What is Back of the Net?

If you know me, you know I love to wander off on a side quest. If you don’t know me, hi, I’m Jessica.

You may be wondering how your friend who is a scientist and a journalist and runs a nonprofit and bakes and does improv and play drums ended up starting a soccer fandom newsletter, and it’s pretty simple. I can’t stop thinking about soccer and what I don’t know about it.

A few years ago, I’d finished up the most recent season of Ted Lasso, Apple was feeding me a constant stream of Major League Soccer advertisements, and Nashville had a still brand new stadium. This was a potent mix of influence that made me curious enough sit down and watch a Nashville Soccer Club match.

Then I went to a game at Geodis Park, and I was hooked. Now we’re season ticket holders, and I watch every game.

But as a new soccer fan, there’s a lot that I don’t know about the game. I am constantly looking up answers to my seemingly basic questions, only to learn that, sure, sometimes the answer is straightforward, and sometimes it is decidedly not.

One of my first questions was, “What is offsides?” A year later, I found myself asking, “Is it ‘offsides’ or ‘offside’?”

I’m spending a lot of time learning, and I’ve also been thinking a lot about how to share that learning with other people — as entertainment for those who are already quite knowledgeable and as camaraderie for those who are new to the sport, like me.

Without further ado, this is what I’ll do here: Each week, I’ll share a question about soccer that I’ve had during a match. I have a bunch of these saved in my Notes app. I’ll also do some research and share the answer to that question. The answers will come from online searches, books I don’t have yet, and sometimes interviews with people who are way, way smarter than I am about all this.

I’ll also invite readers to share what they know on any given topic in the comments or by sending me an email reply. You are absolutely encouraged to fansplain here; I only ask that you do it with kindness and excitement because you love the game and you want other people to love the game, too. If you're a member (you can sign up for free), head on into the comments now and say hello!

That’s Back of the Net — a not very original soccer fan group name, I’m finding, that I settled when I heard a commentator use the phrase a few weeks ago to refer to a ball that successfully found…the back of the net.

That’s it for now. In my next post, we’ll dive right in with a question about yellow cards in honor of Nashville Soccer Club midfielder Eddi Tagseth, who is suspended for tonight’s match against DC United.