0_Wizard
250 million people play soccer, and the best of the best are in action right now. Are you watching World Cup?
It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport.
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Association football
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Soccer in the United States
Soccer in the United States is governed by the United States Soccer Federation. The organization governs most levels of soccer in the country, including the national teams, professional leagues, and the amateur game with the exception of colleges and high schools. , over 24.4 million people play soccer in the United States. In 2012, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that soccer was the third-most played team sport in the U.S., behind only basketball and baseball. The popularity of the sport in the U.S. has been growing since the 1960s and 1970s, and received a significant boost when the United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup and 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Sports in the United States
Sports in the United States are an important part of the country's culture. Based on revenue, the four major professional sports leagues in the United States are Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL). The market for professional sports in the United States is roughly $69 billion, roughly 50% larger than that of all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined. Major League Soccer is sometimes included in a "top five" of leagues of the country. All four enjoy wide-ranging domestic media coverage and are considered the preeminent leagues in their respective sports in the world, although only basketball, baseball, and ice hockey have substantial followings in other nations.
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham, (; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer. He played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, Milan, LA Galaxy, Paris Saint-Germain and the England national team for which he held the appearance record for an outfield player until 2016 when Wayne Rooney surpassed his total. He is the first English player to win league titles in four countries: England, Spain, the United States and France. He announced his retirement in May 2013 after a 20-year career, during which he won 19 major trophies. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending free-kicks as a right winger, Beckham was runner up in the Ballon d'Or, twice runner-up for FIFA World Player of the Year and in 2004 he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players.
Association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport. The game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by getting the ball into the opposing goal. Players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms while it is in play, unless they are goalkeepers (and then only when within their penalty area). Other players mainly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, but may also use any part of their body except the hands and the arms.
Rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known in most of the world as rugby, is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15 players using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped goalposts on each try line. Rugby union is a popular sport around the world, played by male and female players of all ages. In 2014, there were more than 6 million people playing worldwide, of whom 2.36 million were registered players.
Lionel Messi
Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi Cuccittini (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club Barcelona and the Argentina national team. Often considered the best player in the world and regarded by many as the greatest of all time, Messi has a record-tying five Ballon d'Or awards, four of which he won consecutively, and a record-tying four European Golden Shoes. He has spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he has won 29 trophies, including eight La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles, and five Copas del Rey. Both a prolific goalscorer and a creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most official goals scored in La Liga (368), a La Liga season (50), a club football season in Europe (73), a calendar year (91), El Clásico (26), as well as those for most assists made in La Liga (146) and the Copa América (11).
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by U.S. Soccer that represents the sport's highest level in both the United States and Canada. MLS constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada. The league comprises 23 teams—20 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada. The MLS regular season runs from March to October, with each team playing 34 games; the team with the best record is awarded the Supporters' Shield. The postseason includes twelve teams competing in the MLS Cup Playoffs through November and December, culminating in the championship game the MLS Cup.
1_Apprentice
Yes, I freaky how awesome it is to watch and play. I've played all my life. It's all I think about.
0_Wizard
The feet are the main thing used, but you can also head the ball. You heard about the CTE research showing that heading the ball can lead to brain trauma long term? Scary stuff.
Other players mainly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, but may also use any part of their body except the hands and the arms.
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Association football
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Chronic traumatic encephalopathy
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease found in people who have had multiple head injuries. Symptoms may include behavioral problems, mood problems, and problems with thinking. This typically does not begin until years after the injuries. It often gets worse over time and can result in dementia. It is unclear if the risk of suicide is altered. Most documented cases have occurred in athletes involved in contact sports such as American football, wrestling, ice hockey, rugby, and soccer. Other risk factors include being in the military, prior domestic violence, and repeated banging of the head.
Concussions in American football
Concussions and other types of repetitive play-related head blows in American football have been shown to be the cause of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which has led to player suicides and other debilitating symptoms after retirement, including memory loss, depression, anxiety, headaches, and also sleep disturbances. The list of ex-NFL players that have either been diagnosed "post-mortem" with CTE or have reported symptoms of CTE continues to grow. A concussion, from the Latin word "concussio", is a frequent injury among football players. Concussions occur when the head is subject to a large impact force, resulting in a minor brain injury.
Traumatic brain injury
Traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as intracranial injury, occurs when an external force injures the brain. TBI can be classified based on severity, mechanism (closed or penetrating head injury), or other features (e.g., occurring in a specific location or over a widespread area). Head injury is a broader category that may involve damage to other structures such as the scalp and skull. TBI can result in physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral symptoms, and outcome can range from complete recovery to permanent disability or death. Causes include falls, vehicle collisions, and violence.
Post-traumatic epilepsy
Post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) is a form of epilepsy that results from brain damage caused by physical trauma to the brain (traumatic brain injury, abbreviated TBI). A person with PTE suffers repeated post-traumatic seizures (PTS, seizures that result from TBI) more than a week after the initial injury. PTE is estimated to constitute 5% of all cases of epilepsy and over 20% of cases of symptomatic epilepsy (in which seizures are caused by an identifiable organic brain condition). It is not known how to predict who will develop epilepsy after TBI and who will not. However, the likelihood that a person will develop PTE is influenced by the severity and type of injury; for example penetrating injuries and those that involve bleeding within the brain confer a higher risk.
Christopher Nowinski
Christopher John Nowinski (born September 24, 1978) is an American author, co-founder and executive director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation; as well as a former professional wrestler with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Nowinski was WWE's first Harvard alumnus, as he graduated with a BA in sociology. Nowinski also played college football at Harvard, where he was an All-Ivy defensive tackle. He is also recognized as the youngest Hardcore Champion in WWE history. Following his wrestling career, he wrote "Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis", which examined the long-term effects of head trauma among athletes, and also became a documentary.
Concussion
Concussion, also known as mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is typically defined as a head injury with a temporary loss of brain function. Symptoms may include headache, trouble with thinking, memory, or concentration, nausea, blurry vision, sleep disturbances, or mood changes. Some symptoms may begin immediately, while other may appear days after the injury. Fewer than 10% of sports-related concussions among children are associated with loss of consciousness. It is not unusual for symptoms to last up to four weeks. Common causes include motor vehicle collisions, falls, sports injuries, and bicycle accidents.
List of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters
"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." is an American television series created for ABC by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen, based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division), a fictional peacekeeping and spy agency in a world of superheroes. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the feature and short films of the franchise. The series stars Clark Gregg, reprising his role of Phil Coulson from the films, as well as Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, and Elizabeth Henstridge.
1_Apprentice
Yes I know you can get scar tissue deep in your feet from playing it. Who are you hoping wins the world cup?
0_Wizard
Uruguay. I love the underdog countries that you don't normally see win events. Who's your team?
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List of Underdog characters
 Underdog is an anthropomorphic dog, who is a superhero parody of Superman and similar heroes with secret identities. The premise was that "humble and lovable" Shoeshine Boy, a cartoon dog, was in truth the superhero Underdog. When villains threatened, Shoeshine Boy ducked into a telephone booth where he transformed into the caped and costumed hero, destroying the booth in the process when his superpowers were activated. In the live action film, he appeared as a beagle who became Jack Unger's pet. In 2008, he appeared in a Super Bowl advertisement for Coca-Cola. Underdog is voiced by Wally Cox in the television cartoon.
Football in South America
Football in South America is the most popular hobby and professional sport played by the continent's inhabitants. Football was introduced to South America in the nineteenth century thanks to the worldwide diffusion of British culture caused by the British diaspora and the acceptance of the sport by the region's Anglophile elite. Widely regarded as a symbol of modernity and good health, football overtime displaced older fashionable sports such as Bochas to become, by the middle of the twentieth century, the primary mainstream sport throughout most of the continent. The sport's organization is governed by domestic federations (or associations) and continental confederations, all members of FIFA.
Underdog (TV series)
Underdog is an American animated television series that debuted October 3, 1964, on the NBC network under the primary sponsorship of General Mills, and continued in syndication until 1973 (although production of new episodes ceased in 1967), for a run of 124 episodes. Underdog, Shoeshine Boy's heroic alter ego, appears whenever love interest Sweet Polly Purebred is being victimized by such villains as Simon Bar Sinister or Riff Raff. Underdog nearly always speaks in rhyming couplets, as in "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!" His voice was supplied by Wally Cox. In 1959, handling the General Mills account as an account executive with the Dancer Fitzgerald Sample advertising agency in New York, W. Watts Biggers teamed with Chet Stover, Treadwell D. Covington, and artist Joe Harris in the creation of television cartoon shows to sell breakfast cereals for General Mills.
South American nations at the FIFA World Cup
Nine of ten members of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) have competed in the men's FIFA World Cup finals. National association football teams from CONMEBOL have won the tournament nine times, including Brazil's record five championships. CONMEBOL countries have hosted the finals five times. The team ranking in each tournament is according to FIFA. The rankings, apart from the top four positions (top two in 1930), are not a result of direct competition between the teams; instead, teams eliminated in the same round are ranked by their full results in the tournament. In recent tournaments, FIFA has used the rankings for seedings for the final tournament draw.
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (), is a sovereign state in the southeastern region of South America. It borders Argentina to its west and Brazil to its north and east, with the Río de la Plata (River of Silver) to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast. Uruguay is home to an estimated /1e6 round 2 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the metropolitan area of its capital and largest city, Montevideo. With an area of approximately , Uruguay is geographically the second-smallest nation in South America, after Suriname. Uruguay was inhabited by the Charrúa people for approximately 4,000 years before the Portuguese established Colonia del Sacramento in 1680, meaning the Uruguay begun to be colonized by Europeans relatively later compared with neighboring countries.
I Love Money (season 1)
I Love Money is a reality television game show that aired on VH1. The show was created by "The Surreal Life" executive producers Cris Abrego and Mark Cronin. The contestants on this series are from the first two seasons of "Flavor of Love, I Love New York" and "Rock of Love", and are competing in physical and mental challenges in an attempt to win $250,000. Production started in early February 2008, and concluded in March 2008. The show premiered on July 6, 2008 and the casting special aired on July 1. The show is hosted by Craig J. Jackson. The winner of the competition was Nicole Alexander, also known as Hoopz.
Spread betting
Spread betting is any of various types of wagering on the outcome of an event where the pay-off is based on the accuracy of the wager, rather than a simple "win or lose" outcome, such as fixed-odds (or money-line) betting or parimutuel betting. A "spread" is a range of outcomes and the bet is whether the outcome will be above or below the spread. Spread betting has been a major growth market in the UK in recent years, with the number of gamblers heading towards one million. Financial spread betting (see below) can carry a high level of risk if there is no "stop". In the UK, spread betting is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority rather than the Gambling Commission.
1_Apprentice
Mine is all ready out. All my hope is gone until next year. Do you happen to know how old the game is?
0_Wizard
1863 is when the Football Association officially made the Laws of the Game, but I'm sure it was played to some degree long before. 200 plus years!
The Laws of the Game were originally codified in England by The Football Association in 1863.
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Association football
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Association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport. The game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by getting the ball into the opposing goal. Players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms while it is in play, unless they are goalkeepers (and then only when within their penalty area). Other players mainly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, but may also use any part of their body except the hands and the arms.
History of association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, can be traced to as far back as the Medieval period in Britain (medieval football). The modern game of association football originates from the formation of The Football Association in London, England in 1863 based on multiple efforts to standardize the varying forms of the game. This allowed clubs to play each other without dispute and which specifically banned handling of the ball (except by goalkeepers) and hacking during open field play. After the fifth meeting of the association a schism emerged between association football and the rules played by the Rugby school, later to be called rugby football.
Early history of American football
The early history of American football can be traced to early versions of rugby football and association football. Both games have their origin in varieties of football played in Britain in the mid–19th century, in which a football is kicked at a goal or run over a line, which in turn were based on the varieties of English public school football games. American football resulted from several major divergences from association football and rugby football, most notably the rule changes instituted by Walter Camp, a Yale University and Hopkins School graduate considered to be the "father of gridiron football".
Soccer in Canada
Soccer in Canada is the most popular sport in terms of participation rate. According to FIFA's Big Count, 2,695,712 people played in Canada in 2006. Soccer is played in Canada according to the rules of association football. What is called soccer in Canada today was generally known as football in Canada in the early days of the sport, as it is known in much of the rest of the world today. The British Columbia Football Association was the first provincial football association formed in Canada in 1891. This was followed by the Manitoba Football Association was one of the first provincial football association formed in Canada in 1896.
The Football Association
The Football Association, also known simply as the FA, is the governing body of association football in England, and the Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur and professional game in its territory. The FA sanctions all competitive football matches within its remit at national level, and indirectly at local level through the County Football Associations. It runs numerous competitions, the most famous of which is the FA Cup. It is also responsible for appointing the management of the men's, women's, and youth national football teams.
Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with a foot to score a goal. Unqualified, the word "football" is understood to refer to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears. Sports commonly called "football" in certain places include: association football (known as soccer in some countries); gridiron football (specifically American football or Canadian football); Australian rules football; rugby football (either rugby league or rugby union); and Gaelic football. These different variations of football are known as football codes.
Johan Cruyff
Hendrik Johannes "Johan" Cruijff (, anglicised to Cruyff; 25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016) was a Dutch professional football player and coach. As a player, he won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973, and 1974. Cruyff was the most famous exponent of the football philosophy known as Total Football explored by Rinus Michels, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in football history. In the 1970s, Dutch football rose from near obscurity to become a powerhouse in the sport. Cruyff led the Netherlands to the final of the 1974 FIFA World Cup and received the Golden Ball as player of the tournament.