Soccer Made Simple

One of the biggest questions I get about soccer is how time works in the sport. In short, time is a relative concept, and referees really like to experiment with the properties of time itself. But we don't need to get into the metaphysical aspects of time, because that would be silly. The true short answer is that matches are 90 minutes long with discretionary additions based on circumstances that happen during a match. Aside from some riveting metaphysical discussions, we're also talking...

What if I told you soccer fans get a year of madness and not just in March? College basketball just wrapped up a wild and unpredictable March Madness tournament, with Baylor taking the crown this year. But this week I'm talking about a different kind of tournament. The UEFA Champions League is the annual tournament among the heavyweights of European soccer. While comic book nerds argue about whether Batman could beat up Superman, soccer nerds get the real battles between the likes of...

This week on the Soccer Made Simple Podcast, we take a brief break to check on what's happening with international competitions. While my attention focuses on club competitions, the international games bring a new kind of flavor to the sport. Like March Madness in college basketball, each international tournament brings its own kind of madness for people who follow their national teams. For Americans, there's a society of soccer fans called The American Outlaws. And this group welcomes...

So how was your year? It's been roughly a year since I last made one of these episodes. Much has happened between moving home, starting a new career, plus balancing life and relationships. And all of these wild curveballs happened in the midst of a global pandemic. So along with this newsletter is the resuming of the Soccer Made Simple podcast. In this week's episode I cover much of how 2020 affected soccer leagues and the greater sports world. I'll give you some insight from a...

In all my years of helping people understand the beautiful game of soccer, the number one question I get is, "How does the offside rule work?" It's a mystifying rule that escapes the understanding of casual onlookers, but it's an easier rule to understand than they think. So this week I will give you a brief explanation about how the rule works, how the players exploit the rule to their benefit and the general strategy that goes into playing offense and defense. But this week's episode is...

Soccer is the world's sport, but there are many people who are still on the outside looking in. I want my writing to connect with the soccer clueless, curious, or the fans wanting to make their friends fans. This weekly newsletter aims to help get people into the mood to watch some soccer or at least learn more about the sport, its players, and its history. If you're seeing this online or this was forwarded to you, you can subscribe to the newsletter here. You can also follow my...