mundial - The Big Book of Soccer by MUNDIAL

DO YOU LOVE SOCCER? OF COURSE YOU DO! This book is here to help you fall in love with it even more and arm you with some crucial knowledge as well as practical tips to improve your own game.

In this book, you will find unbelievable stories, strange haircuts, genius tactics, and huge stadiums. You will meet the best teams, players, and coaches of all time. You will learn the lingo and get the lowdown on how to perfect skills and moves just like the pros who made them famous.

You are about to find out more about the greatest sport ever invented than any of your friends have ever known. You are about to see what it takes to become the best soccer player in the world.

This book will show you how to enjoy every second of soccer, even when you dont think youre enjoying it. Even when your team loses in the last minute and you feel like giving up. It will help you remember the good, the bad, and the funny times. We soccer fans are fantastic and ridiculous, but most importantly, were all in it together.

LETS GO.

Soccer is the best sport in the world because its the simplest. From Brazil to Belgium, Bangladesh to Botswana, soccer is being played in every corner of the planet. Whether its on a field, in the street outside your house, or in the park down the road, you can play it anywhere. All you need is a ball, or something that looks sort of like a ball. You can score great goals, make amazing passes, and even win the World Cup (in your head) with a tennis ball, a bunch of scrunched-up adhesive tape, or a pair of socks. Anybody, anywhere, anytime can play it.

BASIC LINGO

Here are the key phrases that will get you talking like a soccer expert in no time.

ASSIST

A pass, header, or cross that comes just before a goal is scored. The German player Mesut zil is the king of this.

BACKHEEL

A pass played with the back of a players foot.

BICYCLE KICK

With the ball behind them, a player throws their body into the air, makes a movement with the legs to get one in front of the other, and connects with the ball to hit it over their head while in midair. Also known as an overhead kick.

BRACE

Two goals scored by the same player in one game.

CAPTAIN

The captain of the team is the leader on the field. They are chosen by the coach or manager. You can recognize the captain by the armband they wear.

CHIP

Chipping the goalkeeper is when an attacker kicks the ball over the top of a goalkeepers head and into the goal. When it works, it makes the person shooting look fantastic.

CLEAN SHEET

If a goalkeeper does not concede a goal (let a goal into the net), they have kept a clean sheet. Before computers, scores would be recorded on a sheet of paper. And so, if the opposition didnt score, the sheet would be clean.

CORNER KICK

If a player kicks the ball out of play behind their own goal line, the opposition team gets to kick the ball back into play from the corner of the field.

CROSS

A delivery of the ball into the penalty area by the attacking team. Usually in the air, sometimes along the ground. England player David Beckham was the best at these.

DRIBBLE

To run quickly with the ball at your feet.

EXTRA TIME

If the scores in a soccer game are even at full time, it is called a draw. Sometimes, if a game ends in a draw, the teams will play for an extra 30 minutes (on top of the 90 theyve already played) to try and determine a winner.

FORMATION

This is the name given to the shape that a team takes during the game. For example, if a team plays four defenders, three central midfielders, two attacking midfielders, and one striker, it looks sort of like a Christmas tree, so it is called the Christmas Tree Formation. 4-4-2 is the standard formation.

FOUL

When a player breaks the rules of the game. Punishable by a free kick or penalty.

FRIENDLY

A non-competitive game played between two teams just for fun or practice.

HAT TRICK

If one player scores three goals in the same game.

KICKOFF

The very first kick of the game after the starting whistle blows.

NUTMEG

When another player rolls the ball through your legs. Humiliating, but brilliant.

OFFSIDE

Being caught offside will result in the opposition being awarded a free kick. But what is it?

When your teammate passes the ball forward to you, there must be at least two opposition players between you and your opponents goal at the moment your teammate passes. This is usually a defender and the goalkeeper. If there is only the goalkeeper between you and the goal at the moment the ball is passed to you, you are offside. If there is a defender and the goalkeeper between you and the goal when the ball is passed to you, you are onside.