We don't understand much about the game of soccer, other than that the teams are trying to kick the ball into the goal (to score for themselves, not the opposing team). Usually, there are very few goals scored per game — from what I can tell anyway.
There is an interesting concept called "stoppage time." The clock never stops during the game, so the officials add time to the end of each half. The time added depends on how often play stopped during the half due to injuries (which are commonly just a player flopping to the ground) or how long a team celebrated a goal scored (said celebration might include a player ripping his shirt off). The amount of stoppage time seems arbitrary, so it is unclear to us how the players can know how much time is left.
We did learn something interesting during the Netherlands vs. Argentina game today. (Spoiler alert: Argentina won.) When one team has a "free kick" — not to be confused with a "penalty kick" — the defending team will form a wall by having several players stand side-by-side. Another player will LIE DOWN ON THE GROUND in back of the wall. This confused both Lew and me, so I had to do an internet search. Apparently the wall of players will jump when the kick is made; the player lying on the ground is keeping the kicker from kicking the ball under the jumping wall. Hopefully his teammates don't land on him. (The "hopefully" comment is my own; I didn't see anything mentioning that in my internet search.)
Will Lew and I watch more World Cup Soccer? Maybe, but not if real Football games are on!
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