All parents want their children to learn the social skills required to survive in today’s society. They want their children to learn discipline, respect, sharing and the art of making new friends. In addition to developing mental strength, parents also want their children to be strong and healthy.

Playing sports, in particular soccer, is a great way for children to achieve all of this. Soccer is perfect for developing social skills, having fun and staying fit. Children and teenagers literally love it!

Despite it being the most played game in the world though, many people, especially those in the U.S. are unsure how to play it. Don’t worry though, you can quickly learn the basics of it.

A soccer games lasts for ninety minutes, with this being broken down in to two halves of forty-five minutes. The objective of each team is to kick the ball into the opposing team’s goal.

The team with the most goals as the end of the match is declared the winner. Should the teams have scored no goals or an equal amount of goals then the match is a draw; if this is the case, then there may be a penalty shot to find a winner, whereby each team has 5 shots at goal and the team who scores the most wins.

Each team consists of eleven players, with one of those being designated as a goalkeeper, whose job it is to protect the goal of his team.

The goalkeeper is the only player who can use his hands to touch the ball, all the other players commit a foul if they do this. The role of the other other ten players on the team is dependent on the particular approach decided upon by the coach of the team.

These ten players may be assigned as either defenders, midfielders or strikers. The defenders station themselves in front of their goal and, as the name suggests, protect and defend their goal and goalkeeper.

The midfielders are the link between the defenders and the strikers. They operate in the middle of the park and conduct the pace and tempo of the game. They offer support to the defenders while supplying the service to the strikers.

The strikers, who are also referred to as forwards, are given the tasking of scoring goals. They normally spend the whole game in the opposition’s half of the field. The strikers predominately take the most shots and score the most goals. This is the most sought after position and lots of soccer parents want their child to be a striker because of the increased amount of attention and recognition that they receive.

There’s no need to worry about the cost of soccer either as the only thing that is needed to play is a ball. There will already be regular games taken place in your local area and you should be able to easily find out where they are taking place by asking the sports teacher at your child’s school.

Soccer is fast becoming a mass phenomenon with the soccer community growing exponentially with no end in sight. Will you be a part of the ride? You may even have the next David Beckham without yet knowing it!