Soccer is also known as association football. It is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. At the dawn of the 21st century, it was a sport played by some 25o million people worldwide, making it quite a popular sport. In the words of Brandi Chastain, “After the '96 Olympics, we all started believing that this is bigger than we thought, and we were willing to do the work. We knew that it was up to us, the players, to make soccer successful.” Soccer is played on a rectangular field of grass or green artificial turf with a goal in the middle of each of the shorter sides of the rectangle. Goalkeepers guard their goals and field players manoeuvre the ball in playing position. They use their torso or head to intercept the ball in mid air. The team that scores the maximum number of goals at the end of the match wins it eventually. Lorrie Fair had once remarked, “Getting a chance to practice six months against my own teammates, who I consider the best soccer players in the world, there's no way I couldn't improve.”
