The word “soccer” comes from the use of the term “association football” in Britain and goes back 200 years. In the early 1800s, a bunch of British universities took “football” — a medieval game — and started playing their versions of it, all under different rules. To standardize things across the country, these games were categorized under different organizations with different names.

One variant of the game you played with your hands became “rugby football.” Another variant came to be known as “association football” after the Football Association formed to promote the game in 1863, 15 years after the rules were made at Cambridge. “Rugby football” became “rugger” for short. “Association football” became “soccer.”

Women have been playing this sport ever since it existed. Study shows that an ancient version of the game called Tsu Chu was played by a woman during the Han Dynasty. Women’s football/soccer became popular on a large scale at the time of the First World War, when employment in heavy industry spurred the growth of the game, much as it had done for men fifty years earlier.

This past year (2019) Women’s world cup was on tv worldwide. The women’s world cup was held in France that year. In the final The United States stood against The Netherlands. They both have risen from the very bottom and fought their way to a well-deserved place in the final. The United States and The Netherlands were both very driven to win that world cup title. In the end,  The United States fought a little bit harder than The Netherlands and walked away with the World Cup title.