Football

Pranay Rupani asked:


Famous lines said by “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali (he often referred to himself as the greatest and his famous opening lines for the publicity of a fight was “I am the Greatest”) for the greatest footballer Pele. Since the popularization of sport through the technology and information boom, the word great has often been overused and wasted. Any sport which had a good fan base is now shown all across the globe through satellite television or the internet. None more than football (since there are about 5 billion people following the World Cup).There is no play, no foul, no player unknown or unreported. Now a player who would be termed as good or sometimes even average is tagged as great.

None deserve the greatest tag more then Edson Arantes Do Nascimento or as we know him better Pele. The face of football, “The King”, this little black boy from Brazil changed the way football was played. The Brazilians can be credited for making the game of football “Beautiful” and giving it the title “Beautiful Game” or “Jogo Bonito” (a term first and often used by Pele). Football is not an ordinary game it is the passion and life of the Brazilians, which we see in their flamboyant and artistic play. The good players play the game well and live up to expectations, but the great players change the way the game is played and exceed expectations.

Pele made the attacking style of Football what it is today. Yet he said “The only thing I wanted to do when I began playing football was to be as good as my father.” Pele was said to have a sense of when the ball would come to him, he seemed to know when he would get it. Ball control, goal scoring ability, passing skills he had them all. Pele is the soul of football. An argument which surfaces often is his comparison to Maradona (owing to the traditional rivalry between Brazil and Argentina) and truly both are one of the finest exponents of the game.

Pele believed in fair play and equal chances, Maradona on the other hand was not the ambassador for fair play and maybe that is the difference. Maradona had the “Hand of God” to support him win the greatest prize and Pele had Garincha, Zagallo, Rivelino, Jarzinio, Vava and the greatest football team ever assembled. Not to say Maradona did not have the talent, he did but somewhere along the line greed got the better of him. As Bellinio the Captain of Brazil in the 1958 had said “We are not here for the money, we are here to win the World Cup!”

ProVFX Visual Effects and Editing School has been written by Pranay Rupani who is a Freelance Writer.



Eva

Jonathon Hardcastle asked:


Which is the greatest team sports’ event? For most US Americans the “Super Bowll” would be an easy answer. Others, mostly attracted by baseball, basketball, or hockey, would choose one of those sports’ finals or all-star games, but this is not the case for the rest of the world. Outside of the US when people say football they refer to the sport that is known as soccer in United States and which is by far the most popular sport in all of the five continents. The World Cup that takes place over a four-year period is considered as the most important athletic competition, being more widely-viewed on TV exceeding even the Olympic Games. In 2002, when North Korea and Japan co-hosted the World Cup the cumulative TV audience was estimated to be 28.8 billion, while 1.1 billion individuals watched the final match of the tournament between Brazil and Germany.

This year the World Cup takes place in Germany with the first mach between Germany and Costa Rica being scheduled on 9th of June and the last one, the final game which is going to take place one month later on the 9th of July in Berlin. Thirty-two national teams are participating in this great “party” of world soccer and they will play in a total of twelve German cities. Among the national teams, which participate 14 come from Europe, 5 from Africa, 4 from South America, 4 from Asia, 4 from North and Central America and 1 from Oceania.

Brazil is the defending Word Champion and one of the great favorites of wining the trophy this year. The Brazilians have already won the World Cup five times and are the most successful team in the competition’s history. This year, legendary coach Pareira has at his disposal some of the most talented football players of the world: Kaka, Adriano, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo and of course Ronaldinho the World Player of the Year for the last two years.

As strong contenders for the title are considered, by soccer experts and bookmakers, the team of Germany, which will play in front of its audience as the host-nation, and that of England, Argentina and Italy. In addition, the Brazilians, the French striker Thierry Henry, the Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko, the English midfielder Frank Lampard, the German midfielder Michael Ballack and the new star of the Argentinean football Lionel Messi are players one will enjoy watching.

The United States’ national team is assigned in the Group E and will face Italy, Ghana and the Czech Republic in the first stage of the tournament, giving its first game in Gelsenkirchen on the 12th of June against the Czechs. Coach Bruce Arena has his team believing that their mix of young talents such as DaMarcus Beasley and Landon Donovan and old campaigners like Claudio Reyna and Brian McBride could be enough to go further than the quarter-finals where they reached in 2002.

There are many assumptions about soccer’s low popularity in the United States, but the most convincing one seem to be the fact that the American national team didn’t have any serious accomplishments during the last years in order to attract their country’s attention and interest. The boys of Bruce Arena will have their opportunity now inside the German stadiums.



Angela

david_fagundes asked:


This year, the NE Patriots could end up 11-5 and fail to make the playoffs. Has any other 11-5 team failed to make the NFL playoffs? Even if not, what are other outstanding NFL teams that failed to make the playoffs?

Arianna

Gerry McDonnell asked:


The FA cup final is a great British tradition, like a one shot tennis rally or stitching up the Irish.

This year, the top two teams in the country will go head to head in the greatest exhibition since Lady Godiva whipped out her milk dispensers in a brave bid to flee Coventry on the back of one on the Van Nistelrooy clan.

Most bookmakers are treating this year’s showpiece as a ‘Wolverhampton brother and sister match’, they just can’t separate them.

For my money, Manchester United have a definite edge. The Red Devils have looked hotter than a vindaloo-eating, three sweater-wearing, fever-riddled Anna Kournikova all season long; the 10/11 for United to lift the trophy is practically unmissable.

I refuse to shy away from the difficult questions. Why is it that Jose Mourinho can be arrested for harbouring a potentially dangerous dog, yet Lenny Henry roams the streets with impunity? There is no greater lover of dogs than Mourinho, with the possible exception of Park Ji-Sung. I find the 9/5 for a Manchester United win in 90 minutes completely barking.

Chelsea will have their supporters at 9/5, but the vibes emanating from the Bridge are far from positive. Uncertainty surrounds the future of Lampard, and John Terry’s contract talks break down more often than my old escort. I sometimes wish that Wayne Rooney had never given me her number.

Rooney, Ronaldo and Giggs are all match-winners on their day, but Paul Scholes holds the key to a United victory. Gattuso recently suggested that Scholes likes to take his little matter into his own hands; in fairness to Gattuso, it was an educated guess from the ginger evidence. The 14/1 for a Scholes opener is my best attempt at finding value in the first goalscorer market.

Chelsea’s injury crisis may well be a blessing in disguise. As Carvalho knows only too well, Wayne Rooney has previous for walking all over a Ballack. Correct score betting is always a tough nut to crack; I’ll take a small interest in a 3-1 win for Man U at 25/1.

Gary Neville looks likely to miss the match, so referee Steve Bennett may well be the busiest person on the pitch. Bennett once sent off Tim Cahill for lifting his shirt when celebrating a goal, Ashley Cole is said to be seething with the appointment. This match will be fiery; backing a red card to be shown may pay dividends at 3/1.

The new Wembley may well be pleasing to the eye, but their prices are an absolute disgrace. Cheeseburgers are £5 and a hot dog is £4; maybe Ashley was right all along. Bookies are offering odds on the first player to be carded; Ashley Cole is worth a small punt at 14/1.

The Scottish Premier league is not so different from its English counterpart, apart from the blood alcohol level of the supporters. The in form Hearts have peaked at the business end of the season; they look a great punt at even money to see off Kilmarnock.

I’ve promised the wife a curry if the weekend accer obliges, as long as she sits opposite Chris Tarrant. Manchester United, Hearts, Rangers and Real Madrid are the selections, the payout is a spicy 22/1.



Philip

APHelp asked:


I just turned 17 a few months ago and I did a 40 yd and 1 mile run b/c some colleges ask for it when applying for D1 soccer…I can run 40yds in 4.4 seconds and 1 mile in 4min 53 sec. Is this good? How fast can professional soccer players run this?

Alfonse

Patrick Omari asked:


One of the most important positions in a soccer team, as with many team sports, is that of the goalkeeper. The primary role of the goalkeeper is to prevent the opposition team from scoring any goals. As the only player to be allowed to use their hands, the goalkeeper is also responsible for organising the defence and often beginning team attacks.

Goalkeepers, as the last line of defence, have a lot of responsibility and therefore must have specific abilities and skills. There have been numerous great goalkeepers in history, all offering different reasons why they are so effective in this position. Here we will examine what skills are required to make the best goalkeeper the soccer world has ever seen.

If you ask soccer fans who they think the best goalkeeper ever is, they will all come back with varied responses based on their nationality, club loyalties, age and football knowledge. This article will focus on the three best goalkeepers that I have seen in the last thirty years of football. Obviously, opinions will differ as I attempt to reason why these goalkeepers are the greatest.

Currently 26 years old, Czech Republic international Petr Cech is know as being one of the greatest goalies currently playing. For his club, Chelsea, Cech helped them to their first league title in fifty years in his first season. He followed this with another league title as well as taking Chelsea to their first Champions League Final in 2008.

Cech, at six foot five, is an intimidating presence in goal. As an important aspect of goalkeeping, his height is used to his advantage as he dominates the penalty area, while also being agile and an excellent shot-stopper. At 26, Cech is still yet to reach his prime as goalkeepers play well into their 30s and can even become better with age, as demonstrated by England international David James (38).

The most expensive goalkeeper ever, also one of the most expensive players, Gianluigi Buffon has represented Italy almost one hundred times. Signed by Juventus in 2001 for a record-fee of fifty-two million euros, Buffon has won four Serie A league titles as well as the FIFA World Cup for his country.

Buffon is fast approaching the best years of his career, and so people will expect to see some of his best performances for both club and country in the future. Some of his most impressive appearances have come in big games, including a dramatic late penalty save to deny Adrian Mutu in a Euro 2008 group match against Romania.

During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which Buffon’s Italy went on to win, he only conceded two goals to a Zinedine Zidane penalty and an own-goal by team-mate Cristian Zaccardo. With five clean sheets, and a 453 minute consecutive scoreless streak, Buffon was later names goalkeeper of the tournament.

At 44 years old, the finest goalkeeper of the last thirty years is the great Dane Peter Schmeichel. A relatively late-starter to achieve greatness, Schmeichel would be 27 by the time he joined Manchester United for a ridiculously small fee of half a million pounds. In the next ten years Schmeichel would cement his place as the greatest goalkeeper United would ever have.

Schmeichel represents all the aspects that make the perfect goalkeeper. Tall, intimidating and vocal, Schmeichel would berate his defenders if he felt they were risking yet another clean-sheet for him and his team. He played 129 times for his country, the most for any Dane in history, even scoring a goal. His heroics at the 1992 European Championships, turned long-shots Denmark into eventual champions and showed Schmeichel’s off to the viewing world.

This was his international highlight, although he would go on to appear in the World Cup Finals in France, 1998. However, Schmeichel’s Manchester United career would coincide with the launch of the Premier League and United’s dominance over the competition. In the eight seasons that Schmeichel played, the club would win the league title five times and finish runners-up the other three.

These achievements would not be his greatest as Schmeichel would go on to lift the UEFA Champions League title in 1999. Manchester United’s greatest ever season would be capped in Barcelona with a dramatic Champions League victory over Bayern Munich, with United clinching the treble of Premier League title, FA Cup winners and European champions (for which Schmeichel was named captain).

After leaving United in 1999, Schmeichel would go on to play top-flight football in Portugal and then after a return to England. Schmeichel retired at the end of the 2002-03 season as the greatest Premier League goalkeepers after keeping clean-sheets in almost half of his appearances.

Great goalkeepers are often the difference between a good team and a championship-winning team. These three goalkeepers are among the best ever and all have won titles to show that the goalkeeper is one of the key positions to fill to make a truly great soccer team.



Larissa

ManchesterFC asked:


I LOVE soccer and I want to pursue my dream of being a
professional or possibly national soccer player.

I’ve been playing soccer for 5 years and I think soccer is my thing.

I’m planning to play soccer in university team. Can I become a professional soccer player by joining university soccer team?

and yes… what university is good at soccer?

Alex

virgo v asked:


I’m writing a fictional book that has to do with an NFL player ,so if any one knows the answer to my question it’ll be a great help if you could tell me. Obviously I wouldn’t think that someone would know exactly for sure what they do I’m just asking for an idea. So please if your not gonna have an helpful answer, and just a rude rebuttal then just don’t answer it. Thanks.

Hailey