Kick It: Soccer 101

Welcome back to Kick It, the AJC’s newsletter for all things World Cup.

There are two ways to see the World Cup: It’s either a bunch of soccer games surrounded by parties, or a big party with some soccer games in between.

We’re going to explore both energies today.

Let’s get to it.

SOCCER BASICS YOU WANT TO KNOW, BUT ARE TOO AFRAID TO ASK

Soccer tackles aren’t like football tackles, but they can be pretty dramatic. (Hyosub Shin/AJC 2023)

If you’re a regular soccer watcher, good for you. Some of us are working off dim memories of middle school afternoons, gamboling around under the baking sun with the promise of orange slices after.

I personally am somewhere in the middle — an Atlanta United supporter who knows the rules, loves a good game and can name a handful of players. Let’s assume you’re about the same.

Here are three slightly confusing details that, once cleared up, will greatly enhance your enjoyment of the game:

⚽ What’s a corner kick?

• When a ball goes outside the long sidelines of the field, you’ll see players throwing the ball back into play. Simple enough.
• When the ball goes over the end lines, the border lines parallel to both goals (think the back of the end zone in American football), players take a corner kick.
• The team that takes the kick is whatever team didn’t have possession of the ball when it went out of bounds.
• It’s a good scoring opportunity, and you’ll see both teams making all sorts of formations trying to score or prevent a goal.

⚽ What’s a tackle?

• A soccer tackle is very, very different from an American football tackle.
• Rather than plowing down anyone, a tackle is when a player slides feet first to dislodge the ball from an opposing player. It typically ends offensive momentum.

⚽ What, exactly, constitutes offsides?

This one is a little annoying even to soccer knowers, but it’s a very common call.

• The basic gist: An offensive player on Team A cannot be behind Team B’s last defensive player on the field (aka between Team B’s defense and Team B’s goal) when a ball is kicked to them or kicked ahead of them.
• However, Team A’s player can go behind Team B’s last player if they already have possession of the ball.
• You’ll typically see players avoiding offsides calls during long passes or high kicks across the field.

Feel a little better? If you need more of a crash course, the AJC’s Frasier Jones got schooled by some local high school players in Soccer 101. Watch him be humbled here.

NEW INFO ABOUT ATLANTA’S WORLD CUP ‘CULTURE HOUSE’

Ben Joiner, founder of Atlanta Influences Everything, is part of the ATL Culture House team. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

We already know there will be a tournament-long Word Cup party center in downtown Centennial Olympic Park called the FIFA Fan Festival. Now, we’re learning more about the ATL Culture House, an art and culture exhibit space a block away in the former CNN Center.

The roughly 23,000-square-foot space is the brainchild of the Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. It will be open on all eight World Cup match days in Atlanta.

Now, this thing could either be sterile and toothless in the way large initiatives from government sources are sometimes, or it could be very cool. I won’t lie, the first details are very promising. These are some of the exhibits so far: