Robot Soccer Is No Threat To Real Soccer.... Yet...

...but give it until 2050 (or in my estimation 2040 more likely).... and a robot soccer team could beat one of the best teams in the world made of humans.

RoboCup pledges on its official website that "By [the] mid-21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win [a] soccer game, complying with the official rule of the FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World Cup."

To play, the robots use different kicks for passing and shooting and they communicate their position to each other through wireless Internet connections. Each robot is capable of playing every position equally well and are able to seamlessly shift roles. For example, goalkeepers are able to come out and play as strikers. Also, reportedly when a robot gets a shot on a goal it very rarely misses.

The easiest part of the programming? Flopping protocol.