The single most important piece of equipment you will need for a game of soccer is a foot. After that, the ball is important too. The official soccer ball is made of leather, is 27-28" in circumference, and weighs 14-16 ounces. While having a ball is more or less critical to the sport, you may want to bear in mind the fact that Diego Maradona-arguably the greatest player ever-grew up in Argentina playing with a clump of rags, and that the Brazilian national team-arguably the greatest soccer playing country ever-often practices with tennis balls. If you really have a passion for the sport, just find something round and kick it. Except for babies and puppies. They're too cute.
If you want to take things very seriously, though, you'll need another piece of equipment: a very large field. Soccer fields are similar to US football fields in dimension, between 50-100 yards wide and between 100-130 yards long. At either end is a goal, threaded with a net, and on the four corners of the field are flags. Click here to see a good picture of a soccer field.
Another piece of equipment vital to the game is a coin, to be tossed and forecasted as a way of initiating the game. The referee calls the two captains to the center of the field before the game begins and asks the home captain to call the coin in the air. Whoever wins the toss has the option of determining either which team kicks off or which side each teams plays on. The loser is then assigned the remaining choice. It's all rather civilized. At least on the field, anyway.
Beyond the institutional equipment, each player will need to have a pair of football shoes, or cleats as they are called in the US. Every player is also required to wear a pair of shin guards, which are exactly what you would think: a hard plastic pad surrounded by softer fabric that extends from below the knee to above the ankle, secured usually by velcro straps, designed to avoid fractures to the shin, which is so vulnerable in a sport where everyone is kicking all the time.
SoYouWanna know more? Check out our full-length article SYW learn the basics of soccer?
