If you watch or read about soccer, you will constantly hear that a player “scored a brace.” It is one of the sport’s most common goalscoring phrases, but for newer fans it can be confusing, partly because the word “brace” has nothing obviously to do with football, and partly because its origin is genuinely surprising. … Read more
Few decisions in soccer cause more arguments than a handball. A ball strikes a player’s arm in the box, half the stadium screams for a penalty, the other half insists it was ball-to-hand, and the referee is left with a split-second judgment call. Handball is one of the most misunderstood and inconsistently applied rules in … Read more
Few moments in soccer are as celebrated as a hat-trick. When a single player scores three goals in one match, the crowd roars, the commentators lose their minds, and the player walks off clutching the match ball as a keepsake. It is one of the sport’s most iconic individual achievements, but the term itself has … Read more
The referees at the World Cup have one of the most pressure-packed jobs in sport, making split-second decisions watched and scrutinized by billions of people. So how much do they actually earn for officiating football’s biggest tournament? The answer is a substantial payday, though perhaps smaller than many fans assume given the stakes, and it … Read more
American soccer has come a long way, from a fringe sport to a nation producing stars who compete for the biggest clubs in Europe. Along that journey, a handful of players have defined the US men’s national team, breaking records, delivering iconic moments, and paving the way for the generations that followed. Ranking the best … Read more
The United States men’s national team has a long and uneven World Cup history, and its year-by-year record tells the story better than any summary. From a semifinal run at the very first tournament to a 40-year absence and a modern run of regular appearances, the USMNT’s results at each World Cup reveal exactly how … Read more
The United States men’s national team has one of the most fascinating and uneven World Cup histories in the sport. It features a stunning early peak, a decades-long disappearance, and a modern resurgence that has turned the US into a regular presence on the world stage. As co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup, the USMNT … Read more
It is one of sport’s most enduring debates: is the game called soccer or football? Americans say “soccer,” much of the rest of the world says “football,” and the disagreement can spark surprisingly heated arguments. But here is the twist that surprises many people: the word “soccer” did not come from the United States at … Read more
Watch any soccer match and you will notice that even on a warm day, some players wear long-sleeved shirts or have a base-layer undershirt poking out beneath their jersey, while their teammates wear short sleeves. It is one of those small details that puzzles many fans: if it is not cold, why cover up? The … Read more
Every four years, the World Cup brings the planet to a standstill, but who actually organizes it? The answer is FIFA, the global governing body of soccer, an organization with immense power, a complex structure, and a name many fans recognize without fully understanding what it does. From picking host nations to writing the rules … Read more