-Fun Facts About Soccer:
-Soccer developed in London’s famed Newgate Prison in the early 1800s. Prisoners who had their hands cut off for crimes of theft came up with a sport that used only the feet. The game spread from there.
-A soccer ball has 32 panels; each one represents one of the 32 countries in Europe.
-Up until 1908, they made soccer balls from the (inflated) stomach tissue from executed prisoners.
-The USSA was the first American professional soccer league. They played from 1919 for two years. They were paid $0.35 every time they scored.
-Soccer fields are called pitches. Pitch and slope have the same meaning in soccer. If the field is a regulation field, it slopes 5 degrees up, from one end of the field to the other. Teams switch goal nets during the game so they both have the same uphill slope for half the game.
-Originally the World Cup was made of paper mache. The heavy rain in the 1950 competition ruined the cup and it had to be replaced.
-A 13-year-old Brazilian soccer player scored every goal of 23 in total, during a game that his team won 23-0.
-In one game it is common for a player to run approximately 6 miles. This would be equal to running back and forth on a basketball court 350 times.
-Women soccer teams have been able to play in the Olympics since 1996.
-In 1998 a lightning bolt killed an entire team during a soccer game. The 11 players of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nobody on the opposite team was hurt.
-Soccer balls are slightly oval-shaped. But the checkered board pattern creates an illusion of a perfect sphere.
-Soccer was illegal in Mississippi until 1991.
-Norway is the only country that has never lost a match to Brazil, though they have drawn twice.