Of course, the haters will jump on this...
To someone who grew up playing soccer and who follows no other sport, American rules football is two minutes of guys standing around after which they run around and try to jump on top of each other and then there are ads and the same thing over again.
Not a hater but here is a clarification of football.....er, soccer terms:
"Concede" - to concede means to "give up". No team in the history of soccer has abandoned the field to allow their opponents to score. This word is used entirely incorrectly.
"Pitch" - can mean many things: a form of asphalt, a baseball throw from pitcher to batter, a suggestion such as in sales. What it doesn't mean is "field" - a place where the athlete's feet rest when not running, jumping or kicking.
"Side" - a side is one half of a whole entity. It is not a complete team, which is the term that should be used. There is no such thing as a "woman's side" and "men's side". These are two individual and separate teams and should be referred to as such.
"Hand Ball" - a misnomer actually meaning contact with the ball by a portion of the arm between the shoulder and fingers. It should be called illegal contact and whistled only when the outcome affects play. Incidental contact should be ignored.
"Penalty Kick" - a free kick arising out of a foul committed within the penalty area in front of a goal. No matter the seriousness of the foul, a penalty kick is almost always an virtual scoring opportunity and can lead to a game outcome which is not a significant part of the play. A penalty kick should be awarded only on the most serious fouls inside the penalty area and not something as innocuous as an inadvertent "hand ball" or unintentional contact with an opponent.
"Match" - a wooden stick with chemicals on one end used for lighting a fire. A soccer game should be referred to as a game, just as with every other team sport.
"Extra Time" - a period of time known only to the referee on the field (also known as stoppage time) which reflects game clock time allowed for injury or other non-playing time. The current use of extra time results in teams and fans not knowing when the game will end and is a very outdated method of time keeping. The official game time should be kept by a clock which is visible to the players and fans and is stopped and started with actual playing time.
