May 29, 2011

Lionel Messi - All Hail the King

May 29, 2011

Football World has rendered itself to the feet of FC BARCELONA Argentine forward LIONEL MESSI. Spanish Football press & media have dedicated covers & pages to the player as he once again put in a brilliant performance & goal to help FC Barcelona win 3 - 1 Manchester United in the Champions League Final.

The “magician” yesterday placed himself in the Olympus of the Football Gods: Di Stefano, Pele, Cruyff & Maradona, leaving his stamp without any doubt that he is the “Best Player in World Football” & heading towards the “ALL-TIME” status. The man is only 23 years of age & none of the above mentioned “Football Gods” had so many titles as Messi has at his age. The only title missing that would put LIONEL MESSI in the solitary position of the “Greatest ever Football Player in History” would be a World Cup Championship title with Argentina, & that is a real possiblity  in the next coming 12 years.

Spanish Football
LIONEL MESSI with the Champions League 2011 Trophy



Here is the impressive list of Club, Team & Individual Titles that LIONEL MESSI has already with only 23 years of age:

FC Barcelona
Spanish Football League - La Liga: 5 2004–05, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11
Copa del Rey - Spanish Cup: 1
2008–09
Supercopa Spain : 4
2005, 2006, 2009, 2010
UEFA Champions League: 3 2005–06, 2008–09, 2010–11
UEFA Super Cup: 1 2009
FIFA Club World Cup: 1 2009


Argentina
FIFA U-20 World Cup: 1 2005
Olympic Gold Medal: 1 2008


Individual
FIFA Ballon d’Or: 1 2010
Ballon d’Or: 1 2009
FIFA World Player of the Year: 1 2009
FIFA Team of the Year: 3 2008, 2009, 2010
U-21 European Footballer of the Year: 1 2007
Spanish Football League - La Liga Player of the Year: 2 2009, 2010
Spanish Football League - La Liga top goalscorer: 1 2010
Copa del Rey - Spanish Cup top goalscorer: 1 2011
Spanish Football League - La Liga Foreign Player of the Year: 3 2007, 2009, 2010
Spanish Football League - La Liga Ibero-American Player of the Year: 3 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011
European Golden Shoe: 1 2010
UEFA Champions League top goalscorer: 3 2009, 2010, 2011
UEFA Champions League Player of the Year: 1 2009
UEFA Champions League Forward of the Year: 1 2009
UEFA Champions League Final Man of the Match: 1 2011
UEFA Champions League Final Fans’ Man of the Match: 1 2009
UEFA Team of the Year: 3 2008, 2009, 2010
Footballer of the Year of Argentina: 5   2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

But there is more:

FIFPro World Player of the Year: 2 2009, 2010
FIFPro World Young Player of the Year: 3 2006, 2007, 2008
FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year: 2 2007, 2008
FIFPro World XI: 4 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
FIFA U-20 World Cup Player of the Tournament: 1 2005
FIFA U-20 World Cup top goalscorer: 1 2005
Copa América Young Player of the Tournament: 1 2007
World Soccer Player of the Year: 1 2009
World Soccer Young Player of the Year: 3 2006, 2007, 2008
FIFA Club World Cup Golden Ball: 1 2009
ESM Team of the Year: 4 2005–06, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10
Marca Leyenda: 1 2009
Tuttosport Golden Boy: 1 2005
UEFA best goal of the year: 1 2007

Messi Sports
Lionel Messi : courtesy of Reuters


The above list will without any doubt get longer & longer in the coming years.

“ALL HAIL THE KING”!

May 26, 2011

Chicharito a hero in tough times for Mexico

Look up from an oppressive Mexico City traffic jam and you see the baby face of Javier ”Chicharito” Hernandez smiling down from a giant billboard. Look ahead and his image beams from an ad on a bakery truck.

Though he lives and plays more than 5,000 miles away for English club Manchester United, the 22-year-old whose nickname means ”Little Pea” is everywhere in his home country at a time when Mexico is in dire need of a hero.

It’s not just because Chicharito has enjoyed a stunning debut season with the English powerhouse, scoring 20 goals and winning a fan vote as player of the season after his 6 million pound ($9.8 million) move from Guadalajara’s Las Chivas.

It’s not even that he could be one of United’s key players in Saturday’s Champions League final at Wembley against favored Barcelona.

Rather, his gleeful celebration after every goal, with arms outstretched and mouth agape - as if even he is astonished by his talent - is the perfect antidote to daily reports of shootouts, kidnappings and mass graves in a country racked by drug violence that has killed more than 35,000 people since late 2006.

For Mexico, Chicharito’s success is about much more than football.

”He’s the only thing Mexicans believe in right now,” writer and cultural commentator Guadalupe Loaeza said. ”We don’t believe the government, the institutions, the political parties. But through months and months of this crisis, Chicharito has brought us good news in front of the whole world.”

He has numerous fan blogs, including the official ”Locos por El Chicharito,” and several songs, in English and Spanish, dedicated to him.

The match against Barcelona and its Argentine striker Lionel Messi - considered the best player in the world - is expected to draw record TV viewers in Mexico and be a bonanza for local bars and restaurants.

Mexico’s Televisa network has postponed a broadcast of Mexico’s beloved national team playing Ecuador in a friendly at the same time in Seattle, Washington. Chicharito and United get top billing with the match being shown on live on a giant screen on the esplanade outside Mexico’s 100,000-seat Aztec Stadium.

The Mexico-Ecuador match will be shown on delay after Chicharito has had his day.

Javier Ahedo, general manager of a Chili’s restaurant in central Mexico City, says because of Chicharito, Manchester United has been drawing crowds all season.

”This place fills for every game, and even though other teams like Barcelona are playing in the same hour, the people want to see Chicharito,” he said. ”It’s crazy.”

Hernandez hails from Guadalajara and a football dynasty. His grandfather, Tomas Balcazar, played on a Mexico World Cup team, as did his father, also named Javier Hernandez, whose nickname ”Chicharo,” or ”The Pea,” led to the star’s moniker.

He is hardly Mexico’s first international sport star to lift the country in a time of crisis. Rookie Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela wowed the baseball world in the 1980s during a Mexican peso crash. Hugo Sanchez, probably Mexico’s most successful footballer up to now, helped Mexicans forget the financial ups downs of the 1990s with his record-breaking career with Real Madrid.

Still, while many Mexican players have flourished in European leagues, they have mostly done so in Spain or Italy, places not too far removed from home culturally or linguistically.

Chicharito is an unprecedented success story in England where other Latin American players have struggled with the chilly, damp climate and food, not to mention the quicker, more physical play that overpowers Latin-style finesse and technical skill.

He is helped by the fact that his family moved with him to Manchester, where he tells interviewers he still gets his mother’s homemade tortillas.

In his first season he scored 20 goals in various tournaments, tying the Mexican record for a striker making a European debut. He could be the first Mexican to win the Champions League in his first season and only the second to do so behind Rafael Marquez, who won the title playing for Barcelona.

Chicharito’s carefully guarded image, which draws millions in endorsements, is clean and outgoing. So far he seems without the ego of many top players, and his commercials feature kids. He smiles as much in his encounters with the public as in his photos and graciously signs autographs, drawing accolades at least for now from all corners: journalists to image consultants to everyday folk.

”He’s my idol, even though he’s from the Chivas,” said Rene Ocampo, a 38-year-old salesman who roots for rival club Pumas. ”He makes us feel better as Mexicans.”

May 10, 2011

USA - Major League Soccer Update

May 9, 2011      USA - Major League Soccer Update

New York, Los Angeles and Real Salt Lake came into the season considered the best teams in MLS and have done the work to prove those prognostications true, but with playmaker Javier Morales set to miss four months or more with a broken leg, RSL suddenly finds itself facing a stiff test to keep up with the big spenders from opposite coasts (after starting the season looking like a team ready to run away with the league).

The Galaxy and Red Bulls treated MLS fans to an entertaining and high-quality game on Saturday, arguably the best 90 minutes of soccer contested in MLS this season. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise considering the talent on display and the veteran coaches steering both clubs. Each team showed the technical quality and star power that makes them the current leaders in each conference (though LA’s lead atop the West has as much to do with RSL only playing six games to the Galaxy’s 10).

Morales’ injury changes things considerably for RSL, a team that looked like a good bet to win a Supporters’ Shield. Real Salt Lake still boasts talent all over the field and still has good depth, but there is no denying that losing Morales will cost RSL points in the standings and gives a slight edge to the Red Bulls and Galaxy as the season progresses.

Neither New York nor Los Angeles will complain, not with the looming CONCACAF Gold Cup set to cost each of team multiple key players. The Red Bulls are especially vulnerable, with as many as five starters (and Juan Agudelo) potentially getting Gold Cup call-ups. The Galaxy stands to lose Landon Donovan and Donovan Ricketts and could potentially lose Omar Gonzalez as well.

That’s what made the coming weeks so vital to RSL. While the CONCACAF Champions League finalists are also set to lose Gold Cup players (Alvaro Saborio and Will Johnson), Real Salt Lake was poised to really take advantage of its depth and the presence of Morales’s playmaking to pull away from New York and Los Angeles in the race for the Supporters’ Shield.

Now, RSL must regroup and turn to veteran Andy Williams to lead the way. The problem with relying on Williams too much is that he’s 33 and can’t handle the same workload that Morales could handle. With Morales in place, Jason Kreis could pick his spots to rest Williams and use a mix of Williams and Ned Grabavoy. Now, Kreis will turn to young midfielder Collen Warner or veteran Arturo Alvarez to pick up the slack. Alvarez is the more well-known commodity, but Warner has the talent to emerge as an impact player and potentially a regular starter.

RSL will be hoping to fair better without Morales than it did against Chivas USA, when a second-half goal from Will Johnson was all Real Salt Lake could muster despite having a two-man advantage for more than 45 minutes. While Chivas USA deserves some credit for holding off the home team, Real Salt Lake really should have done better with such an advantage.

The Red Bulls and Galaxy can both come away from their match with confidence despite settling for a tie. The Galaxy responded well to an early goal allowed and took the game to New York in the second half, while the Red Bulls did very well to leave Home Depot Center with a point despite the absence of standout midfielder Teemu Tainio. Overall, both teams looked sharp and more than capable of taking advantage of RSL’s loss of Morales.

Real Salt Lake isn’t going to budge from being a Top Three team, not with its stingy defense, standout goalkeeper Nick Rimando, and a host of other attacking pieces in place, but losing Morales very well could keep RSL from running away with the league the way it could have.

If Saturday’s Galaxy-Red Bulls match was any indication, the race for the Supporters Shield and the battle between the three top teams in MLS is going to be fun to watch and tightly contested, all season long.

Mondaini facing stiff penalty

Chivas USA striker Marcos Mondaini’s leg-breaking tackle on Javier Morales was different than Brian Mullan’s bone-breaking tackle on Steve Zakuani. For one, he wasn’t responding to a bad call and clearly responding emotionally. He didn’t seem to be going in with malice or a hot head. No, Mondaini’s tackle looked more like a clumsy and poorly-executed attempt at a tackle, the kind you would expect a forward to fail at delivering.

While all this may be so, Mondaini still faces the prospects of a lengthy suspension. When MLS slapped Mullan with a 10-game suspension, the message was clear and new precedent set. If you deliver an ugly tackle, and injure someone badly, you will pay. Mondaini apparently missed that message when he lunged at Morales from behind and collapsed Morales’ ankle from behind.

Now what? Mondaini can’t possibly escape with fewer than 6 games or so, but the fact that the Mullan precedent happened so recently makes you wonder if the MLS Disciplinary Committee won’t punish Mondaini even further to try and remind players to cut out the bad tackles. Another 10-game suspension wouldn’t be out of line, and a 12-game ban wouldn’t be all that surprising.

What should MLS do? A year ago the tackle might have merited a three-to-five game ban. In this new era of trying to protect players and eliminate ugly soccer, MLS needs to hit Mondaini with a 10-12 game suspension, or the message it tried to send with Mullan’s suspension will be completely wasted.

MLS Player of the Week

After a surprising and rather inexplicable stint on the bench for D.C. United, reigning MLS Rookie of the Year Andy Najar was finally unleashed by head coach Ben Olsen and responded with a pair of outstanding performances.

Najar helped set up both goals in D.C. United’s 2-1 victory against Seattle last Wednesday and was D.C.’s best player in a 0-0 tie vs. FC Dallas (that would have been a D.C. victory if not for an outstanding performance from Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman).

Najar’s quickness and sharp passing helped get United’s attack going against Seattle and his efforts helped him edge out Toronto FC’s Joao Plata and D.C. striker Charlie Davies for this week’s honor.

MLS Rookie of the Week

Toronto FC midfielder Joao Plata isn’t a rookie by MLS definition (because he played professionally for a season in Ecuador), but we’ll give the 2011 fourth-round draft pick the nod anyway for a stellar performance in helping Toronto FC beat Houston, 2-1.

Plata blasted home a penalty kick and delivered a killer assist in TFC’s victory and is looking more and more like a real threat capable of playing consistent minutes. He slipped far in the MLS Draft because of concerns about his size (he’s 5-foot-5), but Plata is putting those fears to rest.

As far as players actually eligible for MLS Rookie of the Year, rookie defenders A.J. Soares (New England) and Jalil Anibaba (Chicago Fire) performed well in helping their teams post shutouts in scoreless ties on Saturday.

MLS Team of the Week

While no team ran away with the week, D.C. United gets the nod here for its mid-week victory against Seattle and a draw against FC Dallas where D.C. controlled the match. The inclusion of Andy Najar made all the difference, but more importantly the struggling D.C. defense managed to allow just one goal over 180 minutes to recover from a recent awful run.

Ives Galarcep is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering Major League Soccer and the U.S. national team.

April 18, 2011

Improving Your Soccer Skills on Your Own by Claudio Reyna

By Claudio Reyna

A player can always improve his fitness by working out hard. He can comprehend certain tactics by studying the game. But how far he goes will be determined mainly by how well he has mastered ball skills. Those are acquired by playing, day after day, year after year.

A player who really wants to excel will spend as much time as possible playing small-sided games when he has playmates, and juggling and kicking against the wall when he’s on his own.

I spent a lot of time hitting the ball against the side of the house when I was a growing up. If my mother complained about the noise, I’d hop down the retaining wall at the end of our property to the office-building parking lot.

I’d use that wall — hitting the ball with both feet, seeing how long I could return the wall’s passes without losing control. I found out later that so many pros spent lots of their childhood doing that.

Dennis Bergkamp, the great Dutch striker who scored and set up hundreds of goals for Ajax Amsterdam, Arsenal, and the Dutch national team, said that when he was a youth player at Ajax, they had little three-foot-high walls. He would knock the ball against the walls for hours. Every time he hit the ball, he’d know whether it was a good touch or a bad touch. He’d do it over and over, trying to establish a rhythm.

Whenever I saw Bergkamp slotting a perfectly placed ball past a goalkeeper or making a precise pass, I thought of him practicing against the wall.

Kicking against the wall is an excellent way to work on improving your weaker foot. You can back up and practice shots on goal, or move close to the wall and work on passing, because where there’s a wall, there’s a teammate.

You can practice trapping and work on your first touch by controlling the ball before you kick it, or hit it back first time.

Passing the ball against a wall from close distance takes timing and coordination. Hit the ball faster, and you’ve got to react faster and get a rhythm going. It almost feels like you’re dancing.

Practicing the correct striking of the ball over and over helps it become second nature. It has to be, because in a game a player doesn’t have time to think about his form or approach. Under pressure, everything is more difficult. Mastering technique while playing on your own is the first step to being able to do it right in a game.

(Excerpted from “More Than Goals: The Journey from Backyard Games to World Cup Competition” by Claudio Reyna, courtesy of Human Kinetics.)

(Claudio Reyna was named the U.S. Soccer Federations’s Youth Technical Director in April 2010.

April 14, 2011

April 16h, 2011 - El Classico - Real Madrid vs Barcelona

With just two days to go, the anticipation for the world’s biggest game, El Clasico, couldn’t be higher. After both sides, FC Barcelona & Real Madrid have defeated their respective opponents (Shakhtar Donetsk & Tottenham Hotspurs) in the knock-out stages of the UEFA Champions League, Saturday’s match will be the first of four Clasico’s within the span of 18 days.

The exit of Shakhtar Donetsk and Tottenham Hotspurs means that not only will the UEFA Champions League semi-final be an all-Spanish affair, but two mouth-watering Clasico encounters over two legs in their battle for European supremacy.

One Clasico creates a media-frenzy; now imagine four within a couple of weeks. Furthermore, these Clasico’s have a direct impact on all three competitions (La Liga, the Copa del Rey & the Champions League).

The Merengue head into Saturday’s La Liga clash with an eight-point deficit against their eternal rivals, FC Barcelona. Neither a draw nor defeat is an acceptable result if Real Madrid is to end the Blaugrana’s stranglehold on the Primera Division.

Having witnessed FC Barcelona accumulating the treble just two years ago, the Spanish capital club is just as motivated as any side to match this achievement.

Nevertheless, FC Barcelona own treble hopes are still very much alive. And although the Blaugrana have to travel to the most hostile of environments, the Santiago Bernabeu, they presumably hold the psychological advantage over their archrivals, having won all their encounters since Pep Guardiola’s appointment.

In Jose Mourinho, however, Pep Guardiola & FC Barcelona will have to face one the finest managers, some even go as far and champion the self-proclaimed “Special One” the greatest manager of them all.

Since this year is almost devoid of major football tournaments bar the Copa America, the Clasico’s and the UEFA Champions League final can be considered THE highlights of 2011.

Let’s find out what the Barca Blaugranes team (Arron DucklingBostjan CernensekGabriel RobertsPaul UdaniShehryar KhanI) think of the upcoming Clash of the Titans.

With just two days to go, the anticipation for the world’s biggest game, El Clasico, couldn’t be higher. After both sides, FC Barcelona & Real Madrid have defeated their respective opponents (Shakhtar Donetsk & Tottenham Hotspurs) in the knock-out stages of the UEFA Champions League, Saturday’s match will be the first of four Clasico’s within the span of 18 days.

The exit of Shakhtar Donetsk and Tottenham Hotspurs means that not only will the UEFA Champions League semi-final be an all-Spanish affair, but two mouth-watering Clasico encounters over two legs in their battle for European supremacy.

One Clasico creates a media-frenzy; now imagine four within a couple of weeks. Furthermore, these Clasico’s have a direct impact on all three competitions (La Liga, the Copa del Rey & the Champions League).

The Merengue head into Saturday’s La Liga clash with an eight-point deficit against their eternal rivals, FC Barcelona. Neither a draw nor defeat is an acceptable result if Real Madrid is to end the Blaugrana’s stranglehold on the Primera Division.

Having witnessed FC Barcelona accumulating the treble just two years ago, the Spanish capital club is just as motivated as any side to match this achievement.

Nevertheless, FC Barcelona own treble hopes are still very much alive. And although the Blaugrana have to travel to the most hostile of environments, the Santiago Bernabeu, they presumably hold the psychological advantage over their archrivals, having won all their encounters since Pep Guardiola’s appointment.

In Jose Mourinho, however, Pep Guardiola & FC Barcelona will have to face one the finest managers, some even go as far and champion the self-proclaimed “Special One” the greatest manager of them all.

Since this year is almost devoid of major football tournaments bar the Copa America, the Clasico’s and the UEFA Champions League final can be considered THE highlights of 2011.

Let’s find out what the Barca Blaugranes team (Arron DucklingBostjan CernensekGabriel RobertsPaul UdaniShehryar KhanI) think of the upcoming Clash of the Titans.

November 28, 2010

El Classico - Will the “Special One” make the difference…

Filed under: Soccer, Soccer Clothing, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News — admin @ 7:19 pm

  ”The Special One”

There is no match like the one between Barcelona and Real Madrid. A long history and tradition surrounds their fixtures but today’s match has its own under-tones. Real are managed by the ultimate Catalan enemy - Jose Mourinho.

No Barca fan will forget the cartwheel performed by the Special One on the Nou Camp pitch when Inter Milan sent Barcelona out of the Champions League in the second leg of the semi final last season. He was accosted by Barca goal keeper, Victor Valdes, but could not be restrained. The last match Real Madrid lost was in April 17, 2010, to Barcelona; while Mourinho’s last defeat as a club manager was at the hands of Barcelona in April 28, in the Champions League.

 

History of Mourinho and Barcelona

Barcelona fans may have forgotten that Mourinho honed his coaching skills in Catalonia. First, it was under the late Bobby Robson, and then Louis Van Gaal at Nou Camp. Van Gaal allowed Mourinho to develop an independent coaching style and entrusted him with coaching Barcelona’s second team. Mourinho started out as a player but was dissatisfied with his lack of skill and switched to management.

After spells working as an assistant manager and a youth team coach in the early 1990s, he became an interpreter for Bobby Robson at Sporting Lisbon and FC Porto in Portugal, before following him to Spanish club FC Barcelona. Van Gaal also let Mourinho take charge of the first team (acting as Mourinho’s assistant himself) for certain trophies, like the Copa Catalunya, which Mourinho won in 2000.

There were run-ins when he was with Chelsea; the most famous being the insinuation that he saw referee, Anders Frisk, talking to Barcelona officials during the half time, for which Mourinho was banned for three matches. Today, when he steps unto the pitch, he is sure to receive enough cat calls to raise the dead.

The rivalry

Real Madrid and Barcelona, apart from being the two largest cities in Spain, are also the most successful clubs in the country. Real Madrid has amassed 73 trophies and Barcelona 68. And they are sometimes identified with opposing political positions, with Real Madrid and Barcelona representing Spanish nationalism and Catalan nationalism respectively.

Today, when the teams line out, quality will over flow on both sides. A bulk of the Barcelona side made up the victorious Spain side to the 2010 World Cup; and added to that team is the world’s best player, Lionel Messi, who has already scored 13 goals in the league this season.

On the other side is the most enigmatic footballer since the days of Romario; Cristiano Ronaldo. He has always been the brunt of opposition anger at whichever club he has played for and seems to thrive on the ‘hate’. In the Barca side, the duo of Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta make up one of the best passers in the modern game. Then, there is the £40 million addition of the best Spanish finisher after Raul, David Villa. On the other side is Iker Casillas, arguably the best goal keeper on the planet, joined by Sergio Ramos and Xavi Alonso. In front they have Gonzalo Higuain, Angel Di Maria and the irrepressible Cristiano Ronaldo. These matchups make for an explosive 209th edition of the most intense club rivalry in the world. The match will kick off at 9:30pm Nigerian time.

 

 

August 17, 2010

American Soccer is finally doing it right!

Filed under: Soccer, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Events, Soccer History, Soccer News, Soccer Tips — Tags: — admin @ 11:46 am

August 12, 2010

Theirry Henry will not say American soccer fans sing better than English fans. But they do sing well.

And maybe that is the missing link, the natural order of soccer progression. First the fans learn to sing together in a cappella support of their lads, then a great homegrown striker emerges from the mists.

Henry, once a great star in the Premier League with Arsenal, says he has heard home fans in Houston, Chicago and now the New York metropolitan area keep their teams in the game with musical accompaniment for the entire 90 minutes.

Without blaring vuvuzelas marring the sound, Henry made his home debut Wednesday evening, playing the first half and assisting on the goal as the Red Bulls defeated Toronto, 1-0.

But this musical talent breaking out all over Major League Soccer does not mean the sport is in for a golden age. In fact, this part of the continent might have had its golden age in the 1970s, when the late, lamented Cosmos were filling the late and perhaps soon-to-be-lamented Giants Stadium and other places.

Something is stirring in the United States in the wake of the recent World Cup in South Africa. Apparently a few stirring rallies as the Yanks were eliminated in the Round of 16 went over better with fans back home than they did with the hard-to-please American players, officials and even reporters who witnessed the sluggish starts and lapses up close.

“I never say we are turning the corner because it seems to me that if you turn the corner four times, you are back where you started,” Sunil Gulati, the president of the United States Soccer Federation, said the other night, when 77,223 fans nearly filled New Meadowlands Stadium for a rather unimpressive 2-0 loss to Brazil by the national team.

Something is definitely happening, Gulati added, “when you can’t get into a pub to watch a World Cup match at 10 o’clock in the morning.”

Landon Donovan’s stirring goal in the 91st minute against Algeria, to allow the Yanks to advance to the next round, seems to have been a magic moment back home — so much so that Donovan was on David Letterman shortly after the Yanks were knocked out by Ghana.

All 25,000 seats in the lovely if modest-sized Red Bull Arena are sold out for Donovan’s appearance with the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday night. Perhaps some of those tickets were sold before what’s-his-name blew out his Achilles’ tendon last spring, but Donovan, not any of the elderly stars from the top leagues in Europe, is now the glamour boy of M.L.S.

“You guys should be proud of Landon Donovan, he’s a great player,” Henry told reporters Wednesday after his first league home game enticed only 19,035 fans on a weekday night. Henry is working through a tight groin muscle and cannot guarantee he will be up for 90 minutes Saturday, but he made a few silky moves and alert passes, enough to give promise of more.

This franchise has been down this road. The MetroStars, now in witness-protection identity as the Red Bulls, have trotted out one Donadoni after another Djorkaeff, without much impact. They were cool guys, but they were essentially taking a pay cut to live in New York in their athletic old age.

So is Henry, for that matter, taking the PATH train out to the stadium on occasion. He came by car for Wednesday’s match, he said, because his mother is visiting from France. C’est un bon fils.

This influx of so-called designated players is a departure for the league, which has tried to avoid lavishing huge sums of money on aged glamour. But maybe in the 15th season, it is time to spend.

“Our goals are different,” said Erik Stover, the managing director of the Red Bulls, who are owned by the Austria-based highly caffeinated energy-drink maker, which advances its brand with soccer.

“We need to be the flagship club of the M.L.S.,” Stover said. “Our owners are not going to accept anything less.”

Stover does not think the World Cup has any “magic bullet” on the gate; otherwise there might have been a sellout Wednesday. But the crowd raised the season average for nine matches to 16,583, which would be the best season average for the club since 2004. In this economy, that’s not bad.

Still, the crowds — and the salaries — are nothing like the giddy blitz of the ’70s, when Pelé and Beckenbauer walked the land.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see them replicate the Cosmos, but I would say it’s nearly impossible,” said Shep Messing, the goalkeeper for part of the ’70s and now a broadcaster with the Red Bulls, who said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the progress.

Investors recently bought the name Cosmos, which had been languishing under legal lock and key for a few decades, and are talking about building a New York rival to the Red Bulls. Stover is all for it, but says it will not be easy.

Anybody who saw the Yanks stumble around against Brazil the other night may worry if this country is ever going to have a golden age in the World Cup. But Thierry Henry says American fans sing well. Maybe there will be Welsh-style choral competitions in 2014 to go along with the World Cup in Brazil. Maybe M.L.S. fans can advance further than the Round of 16.

 By GEORGE VECSEY
Published: August 12, 2010
E-mail: geovec@nytimes.com

August 4, 2008

Become a Better Soccer Coach

Filed under: Soccer Coaching — admin @ 1:32 pm

Soccer is a game, which needs lots of motivation, stamina, hard work and much more. Giving coaching to the youth soccer is easy, if the coach knows how to motivate the players. While teaching soccer, the coach has to give examples of the popular names so as to train them by speaking to them and what they think after listening to the coach. A positive approach to the players will help them to play in the long run and strive more to win the game. Though it is not very simple to motivate the soccer players, it definitely works once this is achieved.
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July 30, 2008

Soccer Coaches: The Terrible Mistakes Which Causes the Downfall of Their Teams

Filed under: Soccer Coaching — admin @ 8:41 am

If you crave to be a soccer coach, you need to have impressive field vision and soccer skills. Conferring a winning edge to your team needs persistence, stamina and potential. Being a soccer coach, a lot of expectation piles on you, this needs to be handled. The players are not born genius who can drill, pass and goal. In fact, the coach casts his impression, his experience and his metal in the players.
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July 7, 2008

Soccer Junior Coaching: Laying The Foundation For Future Players

Filed under: Soccer Coaching — admin @ 1:38 am

Soccer is indeed one of the most esteemed games across the globe, evident from its enthusiasm amongst youngsters and fans. Youngsters aim at achieving fame in this game and for this much desired objective, soccer coaching plays the role of helping mold these youths towards their goal of soccer excellence. It is the role and responsibility of the soccer coach to elevate the spirit of these budding soccer players and instill the competitive essence of this wonderful game in them.

Here are a few tips, which may prove significant, for a soccer coach to achieve the most desirable results out of his/her training program.
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