Stuff You Should Know - How Soccer Works

Episode Date: June 19, 2014

Maybe you hail from a soccer crazed country - or from the U.S. Either way, there's lots to discuss about "the beautiful game", from its prehistory, rules and strategy to, of course, the World Cup. Join Josh and Chuck as they wade into football, aka soccer. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're gonna use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Attention, Bachelor Nation, he's back. The host of some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with the most dramatic podcast ever

with Chris Harrison. During two decades in reality TV, Chris saw it all, and now he's telling all. It's gonna be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever

with Chris Harrison on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant. That's weird. I know, I was thinking like,

I'm gonna come up with something, nothing. Yeah, halfway through. Somebody said I sounded burned out on the sugar episode of, that's sad, because I was kind of burned out. It was right before vacation. Oh yeah, sure. We'd been going and going and going and going

and going and going. But now you're recharged. Yeah, oh man. Yeah? Yeah, good. I somehow transferred from like a type A person to a type B person on vacation. It was like that hardcore vacation.

Oh wow, and that lasted a couple of days. Yep. I still got a little bit going on. Hang on to that B. I still have the cornrows in my hair that I had put on the beach. Thank you. You like this?

Shake it around. So Chuck. Yes. Did you ever play soccer when you were a kid? I did, not as a kid. Oh yeah? No, I didn't start till high school. So you played for your high school team?

I played for B team for a couple of years and then at Reed Ann High School, the class in front of me was loaded with star talent. Oh gotcha, I thought you meant like they were all drunken on drugs. No, no, well, that too. But yeah, they were really good. And so, and I wasn't a very good soccer player.

I mean, I was okay just cause I'm fairly athletic, but I wasn't like these guys had played since they were kids and they all got scholarships to college and like they went to state. Wow. So I was the type that was like, why bother? Well, I'll never be that kid. Yeah, I like, you know, I'll sit on the bench

and I, you know, that was my role. So. Did you get any, like, did you score any goals or anything? No, I had an assist one game, which was pretty exciting. Good job. My eighth grade year. That's good, man. And that's just the fact that I remember and assist

in my eighth grade year shows how bad I was at soccer. No, I know what you mean. I got a football story like that. Yeah. Yeah. I played for a little bit like 45 minutes, I think at the Y. I was all ready to go. Like, okay, a new sport.

Let's play this in or outdoor outdoor. And we were playing like first day. Yeah. I got my t-shirt on and like was learning how to dribble the ball and some kid asked like when we were gonna have our first game and the coach was like, oh, there's not going to be any games. We're just going to scrimmage one another in our team.

Right. And it's just practice. That's all you're ever going to do is practice. There's not going to be a game ever. That's weird. I was like, see you later. Right. How long until my mom comes and gets me?

You're like, I'm only in this to beat down someone else. Exactly. I'm so competitive, you know? Yeah. But that was my experience with soccer. And I never like had a thing against it. It just always seems so like European to me. Oh, it is.

It definitely is. Well, it's- That's where it's origin came from. So I was sensing something. It's the world, though. It is now, for sure. Well, I mean, it always has been. Man, that is a good setup, Chuck.

But to call it European, though, I mean, it's America's kind of one of the only nations that hasn't fully embraced soccer. Yeah, for sure. It's the soccer and the imperial system of measurement. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

And I have theories on that, which we'll get to. Oh, I want to hear those. On why the USA hasn't embraced it like other folks. Well, we have three perfectly good other sports. Yeah, well, four if you count hockey, which is like soccer on ice. It is a lot like soccer on ice. When I was researching this, I realized, like, wow, you know,

basically one game. And then everything is a variation on that basic game. Yeah, it's to take an object and to try and drive it into an opponent's area. Yes. It's the same with American football, really. Right, same with basketball. Yeah.

Baseball's the one that's different. It is different. But technically, if you look at the field as switching sides, depending on who's on offense and who's on defense, and the outside of the stadium is like their goal, it's close. No, but like field hockey, lacrosse, you're right. Highly? Yeah.

And I think they all kind of stem from the same prehistoric games, which were, you know, took took in the gang, running around with a rock, trying to throw at it, you know, whatever they used as a goal. Not took took in this case, but chikmualal playing, what is it, paktapok? Well, go ahead, and I don't know what that is. That's a mind game.

Was it? It's possibly the hardest game anyone's ever created. Yeah. And they were playing it for 2,000 years. Basically, it was a nine-inch diameter, heavy ball that couldn't touch the ground or else the game was over. You couldn't use your hands, I don't believe. You hit it with your hip.

Oh, wow. Yeah, I think I have heard of that. To win the game, you had to hit it through a ring that was like high overhead. Yeah. And like once somebody got it through the ring, the game was over. Yeah.

But like that sounds impossible. Hip ball. Hip ball. It's a great game. Exactly. You get a medicine ball and a hoop and hip surgery afterward. Yeah. I mean, it sounds awful.

But the Maya weren't the only ones who were playing a game like that. Like kind of all over the world, there were instances of soccer being played. Yeah. And China, third century BC, is where they had the oldest scientific evidence. And it was an exercise in a military manual.

And then the Han dynasty had something called Tsu Chu, which was a leather ball filled with feathers and hair, which is lighter, I guess, than the Mayans. They probably learned a thing or two. Like this ball is way too heavy. Well, apparently the Chinese started out using human heads supposedly. Really?

Yeah, supposedly that predated Tsu Chu. Is that real, though? I don't know, but I saw it several places. I know, but it was definitely worth repeating. Yeah, totally. I can't say if it's real or not. Well, Tsu Chu, that was a small net onto a bamboo cane, so like the net wasn't on the ground.

No, but still, pretty close to soccer. But you couldn't use your hands. And then in Japan, they had Kimari, which they still play today, actually. Is it apparently a little more ceremonious than Tsu Chu? Like Tsu Chu is a little more raucous, is the impression I have. Yeah, and I meant to actually see what Kimari looks like.

But the description here is they stand in a circle and you pass the ball around to each other without letting it touch the ground. So it sounds like a hacky circle. It sounds a little bit like Pacta Poke. Yeah, exactly. But I think all this lends to the fact that it's sort of variations of similar games

in different cultures at similar times. The Greeks and the Romans had games like that. They did. And then in England, England's considered the birth of modern soccer slash football. Yeah, but can't be traced to a single person, which is kind of neat. No, it can't.

And for centuries, they played a game that was, I guess, the predecessor of soccer. And it was inter-village play. So in a holiday, one village would be like, hey, let's play this game that's going to be soccer one day. Right, yeah. And so the whole town was involved.

And literally, geographically and population-wise, the whole town was involved. And there was a lot of damage to property. And apparently, it was outlawed from the 13th century to the 17th century. It was the hooligans were playing the sport at that point. Exactly, they weren't just the fans. And even though it was banned, it didn't go anywhere.

And finally, the ban was lifted. And school kids kind of took over from there and started making more formal rules. Yeah, which I think is really neat. Like, other sports, like I said, you can trace it back to a single inventor. But soccer was a game, still is a game of the people, invented by kids who, just like you said,

started narrowing down rules and being kids, you know? Yeah, being kids. In fact, the origin of the word soccer. Yeah, I like this. Most people think like, oh, Americans invented that. Nope, not true. Soccer was the word for it 18 years before the word football was used for it.

Yeah. By the English. Yes. They invented the word soccer supposedly, although this one is a matter of debate. Charles Redford Brown was an Oxford student. Well, I guess let's tell the story. It was, at one point, they had a meeting.

1848. To at a, I think at Cambridge. Now at a, well, in Cambridge, but at a, I believe it was a Freemason Lodge? I think so. So they had this meeting, and they basically said, all right, we've got to get real with these rules and really determine what the sport is.

Yeah, because each team, each school, they were all playing something very similar, but they would have their own rules. And before when one team wanted to play another team, they would say they'd have to spend however long it took to decide what rule would overrule what rule. Right. It was just a big pain.

So they finally came together at Cambridge and said, let's establish this. Let's codify this. We like to pick up the ball and hit each other pretty hard. Well, we don't. We like to kick it around. And that's where the split between rugby and soccer came. They called it, well, they called it association football

and association rugby. And at the time, and of course now kids still like to shorten things, and they would add an ER. So they called rugby rugger, and they called association football a soccer and then soccer. And that was it. That's where the word came from. But it was among like soccer was played

among the wealthier elite. And then once it started spreading to the lower classes, they called it football. And it spread through the world among the lower classes. And that's why it just became football. And we have American football, which is kind of a silly name. It really is for that one, because really the only person who puts it is the punter and the kicker.

And everyone knows that there are a bunch of chumps. I mean, if there's a name mix-up that we should have for football, it should be called rugby, really. It much more resembles rugby than soccer. Yeah. Man, this just got confusing for a second. No, I like it. But I had just learned in this show

that rugby and soccer were sort of the same game until they split. I didn't realize that. Yeah, I hadn't realized it either. And I think rugby stayed among the upper classes. The upper classes, you said soccer was upper classes. No, soccer eventually spread to the lower classes. Oh, gosh.

And that's when it became a game of the people. But rugby never spread to the lower classes. I see. I mean, it may have now. But you would think rugby would be the, you know. Rough and tumble. Yeah, I don't know. Makes sense to me.

Yeah. Who knows? So that was 1848. And that whole process really just kind of occurred over a few decades in the 19th century. And apparently in 1904, FIFA came along. The Federation Internationale de Football Association. I'm not quite sure what continental accent

that was supposed to be. But it was a European accent one way or another, OK? And by this point, the rules were pretty well-defined. Well, yeah, you have FIFA. Well, yeah, but they still had rule changes over the years. But in 1869 is when they introduced goal kicks. And then 1872 corner kicks. And then 1891 is when they had a single referee that

would run the show and throw people out of game or matches. I guess we shouldn't say games, even though we're Americans. Right. They're matches. Right. Played on a pitch. A pitch. Not a field.

Not a field. But that's when they started giving penalties and assigning free kicks. And the umpires who were previously overseeing the game became linesmen. And it really, and that's where the field itself took shape, too, because they were like, well, if we're going to start in the middle of the field,

we should draw a circle around it. Yeah, to let everybody know where to be. Yeah, and not let guys in there in the goal penalty box if we're going to have penalties. And if the goalkeeper can touch it, maybe he shouldn't be able to touch it out in the midfield. And it grew very organically, it seemed like, from the shape of the lines of the field to the rules.

Right. Pretty neat. Yeah. Well, apparently it's even still taking shape. Like they recently changed their rule, where it used to be, if you were a forward, there had to be a defender between you and the goal. And now they've changed it to make it more exciting.

So you have to at least be in line with the defender. Yeah. Just gives more chances to take shots on goal, apparently. Well, yeah, that's the convoluted and ever-evolving off-sides rule, which we'll get to later. Because we'll explain, I mean, I know everyone in the world knows about soccer, but a lot of this is going to be explaining for Americans

watching the World Cup right now. Yeah. World Cup fever. America just won. Bikana, did you watch? Are you into it at all? I'm trying, Chuck, and it's not working. Well, you don't have to be.

Well, you and me and I just watched the NBA finals, and that was a little heartbreaking. That's right, because you're weirdly a Miami Heat fan. Yeah, we're big Heat fans. And the Heat didn't win. Are you going to be a Heat fan when LeBron leaves, or is that? Yeah, yeah. OK.

Yeah, we like the whole team. OK. I'm kind of worried, though, because they're talking about how the bench didn't really show up for the finals. What bench? The bench, like the non-starters. Well, I know, but Miami didn't have much of a bench.

Miami should have a great bench. They're all great players, but they didn't show up. They did last year. Yeah, well, they had different players, too. At any rate, I'm worried about my team. Yeah, that's because they're done. They're not done. Yeah, they are.

Look, don't bait me on the podcast. We've had conversations about this before. Have we? No, I was kidding. So anyway, you were depressed because you're beloved Miami Heat loss. So I'm wondering if there's some sort of weird sports hangover that's going on right now that's keeping me

from being on the World Cup. But at the same time, it's like, no, I think I'm just not into soccer that much. Yeah. So I mean, I'll keep watching here or there, but I don't have World Cup fever, I guess is what I'm saying. I do because I follow. I'm one of the soccer fans that I don't follow the Premier

League, and we'll get to all that stuff, but that's the number one league in the world, pretty much, English Premier League. I don't follow MLS. No one does. No, they got their fans. Yeah. And we're getting a team here in Atlanta, so I'll probably

go to some of those. Yeah, I might go to those. Yeah. Lots of sports is often better than TV sports. I think always. Sometimes. Jerry's just laughing over there. No, it depends on where you're sitting, especially.

Yeah, well, that's true for any live event. If you're in the nosebleeds, you're going to suffer. But I really get into the World Cup. I watch the FA Cup, and I watch the Olympics. The FA Cup, that's also every four years, but it's in the two years that. Is that European? Or is it?

OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Football Association Cup, is that what that is? I just always call it the FA Cup. The FA Cup? Yeah, the FA Cup. Or I guess you can call it the Euro too, isn't that right, Jerry?

I think there's something else that's the Euro Cup. Oh, is it? Yeah, I think there's, well, let's talk about this. We mentioned that FIFA came about in 1904. Yeah. And that it took over codifying the rules, setting up regions. Yeah, then this is for international play. These aren't professional leagues.

Right. And they put together something called the World Cup, eventually, in 1930. And technically, I'm sure FIFA was involved. But really, it sounds like Uruguay took the reins and said, hey, we've got a really good team. We just beat all of you in the 1928 Olympics, and we want to do it again.

So what if we pay for all of you to travel to Uruguay? Right. And we'll all play. We'll have a nice little tournament and see what happens. So Uruguay pretty much paid for everybody's passage to Uruguay and then soundly beat everyone and became the first World Cup champions in 1930. Yeah, a common thing that would happen later for the host team

to win. Yeah. Big advantage. Yes. Because you're at home. Yeah, and actually, if you host the World Cup, you're guaranteed entry into the World Cup. That's right.

Well, should we talk about the World Cup a little bit then? Hey, guys, it's Cheekies from Cheekies and Chill Podcast. And I want to tell you about a really exciting episode. We're going to be talking to Nancy Rodriguez from Netflix's Love is Blind Season 3. Looking back at your experience, were there any red flags that you think you missed? What I saw as a weakness of his,

I wanted to embrace. The way I thought of it was whatever love I have from you is extra for me. Like, I already love myself enough. Do I need you to validate me as a partner? Yes. Is it required for me to feel good about myself? No.

Listen to Cheekies and Chill on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slipdresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back

into the decade of the 90s. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and nonstop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting Frosted Tips?

Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper, because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling

of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in, as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why not? Everyone else has to qualify. Host team gets in, like you said.

There are 32 teams, and they come from six regions. And you have to play your way in, basically. Yeah. So those six regions, you said? Like it's divided differently for each World Cup, because they just want to have a good balance. So the North American had three slots. South America had five.

Europe had 13. Asia had four. Africa had five. Then there's Oceana, which doesn't get a direct spot. But those are up for grabs, like you got to play your way in. And Mexico and Uruguay got those last two spots. Because Mexico hammered New Zealand, which is part of Oceana.

And they had to play for their spot. That's right. So those teams that ended up playing for their spot are going on to the World Cup had the opportunity to, because over the last four years, they've started accumulating points, correct? Yeah, and you play qualifying matches. Right, and FIFA is keeping track of all this stuff

and figuring out who's who and who's doing well enough. And then ultimately, 31 teams plus the host country are elevated into World Cup play. That's right. And the World Cup play divides those 32 teams into eight groups of four. And those eight groups are populated by the top seeds. So they want to make sure that one group isn't

like the first four seeded teams in the world. Yeah, they want to be. So they're knocking it out. Yeah, they want to be a good tournament right over. As much as you can, at least. Right. So there's a top seed in each of the groups. And then the other ones are randomly

picked, the other three in each group. And then you have group play, which is around Robin, where every team plays every other team. And they're accumulating points during this group play. Yeah, get three points for a win, one for a tie, nothing for a loss. And with the groups, there's always one group that's super tough.

If you've got three or more good teams in a group, it's called the group of death. And the US is in that group right now. Germany, Ghana, US, and Portugal. Although Portugal, apparently, they're not showing up. Well, they got spanked by Germany. I didn't see that game. And it was Pepe's fault in part that they got spanked so bad.

Well, Germany's really good. Yeah, but Portugal wasn't supposed to be like four to nothing bad. No, no, not at all. I mean, it was a huge margin of victory. Yes. I wouldn't say upset, because I expected Germany to win.

And that huge margin of victory can really bite Portugal in the end. So when you have on the hind end, right, when you have teams playing one another, they're accumulating points. Yeah. If, for some reason, at the end of group play, and all teams have played one another,

all four teams have the same amount of points, you then go to point differential. Yeah, so Germany really helped themselves out. They did. And Portugal really, again, got bit in the rear end by losing four to nothing. That's a huge point differential. Yeah.

And then beyond that, if everybody still somehow had the same number of points accumulated, the same point differential, then they'll go to total number of goals scored. I thought it was a fashion show. That's the fourth. If that is even, then yes, it's a walk off. Yeah, it was at a Zoolander.

Yeah. So that's how they do the group play. Yeah. And then after group play comes the knockout round. Yeah, then you're down to 16, and it's basically just single elimination. And that's where there are no ties. You can have ties in the group round,

but you can't in the knockout round, because you've got to knock somebody out. You do. So if you're tied at the end of the game, you're going to have a shootout, which is when you alternate the free kicks, or I guess penalty kicks, until I think there's five, and then whoever has the most wins.

And it's kind of exciting, but I think purists don't like to see it come down to the PKs, you know? Oh, really? Yeah, they want to decide, because I don't know what the percentages are, but it's pretty rare to stop. Oh, not rare, but it's pretty easy to score a PK. Well, yeah, so a penalty kick, your goalie,

is in front of the eight yard by eight foot goal. Yeah, well, that's a lot of ground to cover. Yeah, it is. And he's not allowed to come out from the goal line. Yeah, he or she. You're right. You're right, I'm sorry. When soccer's huge.

Yes. Mia Ham. Well, you're not a fan. And the. Pele. Right, exactly. I've heard of both of them. And then the soccer ball is placed 10 yards,

no, 12 yards away from the goal line. Yeah. And that's where you take your kick. So yeah, it's easy, but that's the whole point. To shoot out, it gets high scoring. Well, I mean, it is exciting, but it'd be like at the end of a baseball game, if it's tied to have like a home run derby.

That would be awesome. I would love to see that. Interestingly, before 1902, the penalty could be taken. And this is, for any penalty, you could take it from anywhere along this 12. Now they center it right in the middle, but used to be able to take it, as long as you're 12 yards out, like way over to the right or left if you wanted to.

Oh, yeah. But I mean, that was 1902. So it's been in the center for quite a while. So you've got the knockout round that begins with 16 teams. Then you have eight teams, four, and then the final two. And when the final two play, hundreds and hundreds, approaching a billion people, watch that game. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the biggest events on the planet.

I think they said the last one, 3.2 billion people. Oh, no, that was just watched part of the World Cup. At some point in time. Yeah, exactly. I think 715 million people watched the World Cup finals, the last one in 2010. Which was Spain and Netherlands, yeah. And that's my other team, Netherlands.

If you're American, you've always got your backup teams, because it's just no fun to be like, I won't root for anyone else. And I've always rooted for Netherlands and Germany. And England, of course, but those sad dudes. Why are they sad? Well, it's just the common thing that England hasn't won a World Cup for so long.

They're sort of like the Chicago Cubs of international soccer. And English fans are notorious for just being depressed already. Like at the start of the World Cup. Right. Well, I probably can't say that joke. There's some good jokes about it. I got you. Yeah.

But I mean, it's a big deal to win the World Cup, so much so that huge deal. It happens every four years. Twice during World War II, there wasn't a World Cup. So we're in the 20th World Cup ever. And only, I think, eight teams, eight nations have ever won it. Italy's like four.

I can't remember who is three. Maybe Brazil? I don't know. And then England and France each have one. And they had it when they were hosting. So apparently there's a huge home field advantage. Yeah, there is. But I mean, it's just an enormous deal to win the World Cup.

Not only are you saying, or have you shown that you're the best team in the world, not just spaces involved, but time as well. You're one of the greatest soccer teams ever to play. Yeah. And it's neat because all these players play professionally as well. So they're pitted against each other.

Like, if you've got a guy from Germany on your team and you're playing Germany, all of a sudden, your teammate is now your opponent because you're playing for your national team. So it's more emotionally charged, I think, for that reason. So let's talk about like, let's take a giant step back and talk about the basics of playing soccer after a message break.

Hey, guys. It's Cheekies from Cheekies and Chill Podcast. And I want to tell you about a really exciting episode. We're going to be talking to Nancy Rodriguez from Netflix's Love Is Blind Season 3. Looking back at your experience, were there any red flags that you think you missed? What I saw as a weakness of his, I wanted to embrace.

The way I thought of it was whatever love I have from you is extra for me. Like, I already love myself enough. Do I need you to validate me as a partner? Yes. Is it required for me to feel good about myself? No. Listen to Cheekies and Chill on the iHeart radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the podcast, paydude the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and nonstop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting Frosted Tips? Was that a cereal?

No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper, because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy,

blowing on it and popping it back in, as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. OK, Americans and Canadians. And me. And Josh.

Yeah, especially me. You got two teams. You've got 11 players, which includes your goalkeeper on each side. And the goal is obviously to kick the soccer ball into the goal. The goal is to make a goal. Yeah, and the ball has to be completely over the line. If the goalkeeper manages to get a hand on it

while it's on the line. And again, he or she is allowed to use his hands in what's called the goal box. Yes. And that's the only player allowed to use his or her hands. And it's a sport of gentlemen that at least started out that way. So you're supposed to admit when you've had a handball,

although that doesn't go down quite as much anymore. No. Now it's usually the other players raising their hand and saying he touched it with his hand. Right. And then the guy be like, well, that's so true. It just goes on from there. Apparently a player named Diego Maradona.

Oh, the hand of God. Yeah, and the 86 World Cup won it. And then he later said, yeah, I hit it with my fist a little bit. Yeah. What are you going to do? Well, it's now it's soccer legend. It's like the Immaculate Reception in football.

It's the hand of God goal and soccer. Yeah. But Maradona, he's one of the greatest ever, so. Sure, because he used his hands. No, no. You've got two 45-minute periods. The thing that Emily likes about soccer is it lasts for a finite amount of time.

You'd think. Well, no, it does. Unless there's something called extra time. Well, it is. And the clock never stops like it does in other sports. But while players are down or injured or there's a stoppage of play for injury, they will keep track of that time and then add it on.

But it's never that much. It's like a few minutes, usually. Yeah. So at the end of the 45 minutes, you'll see a little guy on the sideline hold up a digital clock that says like four minutes. Right. And then so you play for an extra four minutes.

And that gets really exciting because if it's coming down to the wire, if you score a goal to win in penalty time, that's huge. That's like triple OT in NHL hockey. Right, yeah. But some guys have been accused of faking injury to add injury time. Yeah, well.

Or extra time. Or to keep, yeah. I mean, should we talk about diving and faking and dramatic? OK, yes, let's. Because it's a big deal. Diving is when a player either completely fakes, well, say exaggerates contact or injury, or completely fakes it, like not even gets touched.

Dives on the field, rolls around on the ground, holding their shin usually, like they've got a compound fracture. And it's a big controversy in the sport. And it's, I think, the biggest reason why Americans don't fully embrace the sport. Supposedly that's, yeah, a huge reason. Yeah, because Americans are used to American football

where you spit out teeth or tape up a broken bone to play the game. Like you're not going to see an NFL player rolling around on the ground screaming unless they have a bone sticking up through their skin. Yes. Like they're tough. And Americans are used to that.

And I think when Americans see a soccer player get tapped on the shin and they roll around on the ground screaming, I think they don't admire that quality. This is the nicest way I can say it. It's becoming more prevalent in basketball. They call it flopping. Yeah, because of international players is one of the theories.

Oh, is that right? Yeah, the influx of European players. Guys like Manu Ginobli. He's one of the greatest floppers ever. Man, yeah, it's true. But the NBA is now finding floppers, which is probably not going to change much. No, it's not, because they find them like five grand.

Yeah, which is no big deal when you're super rich. That's right. But diving is very controversial. I'm trying to not insult people, but speaking very generally, northern European countries, England, America aren't into it. Except Germany's supposedly big into flopping. Germany will dive, for sure. Southern European and South American countries do it more.

And while Americans hate it, every language has a term, like a complementary term, for what they call gamesmanship. So it's just a different philosophy in other parts of the world. And I don't understand it as an American. It's cheating to me. But I read a good blog post from this one guy

who has a few theories ranging from the broken window theory to where, like, if you are exposed to it all the time, you get used to it. And then if you're not exposed to it, like you're an American fan, when you see somebody do it, like you're exposed to in the World Cup, all of a sudden, just seems horrendous, right? And from that all the way to, he thinks that just how

some countries view the law, even, in ethics. Like he traveled to Argentina and he said, in Argentina, I had a lot of conversations with soccer players and they were like, in America, you follow rules because of rules. In Argentina, you break rules until you get caught. So you should try and get away with it unless you get caught, as part of the game.

He had a conversation, apparently, with one guy about the newspapers in the US, how you can go to a newspaper box and it's just full of newspapers. And they were like, why don't you take all the newspapers? You know, I've thought that before and it's like, because you really only need one. Yeah, unless you want to go sell them.

I guess so. You have some free time? Sure. Go sell some newspapers that you stole. Anyway, diving to put a bow on it, very controversial still, and some in England are calling for it now like, hey, we're falling behind here

because we're not embracing this tactic. So we should be diving more? We should be diving more. If you can't beat them, join them kind of thing? Yeah, I mean, I don't know if that's the prevalent attitude because it's, like I said, it started out as the gentleman's sport. So you admit when you foul,

you certainly don't fake a foul or an injury. Well, that's what happened to Pepe. He didn't like that Thomas Mueller was diving. Yeah. He pretended like his eyes were gouged out in the match. It's a lot of pro wrestling theatrics that happen. Yeah. Just look up on YouTube,

like best top 10 dives, it's kind of fun to watch some of these grown men roll around like that. There's this one. When they're clearly not injured. There's one that was probably the most fantastical dive of all time. And it took place in a qualifying match between Chile and Brazil to get into the 1990 World Cup.

It was like the match that you had to win. And the goalkeeper for Chile, Roberto Rojas, suddenly screams and is grabbing his eye. And like a couple of feet away from him is like a lit flare just going off on the field. And like he's bleeding from his eye and everything and everyone's like, what just happened? Apparently he lit the flare himself, threw it on the ground,

fell down screaming, had a blade in his glove, cut his eye open. That's WWF. Yes. And he was just riding on the ground. And they took the game, like they technically gave it to Chile and disqualified Brazil automatically. And somebody, one cameraman, happened to have gotten photos

of Rojas. Is it a pruder film? Basically, of Rojas cutting himself. And Chile got disqualified. Brazil got into the 1990 World Cup. And Rojas was banned from international play forever. But he started wrestling. Well, apparently Brazil later offered him a job

as a goalie trainer. He was so good. Oh, really? So like the country he almost dove into disqualification offered him a job. Wow. Yeah, so, you know, it's a part of the game now. I think what most soccer fans agree on is that

it's because it's a part of the game, then it's the onus is on the ref to spot that stuff. Right. And not be fooled by flailing arms and, you know, oh my eyes, my eyes. Yeah, that's just crazy. Like that's a ref's job is to keep an eye out for deception. Yeah, and it's a big pitch.

I like, I don't, I've always lobbied for more refs. I don't see why they don't have, I mean, they have linesman stuff, but I don't know, there's a lot of room out there. I'd have two or three dudes. There's a lot of room. Do we say how big the field is? Yeah, it varies, which is odd.

Yeah, there's not a regulation field. Yeah, but it's typically a hundred yards by 50 yards, like an NFL football field. I also saw another typical one is 120 yards by 75 yards. Oh yeah. Which is, that's big. That's like two football fields almost into a square. Yeah, I should have looked up for World Cup,

but I did not. I think that might be the regulation size. So it's a lot of ground to cover. Oh yeah. And each side has 10 men, or women, or 11, 10. 11, including the goalie, right? Yeah. Okay.

And the personnel is divided into, you've got a goalie on each end. And then you also have three different other types of players. You have full backs, also known as defenders. You have half backs, which are known as midfielders. Right. And then you have forwards. And they do different jobs depending on their name.

And you can have different numbers of them. It's up to the coach. There's not a regulation like you have to have this many full backs, this many forwards. Play to your strengths. Right. And then the formation that you're using can be described in numbers.

So the example the Grabster gives in this one is 4-4-2 formation. It would be four full backs, four midfielders, and two forwards, right? That's right. So what are the full backs through, Chuck? The full backs are generally the defense, the defenders. They hang closer to the goal.

On a full attack, they will cross the center line and try and score. But generally, the full backs are defenders. If you hear someone say you're marking your opponent, that just means you're getting up on him and defending him or her. Right, rather than a zone, you're defending a person. Yeah, well, it's not like man-to-man or zone.

It's just if a player with the ball comes near you, you could either mark them or tackle them. Or actually, you mark a player without the ball. You tackle a player with the ball. Right. But if you're an American and you don't know much about soccer and you hear tackle, and you think, why are they still standing?

Tackle doesn't mean like in a fell football where you take them down to the ground physically. Oh, what does it mean? It means you're making a defensive play. Like when you see a guy slide. Right. And like a slide tackle, that's a tackle. You're making a play on the ball to a defender.

But that doesn't... Doesn't mean that anyone's hitting the ground. Oh, okay. You can both be on your feet. And it could be considered a tackle. I didn't know that. Did you know they also call bait that you use for fishing tackle?

Silly, silly Josh. All right, so you've got your goal area. We discussed penalty kicks. That is, if you foul someone within the penalty box, then you get that free penalty kick. And that's not a guaranteed goal, but chances are you're gonna get a goal out of that. Yeah, I would imagine the percentage is a lot higher.

The only time you're allowed to touch it with your hands is if it goes out on the side and then you throw the ball in with two hands over your head. It's called throw in. Yeah. If it goes out on the inline, you're either gonna have a goal kick by your goalkeeper or... If the people who are coming to score on you,

the attackers kick it out, then the opposing teams goalie kicks it back in, right? The defender goalie kicks it out. Yeah, yeah, if the defender kicks it out, then you get what's called a corner kick. And a corner kick is what you call a set piece. And that's when you put the ball in the corner and you kick it in front of the goal.

And the set of it is there are many different formations you'll use for a corner kick. And the object is to get it up in the air and try and head it in or get it in however you can. But there's just different formations in front of the goal. You're marking your opponent if you're a defender, you're trying to get free from being marked

if you're an attacker. And when the ball's in the air, it's kind of every man for himself. That's where it gets a little rough. And that's the basic strategy is so you've got the full backs back, protecting the goal virtually at all times. The midfielders are doing a little bit of that.

They run a lot. But they're also the ones who are like driving the ball down the field and then trying to kick it toward the goal so that the forwards who are closer to the opponent's goal can head it in or kick it in. That's the basic strategy of moving the ball back and forth through soccer, right?

Yeah, you'll typically see an offensive attacker shoot down the wing on the side of the field with the ball and essentially do what a corner kick is, which is just get it in the air toward the center of the field in front of the goal. Because once it's in the air, you can head it. Yeah, you can head it. You can kick it.

You can chest it. Yeah, you probably wouldn't chest a goal in. That's generally to get the ball back down on the ground for you to absorb its momentum. Exactly. If the ball is in the air and somebody's going to head it and you try to kick the ball, you might get what's called a yellow card.

Yeah. Which is a penalty card. So you've got your one referee running around, right? Yeah. And if he sees you do that and he decides to give you a yellow card, he will pull literally a yellow card from his pocket, hold it up. I'm showing it to everybody, right?

And then he puts it back and he pulls out a little notebook and he writes down the number. Which is so cute that it's just not kept up by someone else. Right, exactly. Thousands of people and a huge computer network. But he writes it on a little handheld notebook. Right.

And he doesn't like the way that never came out. So he'll erase it sometime and try it again. And so you've got a yellow card. It doesn't really do anything. It's basically, it amounts to a warning. You've been tagged by the ref. Yeah, and you can get a yellow card for any penalty they deem severe enough.

Like any hard foul they can give you a yellow card on. Or nothing off to the ref. Yeah, or they can just say it was a regular foul, no yellow card needed. And you get a free kick from that spot. And it's either indirect or direct. Meaning if it's indirect, another player has to touch it. Before you can take a shot on goal.

Before you can take a shot on goal. But if it's direct, the person kicking it can try to kick it into the goal. Yeah, and that's another set piece. That's when you see someone goes to take a free kick and you see if it's close enough. You know, if it's down the field, you just kind of restart immediately

and get the game going again. But if it's close enough to the goal, where you can get a shot, that's when you see the players lined up in a row, 10 yards, you can't get closer than 10 yards to the ball. And that's, you know, they're covering their private parts and trying to position themselves. And it looks weird if you're not used to it.

Like why would you line up in a wall in front of the guy kicking it? Well, it's because you want a big wall in front of the guy kicking it. And the goal there is to, not even just a, I mean, you can block the ball, which would be great, but it's to mask the, get in the goalkeeper's way. Can they jump at all?

Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, you can jump, but that ball, I mean, I took one to the face one time. It's not fun. Yeah.

You know? I can't even tolerate like a dodge ball or anything like that. Yeah, you'll see, you'll see players jump and kind of turn their body away from contact. Sure. So they don't get mauled. Yeah.

But like I said, one thing you're trying to do is to shield the goalkeeper. So they, like a lot of times they don't even see the kick coming because of the wall. And then it's in the net behind them. And boom. And then they roll around on the ground and say, my eyes.

Yeah. I'm flopping. All right. So Chuck, if you have a yellow card and you do something else, you're probably gonna get a red card and a red card means that you're ejected from the game. Yeah.

You've been so. Yellows means a red in a single game. Or in a tournament even, in some tournaments. Yeah. Or you can go straight to red. If you do something really, really bad. That's what happened to Pepe. Yeah.

You can go Pepe, Mia Ham. And Pele. And Pele. Yeah. Those are the three soccer players, you know. And can you name one American? Diego Maradona too. No, he's Argentinian.

American men. Like the guys on the team right now, can you name one? You know what's sad is I keep wanting to say Karch Karai. And I know he's like volleyball. Yeah. I don't know why my brain keeps going there. Well, you're not a fan.

I wasn't trying to make you seem dumb for not knowing. No, thanks for definitively proving that. No, I just wondered how little you followed it. No, I don't know any of the guys' names. The answer is not at all. Into it. Landon Donovan is probably the most famous American soccer player right now.

Yeah, Landon Donovan. But he was not even named to the team due to some controversy, or not due to some, but causing controversy because he's old. Okay. He's like early 30s. Yeah, it's crazy that's old, but it is. But America's, you know, the coach came out,

Jürgen Klinsmann, the former German star, and said, we're not gonna win anyway. So we're just trying to get better. America's not, they're not world class. Loser attitude? Well, it is, but it's realistic, you know, the Germans, they throw down the realism. He's, you know, anything can happen,

but America's not on the same level because chances are the kids out there, their dad didn't play, and their grandfather, and their great-grandfather. It's, when it's ingrained in your society over generations and generations, you're gonna get better. Right.

And it's not a national sport. It's like fifth. Well, let's talk about England, and it's probably the best prime example of having soccer as a national sport. Yeah. One of, I should say, but it's the one that has kind of set the stage

for how you have a national functioning sport of soccer. So in Glen, are you talking about their Premier League? Yes. Yeah, the Barclays Premier League is the top soccer league in the world. Every, not every nation, but almost every nation has their own professional league. You've got the Premier League,

which is numero uno, Spanish, Primera. The Italian league is probably the second best right now. Spanish is probably third. You've got the Bundesliga in Germany. France has won, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Japan. We've got our own MLS. Right. But the best players in the world

generally play for the Premier League. Yeah, around the world. Not just, you don't have to just be British. You can be from wherever and play for these teams. Yeah, and the MLS in the United States is getting better, but it's generally like where old players go to play. Well, I have a question for you. And that's an old tradition.

Apparently, Pele finished out his career with the New York Cosmos. Yeah, there's a great documentary on that team. The Beckham played for the Galaxy in Los Angeles. Yeah. Landon Donovan plays MLS. But that's twice that you've called him old. I'm sorry, Mr. Donovan, if you're listening to this.

Well, I mean, it's up-and-comers who aren't good enough to play in the other world leagues. And it's older guys who used to play for the Premier League and want to come to the US and live in LA and make a little scratch. So I have a question about that because it was more than a little scratch. Like they paid Beckham like a quarter of a billion dollars

to come play. Do you know if they recouped that in any way, shape, or form, like did it pan out to be a good investment or was it all for him? I mean, they obviously signed a David Beckham for, I mean, he was good, but he wasn't like England's best player or anything. No, it was name recognition.

Yeah. They were trying to get seats. Absolutely. But I'm wondering, like, that's a lot of cash. Could they possibly have made that back? I'm not sure. Because he wasn't their only player. I mean, I'm still...

No, he still had to field the team around him. Well, Donovan plays for LA too, I think. Is that right? Yeah. Did you see that ad of Beckham's from a couple of years back, the Pepsi ad, where he kicks like three balls into three different trash cans on a beach?

Oh, really? And like... Was it real? If it's not, it's the most amazing editing job you've ever seen in your life. It was probably real. I usually don't fake that stuff. It's crazy what he did then.

Yeah, and these, I mean, the men and women of international, if you're playing for your country, the talent is unbelievable. Yeah. It's still levelless. Because we should say, there's professional leagues and then each FIFA team, which by the way has more member nations than the UN,

which is really saying something. I think it's like 209 to 193. That's pretty cool. But each FIFA member team also has a national team that you play for. So you were saying that for the English Premier League, the best players from around the world typically go play there.

But when it's World Cup time, they go back to their home countries and like you were saying, teammates will play against one another for their nations. And go at it too. And then when they go back to their club teams, they're just like, hey, good to see you again.

Yeah. So the Premier League, the Prem, as they call it, has other sub leagues. And if you finish in the bottom three in your division, you were relegated and sent down to another league. So it's sort of like a minor league baseball. Right. But not a player.

The whole team gets sent down. The whole team gets sent down. Which is pretty neat. It makes sense. Yeah. So if you have any friends that follow the Prem, they're, unless they're like Manu fans or Arsenal fans who are like the big hot teams, it's like the Yankees.

Although people certainly take issue with that. I hate the Yankees. Yeah, you're fighting to not get relegated. And then if you are in the top three of the lower division, then you get sent up. And if you're the top two, you automatically get sent up. If you're for the third place, the next four high strength teams play off.

Yeah. And that's a big deal because more money, more advertising revenues, you don't want to get sent back and relegated. It's bad, bad, bad. And I didn't really have, I had no idea about this until researching this article. I didn't really have a sense of just how bad it is.

I can imagine the difference in revenue for a team between being in the Premier League and being in the first division, the one below it, year over year. It's just nuts. So I mean like. It's pretty depressing, I think. Is it for a team?

Yeah, I can imagine. How often does that happen? Well, it depends on your team. So but every year, three teams go down and three teams go up. Yeah, yeah. That's cool. Yeah.

And so if you're an American Prim fan, you pick out just a team based on, like anyone picks out a sports team when they're not from that country, based on players you like or whatever, and then you follow them. And all of my American friends that follow have picked out different teams. It's kind of fun.

But then I'll watch a few, like I'll watch the finals and stuff, but generally I just follow like the international play. Sure. It's just the style of game. I don't have time for all the sports, you know. I know. You're a busy man. Busy guy.

So Chuck, you want to talk about the dark side of soccer? Hooliganism. Yeah, it's gotten a lot better. Yeah, apparently they're really bad though. Like soccer hooligans are sometimes fighting for their team's honor. And sometimes they're just drunk Englishmen who like to scrap and use as an excuse.

But it got bad for a while. But they've cracked down on, I think when they started cracking down on teams and penalizing the clubs themselves for acts of hooliganism, I think that might have caused some changes. Yeah, that's crazy. I don't know if it was FIFA who did it. Maybe it was the Premier League itself was saying,

like if your team is associated with hooliganism, we'll sanction your team. And you guys have to play in an empty stadium and we'll totally miss out on ticket sales. That's huge. Hooligans themselves could be banned from even traveling to where a match was. Yeah, like you can't get into this city.

Yeah, not the stadium, the city. And yeah, like you said, apparently it worked pretty well. But in the interim, a lot of people died. Like a lot of people have died because of soccer. Well, not only hooliganism, but stampedes and being crushed. And that's gotten a lot better, too. But I remember growing up hearing a couple of times where there was some awful smashing of people,

hundreds of people. In 1989 in an FA Cup match, in Britain, 96 fans were crushed. And remember in the Black Friday episode that we did? We talked about crushing death and what that's like. I think in the article that I cited, there's a picture of somebody being crushed to death like up against the fence at that game.

It's a pretty famous picture. It's awful. Can't imagine being crushed to death, the worst. So I guess we should explain the offside's rule just because that is a confusing thing for some Americans who don't follow soccer. Is it? Yeah.

Because it's changed some over the years, and we'll just go ahead and explain it. Easily stated, your offside, if an offensive attacking player is in front of all the defenders. They say behind the line of defenders, but if you're watching as if they're an attacker, then I just call it in front of. Before the ball is kicked to you.

So it originated in the early days, basically to keep the lazy kid from just hanging out in front of the goal and waiting for the ball to come down there. They call it in the 1840s, they call it sneaking. Sneaker. Like you're a big fat sneaker because you're just waiting there like a lazy git.

So in greater detail, the attacking player, you have to be on the opponent's half of the field. OK. So the field split down the middle. You got to be on the offensive half of the field for it to be called offside's. The attacking player is closer to the goal line than the last defensive player.

Goalie doesn't count. And the ball. So that's important. The ball, you can be offside. You can be in front as long as the ball isn't coming your way. Oh, OK. Basically, if you play the ball or interfere with a defender,

that's when it's offside's. As soon as that player's kicked the ball and the ball's in the air, you can run in front of that defender or behind the defender. OK. I know that sounds so confusing. Yeah. I wasn't confused by it before, but I am now.

Yeah. Well, that's my best way of describing it. That's what offside's is. If you want to just watch the game simply, just remember, you can't just be hanging out in front of the goal. Yes. That was my understanding. Yeah.

That's the real basic, most basic version of the rule. Yeah. Without any of the subtleties. And you can't be offside's if it's a throw in or a corner kick or a goal kick, then it's every man for himself. You can do whatever you want. OK. It's only when it's in regular play, not a restart.

Does that make sense? Yeah. OK. Yeah, it does. You explained it pretty well. I think so. I know that people are going to say I butchered it, but whatever, bring it.

Well, I'm sure somebody will explain it very eloquently. We can read it for listener mail. Exactly. Nothing else. Go USA. We play. And this is one of the rare shows that we turn around really quick because it's Newsy.

Yeah. Thanks to Jerry for that. Way to go, Jerry. But the US plays Portugal Sunday. And if we win that, we're looking really good. But I don't know. Portugal. Because even if we play Germany,

we'll still have accrued enough points from beating Ghana and Portugal to go to the final two. Yeah, we'll lose to Germany. I think everyone's kind of accepted that. Apparently, the coach especially, who is a German, I got it figured out. OK, I understand soccer now. But our striker, Josie Altador, went down,

which is not good. Strikers are, we forgot to mention, defensive fullbacks. You can be a sweeper as well. Where you're just going back and forth in front of the goal. Yeah, kind of sweeping. And then there's some of the offensive forwards can play the striker position, which is just like a pure offense. You're attacking all the time.

Attacking all the time. Attack, attack. But we lost our striker, which is a big deal. Sure, it doesn't bode well. Well, thanks for all this, Chuck. I got nothing else. I understand soccer to a T. Yeah, I mean, I wish I was a super expert, because I know

that we probably wouldn't be nearly as fun. I'm sure we got some stuff wrong. And we'll hear about it. Oh, we'll hear about it, yeah. But yeah, go World Cup. Here's my prediction. We're all winners. I actually have no prediction.

Maybe everyone will tie from here on out. Jerry, who do you go for besides the US? She likes Chile. Chile. And Germany. Nice going, Jerry. Chile's a dark horse. Well, we'll see what happens, huh?

Yes. If you want to know more about soccer, watch the World Cup. Now that you've listened to this episode, you'll know what's going on if you didn't before it, and possibly it made it more enjoyable for you. You can also type soccer. Soccer, not football. It's going to bring up a totally different article.

Yeah. In the search bar at howstuffworks.com. Don't type in footy. No, no one knows what that is. And since I said search bar, it's time for listener mail. I'm going to call this props to nurses and our continuing effort to not slight people. I'm going to read this one.

Couldn't help but notice, guys, when I was listening to how placebo's worked. It stood out to me when you gave Dr. Beecher credit for first noticing the placebo effect in World War II. But you completely overlooked the obvious fact that it was the nurses who had recognized it and were putting the placebo effect to good use before Dr. Beecher realized that was what was happening.

They were making keen clinical observations at the bedside and applying those principles in the field to the benefit of their patients' research and action. Of course, credit is due to Dr. B for formalizing and publishing the study. Also, I know you guys are sticklers for accurate language. Please remember that doctors aren't the only ones who prescribe medids, nurse practitioners,

and physicians assistants do as well. It would be more accurate to refer to prescribers in the context of this podcast as health care provider or clinician when talking generally about the person who determines a patient's plan of care. But what you guys do, and Jerry, SYSK is my favorite. Keep it up. And that is from Amy Nurse US Air Force.

If this makes it to read or mail, she says, please give a shout out to my fellow nurses in uniform. So men and women around the world in uniform. And nurses? Nurse it up. Hats off. Nurse hats off. Thanks for that, Amy.

And thank you, Chuck. That was a good one. Yeah, good. If you want to get in touch with us, you can tweet to SYSK podcast. You can join us on facebook.com slash stuff you should know. You can send us an email to stuffpodcast at howstuffworks.com.

And check us out at our home on the web, luxuriousstuffyoushouldknow.com. For more on this, and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation?

If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. I'm here to help. You've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boybander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody, about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye,

bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Attention, Bachelor Nation. He's back. The host of some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison.

During two decades in reality TV, Chris saw it all. And now he's telling all. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts.