So where did the name "Soccer" come from?

First of all, it's important to note that the term soccer is principally restricted to the United States, Canada, and Australia. In fact, Australia has nicknamed their team the socceroos for quite some time now. Truthfully, many former British colonies refer to it as soccer either now or in the recent past.

Secondly, football as it commonly known in the rest of the world was actually referred to as association football when its rules were first laid down many years ago in Great Britain. This term was used to differentiate it from the sport of rugby, which it had just split from.

Those that began to follow the new game affectionately started to turn the "ssoc" part of association football into the word "soccer" by adding the –er suffix. While this definitely didn't catch on in England or much of the rest of world, it certainly stuck in some other countries.

How did the North America get to calling it Soccer?

Soccer's rise in popularity in North America coincided with the explosion of American Rules Football, which oddly enough, doesn't really involve using your feet at all. To avoid confusion, the term soccer was used, though not as quickly as you might think. For example, the United States Soccer Federation was originally known as the United States of America Foot Ball Association and didn't change its name until 1945!

 Rules Of The Game At one point during a soccer game, the coach said to one of his young players, "Do you understand what cooperation is? What a team is?" The little boy nodded in the affirmative. "Do you understand that what matters is how we play together as a team?" The little boy nodded yes. "So," the coach continued, "when offsides is called, or a handball is not called, you don't argue or curse or attack the referee. Do you understand all that?" Again the little boy nodded. "Good," said the coach. "Now go over there and explain it to your mother."

 Did they really say that!

"Ronaldo is always very close to being either onside or offside."

"We were a little bit outnumbered there, it was two against two."

"If England are going to win this match, they're going to have to score a goal."

"What will you do when you leave soccer, Jack... will you stay in soccer?"

"I've got a gut feeling in my stomach..."

"I would not say he is the best left-winger in the Premiership, but there are none better."

"An inch or two either side of the post and that would have been a goal."

"Both sides have scored a couple of goals, and both sides have conceded a couple of goals."

"And we all know that in football if you stand still you go backwards..."

"That's twice now he has got between himself and the goal."

"If history is going to repeat itself I should think we can expect the same thing again."

"He's very fast and if he gets a yard ahead of himself nobody will catch him.

 Q.  Why did the soccer ball leave the team?

       A.  It was tired of being kicked around.