Known as both soccer and as football, soccer is an incredible international sport that attracts millions of fans worldwide. Being such a popular sport, it has loyal and friendly fans, skilled players, easy to understand rules, and a lot of other aspects that make it impossible not to love this game.
However, there is one sport that is often compared to it, and that is football. While soccer is also called “football”, American sport fans always compare football to soccer. Even though both sports have very different rules, tactics, and even fans, fans are always getting heated about which sport is better.
Fitness
Soccer requires tremendous cardiovascular endurance, because players have to jog, run and sprint for at least 90 minutes. As an American football player, you need explosive strength every 20 to 40 seconds as a play is called and executed. The running back, wide receivers, cornerbacks and safeties are required to have the same fitness level as soccer players or even better. However, unlike football linemen, there are barely any overweight players in soccer.
Strength
Offensive and defensive football line players weigh at least 300 lbs. While a typical offensive tackle (which is the heaviest position in football) weighs around 320 lbs. Therefore, having brute force is extremely important when playing football and that is not the case with soccer, as it is a contact sport that women can easily play and be really good at it.
Soccer is more of a democratic type of sport that doesn’t require you to have incredible physical attributes. Even though soccer is clearly the more graceful sport, it has borrowed agility drills from football.
Complexity
If you want to play soccer, you only need a ball and a clear area. You don’t even need shin guards unless you are looking to play professionally. Football is very different in this matter, as you need extensive training equipment for both practice and organized play, including sleds and blocking dummies, as well as helmets and pads. Thus, it’s not surprising that soccer is far more popular due to its simplicity. Even though both sports have a number of plays, soccer is mainly limited to corners and free kicks. In addition, soccer’s rulebook is a lot more streamlined.
As for football, coaches have a bigger impact on the result, because they are the ones who call the plays. Soccer players have a lot of practices and play depending on the tactic, but there is no play calling.
Popularity
Soccer is a lot more popular than football. According to the FIFA’s most recent survey, there are over 265 million who are involved in soccer, and that is somewhere around 4% of the world’s population. More on statistics here: https://www.fifa.com/media/news/y=2007/m=5/news=fifa-big-count-2006-270-million-people-active-football-529882.html
Football is mostly played in America and has far fewer players and fans. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s worse than soccer, just not as popular.
Playing field
An American football field is around 100-130 yards long and 50-100 yards wide, i.e. it is a rectangle of 100 meters long, 50 meters wide. Such fields are marked every 5 yards and there are goal lines on both sides of the field that indicate the entrances to the back areas.
In soccer, the game takes place in a rectangular pitch, approximately 90-120 meters long and 45-90 meters wide. The field is half divided by the half-way line that contains a kick-off circle and two penalty areas at each opposite end.
Scoring
In American football, you can score in two ways, and it will be worth more or fewer points depending on how and when you score the ball. The first way, known as Touchdown, requires you to cross the finishing line while owning the ball. It is worth six points. There is also a second way, where you need to kick the ball between two vertical goalposts. It is known as a field goal and is worth three points. Learn more about basic scoring in American football by this link: https://www.realbuzz.com/articles-interests/sports-activities/article/basic-american-football-rules/.
As for soccer, if you want to score, the ball has to completely pass the goal line between the target line and under the crossbar. It will always be counted as one goal no matter how you score. Additional information on soccer scoring rules can be found here: https://www.sportsrec.com/7300986/does-the-ball-have-to-be-all-the-way-across-the-goal-line-to-score-in-soccer.
Match’s length
There are two halves in soccer, and each one of them lasts for 45 minutes (plus 2-3 additional minutes in most cases). There is also a 15-minute break. While American football has four periods, known as quarters, and every
Conclusion
There is obviously no right answer to which sport is better because it depends on your taste. The best option is to be a lover and supporter of both sports and enjoy online betting. You can benefit greatly from sport betting Tanzania.
