Soccer's Inferno

However, soccer sometimes has negative impacts on individuals taking part in the game as spectators or players. Soccer makes a number of individuals intolerant and this intolerance could cause disturbances to other participants in the game. Hooliganism is one of the most popular form of intolerance in the game of soccer where fans from the opposing sides in most instances get into physical confrontations resulting in injuries and in worse cases, deaths. An example was when Egypt faced Algeria in an African Nations Cup tournament where Algerian fans got down into the pitch and engaged the Egyptian fans in a physical fight which left several people dead. These physical fights are not only limited to the fans but the soccer players as well. Many instances have been reported of players getting into physical confrontations with the members of the opposing team (Huggins, 2007). This has resulted in the development of more stringent rules to reduce such incidences. This is evidence of how the popular culture that is soccer elicits emotions among the participant of the game.

As I stood on the field, sweat dripping down my face, it all came down to this moment. Going to practice for months, the bruises, the pain, it was all preparing me for this altering moment. I’m a soccer goalie, that in itself is a big responsibility, but tonight my team was counting on me to lead them to victory. We just played a full 90-minute game only to be tied two to two. I stood in between the goal posts, people cheering my name, as a member from the opposing team walked closer. Since we tied we are in a penalty shootout, the outcome of the game is decided on this one kick. See, being a goalie is a big responsibility, but during a shootout, that's when it gets unbearably stressful. The odds are not in a goalie’s favor. There is only an eighteen percent chance that the goalie will stop the penalty kick, but I was beating those odds because I already blocked two out of four shots. I just needed to block one more, one more and we win the gold medal, we win first place. As the player walks closer to me, the cheering of the crowd slowly dissipates. All I hear is my heart pounding out of my chest. It all comes down to this final whistle signaling the kicker to begin. I felt unstoppable, this was my moment to shine, this was when I became the hero for my team. The referee blew

The Richard Thompson Stadium started to get packed while we warmed up. Our team consisted mainly of sophomores and juniors, if there were more than 5 freshmen I would be exaggerating. I was putting on my cleats to start moving the ball and Vicente, one of the freshman said, “I wish Coach Nunez would let me play today.” “You might get some minutes depending on how the game goes,” I replied. Then, one of the juniors started laughing and told us, “look kidos, there are no chances of you kicking a ball tonight!” We did not pay much attention to him and kept on getting ready just in case. Coach Nunez was talking to the varsity Coach and suddenly he shouted, “Rojas! Come here.” I thought he was going to ask me a favor or tell me to go get something from the locker. “Rojas, I need you to be a wall in the midfield. No te quiero ver parado. Tell Kevin [one of

As the captain of his team, Feisty, was expected to be a good role-model for his fellow players. Mrs. Feisty, the young man’s mother, said “If the referee hadn’t provoked him, this wouldn’t have happened.” Feisty’s’ mother doesn’t seem too disappointed or ashamed at all, which considering what happened, it’s clear that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Feisty had claimed that he hasn’t been sent off the field since under 10s. This just proves that he has had some anger management issues since he was quite young.

From the start until halftime the game was going very well, but after halftime it started going downhill. With five minutes left Billy's team was up by only 4 points, they knew it would be a close one. The team started to rally and they held Billy’s team scored 6 points. The coach, with 5 seconds left in the game, exclaimed, ¨TIMEOUT!¨ The team gathered on the sidelines heads down and gathered around coach. The coach told one of the other players, Samuel, to take the shot if the situation needed it. But Samuel knew that it was a chance for Billy to get redemption. So he went up to Billy saying, “This is your shot to prove the coach wrong. I want you to take it.” When Billy’s team got the ball with 4 seconds left, you could feel the intensity in the air. Down by 2 points the ball was passed into Billy. Coach was absolutely furious, considering Samuel was the one supposed to take the shot. He was yelling so loud he was like a lion. Billy got the ball and dribbled it down court. “3,2,1!” the fans yelled. With a second left Billy took the shot at half court. It flung out of his hands and flew through the air. The buzzer rang, but the ball was still in the air. Foot by foot it got closer to the basket. Then the ball hit the backboard and banked in the hoop. The crowd went crazy! The whole team went out and dog piled on Billy...even the

The people know that it might be wrong, but shouldn't their moments sometimes. Even though it was disagreeable it was the right thing to do for the boy who probably had never scored a

The mens’ soccer game vs. South Alamacen was the athletic event which I attended. The game was at home at the soccer field and it started at 6:00 PM, August 23. The game was comprised of two 45-minute halves with no overtime, so it was possible for the game to end in a tie. Early in the first half of the game, South Alamacen scored two goals, making the score 2-0 with South Alamacen in the lead. With 26 minutes remaining in the first half, NCSSM scored which made the score 2-1. Three minutes later, South Alamacen scored which made the score 3-1, but two minutes after that Joe Benson scored for NCSSM making the game 3-2 with 20 minutes left in the first half. Many students were in attendance, with more students showing up as halftime drew to a close. By halftime, there was a student section full of kids while parents filled up the other two bleachers.

“The Prodigy has put on a show tonight!” the announcer says, when the 18 year old all star center scored his third goal of the night. The kid’s got everything going for him, a nice house outside Toronto, Ontario, parents who both have money, and a god given talent on the ice. He’s out there for the final minute of the game, up 3-2 after his third goal gave them the lead. His job, protect the lead and win the game. He wins the face-off, gets the puck back from his linemate, and cuts in over the blue line. As he approaches the net, he dodges a hit, but the defender falls on the outside of his knee, collapsing it as he took the shot. The tv broadcaster yells “OTTERS GOAL! What a play by Laflamme!... Uh oh, he’s having trouble getting up folks.” Laflamme gets up slowly, favoring his left leg as he skated back to center ice to finish the last 12 seconds of the game. His coach, however, called him to the bench to sit him down. “Great job bud. You did what we needed.” Coach Wilson said. Thomas replied, hiding his

The referee flipped his coin, signaling the start of what seemed to be a never ending soccer game. As the captains ran back from the center circle, the referee called over his shoulder, “Girls, we’re going to be playing big girl soccer today, so I won’t be calling any fouls.” Not surprisingly, this game turned out to be the most injurious game in my soccer career. When the final whistle blew, there was a total of two concussions, a dislocated hip, a blown out knee, and countless scrapes and bruises on all of us contenders. The parents, rooting for their respective teams, were the ones horrified most of all. While they could have yelled at the referee, acted in an impolite manner, and possibly had their team disqualified from the tournament, they decided to follow the civil process established by the league; this was writing letters of complaint and sending them to the tournament organizer. Through this process, the parents were able to express their displeasure with the referee without compromising the team’s ability to win.

As the game started, I immediately knew that this game was going to be close. I was subbed in, handing off the dirty, yellow scrimmage jersey. Our opponents were good, but we were better. I stood there, wind blowing around the little hairs that wouldn't make it into my ponytail, ready for my opponent. I knew I had one job, to defend my goal. I located the girl who would later change the game for me. She was slightly taller than me. She had dark brown hair and bushy

The game was to be decided by penalty shootouts. Once again, the odds were in our favor, we had the best goalkeeper in the league. Despite having to shoot second we all remained confident that we would win. No goal was prevented for the first thirteen rounds of penalty kicks. In the fourteenth round of penalty kicks, the St. John’s striker quickly took the shot and missed. It was up to me to win the game. I set the ball on the ground, took three large steps back looked at the goal and took the shot with all the power I had in my right foot. I missed. My shot hit the top of the crossbar and bounced back to me. My heart sank, I had failed at my job to deliver for the team. We battled back and forth up to the twenty fourth round, when the player from St. Johns finally “made” his shot by protest because it had hit the crossbar gone in and gone out. All Devin needed to do was make his shot to win the game. Devin took the shot. He missed. It was over, our perfect season had come to an end. We had come so close but ultimately

The brutal sport of football is acknowledged as one of, if not the most popular sport in the United States. One can flip on the TV on any given fall Saturday or Sunday afternoon and be sure to see a game of football. So many people love the sport for its grit and brutality. Players suffer huge impacts on every play, most times causing them to fall over, awkwardly slamming into other players and the ground. But are all these repeated hits, often to the head, healthy? No.

Furthermore I would like to note that the officials DID NOT STOP THE GAME OR EJECT ANYONE. In fact it was actually opposing team that took it on their own free will to depart the playing field after things got out of hand.

Soccer (Football) is the most popular and fastest growing sport in the world. Over 240 million people play it regularly around the world. However, most people only get to view one side of soccer in their lifetime. They never get a glimpse of it in any other setting. For many people soccer is a very competitive organized sport. For others it is an everyday, fun activity. In some countries, soccer is their life, while in others it is just a sport. For those of you that don’t know, soccer is a sport where the objective is to score goals by kicking a ball into the other teams goal. It is a mix of offense and defense, with very fast paced action. You are allowed to use any body part except your hands and elbows. Soccers first appearance traces back to 3000 years ago in ancient China. But, the first modern version of soccer originates from Victorian England. Since then, soccer has spread around the world to the point where almost every country plays some form of it. I am going to address how it is different around the world and the reasons for this.

Football hooliganism is a description of a football related violent behaviours and actions from aggressive and fanatic football supporters. It is a very widely spread and transitional phenomena in many parts of Europe, Latin America, and recently in north Africa. Hundreds of incidents have happened, many people have died, thousands of fans have injured, several stadiums were ruined, and many squares were turned into battlefields just because of football hooligans who exploit the game of football to achieve personal or common interests and to declare themselves as powerful force. Hooliganism issues have become an integral part of the game of football. Hence, they raise many controversial viewpoints about their causative factors, interpretations, threats, consequences, and the kind of people who