NORTH SOUND MEDIA, JUNE 17: American soccer is on the verge of taking a popularity leap Friday that the country hasn’t seen since the U.S. Women’s National Team won the World Cup in 1999 and Brandi Chastain immortalized the moment ripping off her jersey in euphoric celebration.
Friday at Seahawks Stadium in Seattle, the U.S. squares off against Australia and the winner—if they don’t tie—will punch their ticket to advance to the knock-out stage of the 2026 World Cup tournament. If the U.S. vanquishes Australia, the Americans would be in position to win Group D and secure a higher seed for the 32-team knock out round.
There are still lots of soccer skeptics around the North Sound that might not care about the 11-player sport, the unscripted and idiosyncratic play, the theatrical dramatization of the slightest touch by an opponent causing a player to writhe on the ground in faux-pain to generate a foul call by the referee just to secure a free kick for the team. Believe me, as an EverettPost.com news reporter, I’ve been contacting people the last few weeks on the street, at restaurants and bars checking on people’s World Cup interest and most people tell me they’re not interested and not paying attention.
Lots of soccer skeptics say the sport is boring, and to the uninitiated it’s easy to understand why. But if you watch soccer the way you watch tackle football—a.k.a. American football—like the NFL or NCAA—the game will change for you and hopefully bolster your enjoyment.
For starters, the players in both sports are positioned in three different lines on the field. Each of the three lines operates like a sub-unit of the team. In tackle football, you have the defensive line—usually four players across a uniform line with the stronger, stouter players on the inside and the fast, agile players on the outside. In soccer, similar attributes apply on the defensive—or backline of the squad—taller stronger players defend the inside from attack, and the speedier, nimble outside-backers play like edge rushers in tackle football.
In the middle of the respective fields, soccer has mid-fielders that operate like tackle football linebackers—they need to be speedy or exceptional at controlling possession of the ball. Midfielders, like linebackers, need to have some versatility to both defend and attack when the team takes the ball in the run of play. In tackle football, you have defensive backs who are fast, mobile and cover a lot of ground and those counterparts in soccer football are the forwards and strikers.
Tackle football is highly scripted and planned with quarterbacks calling plays on offense and defenses scheming a blitz to stop a pass or flooding the line to stop a running play. Soccer is almost the opposite. In fact, it usually looks like a giant game of keep away.
But if you apply some of the ball and player movements you look for in tackle football to soccer football, it begins to make a lot more sense what the 10 field players and the goalie are doing on the “pitch”—the British term for the grass field.
Whether you’re watching a soccer game on TV or in person, the game progresses left to right—back and forth–nearly identical to tackle football. Most possessions in soccer start with a goal kick—the result of the attacking team knocking the ball beyond the end line from a missed shot or lost possession. When the ball goes out of bounds, the defending team gets a goal kick from the small, 6 yard (or meter if you prefer the metric system) box in front of the goal.
The goal kick is usually taken by the goalkeeper (the tall player in the padded gloves and a different colored jersey, or as the futbol fanatics call it a “kit”) or one of the center backs (note: a left-center back and a right-center back are deployed in the 4-person backline so the fact there is no singular ‘center’ in this 4-person formation can be misleading at first).
Usually, the goal kick is directed laterally to one of the sidelines to an outside back and from there the outside player will pass the ball forward or kick the ball back across the end line. (Occasionally the goalie will just kick the goal kick as hard as possible up field for what’s called a 50-50 ball, where players converge for a header to win possession, but we’ll set aside this tactic for now to focus on using the goal kick to maintain possession and build-up the offensive attack through the middle of the field with passing and dribbling).
The team’s backline players are called center backs and full backs (or outside backs). Most every team positions four of these back-line players in a row just ahead of the goalkeeper, splitting the field into four sectors for proper spacing. The backline’s job is two-fold: first, guard or “mark” the opposing team’s attacking players who dribble/pass the ball forward and second, to play the role of the QB in tackle football.
The QB role falls to the center-backs. In most possessions resulting from a goal kick, one of the two center-backs will distribute the ball to teammates like a Tom Brady, Sam Darnold or Lamar Jackson playing QB. And like the NFL, if you have a “dual threat” center-back that can pass and run effectively, it gives your team a distinct advantage to collapsing the other team’s defense.
Example: when the center back begins possession with the ball, the options are usually a pass up the middle or to the edge. Think of the edge pass like a screen pass in tackle football. It’s a high-percentage completion. Once that ball’s on the edge, the full-back or outside back will evaluate the opposing players and dribble or pass the ball forward depending on space or kick the ball directly back where it came from to a center-back (or the goalie).
This is designed to move the ball faster than the opposing players can mover their feet. If the backline players are properly spaced, they can move the ball faster than the opposing players can run. If the four backline players do this efficiently the ball will reverse along the back line to create open space on the opposite side of the field.
Think of this routine scenario like an NFL or NCAA reverse run or reverse pass. Its designed to shift the opposing team too far to one side.
So that’s the screen pass comparison between tackle football and soccer.
Now for the vertical passing aspect of soccer. Those center backs are also like QBs throwing vertical passes with their kicks to opponents down field. Most of the vertical passing is intended to be sharp kicks of the ball that stay firmly on the grass. The reason is that the sharp, fast pass on the grass is easier for the teammate to “trap” or catch with their foot allowing them to control the ball, pivot and then dribble or make another precision pass.
When the center backs kick the pass forward, this is another chance to apply what you know about NFL QBs to soccer. Did the center back’s forward pass go past one level of opposing players? Two levels of opposing players? Maybe three levels of opposing players?
If that center back pass goes past two opponents and is successfully controlled or “trapped” by a teammate for a completed pass, this is just like an NFL QB throwing for a first down completion, albeit in soccer the play doesn’t stop, it just keeps continuing the active possession.
After that completed pass—usually to a mid-fielder—the midfielder will now look to extend the possession vertically or laterally, just as the center backs did. Exceptional mid-fielders have those same ‘dual threat’ capabilities with the ball at their feet. Now those mid-fielders are looking for “wingers” on either sideline of the field or “strikers” or “forwards” up the middle of the field.
Most of these decisions are done spur of the moment—no scripted play—but still within a frame work of positioning yourself in between the opponent, just like a tackle football team’s receivers working into the soft portions of a zone defense to be a target for the next pass reception.
These possessions in the mid-field will also take on many characteristics of a basketball possession. Player with the ball is looking for a cutter—a teammate running without the ball—to get a headstart on the defensive opponent to be open for a pass. And if that pass is successful, the defense is pierced and rapidly has to re-position to guard the new player with the ball.
To continue the basketball comparison, if the attacking team connects enough passes to get to the opponent’s 18-yard (or meter) box—the larger rectangular box in front of the goal—now the player with the ball can begin to look for teammates trailing the play from behind who are rarely guarded by the defense which is now focusing on the attacking player with the ball threatening the goal area.
Think of this circumstance like an NBA or NCAA fastbreak: the point guard (or dribbler in soccer) has pushed the ball so far forward toward the goal, that the most open and available teammate is behind the play and rarely guarded. If you pass to that open trailer, it usually results in a shot on goal in soccer or a dunk in hoops. But it all happens because the dribble possession collapsed the defense creating an open space for a teammate to shoot on goal.
One more comparison for those center backs kicking the ball vertically to teammates that compares perfectly to QBs: the premier center backs can launch an over-the-top-of-the-defense pass with accuracy like the NFL ‘long bomb’ or Hail Mary. The ability to kick that pass through the air—rather than on the ground—and locate it to the spot where the attacking teammate (striker, forward, winger) is about to arrive, is akin to the QB throwing that ball to where only his wide-receiver can catch it for a completion.
Now, the other athletic comparison that helps you appreciate soccer football, tackle football AND basketball is the player with the ball having the ability to make an opposing player miss. This is crystalized in tackle football with the ball carrier juking a potential tackler—the ability to make your defender miss. It works in basketball with the cross-over dribble or the hesitation dribble to maneuver around your opponent and advance closer to the goal.
Soccer players that can isolate “one v. one” against a defender and juke that defender by changing direction while maintaining the dribble are crucial to collapsing a defense and creating an opening for himself or a teammate to take a shot on goal. So, keep your eyes open for players who can (or can’t) make an opponent miss when they have the dribble in soccer football.
Conversely, the defender on the pitch will attempt to “dis-possess” the ball from the dribbler. Just like American football, in soccer, it’s called a “tackle”. A soccer tackle is a legal and tactical move when they’re on defense. A conventional soccer tackle starts with straight-up, one v. one defending. The defender going toe-to-toe with the attacking dribbler. If the defender can knock the ball away without interfering with the opponent’s body (or by taking a physical advantage to complete the tackle), it’s a legal play. The ultimate expression of this defense is the “slide-tackle” to dislodge the ball from the dribbler. Think of it as soccer football’s version of the “strip-sack” on the QB. Its an art form and when done correctly, anybody can recover the loose ball.
When you start to apply this familiarity and knowledge of tackle football (and basketball) to how the soccer football players pass and move, hopefully it helps explain what the team is trying to do offensively (i.e. attacking with possession) and defensively. There is a method to the soccer football madness, its just done in split second decisions and the most prolific players are keenly aware of how they time their off-ball movements and runs based on how defenders are lined-up against you to fit in between the spaces.
Friday, the US Men’s National Team (USMNT) has a chance to convert more Americans to soccer football if they can beat Australia. It could become that indelible moment or build up to it in a subsequent match this summer like Brandi Chastain’s championship winning goal kick in 1999. If you haven’t been converted, hopefully these analogies and descriptions will build your appreciation for the nuance within the spontaneous order that makes soccer chaotic and clever.