit. (lol) Ironically, later in life playing ice hockey, the only position I didn't want to play was goalie, and I liked moving all around the playing surface. (playing center FTW)

Third is... the whole point of this thread. There's so many teams, so many leagues. If you don't get something like what DoctorUnn said, and get a guided tour into it, it's hard to follow.

Otherwise, I've watched a few games within the last year or so, and I can see where it's entertaining. I just think if you put 22 guys on a field, it should be a contact sport.

(Drew, thanks for the info.)

[Drew]

First, I don't understand "off sides" in soccer. My father has explained it to me many times over, he used to referee up until I was in middle school or thereabout. Apparently it has to do with the position of the defenders or some shit.


The funny thing is that the offside rule is probably less complicated than the blue line rule.

[TheEschaton]

They're roughly analagous. In soccer, the offsides line is the (invisible) perpendicular line drawn from sideline to sideline through the second to last player on the defending team (the last being the goalie, most times).

So, unlike hockey, the offsides line moves based on the last defender's position. That's why in soccer, you want your defenders to hold a uniform back line and not have one guy way back, thus extending the playable zone for the offense.

Also, in soccer, offsides occurs when you are beyond the line while the ball is still controlled by a teammate (who then tries to get it to you, it's not offsides if you're not involved in the play). As soon as your teammate sends a cross, and the ball has left his foot, you can race past the line. In hockey the puck has to cross the line before the player's skates, not so in soccer.

[Gelston]

I played soccer a little here and there. It is fun to play but I get bored watching it. I guess if I was at an actual soccer game it would be different. Football is really the only sport I can stand to watch on TV.

[Rimalon]

Fuck Arsenal. Support a real team you Gooner fucks.

Edit: North London is ours.

[Nieninque]

The Carling Cup is similar to the FA Cup except only the top 2 divisions are eligible to play and is considered less prestigious than the FA Cup.

The carling cup has been called the littlewoods cup, milk cup, and some others in the past. It is basically the sponsors of what is the league cup, so clubs in the football league.


I think world cup qualifying takes place in the "off-season", along with international friendlies etc. The tournament season plus EPL (La Liga, Bundesliga, et al) is "the season." I'm not entirely sure there's a down season for soccer players, unless you're from a country which just sucks at football and you haven't yet expatriated (?) yourself to a Latin American country.

Also, the African Cup is not a qualifier for the World Cup, it's just a regional tournament for Africa. Europe has one every 4 years, called the UEFA European Championship (which is different from UEFA CHampions League, which is a club competition) halfway between World Cups. Should be one coming up this year iirc, Spain won in 2008 before winning the WC in 2010.

World cup qualifying takes place throughout the preceeding years to a world cup and matches take place throughout the season rather than the off-season.

African Nation's cup is the African version of the European cup or the American version. I assume that climate leads them to do it through the winter rather than (our) off season. Plays havoc with teams that buy in lots of africans (redknapp)


I found the Champions League to be really fun to follow (in addition to the World Cup and Euro Cup) for these reasons:

- It has most of the best clubs and players in the world

Best players in the world perhaps, but as it is the European Champions league, the clubs are all European.


Fuck Arsenal. Support a real team you Gooner fucks.

Edit: North London is ours.

North London, is full of shit, oh North London is full of shit, it's full of yids, yids and more yids. Oh north london is full of shit.

Fuck Tottenham

[Latrinsorm]

That reminds me: what's so hard about having coherent chants? I can barely make out "come on Fulham", the long ones forget about it. I assume it's the drinking?

Also I follow Arsenal because Arsenal games is broadcast on YES, and I use "is" in an attempt to mimic the comical plural/singular scheme they have going.

[Rimalon]

YID ARMY!

After we smash Wolves, we'll be level on points with Man City... the world truly is ending this year.

[Delias]

I'm not sure who sucks worse- all of you for liking soccer, or me for actually reading a thread about something so retarded.