Soccer in the context of "Sports in the United States"

Van Cortlandt Park is a 1,146-acre (464 ha) park located in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. Owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, it is managed with assistance from the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance. The park, the city's third-largest, was named for the Van Cortlandt family, which was prominent in the area during the Dutch and English colonial periods.

Van Cortlandt Park's sports facilities include golf courses and several miles of paths for running, as well as facilities for baseball, basketball, cricket, cross-country running, football, horseback riding, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis and track and field. The park also contains five major hiking trails and other walking trails. Its natural features include Tibbetts Brook; Van Cortlandt Lake, the largest freshwater lake in the Bronx; old-growth forests; and outcrops of Fordham gneiss and Inwood marble. Contained within the park is the Van Cortlandt House, the oldest known surviving house in the Bronx, and the Van Cortlandt Golf Course, the oldest public golf course in the country.

A kick is a physical strike using the leg, in unison usually with an area of the knee or lower using the foot, heel, tibia (shin), ball of the foot, blade of the foot, toes or knee (the latter is also known as a knee strike). This type of attack is used frequently by hooved animals as well as humans in the context of stand-up fighting. Kicks play a significant role in many forms of martial arts, such as capoeira, kalaripayattu, karate, kickboxing, kung fu, wing chun, MMA, Muay Thai, pankration, pradal serey, savate, sikaran, silat, taekwondo, vovinam, and Yaw-Yan. Kicks are a universal act of aggression among humans.

Kicking is also prominent from its use in many sports, especially those called football. The best known of these sports is association football, also known as soccer.

Iwata (磐田市, Iwata-shi) is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 May 2019, the city had an estimated population of 169,897 in 68,215 households and a population density was 1,000 persons per km. The total area of the city was 163.45 square kilometres (63.11 sq mi). Iwata is widely known as the headquarters of the Yamaha Motor Corporation. Iwata is also home to Júbilo Iwata, a J. League soccer team, as well as Yamaha Jubilo, a rugby team.

Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, which compete in the sports of football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, and soccer, include the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Soccer (MLS). As the NFL only competes in the U.S., the prominent gridiron football league in Canada is the Canadian Football League (CFL).

MLB, the NBA, the NFL, and the NHL are commonly referred to as the "Big Four". Each of these is the wealthiest professional club competition in its sport worldwide, and along with the Premier League, make up the top five sports leagues by revenue in the world.

Shepherding is a tactic and skill in Australian rules football, a team sport. The term originates from the word shepherd, someone who influences the movement of sheep in a paddock. Using their body as an obstruction, Australian rules footballers can influence the movement of opponents, most often to prevent them from gaining possession or reaching the contest. This can be achieved legally while the ball is in play by a number of methods which include blocking, pushing or bumping. As shepherds are not counted in official statistics, it is classified as a "one percenter" skill but is an important aspect of team play to clear an attacking path for their team. According to the Laws of Australian Football, a player can shepherd an opposition player when the ball is within five metres, with the exception of contests where players contest the ball in the air, i.e. marking contests and ruck contests, or when the ball is not in play.

The prevalence of shepherding is distinctive in Australian rules football as it is an illegal form of play in many other codes of football including rugby football, soccer and gaelic football which are subject to obstruction rules. It is very similar to blocking in American football in that holding is not allowed. However Australian rules does not allow forceful front-on contact, wrestling or charging. Players shepherding also cannot pushing from behind, make contact above the shoulders or below the knees, or strike with the head or limbs. Players also do not wear sufficient protective headwear for high speed collisions that can result in concussion inducing head injury and head clashes. Depending on the severity, an illegal shepherd, such as one in which a player is being held or has incidental illegal contact, is typically penalised by a free kick while those involving forceful impact including contact to the head can result in suspension. A number of high profile incidents in the professional Australian Football League which have caused controversy and have resulted in the rules regarding shepherding to be more strictly applied.

Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami (lit. 'Miami International Football Club'), commonly referred to as Inter Miami, is an American professional soccer club based in the Miami metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Inter Miami plays their home matches at Chase Stadium, with plans to move to Miami Freedom Park in 2026.

On January 29, 2018, MLS officially approved an expansion team in Miami. The club garnered international attention prior to their founding because of co-owner David Beckham, and again in 2023 with the signing of Lionel Messi on a free transfer. Since the team began playing in the 2020 season, the club has signed several other high-profile players such as Blaise Matuidi, Gonzalo Higuaín, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Luis Suárez, Rodrigo De Paul, and Sergio Reguilón.

Jimmy Douglas (January 12, 1898 – March 5, 1972) was an American soccer goalkeeper who spent his career in the first American Soccer League (ASL). He earned nine caps with the United States national team, making his first appearance at the 1924 Summer Olympics. Notably, he finished his international career at the 1930 FIFA World Cup, where he posted the first "clean sheet" in World Cup history. Douglas was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1953.