10 Main Ways Soccer, American Football and Rugby Differ

Different cultures have variant notions when it comes to the word "football". The most prevalent and celebrated sport associated worldwide with this word is Soccer due to its legion of fans, history, and simplicity. Fifa is one of the most anticipated global events occurring quadrennially for decades. Americans, on the other hand, have their version of the game with millions of ardent fans spread out across the U.S. The Super Bowl is the second-largest day for U.S. food consumption where tradition dictates drinking beer with family and friends whilst watching the players compete for the ultimate title. Finally, the Land Down Under (Australians) takes contact sport to a whole new level which might be the most brutal of the three. Here are 10 major distinctions between these sports.

Fields Of Green

In most cases, if a game ends in a draw it will be considered as that: a draw. But when it's a playoff game, things get interesting because of overtime. In soccer, starting with the quarter-finals, draws are not tolerated anymore and an extra 2 halves of 15 minutes each are added to the game to declare a winner that will proceed to the semi-finals. If both teams are still at a stalemate after 30 minutes of overtime, they eventually go towards penalty shots to determine the winner; an initial 5 shots are taken and if both teams are still tied, the next team that takes the lead wins the game.

Football is much simpler, both teams will keep playing 10-minute overtime quarters until one of them takes the lead and wins the game.

Rugby's overtime rules dictate that 10-minute halves should be played after the official game time ends; if the score is still a tie after the 20 minutes of overtime both teams enter 10-minute sudden death periods which end as soon as the winning team scores a try.