『Soccer Explained』のカバーアート

Soccer Explained

Soccer Explained

著者： Treencee Russell and Sy Hoekstra
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A guide to the essentials of soccer for casual viewers and the soccer curious. Two American fans, one of whom owns a soccer team, give you everything you need to join the excitement around the fastest growing sport in the US, just in time for the World Cup! In short, entertaining episodes, We cover the rules, strategy, leagues, and more, comparing soccer with the major American sports. We'll help you wrap your head around, and maybe even fall in love with, the beautiful game.Sybren Hoekstra サッカー
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  • S1E8 The 2026 World Cup Explained

    S1E8 The 2026 World Cup Explained
    2026/05/21
    The 2026 World Cup kicks off on June 11, and this episode of Soccer Explained walks through how the whole tournament works. It is bigger than ever: 48 teams instead of 32, three host countries instead of one, and a new round added to the knockout stage. So even if you have watched the World Cup before, this format will be unfamiliar. Below is a summary of what we covered. For the stories, banter, and our Pitch Side segment on two recent, legendary World Cup matches (highlights from one of them here), give the full episode a listen! How Teams Qualify Qualifying for this World Cup started back in September 2023 and only wrapped up in March 2026. It takes so long because national-team players are scattered across club teams all over the world, and national teams have other competitions, so qualifiers have to be slotted in around domestic league seasons and other tournaments. FIFA divides the world into six regions, and each one gets a fixed number of slots. Europe gets 16, Africa 9, Asia 8, South America 6, CONCACAF 6, and Oceania 1. CONCACAF, in case you were wondering, is a Frankenstein word smashed together from the names of the smaller soccer organizations covering North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. That adds up to 46 teams. Then there’s an intercontinental playoff, where six teams from every region except Europe compete for the remaining two spots. This year, those went to Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Where the Games Are Played The tournament runs from June 11 through the final on July 19. With three host countries spread across a huge stretch of the continent, FIFA grouped teams geographically so nobody has to fly from Mexico City to Vancouver between matches. Mexico will host games in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey. Canada will host in Toronto and Vancouver. The US will host in 11 cities: Boston, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Houston, and Dallas. The big later-round games are spread out. The quarterfinals are in Boston, LA, Miami, and Kansas City. The semifinals are in Dallas and Atlanta. And the final will be played in New York/New Jersey (it’s MetLife Stadium, where the New York Jets and Giants play… in New Jersey). The Group Stage The tournament starts with a group stage, which is not a knockout bracket. There are 12 groups of four teams, labeled A through L. Each team plays the other three in its group once, so every team is guaranteed three matches no matter what. That is a big difference from tournaments like March Madness: you do not fly home after a single loss. Standings work the same way as regular soccer leagues. Three points for a win, one for a draw, zero for a loss. The top two teams in each group automatically advance to the knockout round. The eight best third-place teams across the twelve groups also move on, which gets us up to 32 teams for the knockout stage. The third-place teams moving past the group stage are part of what is new this year. If two teams end up tied on points, the tiebreakers run in this order: head-to-head result, goal differential, total goals scored, fair-play score based on yellow and red cards, and finally FIFA world rankings. If more than two teams end up tied, the tiebreakers are even more complicated and not worth going into here. We can all let the TV commentators sort it out for us. One more group-stage detail worth knowing: the two matches in the final round of each group are played simultaneously. This keeps competition high because teams don’t know what the outcome of the other game will be. The Knockout Stage Once the group stage ends, the tournament becomes a single-elimination bracket, just like March Madness. There are five rounds: the round of 32, the round of 16, the quarterfinals, the semifinals, and the final. Additionally, the two semifinal losers play a third-place match before the final. Starting in the round of 32, draws are not allowed. If a game is even after 90 minutes, it goes to extra time. If it is still tied after that, there is a penalty kick shootout. Cards and Suspensions The standard match rules still apply. Two yellow cards in a single game get a player sent off and suspended for the next match. One red card does the same, and FIFA can tack on extra games or even a fine if the red-card foul was particularly bad. The wrinkle in tournament play is cumulative yellow cards. If a player picks up single yellows in each of the first two group-stage matches, they are suspended for the third. Ditto for single yellows in the rounds of 32 and 16: the player will be suspended for the quarterfinal. One new rule this year: players won’t be suspended from a semifinal or the final for cumulative yellow cards. For multiple reds, there is no cumulative rule or escalating punishment. Follow Soccer Explained! Follow the show to hear one American fan who owns a soccer team and one who works for her explain the essentials of ...
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    29 分
  • S1E7 Soccer Stats and Gameplay Terms Explained

    S1E7 Soccer Stats and Gameplay Terms Explained
    2026/04/23
    On this episode of Soccer Explained, we tackled something every casual viewer needs: the words. If you’ve ever been confused by commentators throwing around terms like nutmeg, xG, or closing the angle, this post is a cheat sheet for the stats and gameplay terminology you’ll hear during broadcasts. For stories to illustrate these terms, some soccer history, and our answer to a listener question about why the US women’s national team is so dominant, listen to the full episode. The Stats You’ll See on the Broadcast Shots on target, also called shots on goal, are shots that would go in if nothing stopped them. When a keeper stops one, that’s a save. A block is different: that’s when an outfield player, meaning any player who isn’t the goalkeeper, interferes with a shot or pass. An interception is when a defender cuts off a pass and takes possession, as opposed to a block, where they don’t take possession. A tackle is when a defender challenges a player with the ball and takes it away, like a steal in basketball. A tackle in soccer has nothing to do with tackling in football. Nobody is getting leveled (unless of course, someone commits a foul). Goals and assists work the way you’d expect, with one wrinkle: own goals. An own goal is when a defender unintentionally puts the ball into their own net. But if an attacker takes a shot that was on target and the ball deflects off a defender into the goal, that’s still a regular goal for the shooter. The distinction is whether the shot was on target. Assists go to the last player who passed to the goal scorer. Treencee’s favorite unofficial stat is the assist to the assist (officially, the “secondary assist”), the pass before the pass that led to the goal. That often comes from the real playmaker who saw the attack developing before it happened. You’ll also see pass completion percentage, both for individuals and teams as a whole. And possession percentage, the share of time each team had the ball. On many professional broadcasts you’ll see expected goals, or xG, which uses historical data to estimate how many goals a team should have scored based on the quality of their shots. It’s soccer’s sabermetrics. Possession percentage and team total shots on goal are often used to tell a more accurate story about a game when the scoreboard doesn’t reflect the run of play. For instance, when one team has had overwhelming possession and many more shots on goal, but hasn’t managed to score, and they’re losing 1-0. The possession and shots on goal give you a clearer picture of how the gameplay is really going. Terms for How Players Move the Ball Commentators have a lot of words for how you can kick a ball. A header is shooting or passing with your head. A volley is striking the ball while it’s in the air; a half volley is striking it right as it bounces. Both can be verbs or nouns: you can “volley” the ball, or take a shot “on the volley.” A cross is a lateral pass, usually in front of the goal, meant to set up a teammate’s shot. A cutback is when a player takes the ball to the goal line and passes it backwards to a teammate. A through ball is a pass threaded between defenders to a teammate running behind the defense. A chip is a short, high-arcing kick meant to loop over someone’s head. A ball over the top is a longer lofted pass over the defense. Clearing is just what it sounds like: getting the ball far away from your own goal. Terms for Strategic Moves and Fancy Footwork A give and go is when you pass to a teammate and keep running so they can pass it right back. It’s a simple way to get around a defender. Playing out of the back is when the keeper passes to defenders, who pass to midfielders, building possession up the field instead of booting it long straight to the offense. A nutmeg is kicking the ball through a defender’s legs. A feint, often called a juke by Americans, is faking going one direction and pivoting sharply a different way to throw a defender off. A step over is skilled footwork: a player fakes like they’re going to kick the ball one way, but step over it instead, kick it a different direction, and dart after it. When any of these makes a defender stumble or fall, that’s called breaking the defender’s ankles. Nobody is actually injured. It’s just embarrassing for the defender, and great highlight reel fodder. Shape, Channels, and the Top of the Box Shape is a team’s formation as it attacks and defends. When a team gets “stretched,” the gap between the forwards and defenders has grown too wide. A channel is a conceptual term for paths through the field of play. It could be an open passing lane through the defense that an attacking team wants to exploit. Or it can be a path away from the goal into which the defenders are trying to force the offense. When a keeper charges out toward a shooter, they’re “closing the angle.” The closer the keeper gets, the smaller the window to take a ...
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    29 分
  • S1E6 Refs and Discipline Explained: Yellow Cards, Red Cards, Free Kicks, Penalties, and More

    S1E6 Refs and Discipline Explained: Yellow Cards, Red Cards, Free Kicks, Penalties, and More
    2026/04/16
    If you’ve ever watched a soccer match and wondered why a referee whipped a brightly colored card out of their pocket, you’re not alone. On this episode of Soccer Explained, we break down sanctions (the official term for the discipline players receive for breaking rules) and the officials who keep the game running. This post covers the highlights, but the episode also has stories, tangents, and the origin story of perhaps Soccer’s greatest heel. Give it a listen! Yellow Cards and Red Cards Not every foul gets an official sanction. Sometimes the ref gives a verbal warning first, which is informal. It doesn’t have real consequences for discipline, unlike, say, a baseball ump signaling to the dugout. But when things escalate, out come the cards. Refs carry actual physical cards in their pockets that they flash at players to indicate they’re giving out a sanction. A yellow card is an official caution, also called a “booking” because the ref writes the player’s name and the details of their foul in a little notebook. Two yellows in one game and the player is sent off, meaning their team plays the rest of the match a player down. A red card is an immediate ejection with the same consequence. How bad is playing down a player? Imagine a power play in hockey that lasts the entire game. It completely transforms the match. Coaches and staff can get carded too, and a red card usually means sitting out the next game or more in that league or tournament, even if the suspension has to carry over to a future season or competition. How Play Restarts After a Foul When a foul happens, play usually stops, with one big exception: the advantage rule. If the fouled team actually benefits from play continuing, the ref lets it go. Think of it like declining a penalty in football, except the ref makes the call instead of the coaches. They signal it by extending their arms so everyone knows the foul was seen, and they wait for the next stoppage in play to hand out any sanctions. The most common restart is an indirect free kick, where the fouled team gets to restart play with the ball where the foul happened, but can’t shoot directly at the goal. Two players on their team have to touch the ball before a shot. Defenders have to stand at least 10 yards away from the ball until play resumes, unless the kicking team opts for a quick restart and the defenders didn’t have time to take their position. A direct free kick is the same, but you can shoot right away. Near the penalty area, these become dangerous scoring chances. When defenders line up to block the shot, that’s called a “wall,” and players on the offensive team have to be a yard away from the wall before the kick happens. If a foul that would require a direct free kick happens inside the penalty area, the result is a penalty kick: a shot from 12 yards out with only the keeper in the way. The keeper has to have one foot on or behind the goal line until the kicker strikes the ball. The odds heavily favor the kicker, making it one of the most serious consequences in the game. How Refs Choose Sanctions Refs often have a lot of discretion in deciding which sanctions to give out. Overall, the harshest sanctions go to fouls that are intentional, repeated, dangerous to player safety, or that constitute the “denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity” (abbreviated DOGSO, pronounced “dog-zo”). Who Are All These Referees? The Referee is the official title for the main authority on the field, calling fouls, issuing sanctions, keeping time, deciding whether goals count, and more. You’ll also hear them called “head referee” “center ref,” or other variations. Two Assistant Referees (Ars, or “linesmen”) run the touchlines throwing flags to signal they think the referee should make offside, out-of-bounds, or other calls. The fourth official stands near the benches, managing substitutions and other administrative tasks, and holding up the board showing the minimum stoppage time the center ref has decided to add. The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) is a more recent addition. Sitting in a video room off the field, the VAR can recommend that the center ref review a play on a pitch-side monitor. Players and coaches cannot challenge calls. Reviews are limited to offenses in the moments leading up to goals, whether goals count, penalty kick decisions, red cards (not two yellows, just reds), and questions of whether fouls were given to the wrong player. Not every professional league has VAR, but the World Cup and MLS both do. For leagues that don’t, there are Additional Assistant Referees, called AARs or goal line refs, who stand near the goals to monitor what VARs cover. The Human Element One thing we emphasized on the show is how much subjectivity is built into soccer officiating. Some calls are fairly black-and-white, like offside or handball. But for many fouls, the ref has enormous discretion. What fans and commentators usually care most about ...
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    31 分
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