World Cup Corner

If you are part of the football circle then you have probably heard of the word catenaccio, which means “dead-bolt” or “lock” in literal terms but it is interpreted as a very bad word referring to Italian football from the ‘60s and ‘70s that was negative at best. There are some tactical lessons to be learned from Catenaccio and any soccer coach should take these into consideration. However, Catenaccio can be a very good strategy to use for defense when it is correctly performed. In fact, the result of implementing Catenaccio may be one of the very best defensive strategies that exist in football. There is of course one good reason why Catenaccio isn’t liked by many soccer fans and that is as simple as the strategy keeps the other team from scoring.
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So another exciting Premiership season has come to an end. Congratulations to Manchester United for snatching the crown away from Chelsea. I think this finally lends credence to the old saying that “You cant buy the title”. Football winners are always about mentatlity, hunger, tactics and teamwork. While it certainly helps to have the best players, it doesn’t always translate into winners. Real Madrid and Chelsea are 2 very good examples. Here are the top 10 best signings of the 06/07 season that have made an impact on the English game.

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Sven Goran Eriksson, the previous manager of the English national team has declared his interest in the vacant Newcastle managerial post. Days after Glenn Roder has resigned, there has been intense speculation as to who will be the next toon boss. The current front runner is Sam Allardyce, although the likes of Alan Shearer, Mark Hughes, Juande Ramos have also been bandied around.

Sven’s agent, Athole Still told PA Sport: ‘There has been no contact whatsoever, but if Newcastle were interested in Sven-Goran Eriksson, I am sure Sven-Goran Eriksson would be interested in talking to Newcastle.’

My thoughts about this is that while Sven can show an impressive CV with regards to managing clubs, he is still seen as a source of embarrassing controversy (countless scandals during his England reign) as well as needing a large transfer budget to develop his squad. Thanks but no thanks Sven. I`ll much rather go for Allardyce or even Gerrard Hollieur. It’s time Newcastle steps away from the front page for all the wrong reasons.

Congratulations to Manchester United for wrestling the Premiership crown away from Chelsea to become the 2006/2007 champions of England. While I dislike both teams, given the choice between the two, I`d have to say the Man Utd were worthy winners. Chelsea with it’s unbelieveably deep pockets and extremely negative style of football will have to be content with the League Cup and possibly the FA Cup. The main standouts for Man Utd were Cristiano Ronaldo (who eventually swept all the domestic individual awards), Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. The latter two of course enjoying somewhat of an indian summer and bringing much needed experience to the squad.

For all you North American football… I mean soccer fans… this summer marks a major tournament to be played in Canada. 600,000 tickets have already been presold. In fact, by all current calculations, The U-20 finals will become the single biggest sporting event in the history of Canada.

“The hunger for tickets and growing anticipation truly demonstrates the love of the beautiful game in Canada,” said FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter. “Canadians know they are in for a treat this summer and that nothing but spectacular football will be on display when the world’s top youngsters battle for the crown of becoming world champion.”

Who are some of the young bright stars to look out for? I for one, will play close attention to David Edgar of Canada. Simply because he plays for my favorite team, Newcastle United. He`s play a few games this year for the Magpies, and has struck me as being a very raw, but intelligent and composed defender. The South American powerhouses of Argentina and Brazil will no doubt produce some future world class players, some of which are held in high regard at the moment. For example, Lucas of Brazil. This year he inspired Gremio to the Copa Libertadores qualification on their return to the Brazilian top flight, , awarded the Brazillian league’s top performer award, became the youngest ever recipient of Placar Magazine’s Golden Ball and earned a call-up to the senior squad. Not bad for a 20 year old. Lucas is hailed as a player of exceptional potential in Brazil and a near future move to Europe is his most probable destination.

This coming week brings the semi final action of the UEFA Champions League. If you are a big fan of the English Premiership, (which incidentally is the highest watched league in the world) then you`ll know the chances of an English club lifting the coveted European Cup is 3 out of 4.

Liverpool vs Chelsea
Liverpool winners in 2005, hold the slight advantage for me. While they cannot boast the star studded line of Shevchenko, Ballack, Lampard and Robben, they have a master tactician in Rafa Benitez. For my money, Rafa is probably one of the best when it comes to European games. He has the ability to spot and change a game midway. This is not to say that Mourinho is tactically inferior to Benitez. Afterall, he did win the Champions League with FC Porto on a shoestring budget, and the UEFA cup the year before. But, I feel that Mourinho has been spoilt by the riches of Abramovich, and is now over reliant on his players. Not to mention his supposed strained relationship with Roman.

Manchester United vs AC Milan
Here’s to hoping Man Utd gets played off the park. Enough said…. After dropping precious league points to Middlesborough over the weekend, it seems like their Premiership league hopes are in the balance as well. To be honest, I don’t know who I`d want the Premiership crown to go to. Manure or Chel$ki. I have an equal dislike for both teams.

All in all, AC Milan do have the spine for a Champions League winning team. With Kaka, Gattuso and Pirlo pulling the strings from midfield, It would seem that they`ll ahve too much for Man Utd, who is going through a bit of an injury crisis at the moment. But stranger things have happened…. Remember Man Utd’s amazing treble of 1999?

Rules of world cup soccer are much the same as they are for football with a few exceptions. We will start with telling you about the playing field for the games. The playing field can be a minimum of a hundred yards and a maximum of a hundred and thirty with the width of the field from 50 to 100 yards. Markings are on the ends are “goal lines”, sidelines and a half way line on each of the fields. On the ends of each field are penalty and goal areas. There is a goal post on each end, which measures 8 yards by 8 feet high with a net behind it.
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In 2006, the World Cup Soccer competition was held in Germany. There were 32 qualified teams, which represented six continents along with six past winners.
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World Cup soccer was the brainchild of the president of the World Football federation in 1926. Therefore, if it were not for Jules Rimet there would not be world cup soccer. He pushed to get everything organized and fought for nondiscrimination because of amateur or professional status. These things would not matter to this league. It took him and a few others 5 years to get everything together and to get it finalized by the board. Then on May 26th, 1928, the World Cup was born. Five of the European countries were picked to be the host, Uruguay was chosen. This was because of their outstanding Olympic record.
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World Cup soccer was the brainchild of the president of the World Football federation in 1926. Therefore, if it were not for Jules Rimet there would not be world cup soccer. He pushed to get everything organized and fought for nondiscrimination because of amateur or professional status. These things would not matter to this league. It took him and a few others 5 years to get everything together and to get it finalized by the board. Then on May 26th, 1928, the World Cup was born. Five of the European countries were picked to be the host, Uruguay was chosen. This was because of their outstanding Olympic record.
Read the rest of this entry »