A Sport Divided: Men's Versus Women's Football

Speed, agility, the ability to out maneuver, and the ability to reflect are what separate the champions from the amateurs, the sluggish from the swift, and the acute from the dawdling. The ability to think on ones feet and out smart an opponent is important and needed or you're left with an unwanted conclusion. The player pounds down the field out maneuvering forwards, mid-fielders, and defenders, and finally it is just the player, the goalie, and the net. The instant roar of the crowd with complete amazement and wonder is sufficient to know an unbelievable shot from an impracticable place was completed. Soccer or football is many countries past time. Despite the fact that the men's and women's team are on an equal playing field, they will never be the same.

Going into the heart and essence of the women's soccer team, otherwise known as football to some players, an individual will see that these players are connected like a giant family; they have compassion towards every team member alike. When a player(s) is injured, all the other additional teammates, who are at that time not currently playing in the game, come and gather together around the injured team member to check on and see how that individual team member is doing emotionally and health wise. When tea m member Aly Wagner tore her ACL in her left knee, players were there checking on her well being, asking how the wound was healing and when Briana Scurry was injured, team members did the exact same thing. On the other hand, within the men's competition, not including tremendous and severe injury to a team member, they scarcely ever come over to an injured team member to check on their health and well being. The crowd of the men's competition is first and foremost around the water bottle station while the injured player is being assessed at that moment by a team doctor or trained physician. For example when David Beckham joined the LA Galaxy, he came with and ankle injury that was not too serious, as a result the team did not really care only the media and wide spread football fans.

Men, in this game, can play by the side of a team member they absolutely hate over and over again. Men do not allow petty things to get in the way of winning a game against a rival team. They can put all things aside and work together to accomplish one thing or one goal in mind when trying to win against a rival team. While on the women's team, it is a lot harder because it generates an enormous touchy situation. The women's team, who has players who don't like each other, will have difficulty on the field as well. It is a lot harder to let go of something that another player has done to that person in order to achieve a certain objective set in mind by the team's administrator. They often tend to allow these petty things to get in the way of what really matters in playing soccer and that is winning against another team and sportsmanship.

Free kicks are what make soccer fair when it comes to fouls in this game. For men, free kicks go a fair amount of distance in this game. For women, a player can expect to go half to seventy five percent of the distance covered by a man in free kicks. Men have more success in free kicks because of their physical body strength and muscle mass. Where as women can cover that short distance because of less physical body strength and muscle mass, so the game consist of mainly short pass with few long pass if any at all. A person may see more long passes than short from a free kick in men's football than in the women's game. That is why a football fan will see David Beckham send it way cross the field than a fan seeing Mia Hamm sending the ball half way cross.

Women's football tends to be in assault mode that in men's football. Females constantly attack over and over again the defensive side of the other team trying to get more points continuously and consistently. The women's team will score points by continuously putting pressure and forcing defensive end of the other team to react faster and to keep up faster. On the other hand men tend to pass back and forth and try to find openings to score points. The men tend to go big on scoring that just putting pressure on defensive side of the other team alone. That is why men rarely score in the regulation time period.

The men's team is naturally aggressive and violent. They tend to gain more yellow and red cards for fouls. Red and yellow cards are used as penalties in this game. This means that men will slide tackle, push, or do something that causes