Mes: diciembre 2021

Facts about soccer can be very interesting especially to the soccer fans that are dying to have better knowledge about the game. The game is adored by millions and millions of people in the world. Football is a very interesting sport, thus, it is best to know some facts and trivia on this widely known contact game. A lot of its fans claim that this game is their favorite sport, but if you ask them about some facts on the sport they cannot provide answers. There are a lot of football facts that fans, enthusiasts and even players can discover.

Soccer facts are helpful in understanding and appreciating the most watched and most played contact sport in the world. Knowing such facts makes a lot of difference to a fan or player. The fans then will not just settle for cheering and yelling for their favorite team. Instead, they will begin advocating the real essence of each game. One fact, playing the game with a great deal of dedication and sportsmanship, is an essential principle that can change the way a player perceives the sport. Knowledge is indeed power. It makes a player, whether pro or amateur, more appreciative of the game. It makes the player see beyond winning.

Facts about soccer are very helpful in molding future soccer stars. It is best that these aspiring youngsters know the origin of the game, the famous teams through the years as well as all the strategies to gain useful insights. These facts can provide a new avenue for players, fans and coaches to empower themselves and put a better direction to their soccer dreams.

On Sunday, the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia reached a grand finale with France hoisting the coveted gold trophy after beating Croatia 4-2. And soon the new season of the English Premier League will kick off as are other leagues in Europe. For soccer lovers, these are exciting times!

What is of more interest to me though is how all the transnational players that ply their trade in these lucrative leagues communicate effectively. I mean how do their coaches manage to get the message across on the training field to all these players of different nationalities? Could it be that a player that speaks many languages has more chances for success in these cutthroat competitive leagues than those who don’t?

Multilingualism gives one an edge over others

Oh yes, multilingualism gives one an edge over others. Arsene Wenger who was at the helm of Arsenal FC for 22 years became hugely successful not only because of his coaching nous but also because of his ability to speak many languages. Monsieur Wenger speaks six languages fluently: French, English, Japanese, German, Italian and Spanish. This ability helped him to transmit his ideas clearly and easily to the players who could not speak English. For example, when he signed Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona in 2003, the latter didn’t speak or understand a word of English. Thus Wenger always interacted with him in Spanish. He also encouraged him to learn English and by the time Fabregas left the club, he was bilingual; very fluent in English and Spanish.

Wenger’s realization that the ability to speak many languages helps players to bond and understand the world and football philosophy better saw him advocate for language learning in Arsenal’s youth setup. The benefits from this quickly spilled over so much that everyone knows about the «Arsenal way», which is basically about Arsenal’s synergy; Arsenal players having a bond akin to one close family as well allowing their feet to speak a language of their own on the field by playing quick, beautiful and aesthetic football that is hard to imitate.

Also the fact that football managers and players that are multilingual have been hugely successful wherever they have plied their trade shows that speaking many languages is a huge plus. For example, Pep Guardiola who has been very successful in Spain, Germany and England as a manager speaks German, English, Catalan, Spanish and Italian. Jose Mourinho who is also one of the most successful football managers speaks Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and English fluently.

Cristiano Ronaldo who has four times won the Fifa Ballon d’Or as the best player in the world speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English, whereas Manchester United star Romelu Lukaku who was born in Belgium but has Congolese roots is fluent in six languages: Dutch, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Swahili.

All these coaches and players are hugely successful because their ability to speak many languages helps them to easily receive and internalize messages. It gives them that extra edge and boosts their confidence. They can easily settle into many geographical realms and feel at home, thanks to their ability to easily interact with the natives of those areas.

As people continue to intermarry and travel, being multilingual becomes a necessary skill that comes with many opportunities. Moreover, many countries today have more than one official national language, thus those unable to communicate in at least two or more major languages such as English, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic or Hindi, will soon be left behind in a world that gets more complex and competitive with every passing day. However, translation companies have also kicked in to save the day with services like Somali translation services, Yoruba translation Services, Malagasy translation services, Africa Conference Interpreters among many others.

FC Barcelona travelled down to Villarreal on Saturday night for week 21 of this season’s Spanish League. The «yellow submarines» as they are known to their fans are way down at the bottom of the table in the relegation zone and things have not been looking too good for them. Out of 19 matches played prior to meeting Barcelona they had won just four, with seven draws and eight losses.

In comparison, FC Barcelona had 13 wins, with five draws and just a single loss. Also take a look at the number of goals: just 18 for Villarreal compared with Barcelona’s 59. Therefore on paper, it should have been an easy win for Barcelona, whose morale should have been high after eliminating Real Madrid from the Copa del Rey during the week.

However, football isn’t about stats and it isn’t fought on paper; it’s what happens on the pitch that counts and in the event, there were few real chances to score. Villarreal’s goalkeeper seemed to be in good form when Barcelona were on target, and the defence of the yellow submarines was solid, so creating those opportunities was tough. The first half offered few opportunity for Barça, and while Villarreal did create several chances to attack the Barcelona goal nothing ultimately came of it.

When the teams came out of the second half Villarreal were looking slightly more urgent, but it was Barcelona who controlled the play. However, despite having high possession of the ball, they were unable to do anything with it that counted. It wasn’t really until the last ten minutes of the match that Barça had some good opportunities to score and it looked like they would take the three points. However, it just didn’t happen and the match ended goalless.

The result was disappointing for Barcelona, who were already trailing Real Madrid by five points. With Real Madrid winning their match on Saturday it now leaves Barcelona seven points behind and it’s starting to look as if la liga is out of their reach. While theoretically they aren’t out of the race, it’ll take some poor results from Madrid to turn that around for them. It remains to be seen whether misfortune will strike Madrid so hard. While their first match against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey quarter final was won comfortably by Barcelona, the return leg was nowhere near so close and in fact Barcelona was lucky to draw 2-2 and qualify; now that they are out of contention for the Copa del Rey, Madrid’s focus can remain on the domestic and European trophies.

Sri Lanka ended the first day of the third test against Sri Lanka, at 293/4. Samaraweera on 75 not out represents the main threat to India’s well being, on day two. He has company in Mathew. Batting on 26, Mathew has been at the wicket long enough to have gauged it.

So unless the batsmen do something silly, or the bowlers bowl exceedingly well, the scoreboard seems to weigh in Sri Lanka’s favour. But on a wicket that had a little more help for bowlers than the pitch in the 2nd test match at the SSC ground, neither side can be said to have a definite advantage, at this stage.

Sri Lanka will be looking to take the total to 450 and beyond. India will try and keep Sri Lanka down to less than 400. The funny thing about most international cricket played these days is that nobody, neither the expert commentators nor the curator, knows exactly how the wicket is going to behave.

So when the batsmen dominate the bowlers, should we give credit to the batsmen, or say the bowlers did a bad job, or that the wicket was unhelpful? A clue could be found in the manner of dismissals. A soft dismissal, or in other words a wicket that wasn’t deserved by the bowler, often indicates a change in fortunes.

To that extent, Dilshan’s needless run out on the last ball before lunch would qualify. But thereafter, neither Sangakkara nor Mahela J had much trouble negotiating the bowling. Notwithstanding the odd Ojha delivery beating the bat. Then came Sangakkara’s dismissal. Definitely, a soft dismissal. From a position of relative comfort at 102/1, Sri Lanka were 157/3. This is where Indian bowlers should have come to the party and didn’t. So, if we assume that the wicket was helpful, we must blame the bowlers.

Looking at the big picture, we see that as many as three top order batsmen lost their wickets when they were set. They went for fifties and failed to make hundreds that were there for the asking. That must be a consolation for India. Because they have got 4 top order batsmen out, and an early wicket in the morning could help dismiss Sri Lanka before lunch.

Rahul Dravid has not made many runs in this series and he is due for a big one. India will need all the grafting they can muster if as the experts would have us believe there is something in this wicket for bowlers. So this could be ‘advantage India’ if they manage to see the Sri Lankan innings to its end by lunch.

From Sri Lanka’s point of view, the LBW shouts on the day should mean good news, as Mendis has the ability to make the ball skid. No matter what the Indian batsmen say about having sorted Mendis out, the fact remains that he got 4 wickets in the last Indian innings, and India have lost 30 wickets in three innings.

So the longer Sri Lanka bat, the bigger the worries for the Indian batsmen. Is it just me, or does everyone see something funny in the way India get lucky with the toss when they play at home, and Sri Lanka get lucky likewise when they are the hosts.

The nature of wickets in both countries is similar. Yet, the batsmen of both teams, champions at home, seem to flounder when they play at the rival’s grounds, if it is not 100% batsman friendly. Is it the crowd support for the hosts, or some psychological aspect of the tourists that makes this happen?

After a highly successful first season under new manager Carlo Ancelotti, in which the Blues completed their first ever Premier League winners and FA Cup winners double, there were naturally high expectations for the 2010-11 season. The Blues were many peoples favourite to win the Premier League title again.

Chelsea started the season as they had finished the last, in emphatic style, as the beat West Brom 6-0 with Didier Drogba scoring a hat-trick. The Blues looked cohesive and composed and the following week they recorded another 6-0 victory away at Wigan, winning their first five consecutive Premier League games, by the end of October Chelsea had won eight of the first ten League games, including a victory against Arsenal, and they were showing great form, even at this stage, many thought they would easily retain the Premier League title they had won the season before.

Unfortunately the Blues lost their way in the November following injuries to John Terry and Frank Lampard and the many attributed their sudden loss of form to the unexpected departure of assistant coach Ray Wilkins who left the club at the beginning of November. Achieving only two victories from their next eleven games, saw Chelsea endure their worst run of form for over ten seasons, which included a 0-3 home defeat against Sunderland.

January saw the arrival of £50 million Fernando Torres from Liverpool, which became a record transfer fee for a player between two English clubs. Unfortunately it wasn’t the dream move that everyone had hoped for as his poor form which he experienced at Liverpool continued at Chelsea. Torres only scored one goal and often seemed to struggle with the Blues formations and style of play, often cutting a lonely figure on the pitch.

By the time Chelsea faced Manchester United at the beginning of March they could have fallen 15 points behind the Reds in the race for the title, but a heroic second half performance saw the Blues secure a dramatic 2-1 victory. Seven wins from their next eight league games saw Chelsea make a late push for title glory, which would have secured one of the most dramatic Premier League titles in recent history. Defeat against United at Old Trafford brought their amazing run to an end and sealed their fate of finishing in second place in the league.

Chelsea were also beaten by Manchester United in the Champions League quarter finals, a defeat that effectively sealed the fate of manager Carlo Ancelotti, and he was sacked moments after the final game of the season against Everton

The Blues will now search for a new coach and look to rebuild their squad for next season and speculation on the future of some of the teams older players will also be in focus, as Chelsea will again strive for domestic honours and the elusive Champions league glory.

«Los Galacticos» means the stars. When we talk about it, automatically we talk about one of the biggest clubs in Europe, Real Madrid FC. The term referred to that club about 4 or 5 years ago because it consisted of a lot of stars or great players. Those stars were in the shapes of Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo. Madridistas or Real Madrid supporters used to name them «Los Galacticos I» but nowadays there are «Los Galacticos II» with different stars. Although both of them consists of a lot of great players but I think it’s quite difficult for them to match the achievement of «Los Galacticos I». Here are my reasons why I say so.

First of all, The stars in Real Madrid now are relatively new in Spanish football so they still have to make some adjustments. For example, Ricardo Kaka, we know that he is a great playmaker when he played for AC Milan in Italy. He played as a central figure in Milan’s midfield. However, Spanish football and Italian football are two different leagues and they have different styles of football. I think so far, Kaka and also many other new stars haven’t shown their best forms in Real Madrid.

Next, so far they haven’t been able to play well as a unit or as a team. They do score a lot of goals but I think many of the goals come from the stars’ individual skills. Take a look at Cristiano Ronaldo’s goals. Many of his goals come from free kicks or long-range shots, his special skill.

All in all, Even though Real Madrid stars are now named «Los Galacticos II», these stars are still unable to match with the stars of Real Madrid 4 or 5 years ago in terms of achievement and the way of play. They still have to work hard to prove that they deserve to be called as «Los Galacticos II».