The Christmas Tree

The World cup has been the tournament of 4-2-3-1 which Spain adopted against Germany and stopped trying to squeeze Fernando Torres and David Villa into the same side, fiddled with the line of three, pulling Xavi back and pushing Andres Iniesta and Pedro forward so it almost becomes 4-2-1-3, which seems to be the route club football is taking.Argentina did have a creative, deep-lying midfielder in their squad, but Maradona seduced by the firepower on show in his all new Tevez-Messi-Higuain attack, elected to leave Veron on the bench for the quarterfinal...

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FIFA Ranking

World Cup champion Spain stayed at the top of FIFA's world rankings on Wednesday, and Germany and England have risen after back-to-back wins in European Championship qualifiers.The new rankings have France, which lost a home Euro 2012 qualifier to Belarus, dropping six places to No. 27 - its worst position since the rankings were introduced in 1993.Spain's 4-1 loss to Argentina in a friendly last week meant its lead narrowed over the second-place Netherlands. Germany is No. 3, and Brazil dropped to No. 4.Argentina stayed at No. 5, with England...

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Wow! Great Weekend

Legacy Park, Lee's Summit - September 3-6 2010Finalists Boys U13 DIIMaybe one day, we will play our age group and win a tournament. I chose Fall Brawl because I thought that would be a good tournament for us. Of course, the club asked us to play up because they told me that it would be too easy for us to play U12. It was too late for me to find another tournament so we ended up to play U13 boys and 11 vs 11.That was the first time, we played on...

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Are Formations a top priority?

Soccer, just like anything else goes through phases, evolving and changing over time. One clear aspect is the debate over formations and systems of play used in modern day soccer. Have you found yourself asking the question, "should I play a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3? I know I have but at the end of day that is not the top priority. There are a tons of books, videos and coaching courses geared toward understanding the details, nuances of various systems and formations. It is important to know the difference, their strengths and weaknesses at the highest level....

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Teaching the love of the Game

Coaches occupy multiple roles in children's lives as sport participants. Coaches must be excellent instructors so that youths learn and improve skills, increase knowledge of strategies and tactics and achieve their goals. Coaches also can inspire children to maintain motivation for participating in sports.We need to get all involved:Coaches, parents, peers (teammates, close friends) => perceived competence => Enjoyment & Motivation.I want to thanks the Owen for the party on Saturday. I will continue to motivate athletes by teaching them...

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Soccer in America

Jurgen Klinsmann, who lives in the US, had his comments on the state of US Soccer both present and future and didn't mince words."Looking at the game yesterday you had three really quality players that did not live up to their expectations, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard. They were not there. It was not their game last night and if they do not step up to the world stage then you cant expect Michael Bradley and the other ones to pull it all off. I think its really important that they lay out a philosophy for US Soccer and say where...

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Tryouts

Force Soccer AcademyJune 19 - Stoll Park Field E 1-3pmNeed players for:U10 girls - New teamU13 girls - few leftU14 girls - few leftU15 girls - few leftwww.kcforcesoccer....

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KC Fans

Laurent Denis has no such qualms.A native of Bordeaux (like the wine), he married a woman from Kansas City and moved here in 1995. Just three years later, he was at Le Fou Frog watching the French national team win the World Cup title by crushing Brazil 3-0 in Paris.“We had a bunch of friends screaming and waving flags,” Denis said, “and I painted my face.”To be fair, he only put the French flag on each cheek.Denis, who coaches the Force Soccer Academy, believes the World Cup is a great time for young players to learn from the best.“I’ve been coaching...

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Kansas City fans who support soccer teams from other lands are excited for World Cup to begin - KansasCity.com

Kansas City fans who support soccer teams from other lands are excited for World Cup to begin - KansasCity....

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WAKA WAKA - This Time for Africa - by Shakira - South Africa 2010 World ...

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World Cup

Here’s the full ESPN World Cup 2010 TV schedule, image captured and pasted from this ESPN press release:...

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Elevate Game awareness

Do your kid watch enough soccer to elevate us to the next level as a soccer playing nation? Most of our kids started to play as early as age 5. Most typically play recreational with friends and dad's coach. The better players move on and play for clubs, high schools and colleges. However, our kids spend a little, if any, time watching top-level soccer. This developmental path leads to certain generic strenghs and weaknesses in our player development. In general, the strengths of our players are that they are athletic and technically good and they...

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Soccer in America

How do we measure player development? Too often in America, a professional sport model is used in measuring youth sports success. Youth soccer is not immune to this misapplied standard. For soccer the situation is made worse by a desire of many adults to use measuring tools from other sports. In fact, it is maddening to many adults that soccer is not as black and white as with some sports in judging successful play. Many team sports played in our nation are statistically driven and coach centered. Soccer is neither of those! In many sports the...

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What makes a great coach?

So everyone knows that I am great! Wow, that is a good start! I watched last night Lyon vs Real Madrid. The Real is the most expensive roster in the world and guess what? They lost against Lyon! After all, it made me think about team and coaches. You can have the best players in the world and be incapable of making them play together. The great coaches understand that coaching in not only Xs and Os (technical skill) but much more. They have durability, determination, resilience, energy, intuition and passion. A coach has also to have a vision....

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Passion

Is there anyone reading my blog? Is there anyone who can tell me why are we pushing our kids in sports so much? Knowing that 70% of America’s children are abandoning organized sports by age 13.And in addition, soccer is not the first sport! Now, if I am talking about my own kids, there is one who runs all the time and he is having fun. He is a very good athlete and performs all the time. Why? Because he is having fun… The oldest one, she is physically strong, could be a great soccer player but efforts equal pain. I went for a jugging with her and...

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Talent vs Teamwork

The one of the teachings more marked of this CAN 2010, this is the chronic inability of the French-speaking countries of Black Africa (Ivory Coast, Cameroon), to play as a team. One there finds nevertheless the better individualities of the Continent but that forms only an addition of players gifted. Not a collective one. And as often by the past, that was not enough against teams with less provided in pure talent but animated with a state of mind and of a superior collective force. To be honest, I didn't enjoy winning our D1! It scared me...

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1v1 situation

It is no secret that one of the most important situation during a soccer game is the 1 v. 1 matchup. During the course of a game, attackers have to decide whether to beat an opponent by dribbling past him or her, or passing the ball, while defenders try to prevent opponent to get near the goal and score. To be effective in the 1v1 situation each player must have a good overall technical and tactical understanding. In many cases the outcome of a game is a direct result of the various 1v1 opportunities the team is able to win. Coaching youth soccer...

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Cooking vs Coaching

What is the major difference between a chef and a cook? Some people will say, experience, knowledge and talent. I will say feelings! A chef has to look at his ingredients and try to make the best of it. Each ingredients are different. Each seasons, ingredients have different flavors.You take a lemon in December or June, they will be a different but it is still a lemon! Coaching is like cooking, you have some ingredients and you have to try to make the best Mayonnaise possible! Some days, your ingredients won’t play correctly and you have to try...

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