About this site

Why this site exists

Every four years, the World Cup turns millions of Americans into accidental soccer fans. Coworkers are talking about it. The bar has it on. Your group chat won't stop sending highlights. And suddenly you need to understand the offside rule in the next 45 minutes.

Most soccer explainers assume you already know the basics. They use terms like “nil,” “clean sheet,” and “aggregate” without defining them. They explain the offside rule with diagrams that raise more questions than they answer.

SoccerBasics.us is built for people who are completely new to the game and need plain-English answers fast. No jargon. No assumed knowledge. Just clear explanations with real analogies that make sense to an American audience.

What's on the site

The core of the site is a set of reference pages covering the rules and format of soccer — offside, cards, stoppage time, penalty shootouts, positions — written for people who are encountering these concepts for the first time. There's also a complete beginner's guide at Soccer 101 that covers the whole game in one read.

For the 2026 World Cup specifically, the site has live tools: a match time converter that shows kickoff times in your timezone, and a live standings tracker updated every 10 minutes.

The World Cup 2026 section covers the host cities, the expanded 48-team format, and everything you need to follow along.

About the content

Every page is written from scratch with the American newcomer in mind. The goal is not to be the most comprehensive soccer resource on the internet — Wikipedia and official FIFA documentation handle that. The goal is to be the most useful resource for someone who has never watched a full match and needs to understand what's happening on the screen right now.

Live match data (standings, fixtures) comes from the football-data.org API. Everything else is original editorial content.

Contact

Questions, corrections, or feedback: djpenn@gmail.com