I'll be in London on Wednesday 1/29Chelsea plays West Ham that day now that I look. Tickets about $65 US. I don't know jack #### about soccer but very interesting.
Doesn't matter, just go. The atmosphere in English soccer stadiums is just fun. It's a great peek into a unique part of British culture the same way that it would be for someone from another country to go to a college football game in the states.
Oh I'm serious that I'm interested. I saw sumo and baseball in Japan, played St. Andrew's in Scotland. Soccer in England is right up my alley. But still I don't know jack #### about the sport.
The only thing that's non-intuitive in soccer, IMO, is offsides. It's weird, and there are situations where it doesn't make sense:
At the moment when a forward pass is made, there can't be anyone on the team of that's making the pass that's further up the field than everyone else on the opposing team (excluding the opposing team's goalie). So you can't "cherry pick" and just run behind everyone and stand next to the goalie and wait until someone plays a long pass to you.
That's pretty much it. 11 guys a side, a foul in the big box = penalty kick, a foul anywhere else = free kick, red card = player has to sit out rest of match, 2 yellow cards = one red card, most goals wins, ties are common, Chelsea sucks.