Soccer - AJ

• Soccer developed in London’s famed Newgate Prison in the early 1800s. Prisoners who had their hands cut off for crimes of theft came up with a sport that used only the feet.
• There are 32 panels on a traditional soccer ball, one for each country in Europe.
• A soccer field is called a “pitch” because every regulation field is pitched — or sloped — 5 degrees upwards from one end to the other. The teams switch sides after each half so each team has to play slightly uphill for half the match.
• The first American professional soccer league, the USSA, played from 1919 to 1921 and paid its players 35-cents for every goal scored.
•  In most countries, a soccer player's uniform is called a “kit.” The cleats are called “hooves.”