If you are a diehard fan of soccer or want to see the next Pele, you are in luck because it’s the second week of the Iowa State intramural nine-player soccer tournament.

The season started on Sept. 15, and now the competing teams are colliding in the postseason in order to win the famed intramural shirt. The tournament is played using a single-elimination format.

This year’s field opened with 87 teams separated into three different categories: men, women and co-rec.

Residence halls, fraternities, sororities, faculty and staff are represented in the make-up of teams.

The men’s division is the largest and is split into four different skill levels: A, B, C and D, with A being the most competitive. The co-rec division is divided into two sections, naturally Cy and Clone. The women’s division is small, so everyone is grouped into one division.

Gary Greenlee of ISU Recreation Services said, “There are different skill levels so [the players] don’t get overmatched. They can feel successful in different levels of skills. There is level for everyone.”

Greenlee is in charge of organizing teams and setting game times and dates. He has two students who help him with tasks at hand.

Soccer officials are students who are provided with the help of Randy Heimerman, also an employee of Recreation Services. Intramural nine-player soccer requires three officials, a center referee and two linesmen.

“I became an official this year, basically because I play soccer, needed the money and I’m familiar with it,” Jocelyn Nordstrom, a junior in journalism and mass communication, said.

The tournament games start around 4 p.m. and are played on the fields behind Maple-Willow-Larch on Elwood Drive and Lincoln Way.

The rules for nine-player soccer are the same as in normal soccer, except for a few changes.

The only differences are offsides penalties are not called and slide tackles are illegal. Greenlee said there are good reasons for both rule changes.

“There are no offsides since it is hard to officiate, and there are no slide tackles for safety reasons. They both lead to more scoring in games,” Greenlee said.

Nordstrom commented there has been a problem with one rule specifically designed for co-rec soccer.

This co-rec rule says a girl must touch the ball at least once when her team is the offensive zone before the team can try to score. This female-touch rule can be challenging for refs to notice.

“People will argue with you if a girl touched the ball or not after a goal. Everyone has their own vision on what is right or wrong,” Nordstrom said.

Greenlee said there is a large turnout of players this year, many of whom chose to go out because they played soccer in high school or played for clubs of some kind.

Matt Wernberg, a sophomore in electrical engineering and forward for the Scottish Soccer Hooligans, said he enjoys competing on the soccer field again.

“I played soccer all my life. I played in high school, and this is one of the only options that I have [to play],” Wernberg said.

Wernberg said the game is similar to the one he grew up with.

“It isn’t that much different from 11-player soccer,” he said. “The field is smaller, but with nine [players] it would be the same as playing with eleven [players] on a normal size field.”