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begging of soccer
The contemporary history of the world's favourite game spans more than 100 years. It all began in 1863 in England, when rugby football and association football branched off on their different courses and the Football Association in England was formed - becoming the sport's first governing body. -
the start of soccer
On December 8 1863, Association Football and Rugby Football finally split onto two different organizations. Later in the year, the first ever soccer match was played on Barnes common at Mortlake, London on 19th December 1863 between Barnes Football Club and Richmond Football Club. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. -
winners of the american cup
The Fall River Rovers- winners of the American Cup in 1888 and 1889 -
FIFA
Establishment of FIFA by delegates from France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland at a meeting in Paris on the 21st of May. -
bethlehem steel
Bethlehem Steel, who won the American Cup in 1914, 1916, 1917, 1918, and 1919 -
golden era
The 1920s are popularly known as the golden era in the history of American soccer. The establishment of American Soccer League in 1921 was a mark as there was now a league that could compete with European players. -
first world cup
In 1930, the US participated in the first World Cup in Uruguay, and the teams from Atlantic Coast league subjugated the roster. The roster by now had added famous players like Bert Patenaude and Billy Gonsalves who performed well both in the World Cup and all through the 1930's. -
olympic games
Soccer was taken off the program for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, due to a controversy between FIFA and the IOC over the definition of amateur and the reluctance of many strong soccer countries to travel the US because of the expense involved. -
tournaments
In the tournaments between 1934 and 1978, 16 teams competed in each tournament, except in 1938, when Austria was absorbed into Germany after qualifying, leaving the tournament with 15 teams, and in 1950, when India, Scotland, and Turkey withdrew, leaving the tournament with 13 teams. Most of the participating nations were from Europe and South America, with a small minority from North America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. -
Arantes Do Nacimento
The most goals scored in a specified period is 1,279 by Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Brazil) (b. 23 Oct 1940), known as Pelé, from 7 Sep 1956 to 1 Oct 1977 in 1,363 games. -
national team returned to the world cup
In the 1950s, the US National team returned to the World Cup with a magnificent victory over England with a goal by Joe Gaetjens -
most goals by a player in a single world cup
In 1958, Frenchman Just Fontaine scored 13 goals to lead his team to a third-place finish in Sweden. Fontaine scored a hat trick in the opening game, two more in a loss to Yugoslavia, and finished group play with a winning goal against Scotland. Then he scored two against Northern Ireland in the quarterfinals, and scored again in a 5-2 loss to Brazil in the semifinals. -
the start of soccer in the U.S.
The 1970s saw soccer being flocked with participation from the youth and 1980s saw a downfall for soccer in the US. -
Ewald Lienen
This horrific injury on German midfielder Ewald Lienen's right leg was caused by a sliding tackle from a Werder Bremen defender during a match in 1981. -
NASL
With the decline of the NASL in 1984, and the abrupt end of the United Soccer League in 1985, only the Western Soccer League, which had just finished its first season, remained playing outdoor soccer, with four surviving teams. -
winning streek
The longest recorded winning streak in any professional sports is Pakistani Jahangir Khan's 555 consecutive wins in squash from 1981 to 1986. In the same sport, the Australian Heather McKay may hold a claim to an even longer winning streak, as she went unbeaten for 19 years, from 1962 to 1981. -
womens world cup
The inaugural Women's World Cup in 1991 in China was won by the United States -
world cup
The 1994 World Cup is considered the biggest moment in the history of American soccer. -
David Busst
David Busst
During a match at Old Trafford in April 1996, the Coventry defender David Busst collissioned with Manchester United defender Denis Irwin. As a result, Busst got his leg broken so badly that the bone pierced the skin and his blood had to be cleared from the pitch. He had a compound fracture of his tibia and fibula and could never play professionally again. United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, who witnessed the injury, required counseling afterwards -
american womens soccer
The American women's team won the first-ever women's soccer event at the Olympics. -
most consecutive hat trick
Masashi Nakayama scored hat tricks in four consecutive games in 1998. Four in a row! He tallied 16 goals in those four games. He was also the first Japanese player to ever score for his country in a World Cup that year. It was in a loss to Jamaica, but, eh, who cares. Nakayama was on fire in 1998. -
Nilis
After just 4 minutes of a premier league game, Belgian striker Luc Nilis suffered a double fracture of his knee when colliding with Ipswich Town goalkeeper Richard Wright, in September 2000. Due to the severe injury, ha had to retire from soccer. -
Henri Larsson
Henri Larsson's was out for 8 months after breaking his leg in 1999. This severe injury threatened to end his career but after a miraculous recovery he was back for the 2000 Eurocup. -
WUSA
The period from 2001-2004 also witnessed constructive changes for women soccer in USA. In 2001, the Women’s United Soccer Association was launched. Without delay, the Association established itself as the leading women’s league in the world of women soccer -
longest unbeaten run
Arsenal’s Unbeatens of 2003 and 2004 rattled off 49 consecutive unbeaten games, including all 38 games of the Premier League season in 2003. The run actually spanned three seasons - the last two games of the 2002-03 season through the first 10 games of the 2004-2005 season. -
longest penologist shot
In the 2005 Namibian Cup, KK Palace and Civics drew 2-2 and went to penalty kicks, where Palace prevailed…after 48 kicks. The final in the shootout was 17-16. -
most devisions played in by one player by one team
Nathan Pond, now a 30-year-old, has played for Fleetwood Town in seven different flights of English soccer: English North West Counties League, Northern Premier League Division 1 North, Northern Premier League Premier Division, Conference North, Conference Premier, Football League 2 and Football League 1. -
italian championship
On February 19th, 2006, while playing in the Italian Championship against Empoli F.C., Francesco Totti suffered a serious leg injury, fracturing his left fibula and severing the interconnecting ligaments with the malleolus. The same night he was operated by a renowned Italian orthopedic surgeon. -
Cisse
The shocking image shows Cisse fracturing his right leg after being tackled by the Shandong Luneng defender. It happened During a friendly international soccer match in Saint Etienne, France in 2006. -
Jacob Olesen
Danish soccer striker, Jacob Olesen suffered a severe dislocation of the left ankle in an October 2006 match. As a result, he had to be out for 6 months -
most soccer balls juggled at one time
In 2006 in a shopping mall in Stockholm, Victor Rubilar of Argentina managed to juggle five soccer balls (using his hands) at a time. More than eight years later, Dutchman Marko Vermeer matched the feat, presumably at a carnival or in the lobby of a movie theater or perhaps at an outdoor park on top of a picnic table. -
Luciano Almedia
Brazilian soccer player Luciano Almeida suffered a severe injury during a match between Botafogo and Flamengo in 2007. He was out for 5 months to make a full recovery. -
kieron Dyer
Kieron Dyer, one of the most injury jinxed of modern soccer players, suffered a broken right leg at Bristol Rovers on August 29th, 2007. -
top scoerer
Miroslav Klose from Germany is the top scorer in the world -
Cruz Azul
During a match between Cruz Azul and Tecos UAG in June 2007, Mexican soccer player Edgar Andrade suffered a dramatic fracture and twisted his ankle while attempting to recover a ball for his team. He returned to the field after many months of recovery. -
Eduardo Da Silva
Eduardo Da Silva
During a match in February 2008, while playing for Arsenal, Eduardo Da Silva received an appalling tackle by Birmingham City defender Martin Taylor, who was immediately dismissed. As a consequence, Da Silva had a broken left fibula and dislocated his left ankle. Almost a year later, he returned to the Arsenal first team, after a full recovery. -
Inigo Diaz
In 2008 Spanish soccer player Iñigo Díaz de Cerio suffered a serious injury after a collision with SD Eibar goalkeeper Zigor, fracturing his right leg's tibia and fibula. After a successful surgery, he had a slow but effective recovery, returning to soccer scene almost a year after his injury. -
Robbie Keane
Robbie Keane has scored 369 career goals (in 836 games) -
fastest hat trick
Sitting at the top of the list of all time fastest hat tricks is a recent hat-trick from the Sheffield Sunday League in England. The all-time record belongs to 20-year old sports science student and Rawson Spring forward Alex Torr, who shattered the record in an astonishing 70 seconds. Torr compelted his record performance within the first 12 minutes and ten seconds on Rawson's Sheffield Sunday League versus Winn Gardens. -
longest game ever played
Bristol Academy and Leeds Badgers, two amateur sides in England, played a charity match for 36 consecutive hours in 2009. Each team had 18 players who played for 18 hours each. The game was played in memory of Jamie Burdett, who played for Leeds and died from meningitis in 2007. The teams raised more than £10,000 for the Meningitis Trust foundation. Leeds won 285-255, and Leeds’s striker Adam McPhee scored 75 goals in his 18 hours of play. Not bad -
most goals scored by a goalie
We’ve detailed this legend here at length at The18, but Sao Paolo goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni scored 128 goals in his career. The dude took a ton of penalties, sure, but he absolutely crafted in some free kicks, too, like the one above. Our favorite moment of that clip is the announcer saying “he hasn’t scored since August” like he was a slumping superstar striker, which he, uh, was? -
fastest send-off in a world cup match
Not a record you necessarily want to have unless you’re throwing a match or something, but Uruguayan José Batista was sent off after less than a minute in a 1986 World Cup match against Scotland. In that Zapruder video, he clearly flies in late and two-footed and seems to have mortally wounded Scotland’s Gordon Strachan (judging by his reaction). In Strachan’s biography, published years later, he says he thinks Batista went in late to try to take him out of the game on purpose. -
longest headed goal ever scored
That’s what happens here, on a fluky play. With the keeper up to try for a late equalizer, Odds BK’s Jone Samuelsen redirected a blasted header in the opposite direction and bounced it into the net to secure the win in 2011. The header is measured at just over 58 meters (190 feet, 8.58 inches), and narrowly edged out this bit of dreadful goalkeeping for the title of "World’s Longest Goal Scored With Someone's Dome." -
most red cardes given in a match
In Argentina in 2011, referee Damian Rubino gave out THIRTY-SIX (36) red cards in a single match between Claypole and Victoriano Arenas. After a brawl erupted – where one fan even rushed the field, landed one sucker punch, and then ran for his goddamn life – Rubino sent off all 22 players and every substitute and some technical staff. -
most goals in a year
Lionel Messi, who scored 91 mostly ridiculous goals in 2012 to surpass Gerd Müller’s record. He set the Barcelona club record for career goals that year; he scored five in a Champions League match (a record) against Bayer Leverkusen; he scored a particularly obnoxious hat trick against Brazil for goals 49, 50, and 51. -
fastest goal
because we’ve seen John Arne Riise’s howitzer against Manchester United in 2001 and also Zlatan’s against Anderlecht in 2013. But O.K.A.Y. Sporting Lisbon defender Ronny, we see you and now we understand your power. The shot, by the way, was measured at 221 kilometers per hour, which is more than 137 miles per hour. Get. Out. Of. The. Way. -
longest goal ever scored
Surprisingly, many of these world records in soccer happened recently. We start with Asmir Begovich, riding the wind of fate into the net in 2013. Poor Artur Boruc and his weird neck tattoo never had a chance. The ball traveled 97.5 yards. It was the third kick of the game.
That one narrowly beat out Tim Howard’s one-bouncer for Everton just a few weeks prior. Adam Bogdan’s had a rough career, hasn’t he? He’s like world soccer’s Brandon Knight. -
longest throw in
At a girls’ football camp in 2010, Danish man Thomas Gronnemark tried six times to set this record by using the fan-favorite “flip” throw. On the seventh try, he got the angles right, didn’t break his body in half, and chucked it 51.33 meters (168 feet, 4.8 inches) to set the bar. We received no word about whether it was a legal throw. -
Most People Blowing The Vuvuzela Simultaneously
It happened in South Africa (but you guessed that, of course) in 2009, where 12,511 people simultaneously blew those plastic aneurysm horns. It was, as many records are, set on purpose before a Vodacom Challenge football tournament match. Even Guinness’s official write-up in the record book calls it an “event” that was “organized.” -
Messi
As he seeks to make history on Sunday by bringing home the third World Cup title in Argentina's history, Lionel Messi has been one of the breakout players in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. His four goals rank second for the tournament, only two behind Colombian striker James Rodriguez.
