Freestyle Soccer : Is Performing Soccer Tricks Worthwhile In A Football Match?This question raised curiosity because people are still confused with it. Freestyler's ability to perform various combination of complex sequences of juggling and dribbling (ground) techniques makes them exciting to watch whether on the streets or through media such as internet. Nike launched freestyle campaign in the early 21st century through advertising and promoting competitions throughout the world enabling people to see the likes of Ronaldinho, Edgar Davids, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Francessco Totti, Ronaldo and others. But can freestyle football become practical to the "real" football game ? Freestyle Football Benefits Juggling and dribbling techniques is the process to improve coordination, balancing and ball control. Mastering a complex set of juggling trick requires time, dedication and patience to become an exciting freestyler. Freestyle football allows individual to express their creativity on inventing new soccer tricks either on juggling or dribbling skills. There are many dribbling tricks like the step-over that can be learned and practice. Each trick has different levels of difficulty varying from beginners to advance. Choosing and performing the right trick during a football match can be a crucial strategy. Applying these tricks require good timing and execution. Execute it perfectly and you'll gain valuable seconds or create space for your teammates in tight situations. But make a mistake and you'll allow your opposition to crawl back to their positions or you'll lose the ball thus allowing them to hit on a counter attack. Top professional football players such as Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo may have many tricks in the bag. But they only master or specialize one trick in a match known as their "trademark" trick like the famous 360-roulette, flip-flap and dummy are there to be seen. The Downside of Freestyle Football Freestyle footballer has tremendous technical ability especially ball control but may lack in other attributes that are required during a football match. Attributes are spread into three categories: 1. Physical Many leagues especially in Europe require football players to meet the in-game physical demand such as stamina, strength, balance, agility, pace, speed, acceleration and jumping 2. Mental Aggression, anticipation, bravery, creativity, decision making, determination, flair, influence, off the ball, positioning, team work and work rate 3. Technical Ball control (technique), crossing, dribbling, finishing (shooting), heading, long shots, long throws, marking, passing, taking penalties, set pieces (free kicks, corner kicks, throw-ins) and tackling Of course when you're involved in a football training or match, some coaches may discourage you from doing tricks on the pitch. Instead they focus on other factors like team spirit, team movement and tactical battle which in my opinion necessary to win a match. Is All About Playing "Beautiful" Football But who wouldn't want to see top football players displaying their brilliance on the pitch. The "beautiful game" is more about football teams winning with style rather than scrapping for victories. After all, the modern game is more about entertaining the football fans than just winning at all cost. Sadly, some teams still adopt this unhealthy mindset. Never-the-less, being able to pull-off a trick and out-maneuvering your opponent is the best feeling in the world. Finally, let's raised the "beautiful game" to another level. I would leave this article with a quote to ponder on: "Ronaldinho is technically very good, but also very strong physically. He was against three players and I could not stop him. After that goal everything ended for us" John Terry By: Heikal Suhaili From: http://www.articledashboard.com How To Improve Your Soccer Bets Using The Rateform MethodHow To Improve Your Soccer Bets is a series of articles that describe some well known and well used statistical techniques that will help the soccer punter make more informed bets. Each of the techniques has its own advantages and disadvantages and using them in isolation will improve your chances of winning. However, together they will prove invaluable in your battle with the bookies. In each article we will describe in detail how a particular method works giving you enough information for you to go ahead and create your own forecasts. We will also give you information as to where you can already find websites that use this technique in comprising their weekly forecasts. The statistical methods described in this set of articles will help you to arrive at a better decision about the match, or matches, that you are betting on. In this article we will be describing the well known Rateform method. The Rateform method has its origins in The Rating Of Chessplayers by Professor Elo, and from the Punters Revenge by Tony Drapkin and Richard Forsyth. The basis of the Rateform method is that each of the two teams taking part in a match is given a point score that is based on their current form. Although this sounds very simplistic, and it is, its calculation is a little more involved. Here are the basic rules… 1. Each team is given a point score representing their current form. 2. At the start of the season each team is given 1000 points. 3. When a match is played both teams contribute some of their points towards a kitty. 4. The home team supply more points into the kitty than the away team. This is done to reflect the home teams advantage of playing at home. 5. The winning team takes the kitty, unless the result is a draw in which case both sides share the points. In the case of a draw the away side gains points and the home side looses points. Here is how a typical calculation is made… home team points total = HTPOINTS away team points total = ATPOINTS home team contribution to kitty = HTKITTY = 7% of HTPOINTS away team contribution to kitty = ATKITTY = 5% of ATPOINTS the kitty therefore = KITTY = HTKITTY + ATKITTY if the result is a HOME WIN then home team receives KITTY points added to HTPOINTS away team receives zero points added to ATPOINTS and looses its 5% contribution to the kitty if result is an AWAY WIN then home team receives zero points added to HTPOINTS and looses its 7% contribution to the kitty away team receives KITTY points added to ATPOINTS if the result is a DRAW then home team receives KITTY / 2 points added to HTPOINTS away team receives KITTY / 2 points added to ATPOINTS Let’s look at a simple example of how you could apply this… To calculate the possible outcome of a match based on rateform the away rateform is subtracted from the home rateform and the difference is compared against set values for home, away and draw possibilities. For example we could make our set values as follows: AWAY WIN ? -250 DRAW 150 ? HOME WIN RATEFORM DIFFERENCE = HOME TEAM RATEFORM – AWAY TEAM RATEFORM So, if the RATEFORM DIFFERENCE is less than -250 then the match is likely to be an away win, if the RATEFORM DIFFERENCE is greater than 150 then the match is likely to be a home win, and if the RATEFORM DIFFERENCE lies between then the outcome is most likely to be a draw. Now it’s your turn… Of course you may choose to use different values to those shown above and by experimenting you may come up with better values to use. You could also decide not to reset each teams points to 1000 at the start of the season but instead let them carry over into the next season. Another alternative would be to have a rolling calculation where you calculate the rateform for each team on say the last six months. If you have the necessary skills you could go away and build your own spreadsheet of data or even write a piece of software to take in results and fixtures and apply the Rateform method to your data. Or, if you’re lazy like me, you could grab some free software that already does this for you. If this last option is for you then visit 1X2Monster where you can download a FREE copy of the Footyforecast 2.0 software which utilises all of the statistical methods described in this series of articles. You will also be able to download FREE weekly database updates for your software, how cool is that? Here is a list of all the articles in this series… How To Improve Your Soccer Bets Using The Rateform Method. How To Improve Your Soccer Bets Using The Footyforecast Method. How To Improve Your Soccer Bets Using The Win Draw Loss Method. How To Improve Your Soccer Bets Using The Simple Sequence Method. How To Improve Your Soccer Bets Using The Score Prediction Method. How To Improve Your Soccer Bets Using The Superiority Method. By: Malcolm Nossiter - From: http://www.articledashboard.com Soccer Is About More Than Just Playing The Game: It’s About Using The Right EquipmentBy: Dana Bradley Before a soccer player is even allowed to step out onto the soccer field, the referee does his standard check of each player to insure that he or she is wearing all of the necessary soccer gear. Shin Guards, socks, cleats, uniforms tucked in, no jewelry, and so forth. Along with the necessary gear among each of the players, the teams also need a soccer ball, a net, goalkeeper equipment, soccer bags, practice jerseys, flags, cones, etc. One of the most important parts of purchasing any type of sporting gear is to make sure that the equipment fits the player correctly, in order for it to protect the way that it is intended. For example, soccer shin guards should cover the shins up to just below the knee, with the soccer socks covering the entire shin guard. There are many different brands that carry soccer gear, so a little research and background knowledge of each company will aid in the selection of the best soccer gear for each individual player. Many of the most well known sporting and shoe companies make their own soccer gear. Nike™, Adidas™, Puma™, Umbro™, Lotto™, and Franklin™ are just a few of the leading manufacturers in soccer gear. One of the first thoughts in many consumers’ heads when it comes to buying anything is where they can get the best deal. That is okay, but it’s important to remember that quality should outlast low cost, and quality made soccer gear will keep the players safe, and playing their best. When searching for a deal on soccer gear, comparing products to one another will give the consumer a better idea of what it is that they are paying for. Looking at the materials used to make the equipment, how it fits, durability, if the gear will withstand washing, and whether or not the soccer player could actually play soccer with ease while using that particular gear, are all important factors to pay attention to. Beginners, and those who are not as familiar with the game of soccer, may not realize that there really is much to the game than a ball and a net. Other forms of soccer gear such as shin guards, cleats, uniforms, practice equipment, and so forth are just as important to the game of soccer as simply having the required ten players on each team, a ball and a net. From: http://www.articlecube.com Some amazing links:GOOGLe News : |