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1 The big match
Today's the day of the big match. And you have a ticket. There are a hundred thousand people there and the noise is getting louder every minute. The players are on the pitch. The game begins. It's hard, fast and exciting. Both teams are playing well. Your team scores first - a beautiful goal, just before half time: 1-0. Then the The goalkeeper moves to your left other team scores: 1-1. You are afraid to watch but you can't stop It's a goal! The score is 2-1 and it's yourself. Now the end is ten the end of the match. Now you are minutes away. The star of your holding the cup above your head. team falls. He is badly hurt. He is You hear the noise of the crowd, carried off. and then ... you wake up and And then you hear your name. remember: today's the day of the You are wanted in the changing big match. room. The next thing you know, Millions of people have had this you are wearing your team colours dream. Football is the number one and you are running onto the pitch. international sport today. What is You feel light and free. The ball the magic of football? is at your feet. You run with it past This book tries to answer the one player, past another, and then question. another. The goal is wide open in
front of you. The goalkeeper moves You are holding the to your left. You shoot to the right. cup above your head 2
2 What kind of football?
In different parts of the But usually football means world, people play soccer. The name 'soccer' comes different kinds of from the official name for the football. game: Association Football. One In some countries, hundred years ago, some English people play Rugby students took the 'SOC' in Football. In France and 'Association Football' and started
Britain, both Rugby and calling this new game soccer. r~-· Association Football Soccer is easy to understand. g Kicking a goal are played. Rugby There are only seventeen rules. g in rugby Football is played with It is played with a round ball on a a different ball. Players football field or pitch. Each team can kick the ball with their feet has eleven men (or women) on the and use their hands to pass the ball field: if a player is hurt and has to to another player. leave the field, another player - a 90~ In the USA, a lot of people play substitute - can take his place. and watch American Football. The A game lasts for ninety minutes. players wear different clothes. As At half time the players have a rest centre' in rugby, American footballers can pass the ball with their hands. Things are different in the USA ... Football 3
for fifteen minutes and when the The goal game starts again, the teams change ends. Each team tries to score goals. The team with the most goals after ninety minutes is the winner, the other team is the loser. Teams do not usually score more than three or four goals in one match. If both teams get the same num ber of goals, or if neither team scores, the game is a draw.
penally area
penalty spot centre circle
touchhne goal area -----"..-e-
centre spot ~__------~"i----:;-
halfway line ----" ----;;-;;;.- midfield "
" " defence" '* goalkeeper -t "~
A football field or football pitch 4
3 How to play soccer
What happens during the game? Before the match starts, the two teams run on to the pitch, each team wearing a different strip. Roche in the blue .The game is Brehm and white strip meets Smith in the controlled by the red and white strip referee, helped by May throws in for Manchester United The re two assistants. The stop pIa referee starts the When the ball goes across the foul is w match by blowing goal line, there is a goal kick if a somethin: his whistle. player from the attacking team when on If the ball goes touched the ball last. There is a player 0 out (off the side of corner if a player from the his shirt. ' the pitch), the defending team touched the ball referee gr referee's assistant last. team. DO Referee George holds up his flag. The referee's assistant also dangero Courtney blows When this happens, his whistle to start holds up his flag if a player is goal wit a match there is a throw-in. offside. The offside rule is another perhaps the most difficult rule in kick is n The referee's assistant holds up his flag soccer. It says that usually an other teal attacking player must have more between t than one player from the other stop the team between him and the goal. from sco Football 5
The German wall in a free kick but Brehme takes a corner for Germany Stoitchkov scores for Bulgaria
ited The referee blows his whistle to If the foul is in the penalty area stop play when there is a foul. A (look at the picture of the football e foul is when a player does field on page 3), the referee gives a a something wrong, for example penalty to the other team. The ball when one player kicks another is kicked at the goal from the a player or pushes him over or pulls penalty spot and only the his shirt. When there is a foul, the goalkeeper can try and stop it with 11 referee gives a free kick to the other his hands. This is very difficult and team. Direct free kicks can be usually a goal is scored. dangerous because you can score a If a player fouls another player goal without passing the ball to badly, the referee shows him a another player. If the direct free yellow card. A player with two kick is not far from the goal, the yellow cards has to leave the field. other team will make a wall When a foul is very bad, the between the ball and the goal to referee shows the player a red card stop the player taking the free kick and he has to leave the field from scoring. immediately. 4 Soccer yesterday
Soccer is very old. A kind of Cup Final. This was the beginning football was played in China and of modern soccer. Japan nearly two thousand years At first players were not paid to ago. In 1314, the English king, play football. They were amateurs: Edward III, said that football was either they had other jobs and o bad and dangerous; any number of played in their free time or they Sto' people got hurt. Some years later, were already rich-and did not need and another English king, Richard III, the money. But by the 1880s, Ele, said that all football must stop. football clubs were paying men to still play: these were the first But the modern game comes "' J from the Football Association - the oth FA - which was started in London Harrow (7867) - amateurs Foo in 1863. In 1872, the FA decided to our give a cup to the best team. Fifteen An teams played against each other InteJ and the Wanderers won the first FA
Alex The Ashbourne Shrovetide football match 15
West Bromwich Albion (FA Cup winners 1892) - professionals Football 7 professionals. And in 1888, the Association (the International English Football League was Federation of Association started with twelve clubs: Football) - was started. FIFA Accrington, Aston Villa, Blackburn makes the rules of footb~ll. Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Football was played at the Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Olympic Games for the first time in Nous County, Preston North End, 1908. But only amateurs could Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion play, so in 1930 the first World and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Cup - for professional footballers Eleven of these twelve teams are was played in Uruguay. (For more still playing today. on the World Cup, see page 9.) Men began to play football in Thirteen teams played in Uruguay. other countries. The Danish In 1998, 173 countries entered the Football Association - the first World Cup and thirty-two teams outside England - began in 1889. went to the Finals in France. Soccer And in 1904, FIFA -La Federation is now a 250 billion dollar lnternationale de Football business.
AlexJames (Arsenal andScotland) in Uruguay vs Argentina - the first 1932 - shorts were longer then World Cup Final 8
5 We won the cup with the most points at the end of Natiol the season is the winner. Africa League competitions In England, there are twenty watch There are two main kinds of game professional clubs in the FA most that a football team can play: Premier Division and seventy more The league games and cup games. Most in the First, Second and Third There teams play in a league. The teams Divisions of the Football League. Cup~. are usually in groups of about In Italy, the top clubs are in the three twenty, called divisions. Each team Italian Serie A and in Germany the than plays every other team twice - once top clubs are in the German have at home and once away. If there are Bundesliga. and I~, twenty-two clubs in a division, Cup competitions then each team plays forty-two Most teams also play in one or two games during the football season. cup competitions during the (In England, the football season is football season. In a cup from August to May so there are competition, a lot of teams can only two months when the players enter at the beginning but only the can rest.) Teams get three points winners of each game can play when they win a game and one again. If there are thirty-two teams point when they draw. The team at the start, only sixteen teams play France with the European Nations Cup the next time, then there are eight !'t:':i:w;;r~""iiF . S! . F">,~ in the quarter finals, four in the semi-finals, and two in the final.
The World Cup There are international club competitions for some of the best teams, like the European Cup. There are also competitions between countries. Some of the most famous, like the European Football 9 of Nations Championship and the World Cup Winners 1930-98 African Nations Championship are Year Winners Runners-up watched by millions of people. The 1930 Uruguay 4 Argentina 2 most famous is the World Cup. 1934 Italy 2 Czechoslovakia 1 1938 Italy 4 Hungary 2 ore The World Cup is every four years. 1950 Uruguay 2 Brazil 1 There have been sixteen World 1954 W. Germany 3 Hungary 2 1958 Brazil 5 Sweden 2 e. Cups since the first in 1930 and 1962 Brazil 3 Czechoslovakia 1 three countries have played better 1966 Engla~d 4 W. Germany 2 1970 Brazil 4 Italy 1 the than all the others: Brazil, who 1974 W. Germany 2 Netherlands 1 have won four times, and Germany 1978 Argentina 3 Netherlands 1 1982 Italy 3 W. Germany 1 and Italy who have won three times 1986 Argentina 3 W. Germany 2 each. The greatest World Cup final 1990 W. Germany 1 Argentina 0 1994 Brazil 0 Italy 0 - and one of the great football 1998 France 3 Brazil 0 matches of all time - was in 1970 between Brazil and Italy, when Some other competitions Brazil won 4-1. In 1994, Brazil The European Nations won again. A British manager, Championship and the South e David Pleat, said: 'The big American Championship are difference is that Brazil love the played every four years. For the ball more'. best European clubs, there are When the World Cup is on, the two big cup competitions: the whole world goes football-crazy European Champions' League and for a few weeks. The 1990 final the UEFA Cup. The winner of the between Germany and Argentina Champions' League plays the was watched on TV by 1.2 billion winner of the South American people: 76 per cent of all Club championship in the World Argentinians saw it! The 1998 final Club Championship. These club between Brazil and France was seen competitions are played every by more than two billion people. year. [JQ
6 Watching football
You are a soccer supporter and you It is always exciting to see the are going to today's big match. lights and the top of the big stand You love football. of the stadium for the first time J You put on your supporter's when you turn the corner. There colours and you leave your home are a lot of other people walking for the stadium. Perhaps it takes with you now. Some of them are ten minutes on foot or perhaps it singing the name of your team and takes ten hours by train and bus the piayers. You buy a paper and and plane: Yol:l.musr be there on read the latest news about the time. team. The player you like best did You now. floodlights rrm not play last week. This week he is back. nov\' \. inside' taking some you are begin.
SOCC( be wonl weathel and the 1 your tee they scc win! \X' you are visitors' changing room think al
A football stadium teams n need go Football 11
Fans from around the world
did You are next to the stadium he is now. You show your ticket and now you are through, you are inside the stadium and the crowd is taking you to your seat. You go up some stairs, up some more, and you are there. The match can begin. Soccer can be boring. Soccer can be wonderful. Sometimes the weather is bad, the game is terrible, and there are no goals. Sometimes your team plays beautiful football, The team needs them they score three goals and they win! When they play well and win, you are happy. But if they lose, you think about the next game. Soccer teams need good players. But they need good supporters like you too. Ir
LIT 7 The stars of soccer
You are a professional soccer You are a top pIayer in the top player. You wear a brightly division in your country. You have coloured strip with your own name a lot of money and you are famous: and team number on the back of when people see you in the street, your shirt and the name of your they ask you for your autograph. club's sponsors on the front. Your But life is not always so good. You shorts are shorter and your boots have to playa lot of matches and at are much lighter than a hundred the end of the season you are very years ago. The ball you play with is tired. Your legs hurt from the kicks also much lighter. you have had during the last six months. Two years ago you had a bad injury to your left leg and you did not play for more than three pIa, months. Now it is more difficult to Die~l play really well. Some newspapers a \\" write terrible things about you pro which make you unhappy. You him don't enjoy the game so much. You afte don't know what you are going to sta do when you are too old to play Uni football any more. You would like se\'e to be a manager but lots of other was players want to be managers too. Perhaps you will get a job talking about football on TV. Many players feel like this. For Motta sponsors AC Milan and Banca di wa Roma sponsors Lazio some players - sometimes great Football
Are these players in your world team? 1 Dino Zoft (Italy) 2 Carlos Alberto (Brazil) 3 Giacinto Fachetti (Italy) 4 Franz Beckenbauer (Germany) 5 Berti Vogts (Germany) 6 Michel Platini (France) 7 Johann Cruyff (Netherlands) 8 Eusebio (Portugal) 0° ks 9 Bobby Charlton (England) 10 Pele (Brazil) a 11 Diego Maradona The pressure on Maradona ,ou (Argentina)
players - the pressure is too much. missed ten years as a player to Diego Maradona of Argentina was because the problems of modern rs a wonderful player, but he had football were too much for him. problems with drugs and FIFA told The stars him to leave the 1994 World Cup ou Bur, of course, most players learn after a drugs test. George Best to live with the problems. The real started playing for Manchester stars play exciting football, United when he was only "ke winning football, week after week. seventeen. Many people think he r They want to win and they make was the best player United ever the other players in the team want had. But soon life was so difficult g to win too. They play differently. for him that he began to drink a lot Who are your stars? Who are the and he stopped playing when he r players in your all-time world was only twenty-six. Perhaps he team? [E
8 The dark side of soccer Noni Hillsb On 22 June 1994, Andres Escobar Crowds Englalll
of Colombia scored a goal in the One big problem in soccer is Englalll World Cup match against the crowds. Large numbers of people even' United States. But he put the ball want to see the big matches but stand into the wrong goal: he scored for sometimes not everyone has a begin the USA. The USA won the match ticket, the crowd begins to push, peapl and the Colombian team went the police cannot control everyone, Hooli home early. On 2 July, Escobar and people die. In 1964,301 Haoli~ was leaving a restaurant in people were killed at a match to drinl Medellin with his girlfriend when between Argentina and Peru in try to two men came up to them. They Lima. Sixty-six people were killed other were angry about the goal. One at Ibrox Stadium, the home of stadi man had a gun. A few minutes Glasgow Rangers, when crowds of later, Escobar was dead. people began pushing down the hoali Soccer has a dark stairs after a match in 1971. In side. The story of 1982,340 people were killed at a soccer has always match between Spartak Moscow been a story of and Haarlem of Holland. Ninety problems.. People five people were killed at a match feel very strongly between Liverpool and about the game, sometimes. too This is how it can happen """.~" ".'.i.'~ .f)''''~ ~'J!A.:'!l' ~1~' Andres Escobar, strongly. There are ~' •. 'i;-'l~~:'~" " , ~, -'"J' , "'Jl""I','4I> i ~-iJfK .. •J; 11i~~i" ,,~~.-;';':i!'·c"Jl;.,Ji~"\'''C ":"iL. died 2 July 1994 . '\. ~ f:. _ 4P(,A'f' ';'_'1.. . "I b;""'. ....;. I (~ ~ ,."." /f" billions of dollars in '~~".'~,':"-'i<'~l/':li,';)''-.''V.ti'~~'~~ :;;~ ~hf it~, ~,; ~'. ,',"~ . '~.,~~~- ~.J'/'~,' ~v.)'.~;~', "';;~ ... ~'~ "-'ft"''''''~~ '~"'C'."". n',!>.'·,..." •.;::-•••. . 1. ,•. ~' .~ ,p·~ ..,,'t.., i::" ::.:":1'''''' ~.!, 'i" the game. Some of the dollars come '" ". ~.,";.1' - ,.\ '~·i.n ...... ,~-'- A.~ " ~ ~ ';,f.("':'" "';-'--_ ~~i""l" "-~~'''~J-". ; li? .;'!t""'f~ ~'V:'"-.:~ ~.'\ ',;f"~;' ~. ~ ~ from crime. Soccer can mean .".t,~ .:J,.,.~.l~. - ~ ,~~./..'+~~~~:-\,.. ' I) "'). :~~,n~ ... /h~. ·.l~: 'i'"i!'\Q~t~ f~ ~~~.,c,~j~i~J,:;\ 4.·.· .. ."--'-{ff{ f.~'" 'ft~., 1'~",~~'·_··:\· ~,l ~. 'p~.~Jt.'.~J'~ danger. J .'...•.~,'-- ~1. F;:~'f;,r:-~,~,~-" 'J;'-~~':"" rrl~,_~',/1 '. '~.~'~" _~'i!)J ~~.. '~{~~-~, ;li\.~..~"~....-.:.~·~_ , .) I .-
ottingham Forest at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, England in 1989. Most stadiums in IS England now have seats for everyone because when people stand at football matches they can begin to push and make other people fall. Football hooligans - why do they do it?
Hooligans the trains. Many people in England Hooligans go to football matches were afraid to go into the street on to drink and to make trouble. They the day of a football match. Today try to fight the supporters of the e killed things are better. Games now are other team inside and outside the e of not so dangerous because the stadium. The problem of hooligans owds of police understand the problem is not new. There were already n the better and because of all-seater hooligans a hundred years ago. An stadiums. Families have started to angry crowd stopped the players go to soccer games again. In from leaving the pitch at a game in England we can see the bright side England in 1885. There are of soccer again. hooligans in other countries, bur they have always been worst in England. They were a very big Young supporters - the bright side ofsoccer problem there in the 1980s. Hooligans broke glasses in bars and shop windows in the streets of the towns where their teams were playing. They went to the matches by train and broke everything in LM 9 Soccer tomorrow \j 1 Soccer has changed a lot in the last has been to the World Cup once (in hundred years. How will it change 1966), Japan went for the first time £' in the next twenty-five? in 1998, and South Korea five times (in p Africa and Asia 1954, 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1998). Twenty years ago it was More and more countries are just not possible to think that the a playing good football. Zaire was World Cup would be in the USA. p the first black African country to go to the World Cup in 1974. They But in the summer of 1994 the played three matches and lost all of World Cup went to America, and them. In 1990, Cameroon were in there were big crowds at all the the last eight teams. In 1998, five matches. Will China and India start African countries played in the playing World Cup football? Will World Cup in France, and Nigeria the World Cup Final in 2010 be in was one of the last sixteen. Beijing - between Nigeria and Soccer is also getting more South Korea or Japan? important in Asia: North Korea
World Cup Winners in 2010?
L'l!"!fi 'I"-:+,~" ....:.,_\\ .. ,••r.o.- i ;::"\f: _.. I Football ------17 ;1
Women's soccer There is another big change in ill soccer: it is no longer a game only for men. At one time, women could not play soccer. It was against the rules in England for more than fifty years and in Germany women could not play until the 1970s. Even then, games were only thirty minutes, the ball was lighter, and they could not play if it rained. Now, more than twenty million women across the world play soccer. In the USA, 40 per cent of the children who play soccer are girls, and many countries The future for football? today have a national women's Businessmen and players often team. In the 1999 Women's World tried to make soccer a big TV sport Cup Final, the USA beat China but it never worked. People said: 5-4. In Japan, companies give 'Soccer is the sport of tomorrow in money to help women's teams and the USA- and always will be.' buy women players from countries But now thousands of American like Norway and the USA. Women's schoolchildren play soccer. The soccer can only get stronger. 1994 World Cup was held in the Soccer in the USA USA and the US team reached the In the USA, people have always last sixteen. Millions of Americans played and watched American watched soccer for the first time. football much more than soccer. This could change the game a lot. 18
The new superleague? Tech Com In 19
were won
Supe Club i. Briti footb More forei Cup 5 playe.. coun New rules for soccer? said there should be more time for playe There is more and more money in TV advertising during the game. years football today from TV and FIFA said no. But perhaps one day Euro sponsorship. Before the 1994 World they will have to say yes. People Cup, the Americans wanted to who watch TV like lots of action. change some of the rules. They said Perhaps one day football will be a soccer would be more interesting no-contact game: players will not with more goals.• They said the goal touch each other at all. Perhaps the should be bigger. They said the score in the year 2010 will be South offside rule was too difficult. They Korea 11, Nigeria 9 ...?
l=Barcelona, 2=)uventus, 3=A C Milan, 4=Manchester United, 5=Borussia Dortmund, 6=Bayern Munich, 7=Glasgow Celtic Football 19
4 Technology superleague. Who do you think Computers are coming to football. would be in it? In 1994 the US manager used a There could also be another computer to look at the way the superleague for North and South Colombians passed the ball. He America. saw a place where the Colombians But superleagues could be bad were not so strong. The US team for smaller clubs. The big money won the match. would go to the big clubs and the Superclubs and superleagues money problems of the small clubs Club football will change as well. would get worse. British people watch Italian We'll support you evermore football, as well as British on TV. So don't forget: football is always More and more players play for full of surprises. A game with a foreign clubs. In the 1998 World hundred spectators can be just as Cup many teams had most of their interesting and exciting as a game players from clubs outside their watched by a hundred thousand. country; none of the Nigerian team So next time you can, go and watch r played for Nigerian clubs! In a few a game of football. Support your years, there could be not just a local club, big or small. European Cup but also a European Enjoy the magic of football for yourself.
This ... can be as good as this PLJ Exercises
A Checking your understanding 1 1 How to play soccer Are these sentences true (T) or false (F)? 2 1 The referee starts the game by blowing his whistle. 3 2 The referee's assistant blows a whistle when the ball goes off the pitch. 4 3 A player is offside when there are more than two players between him and 5 the other team's goal. 6
Soccer yesterday How much can you remember? Check your answers. 2 1 When and where was the English Football Association started? 2 When and where was the first World Cup? 1 3 How many countries entered the 1998 World Cup? We won the cup Find answers to these questions. 2 1 Which country has won the World Cup more than any other? 3 2 What vvas the score in the 1970 World Cup final? 4 3 How many people watched the 1998 World Cup final? 5 6 The stars of soccer Are these sentences true (T) or false (F)? 1 George Best first played for Manchester United when he was only sixteen. 7 2 George Best stopped playing when he was twenty-six. 8 3 Diego Maradona had to leave the 1994 World Cup after a drugs test. CActi The dark side of soccer How much can you remember? Check your 1 answers. 2 Whic 1 When was Andres Escobar killed? 2 Why was he killed? 3 Ther 3 Where is Ibrox Stadium? 4 What happened there in 1971? think Soccer tomorrow .Find answers to these questions. 1 Which was the first black African country to go to the World Cup? 2 How long did a game of women's soccer last before the 1970s? 3 How many women play soccer across the world? Football 21
B Working with language
1 Complete these sentences with information from pages 2 and 3. 1 In France and Britain, both ... 2 In rugby and American Football players can ... 3 Soccer is played with ... on ... 4 A game lasts ... nd 5 Each team tries ... 6 If a player is hurt and has to leave the field, ... 2 Put together the beginnings and endings ofthese sentences. Check your answers on pages 8 and 9. 1 In England there are twenty professional clubs in the FA Premier Division ... 2 In a league, each team plays every other team twice - ... 3 In a cup competition, a lot of teams can enter at the beginning ... 4 The 1998 World Cup final ... 5 but only the winners of each game can play again. 6 and seventy more professional teams in the First, Second and Third Divisions of the Football League. en. 7 was seen by more than two billion people. 8 once at home and once away. C Activities 1 Write a short report on why you like (or don't like) soccer. 2 Which players would you choose for your World team?
) 3 There are only seventeen rules on football. Write down what you think five of them are. D Project work Write a short history of a club or of a player that you like a lot. Glossary advertising telling people about final the final is the game between something so that they buy it the last two teams in a competition attack the atracking team has the injury a player has an injury when ball and is trying to score a goal he or she is hurt autograph when a famous person lost past tense of 'to lose' writes his or her name for you magic something which is magic is beat one team beats another when something really wonderful it scores more goals in a match manager the person who tells the boring very unioteresting players what to do broke past tense of 'to break' rule the rules of the game tell you club Liverpool and Real Madrid what you can and cannot do are football clubs runner-up the runner-up is the crazy if you are crazy about team which is second something, you like it a lot shoot players shoot when they defend the defending team does kick the ball to try to score a goal not have the ball and is trying to support when you support a team, stop the other team from scoring you want it to win dream something which you think team there are eleven players in a happens to you while you sleep soccer team drugs dangerous things which test doctors sometimes do tests to people put into thdr bodies know if a player has taken drugs enter when a team enters a won past tense of 'to win' competition, it plays at the start of the competition