As you may already know, soccer is one of the biggest sports in the world, if not the biggest sport in the world. What this means is that the game is popular enough in order for people to try and create different versions of the game.
We’re going to talk about a few of these versions in this article. In fact, the American Football was initially derived from soccer and another sport. The term Association Football was used to describe soccer back then.
However, the American Football has made a lot of changes to the game to the point that people today are easily convinced that the 2 games are completely different from each other.
But we’re only going to mention the games that can be truly called “Soccer games” in this article. Here are 4 of them.
1- Association Football
Yes, you can’t create a list of soccer games without mentioning the main soccer game, which is also known as the Association Football.
This is the soccer game that we all know. The soccer game that requires a huge soccer field, 11 players on each team and a list of rules that needs to be strictly followed during every single professional match.
Association Football is easily the most famous sport around the world during the time of this writing. For example, the association football world cup that took place in Russia in 2018 had more than 3.5 Billion viewers according to FIFA’s data.
That’s nearly half the population of humans on Earth.
The problem with association football is that it requires a large field in order to be played. Not everyone has more than 70×110 yards of grass at their disposal.
For that reason, there are a few other variations of soccer that have been made that require smaller areas to be played.
2- Futsal
In very simple words, futsal is a minified version of association football. Instead of 11 players per team, you’ll play with 5 players per team. Instead of a huge field made of grass, you’ll play in a closed field that’s close to the size of a basketball field.
If you have enjoyed watching association football before, then you can very easily enjoy a futsal match even if you haven’t learned anything about it yet.
There are huge similarities between the 2 games. However, there are some minor differences in the rules of the games just to make sure that the rules adapt to the new field the players use. That’s it.
The main reason behind Futsal is because it’s more accessible to more soccer enthusiasts. It requires a smaller number of players and it requires smaller fields which are more available than the large fields that association football use.
In case you’re wondering, futsal is played professionally and there are many futsal leagues and competitions around the world, and the game’s rules are also stated by FIFA.
One last note here. Many professional association football players have started their training as futsal players at a young age, then they transitioned to association football once they had the chance to do so.
3- Beach Soccer
Beach soccer is another variation to the beautiful game. If you want to describe beach soccer to someone who hasn’t heard about it before using only one sentence, then you could say the following: Beach soccer is just futsal played on the beach. That’s it.
There are some differences in the rules between beach soccer and futsal however, the concept is the same. 5 players on each team and the team who scores more goals wins the game.
The interesting thing about beach soccer however is that it requires a different set of skills than futsal. For example, since the players will be playing on sand, they won’t be able to easily dribble through their opponents.
What they need to do instead is to juggle the ball most of the time. Juggling is one of the most important skills that a beach soccer player needs to have.
Beach soccer is also governed by FIFA and the game has its own leagues and world wide competitions.
4- Street Soccer
The last form of soccer that I wanna talk about today is one that I have used throughout my entire childhood.
Street soccer is for those friends who have no place to go in order to play their favorite game. So, what they do is that they find an abandoned street or any other area, place sticks as goals, divide themselves into 2 teams, and just play soccer.
The rules in soccer street matches are basically whatever rules the players decide to adapt. Just use whatever set of soccer rules that make sense in the place that you’re playing at.
For example, if you won’t be able to perform a corner kick, then just replace it with a throw-in, and so on.
I played a lot of street soccer as a kid. I and a group of friends used to gather together every single day to play soccer. We used rocks to represent goals, we divided ourselves into teams, and we enjoyed the game for more than 2 hours each day.
The most important thing that you need to consider when you’re playing street soccer is to make sure that the place you’ve picked is 100% safe. You don’t want to be under the risk of being hit by a car just to play soccer.
Pick a place that you’re 100% sure is safe, and enjoy the game with a bunch of friends.
Street soccer has been extremely famous around the world. You can easily tell why. Millions of people want to play soccer so badly, but they don’t have the luxury of playing on professional soccer fields, so what they do instead is that they make their own fields.
There have been some professional street soccer competitions organized at some places around the world in order to give a chance for people to compete in soccer games and win titles.
With that said, I conclude my list of the 4 different types of soccer games that are mostly used around the world. Thank you for reading this far and enjoy the rest of your time.