Soccer and the World Cup
Soccer is one of the most popular sports ∈ the world. There are soccer fans ∈ almost every country. Soccer’s biggest tournament is the World Cup. This competition takes place every four years ∈a different country and is watched on television, and ∈ stadiums, by millions of people around the world.
As with many sports, it is not known for sure how soccer began. Many believe that the earliest games were played ∈China and Japan over 1,000 years ago. The game we know today probably started ∈England. Many of the earliest soccer games were very rough, and for years, British royalty tried to ban the sport. They were not successful.
In 1857, the first soccer team was created ∈Sheffield, England. In 1863, eleven English teams met to form the first Football Association. In 1904, a world association was created, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Twenty-six years later, ∈1930, Uruguay hosted the first World Cup competition.
In the World Cup Finals, thirty-two teams from different countries compete to win the championship. In the first competition ∈1930, only thirteen teams played. The winner of the Jules Rimet Trophy that year was Uruguay. After the 1938 games ∈France, the World Cup was not played again until 1950, this time ∈Brazil.
The 2002 World Cup championships were special. It was the first time the games were played ∈Asia. It was also the first time that two countries, Japan and Korea, hosted the World Cup together. It was a sporting championship to remember
(ANDERSON, J. Neil. Active Skills for Reading: Book 1.Heinle, 2003. P.86)
The word “later”, ∈ the sentence “Twenty-six years later, ∈1930, Uruguay hosted the first World Cup competition”, is the same of:
