2 top English soccer teams clash at Williams-Brice. Here’s how not to sound like Ted Lasso

Football will kick off this Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium. But if you show up in your garnet and black, you’ll notice the teams on the field wearing a different shade of red, no helmets and studiously avoiding taking the ball in their hands.

The University of South Carolina’s football venue is one of a few in the country hosting a preseason tour of European soccer teams, in this case Liverpool and Manchester United, two of the biggest clubs in a soccer-crazed world. But the version of football these two English teams play is different from what most Williams-Brice regulars might be familiar with.

How can you take in the big event (7:30 p.m. Saturday) while still sounding smart to the soccer fans in attendance? We’re here to help.

The Teams

Manchester United and Liverpool are the two most successful English teams of all time. United leads the pack with 20 championships, while Liverpool follows close behind with 19. The two sides have a long-running rivalry, not only because of the decades-long horse race between them but because their two cities are only 30 miles apart.

The teams are touring the States as part of the Rivals in Red tour — along with Arsenal, another red-clad team from London — before the new season of the English Premier League kicks off Aug. 16. The other games between the three will be played July 27 in Los Angeles and July 31 in Philadelphia.

If you want an American sports comparison for the two English teams, you could do worse than TV’s American football-turned-soccer coach Ted Lasso, who described both their stature and lack of title success in recent years as “the Dallas Cowboys, and also the Dallas Cowboys.”

How is that offside?

Let’s talk about what’s often one of the most confusing parts of the sport: the offside rule. It’s frequently a point of contention, even among knowledgeable soccer fans, whenever a referee blows a play dead or even waves off a goal because a player was in an offside position.

The rule is meant to stop the offense from planting a player directly in front of the goal and waiting to be fed the ball, kind of like the three-second rule in basketball keeping the center from standing in the lane directly under the basket. The rule prevents an offensive player in the other team’s half from being in front of the second-to-last defender (usually the last outfield player ahead of the goalkeeper) at the time the ball is played forward. Otherwise they can’t be involved in the play.

Even having a single body part ahead of the defender — excluding hands and arms, which are already out of play — is enough to have a potentially winning goal waved off. The rule can benefit a team with a speedy forward capable of moving quickly from an onside position around the defense to reach the ball.

Before you celebrate your adopted team’s goal, keep an eye out for the official on the sidelines who will raise a yellow flag if an attacker is judged to be offside — and instantly deflate any fans (or players) who weren’t paying attention.

Watching the clock

Time works differently in soccer than other sports you might be familiar with. The game is played in two 45-minute halves, with the game clock usually counting up to 45 in the first half and from 45 to 90 in the second.

The clock won’t stop even when the ball goes out of play or the ref blows his whistle, and the clock will run into “added time” at the end of the half to make up any difference. An official on the sideline may hold up a placard at the end of the half to indicate how many minutes will be added on, normally between one to five minutes.

In a standard game where the score is level after 90 minutes, a match will end in a draw. If a winner must be decided, the teams can play a 30-minute extra time period. But for this tour, the teams will go to an immediate penalty shootout. Five players from each side will take a shot at the goal from 12 yards out, with only the opposing goalkeeper to stop them. The team that scores the most penalty kicks is declared the winner, with additional shots being taken if the first five are still tied.

What are those cards?

You’ll want to know the difference between a penalty and a free kick. A foul by any player usually results in a free kick being given to the team that was fouled. These are awarded anywhere on the field and can usually be recognized by the defensive players forming a “wall” 10 yards away from the ball in front of their goal.

But a penalty kick is awarded when a foul is committed inside the penalty area in an 18-by-44-yard box surrounding the goal, with only the goalkeeper between the player and the goal just like in a shootout scenario. The penalty box is also the only part of the field where the goalkeeper can handle the ball.

Whenever a player commits a foul, you might see the referee reach into his pocket. If he shows a yellow card, the player essentially gets a warning, while a red card means a player is tossed out of the game and the offending team must play the rest of the game one man down. If a player is issued two yellow cards in a game it has the same effect as a red, but the referee doesn’t have to pull out a card for every foul. It depends on the seriousness of the offense.

Singing in the stands

Off the pitch, you’ll likely notice some other bits of soccer culture around the stadium. Team scarves stitched with logos and mottos are a signature piece of fan gear at games. They’re usually played in chillier weather than Columbia in August, but expect to see some around Willy-B this weekend.

At Liverpool’s home stadium Anfield, fans will hold their scarves aloft before every kickoff and sing the old show tune “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” which has become a team anthem and was even added as a motto to the club crest. You might want to familiarize yourself with the lyrics, especially if you’ve chosen Liverpool as your team for the night.

While not quite as famous, Manchester United has its own song, “Glory Glory Man United,” with a chorus sung to the tune of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and recorded by Frank Renshaw of 1960s band Herman’s Hermits.