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2022-12-23 20:05:07 What is a solstice?

The solstice (combining the Latin words sol for “Sun” and sistere for “To Stand Still”) is the point where the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest point in the sky for the year.

On our planet, solstices are twice-yearly phenomena defined by solar declination.

During the June solstice (marked between June 20-22), solar declination is about 23.5°N (the Tropic of Cancer). It is the longest day of the year with the maximum intensity of the sun’s rays and the most hours of sunlight.|

During the December solstice (marked between December 20-23), solar declination is about 23.5°S (the Tropic of Capricorn). It is the shortest day of the year and has the fewest hours of daylight.

Solstices are marked by various celebrations that go back generations the most well known of which is the Christmas holiday celebrated a few days after the December Solstice which borrows many of its traditions from earlier pagan traditions.

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2022-12-22 19:53:54 What are some amazing facts about football/soccer players?

Goalkeeper Arthur Wharton was the first black professional soccer player. He was born in Ghana (then Gold Coast). Arthur played his professional soccer for English team Rotherham United, in 1889.

The only goalkeeper to win a ballon d’or was a Russian Lev Yashin.
Nicknamed The Black Spider, he spent his whole 20-year career plying his trade for Dynamo Moscow and representing The Soviet Union (now Russia).
He developed the role of the modern goalkeeper by guiding and controlling the game from the back and played a sweeper role by intercepting crossed and rushing opposition players at a period when goalkeepers were static between the posts.
Yashin forged his legacy in the 1958 world cup which was the first to be broadcast and showcased his brilliance to the whole world. He was honored by the prestigious Balon D’or and was inducted into the World Cup all-time team.

Pele, one of many superstars with single word nicknames from Brazil, received his nickname due to having six toes on each foot when he was born. The word Pele means “six feet” in Brazilian Portuguese.
Pele is the only player to hoist the World Cup trophy three times. He won the 1958, 1962, and 1970 titles with Brazil.

Ballon D’or winner George Weah became a President.
The only African player to win the prestigious Balon D’or, he earned the distinction of becoming the 25th president of Liberia. Regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation, the former PSG and AC Milan forward entered into politics first serving as a senator before campaigning for the top job. In 1996, George Weah also paid his teammates uniforms and expenses, so that Liberia could enter the African Nations Cup.

Oleg Salenko of Russia holds the record for most goals scored in a single World Cup match. He was able to score 5 in Russia’s win over Cameron in 1994.

Didier Drogba helped to stop a civil war in his country, Ivory Coast.
On October 8th, 2005, Ivory Coast battled to qualify for their first ever World Cup. After scoring a goal that sent Ivory Coast to the world cup for the first time, Drogba recorded a video urging the warring factions to hold their arms and make peace. The factions taking from the singing and dancing of the players in accord decided to lay down their arms silencing the civil war that had been raging.

Rogelio Ceni is the top scoring goalkeeper with 131 goals.
Spending a bulk of his 25-year career in Sao Paulo, and earning 18 caps for Brazil Ceni, managed to reach a tally of goals some strikers dream of. The former Flamengo coach was a dead ball specialist and was his team’s official penalty and free-kick taker since 1997 until he hang up his gloves in 2015 at the age of 40. He was always comfortable with the ball at his feet and also an exceptional shot stopper which was evident in the Club World Cup Final win against Liverpool in 2005.

The richest soccer player is Faiq Bolkiah.
While the debate will always rage on between Messi and Ronaldo in how their performances affect their income and who makes more, the richest soccer player is former Leicester City reserve player Faiq Bolkiah. Though most footballers derive their earnings from the game, the player derives his from family possessions. The player is nephew to the Sultan of Brunei and is worth an estimated 20 billion dollars.

The most expensive transfer in soccer history came when Paris St. Germain paid FC Barcelona $263 million to obtain Neymar Jr.

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2022-12-22 11:08:23 What are some amazing facts about football/soccer?

The oldest professional football club in the world still in existence today is Sheffield FC. It was founded in 1857, and they have fluctuated in different tiers of play in England.

Referees were not used in official soccer matches until 1881. Up until then, people playing were responsible for making any calls.

The first televised game was an Arsenal practice match at the Highbury ground in 1937.

The most fans to attend one football match took place in 1950 in Rio de Janeiro. A total of 199,854 people watched Brazil play Uruguay in the World Cup.

In 1950, India withdrew from the World Cup after FIFA refused to let their team play barefoot.

Only eight countries have won the World Cup: Uruguay, France, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Argentina, England, and Spain. Every winning country (and runner-up) is located in either Europe or South America.

European Teams have reached the final of every World Cup tournament, except in 1930 and 1950.

Turkey eliminated Spain from the 1954 World Cup by drawing straws. Blindfolded Italian boy Luigi Franco Gemma picked the straws to decide the winner, as there were no penalty shots back then.

Greenland has never been able to have a FIFA recognized team. That is because they can’t grow grass to create fields.

United States has more official soccer players than any other nation in the world - almost 18 million. Of these, 78 percent are under the age of 18. In the 1990s, soccer was recognized as the fastest-growing college and high school sport in the US.

Norway might not be considered the best country for soccer success, but they are the only football team not to lose to Brazil in international competition. They have two wins and two draws against the powerhouse.

Brazil has hosted the world cup twice and they are the only country to have won it five times. Interestingly, they did not win the cup when they hosted it. However, they are also the only country to have attended every single cup.

The FIFA World Cup in 2022 in Qatar was not only the first World Cup held in the Middle East, but it was also for the first time moved to the winter for cooler weather.

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2022-12-21 16:43:28 Soccer or football?

Nowadays, every country besides Australia, Canada, the United States, and Ireland, call the game football. So it is frequently expected that “soccer” is an Americanism, but the word is completely British in the cause.

By shortening "Association Football" to just "Assoc." and adding –er, the term "soccer" was born in England by 1895 and became popular in the U.S. (to differentiate the game from American football).

By the 1980s, "soccer" fell out of use in the U.K, in favor of "football."

Many languages adapted the word "football" to fit their pronunciation and rules – for example, it became futebol in Portuguese. Other languages broke the word apart, into foot and ball, and translated them separate, or did this with the words for "kick" and "ball" instead And then there's Italian, which uses a different word entirely: calcio! – from the verb calciare (to kick). You might hear football in Italy as well.

Whatever you call it, focus on enjoying the game!

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2022-12-20 18:20:46 What are the positions in soccer?

The earliest recorded use of jersey numbers in English league play was in 1928.

In 1939 soccer jersey numbers were made mandatory.

Soccer positions by number
Goalkeeper (GK)
Right Fullback (RB)
Left Fullback (LB)
Center Back (CB)
Center Back (CB)
Defending/Holding Midfielder (CDM)
Right Midfielder/Winger (RM/LW)
Central/Box-to-Box Midfielder (CM)
Striker (S)
Attacking Midfielder/Playmaker (CAM)
Left Midfielder/Wingers (LM/LW)

There are three main categories: Forwards, Midfielders, and Defenders (including Goalkeepers), each of them providing guidelines, but not restrictions.

What puts soccer on a level above other sports is that the rules don’t try to limit the abilities of specific positions. Players are sorted into their positions based on their specific skill sets like shooting, passing, dribbling, and tackling rather than more arbitrary measures like their height, strength, or weight.

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2022-12-19 19:50:58 What are FIFA World Cup 1930 records?

There were no qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 1930 in Uruguay, making it an invitational tournament with every FIFA-affiliated country invited to play. It was the first and last time in FIFA World Cup history that no qualifiers took place.

The first two matches at the FIFA World Cup - a Group 1 fixture between France and Mexico and a Group 4 opener between USA and Belgium - were played concurrently on July 13, 1930.

French striker Lucien Laurent scored the first goal in FIFA World Cup history, courtesy of his 19th-minute opener against Mexico. France won that match by a 4-1 margin.

USA’s Jimmy Douglas and Bert Patenaude became respectively the first goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet and the player to score the first hat-trick at the FIFA World Cup.

Argentina’s Guillermo Stabile went on to top score in the tournament with eight goals.

Alberto Horacio Suppici, who was the Uruguay coach at the time, was only 31 when he led his team to the 1930 FIFA World Cup title. To date, he holds the record for being the youngest coach ever to win a football World Cup.

The last surviving participant of the inaugural FIFA World Cup final in 1930 was an Argentine forward Francisco “Pancho” Varallo, who died at the age of 100 in 2010.

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2022-12-18 22:10:17 What teams took part in the first FIFA World Cup and who won it?

At the FIFA Congress in Barcelona in 1929, Uruguay was officially announced as the first host country of the FIFA World Cup.

It became a -team affair with Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, the USA, France, Belgium, Romania, Yugoslavia and Uruguay as hosts.

Teams were divided into four groups.
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Uruguay, who had won Gold in the 1928 Olympics, became the first world champions . In the final in a heated contest with Argentina hosts sealed the 4-2 victory.

Uruguay is the only World Cup champion not to attempt to defend their title four years later. They refused to enter the 1934 World Cup hosted in Italy. It was considered a revenge snub towards Italy, as they refused to make the trip to Uruguay four years prior.

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2022-12-15 20:19:59 What is FIFA World Cup?

Since its creation in 1904, FIFA claimed rights to hold another world championship for the sport outside the Olympics.

As then only amateur players were allowed to participate at the Olympics, with the growing number of professional players such tournament was the need of the hour.

At the FIFA Congress held in Amsterdam on May 28, 1928, the federation officially decided to organize its own world championships. The day officially marked the birth of the FIFA World Cup.

The FIFA World Cup is international flagship tournament that takes place every four years, where national teams compete to determine which country has the best soccer team in the world.

Since 1930 World Cups have been played, only skipping tournaments slated for 1942 and 1946 because of World War II.

It's one of the most watched sports competitions globally. More than 3.5 billion viewers tuned into the 2018 World Cup in Russia , and 1.12 billion watched the final.

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2022-12-14 09:29:55 What are official dimensions and markings of a soccer field?

According to IFAB and FIFA the recommended dimensions of a soccer field for competition:
• Length (touchline): 90-120 meters (100-130 yards)
• Width (goal line): 45-90 meters (50-100 yards)

For international competition the official dimensions are:
• Length: 100-110 meters (110-120 yards)
• Width: 64-75 meters (70-80 yards)

The field of play must be rectangular and marked with continuous lines which must not be dangerous.

The two longer boundary lines are the touchlines.

The two shorter lines are the goal lines.

The field of play is divided into two halves by a halfway line.

The mark in the center of the field is at the midpoint of the halfway line and a circle with a radius of 9.15 m (10 yds) is marked around it.

All lines must be of the same width, which must not be more than 12 cm (5 inches) and the goal lines must be of the same width as the goalposts and the crossbar.

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2022-12-13 18:22:52 What is IFAB?

The IFAB is the International Football Association Board.

While FIFA is the governing body of international soccer, the IFAB plays the role of rule-maker and modifier for the game. IFAB maintains or amends the rules, and FIFA actively enforces them. The two organizations have worked together to ensure the integrity of international soccer, futsal, and beach soccer for over 100 years.

The IFAB was founded in 1886 by the four British football associations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) as the worldwide body for developing and preserving the Laws of the Game.

Today the IFAB is comprised of the football associations with vote each, and FIFA, covering the remaining national associations, with votes. In this way, all five bodies ensure that Laws of the Game are preserved respecting football’s traditions as well as its international reality. Passing a motion requires a three-quarters majority.

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