Foot Ball Info.

 By Marcus.

 Foot Ball (soccer) is a sport where can not use your hands. There is an equal amount of players on each team. They have to try pass a round hard leather ball to each other and kick it into a netted goal. The other players have to try and stop the other team by intercepting a pass or kicking or pulling the ball away from the person with it without kicking or tripping people up. The game goes on for a certain amount of time depending on your age. There is a person that guards the goal and can use his hands but is in an marked area.

 Foot ball goes back in history for decades. It is the most popular sport in the world because even if you are a poor kid in Africa all you need is a bit of plastic or paper, roll it up and kick it. Kids have played foot ball for many years as well. Clubs in the South Island in New Zealand like FC Nelson, Suburbs, Richmond and Motueka, are big clubs with heaps of teams from midgets to a Mainland team. Theres still lot's of kid teams out there so if your a kid and like foot ball then it is not too late.

 The now days best team in the world is Brazil. They have won the world cup 5 times!!! They have been the best team in the world for many years. In the last world cup they got knocked out in the quarter finals by Netherlands. In there group there were Ivory Coast, North Korea and Portugal. They came top of the group and Portugal came second.

Italy is one of the best teams too. They have won the world cup 4 times. They won it the time before last time in 2006. But in the last world  cup, they had New Zealand, Slovakia and Paraguay in there group and did not win a single match. They should have even lost to New Zealand but the ref favoured them and gave them a penalty that should not have been one. They lost 3-2 against Slovakia and drew 1-1 against Paraguay. Over all, not such a good year. 

 Spain won the last world cup in 2010. In there group there was Switzerland, Chile and Honduras. They came top of the group but lost 1-0 to Switzerland when they were by far the better team and hit the cross bar or the post many times. Then they went through winning every game, and coming against Netherlands in the finals. The game went all the way into extra time but finally a guy called Andres Iniesta scored Spain and the cup. But before that he should have got red carded for punching Holland super star Van Persie to the ground. But Holland had been fowling before that and even got a red card. So, Spain deserved a win.

 Netherlands are one of the best teams in the world. Surprisingly they have not won a single cup! Not one single one. They have come second about 3 or 4 times including last year. They came top of there group which had Japan, Cameroon and Denmark. Then they went through winning every match and coming against the best team in the world, in their last quarter final and bet them 2-1. Then they met Uruguay in the semi finals. They bet them 3-2 and went through to the finals against Spain who bet Germany in their quarter finals.Then they both met in the finals and Spain won 1-0.






 

      New Zealand were the only team in the whole world cup who did not lose a single match but did not win one either. They came in a group with Paraguay, Slovakia and Italy. It was the worst group in the whole  world cup. To get into the world cup they bet Bahrain 1-0. The goal was a beautiful header goal scored by Rory Fallon. Compered to the rest of the world New Zealand are not such a good team and that was the first time they have ever got into the world cup tournament. Ryan Nelsen is the captain of the New Zealand national team and scored many goals though he is a defender.

 
  Even though New Zealand are not such a good football country, I love foot ball, and I am proud of my country.