A penalty kick is a free shot at goal from 12 yards out, with only the goalkeeper to beat awarded when a defender commits a foul inside their own penalty box, the big rectangle in front of their goal. It’s soccer’s harshest in-game punishment, because the foul probably stopped a scoring chance; most penalties are scored.
A penalty shootout decides a game that has to have a winner whether a playoff or cup match still tied after extra time. The teams take turns shooting from the penalty spot, best of five kicks each, one kicker against the goalkeeper, no rebounds. Score more than the other team and you advance. Still tied after five? It goes round by round, sudden death, until somebody misses and somebody doesn’t.
Cards are how the referee punishes misconduct. A yellow card is a warning and get two in one game and you’re sent off. A red card means you’re ejected immediately, and your team has to finish the game with ten players instead of eleven. No replacement allowed.
A soccer game is 90 minutes, but the clock never stops while the ball is in play. Not for injuries, substitutions, goal celebrations, or VAR reviews. To make up for all that lost time, the referee adds extra minutes at the end of each half. That’s called stoppage time (or added time), and it’s why games end at 93, 97, or sometimes past 100 minutes.
A player is offside if they’re closer to the opponent’s goal than the ball and the second-to-last defender when a teammate plays the ball to them. In plain terms: you can’t loiter by the other team’s goal waiting for a pass. The rule forces attackers to time their runs instead of cherry-picking.
