The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-11-26

Everybody wants 10 see some KIM
of football game on Thanksgiving
day. With the exception of an inter
class junior game at Kamehameha
school there will be no intercollegiate
football today. 1t may be a pis aller,
but it is football and so there will be
many people go to the league baseball
grounds today to watch the soccer
games just because it is Thanksgiving
day and they want TO see some football.
For the benefit of these and many
others who do not understand the game
very well, here follows a short explana-
ton:
Soccer, or Association football, is
played on a field about the same size
as an intercollegiate field and with goal
posts at each end. The goal posts in
stead of having a bar half way up the
poles are eight feet in height and 3he
bar tops the poles. The ball is not to
be carried over the goal line and then
taken out for kick over the goal post
bar, but is to be kicked between the
posts. In order that there may be no
chance for mistake as to whether the
ball actually passes between the goals
or not, there is a net at the back of
the posts and this catches the ball If it
passes through the goal.
The idea of the game is to propel the
ball between your opponent s goal with
out handling it or knocking with your
arms or fists. Only one man on the
field may touch the ball with his hands
and that is the goal keeper who has the
privilege of catching the ball and punt
ing 1t away from the goal.
There are eleven men on each side. To
start the game the ball is placed in the
center of the field where a circle is
marked. The side opposing that which
kicks off must stand without the line of
the semicircle on their side of play.
As soon as the ball is started into
play it may be. kicked or bounced off
the body or head by any player provid
ed he is not standing too near to his
opponent IS goal. "To near is vague
term and so it is defined as having three
players on the opposite side standing
between the player who kicks the ball
and the other goal.
The attacking segment on each side
is the forwards. There are five of these
who line across the field and, when one
of their own men has possession of the
ball, that is has the ball at his feet so
that he can dribble it, or send it for
ward by a series of short kicks, they
run down the field in line on level
with the man who has the ball or slight
" in advance of him.
AS soon as the forward with the ball
is threatened he kicks it sideways
across to one of the other forwards who
stops it with his knee or foot and pro-
ceeds to dribble forward until he is
threatened when he passes in his turn.
Here is where the spectacular fea-
lures of the game come in. There have
been men so clever in the art of rum
ming at high speed with the ball at
their feet, of lodging around an oppo-
nent who would kick the ball away
from him, of passing the ball directly
to the feet of one of his own players
without even glancing sideways that
the saying of BlOomer, one of the great
est British professional players in the
history of soccer, has become a house !
hold word where the game is played.
BlOOmer came from Derbyshire and
played for Derby county for many
years. When the team visited any of
the big northern towns such as Liver.
pool or Manchester billbOards fared
with huge signs, not stating that Derby
County was going to play but simply
notifying the fans that "Bloomel is
cOming.' In a country where twenty
is a small attendance at a big
league game and where the finals at
he Crystal Palace have drawn one hun
ired and nineteen thousand enthusiasts
from every corner of the British Isles,
his man drew salary and had fame
such as Caruso or Melba never could
nave.
BloOmer never got rid of his Derby
hire accent and one day he gave vent I
20 the famous saying of his after
friend had inquired if he were going
o play soccer the followig afternoon.
'Ah dunna pleay soccer,' he said.
8 All pleay bin ards wi ma feet And
hat was just about the truth. There ,
5 nothing finer than to watch a line
f good forwards advancing down the
eld and passing the ball from one to
he other, merely by a twist of the
DOT, with the same precision with
which Roberts pockets the red.
Behind the forwards are three half
,acks who are half defensive and half
HenSlNe- II Is Ihelr BUSINESS TO hO1u .
o a certain section of the field and
ee that the rushes of the opposingi
orwards are broken up and also to
eed their own forwards. This is a
nightly hard position and calls for the .
urest nerve and considerable pluck in !
harging in and kicking the ball away !
rom the feet of a fast runner.
Behind the half-back are two full
acks who are almost purely defensive.