How to watch a soc ... football game

A guide for beginners

Before we moved to Europe, we knew soccer existed in the same way we were aware of sand dunes. Which is to say we knew it was A Thing. Perhaps even an Important Thing. One that Matters Quite a Bit to a lot of people we didn’t know.

While we still don’t know much about sand dunes and, oddly, we have yet to meet more than one or two people who ‘fess up to knowing anything about soccer, we understand the sport more now than we did a year ago. So we’re in a position to pass some of the knowledge along.

And with the Women’s World Cup in full swing, now’s a good time for it.¹

If you’ve been with us since last Fall and/or are an archive explorer, you know we’ve already written about the sport from the Big Picture perspective. And even if you haven’t seen that, you may already know that Americans are the only people in the world who call the sport “soccer.” To the other 7.7 billion people on the planet, it’s “football” (the NFL version in the US is “American football”). Or, futebol in Portugal.

So this post isn’t about why you should watch a football game.²

It’s for those of you who may want to watch a game but don’t know how.

Watching a new sport is a bit like sitting in a room full of people who are speaking a language you don’t understand.

Having had both experiences in the last year, let’s see what we can do to help with one of them.

Scott’s doing the heavy lifting from here on out so the first step is to flip the “first person” switch.

*click*

My disclaimer is that I am far from an expert and am mostly self-taught.³ I’ve come to appreciate the sport but I don’t have a nuanced feel for it. Every match I’ve ever watched in its entirety has featured commentary in Portuguese and I am simply not capable of understanding that yet. Competent broadcasters can be a real boon to new viewers, though, so I encourage you to listen to what yours have to say.⁴

Hopefully, my own relative newness to the sport will make this explanation easier to follow. I welcome corrections and additions to the text below - please don’t let errors or omissions stand! - as well as questions or requests for clarification.

My guess is that if you’ve read this far, you already know the information in this paragraph but let’s make sure we’re all starting from the same place: In football, there are two teams of 11 players each. (Technically, it’s ten players and a goalkeeper, or “keeper.” A keeper is a player in the same way that a thumb is a finger.) The players advance a ball down the field using any part of their body but their hands/arms and try to drive it into the opposing team’s net.

Key concepts

The game often starts before the players take the field
It’s helpful, sometimes even critical, to understand the context surrounding a match. It’s possible, especially early in a tournament, for a game to mean everything to one team and nothing to the other. It’s also possible that both teams must win in order to continue playing. Those “starting conditions” can have a dramatic effect once the teams are on the field⁵. As can factors like whether either team is under pressure to win and whether a team has no expectations going into the game. (Think David vs. Goliath.)

Time
A football game is divided into two 45-minute halves. Football is different from many other timed sports in that once a half begins the clock never stops. Play may pause for any number of reasons - a goal, an injury, a substitution - but the clock never does. The intention, however, is to have 90 minutes of actual play which means someone needs to keep track of the time that elapses when play is stopped. That “someone” is the referee who alone decides how much “extra time” gets added to make up for those stoppages once the clock hits 45 or 90 minutes. The only person in the entire stadium who knows exactly when a game will end is the referee.

Referee
Arguably the most important person on the field, the referee has near total control of a match. In addition to keeping track of the time, the referee is responsible for calling penalties and can opt to allow as much or as little contact between players as they like. A referee frequently communicates with players and coaches (I would love to know what they’re saying) and is the only one on the field with the all important …

Whistle
In my experience, the biggest source of confusion overall in football is the whistle. It blows. Sometimes frequently. And, afterwards, things happen. Or don’t. Why did the whistle blow? and What happens now? are two questions I asked a lot in my first few games.

Most often, whistles are blown for one of three reasons:

1. the ball went out of bounds,

2. there was sufficient contact been two or more players that the referee felt the need to “comment” by calling a foul, or

3. someone was offsides.

#1 (out of bounds) is fairly self-explanatory and the result is that possession of the ball goes to the team that did NOT touch it last (players will intentionally kick the ball into an opponent to deflect it out of bounds or use their bodies to keep an opponent away from a ball as it rolls out of bounds). The key is where on the field did the ball leave play - i.e. which line did the ball cross on its way out - because that determines whether the ball is

• thrown back onto the field by a player using their hands,

• kicked in from a corner towards a goal, or

• given to the keeper.

#2 (fouls) can be tricky in part because they can be somewhat subjective. Football is a fast-moving sport and there is a surprising (to me) amount of contact,⁶ some of which is an unintentional by-product of two or more players chasing hard after the ball (which is still a whistleable offense, intentionality being difficult to determine).⁷ I often find that the slow-motion tv replays of fouls make them look either more egregious or innocent, but the referee is making the call in real-time and, unless it’s super important, will not review their decision. Again, where on the field the infraction occurs is important because that determines whether

• the ball is quickly kicked back into play or

• there's a set piece where everyone lines up in some fashion and one player kicks the ball (typically, but not always, towards the goal).

Fouls can also occasionally result in the referee pulling a card - usually yellow, sometimes red - from their pocket and holding it in the air. A card symbolizes a higher level of infraction, sometimes the referee is attributing a degree of intentionality to the player receiving the card. Tournaments can have specific rules about cards⁸ but a red card always means a player is immediately ejected from the game.

#3 (offsides) is one of the least understood rules in all of sports. The best explanation I've seen of it is the New York Times’ attempt.⁹ I’m not even going to try.

A key takeaway from all of this is that it matters where on the field things happen. In general, the closer the ball is to a goal when a whistle is blown the more likely it is that play will stop and something organized - like a corner kick or a penalty shot - will occur.

Possession
In order to win a game, a team must score at least one goal.¹⁰ While it is possible for a team to score a goal without any of its players actually touching the ball, so called “own goals”¹¹ are rare. Therefore, teams almost always need to control the ball before scoring. The amount of time a team controls the ball is called possession. Usually, the team with more possession time is in a better position to win a game.¹²

What to look for when you tune in

One of the easiest things to quickly get a sense of is which team is controlling the ball. Another is what each team is doing with the ball when it has control. Narrowing your focus to just those two ideas can help you follow the action. Let’s break it down a bit more.

Who is controlling the ball?
Uniforms¹³ are super helpful here. One team is typically wearing some variation of a white jersey,¹⁴ while the other wears colors that, in a World Cup match, often incorporate those of their nation’s flag. The exceptions are the keepers who are usually decked out in very bright, sometimes fluorescent, gear.¹⁵

At first glance, a football game can seem like an unorganized back-and-forth with the ball just being knocked around the field. After a bit, though, it becomes apparent which team is doing a better job of controlling the ball. If a player in a red jersey kicks the ball and a player in a white jersey immediately takes control, that may have been a bad pass. If that happens consistently, the team in white is probably controlling the ball.

Image of a football pitch lifted from Wikipedia. I’m not going to touch on all of these terms but they’re good to be aware of.

When I watch a game, I mentally divide the field into thirds. This helps me get a feel for the momentum. If the ball spends most of the time in the “middle third” of the field (imagine vertical lines mid-way between the vertical Penalty area lines and the Half-way line in the above picture) then neither team is managing much of an attack.¹⁶ If the ball is in either of the end thirds a lot, one team is on the defensive and is likely not in possession of the ball as much.

The ball doesn’t always have to be moving towards the opposing team’s goal, though, when a team has possession. Which is the second half of the equation.

What is the team in control doing with the ball?
As mentioned earlier, a team’s ultimate objective for a particular game can dramatically alter how that team plays. If a team needs to win, they’ll be more aggressive than if they merely need to keep everyone healthy for the next game.¹⁷

I once watched a game between the Portuguese and Spanish National men’s teams. It was in a tournament and Portugal needed only a tie to advance to the next round, while Spain needed to win. Predictably, Spain dominated possession - they needed to win - but the ball was mostly in the middle third of the field. Portugal was playing defensively; their objective wasn’t to win the game, it was not to lose.¹⁸ Whenever Portugal had control of the ball, they showed little inclination to try and score. They mostly kept the ball in the middle third of the field and occasionally even sent the ball back to their own third. They were perfectly content to end the game 0-0, they just wanted to advance.¹⁹ The Portuguese fans hated it; even though the game was in Portugal there was near constant whistling (the European equivalent of booing) coming from the stands. It was boring to watch.

And ultimately, the strategy backfired as Spain pounced on a bad Portuguese pass and scored the game’s only goal in the 88th minute, eliminating Portugal from the tournament.²⁰

So a good indication of how a game is going, then, is a) who’s in control of the ball more and b) what each team does when it has control. These are two things that are relatively simple to look for and don’t take a lot of specific knowledge to unpack.

And that should be enough to get you started.

There’s a lot more to the sport than a couple thousand words can convey but that will come in time.

I hope this was helpful and, again, I welcome corrections and additions to the text - please don’t let errors or omissions stand! - as well as questions or requests for clarification.

That’s all for now.

Love from Lisbon,

Scott (& Amy)

1. If you need a team to root for, I’d suggest checking out Japan (tournament high 11 goals in three games), Jamaica (the Reggae Girlz are the feel-good story thus far), and Sweden (which could very well eliminate the US on Sunday), in addition to the US.

2. If you’re looking for reasons, though, here are three:

• There are literally billions of people who follow this sport, often rabidly. Isn’t it just a little bit possible you’re missing something they see?

• It actually is a beautiful game once you start to get the hang of it.

• It will catch on in the US, it’s only a matter of time - if for no other reason than there’s massive amounts of money involved. You can be on the cutting edge! According to Tom Walsh, this posts’ Beta Reader, “For those US readers who want to watch more soccer…the Premier League returns to action this month. Rebecca Lowe is a studio host for NBC Sports who does a fabulous job inviting everyone under the tent. Smart. Knowledgeable. Articulate. Passionate. Affable. Telegenic. … she will be the reason “futebol” finally gets real traction in this country - along with huge advertising revenue. She and Brendan Hunt (from Ted Lasso - an actor who really knows soccer) have a second season of a great podcast: After the Whistle … They do a great job contextualizing the action and capturing the passion.”

3. Amy here: Please note that this has not prevented Scott from howling, jumping up and down, severely chastising the referee. Kinda like he looks here. Oh, which one is he? The one with the saxophone, screaming at the camera.

Scott here: Also, this post has been vetted by Beta Reader Tom Walsh, whose bona fides include a) intelligent comments on some of our previous posts about football and b) being the father of a collegiate goalkeeper. Safe to say he’s among the billions of fans.

4. Sadly, not all broadcasters are competent.

5. Which is technically called a “pitch.”

6. Amy here: And they’re not wearing pads or nothing!

7. It's a bit like basketball in this way if you know that sport better.

8. For example: A player receiving two yellow cards in one tournament is suspended from the next game in that tournament (assuming their team has another game to play). Rose Lavelle from the US Women’s National Team received her second yellow card of the tournament in the game against Portugal. She will not play in Sunday’s USWNT match against Sweden.

9. No paid account should be needed to view this article; I’ve gifted it to you.

10. Sometimes, a team doesn’t need to win in order to stay in a tournament. A tie, though, is still a tie; it’s not a win.

11. This is when a team accidentally knocks the ball into its own net. As you can see, it’s quite embarrassing.

12. Being in a better position to win is not the same as actually winning as Japan’s recent and stunning 4-0 victory over Spain in the Women’s World Cup demonstrates.

13. Called “kit” in football parlance.

14. This is the “home” team, which can be little more than a basically meaningless designation if the game is in neutral territory for a tournament or can be a significant advantage if there are 50,000+ people cheering one side on.

15. Because keepers have some special rules - most notably they are allowed to use their hands on a ball in play - and are harder to replace if injured, it is important for everyone on the field to be aware of their location.

16. This may or may not be intentional on the part of either or both teams.

17. In this case, they may also have some of their more important players sit the game out.

18. This defensive posture is known as “parking the bus,” apparently. So says Tom Walsh. Thanks, Tom, for all your help with this post! And thanks also to

Janelle Holden

for giving us the idea to write it in the first place.

19. In basketball, this would be called “spreading the floor” and “running out the clock.”

20. Alas, there would be no buses parked on this day.