Slamdunk

Football fever is back with FIFA world cup 2010 on the cards. Countdown has begun for the grand celebration of world’s most popular game. A month long mega showdown pf soccer is about to kick off from 11 June 2010. 32 nations from across the globe will compete in the battle for glory and pride in 64 matches leading to the final frontier on 11 July 2010. The beautiful country of South Africa is the honored host of this football extravaganza.

The mania of FIFA world cup 2010 has driven soccer fans crazy all over the world and the air of South Africa is loaded with fumes of world’s best football skills and talent. The splendid African country seems to be a prime destination for a unique world safari at one place. With thousands of fans from different nations and millions of expected visitors, travel industry in South Africa is on acme.

Besides this, the overwhelming splendors of football and pinches of excitement make football world cup 2010, a journey to remember.
Ten glittering stadiums in nine cities of South Africa will host 64 world cup matches. All these astounding football stadiums provide an extended experience of live football. The qualified teams have been divided into eight groups of four teams each, which will compete in two stages of this event.  Read more...

In 1928 FIFA(International Federation of Association Football) President Jules Rimet desired to start an international soccer tournament. The tournament began as a simple 13 team tournament with those teams being invited by FIFA.

Over time, this event has become the most popular event in the world and has expanded to a 32 team tournament. The tournament goes well past these 32 teams however as there is now a two year qualification process including more than 200 teams world-wide.

The World Cup came about in response to a decision from the Olympics to not include soccer in the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. The Olympic committee did not believe it would be a good idea as soccer was not yet popular in the United States. FIFA responded by implementing the first World Cup Tournament in Uruguay in 1930. Uruguay went on to win this tournament, beating Argentina in the finals to become the first World Cup Champions.

Four years later the World Cup was held in Italy and was the first World Cup in which qualifications preceded the tournament. This year the field expanded to 16 teams and the popularity of the World Cup began to grow. Though things appeared to be looking up there were many problems ahead for the World Cup.  Read more...

In the days when football was played in black and white and half of the World was cut off by an iron curtain, Lev Yashin emerged as the best goalkeeper of all time. A different title to bestow considering that Yashin played in an age where football was certainly less competitive than it is today, selection for the Russian National team was largely based on political connections more than talent and he probably played no more than twenty games out of his long career in “the west”. Yet there can be no doubt that Yashin was a rare and prodigious talent, who even if he had appeared on the scene even ten years later would have been even more of a legend than he is today. Born and brought up in the austere Moscow of the nineteen thirties, Yashin signed for the famous Dinamo Moscow sports club in 1949 where he played in his famous all-black soccer uniform till he hung up his boots in 1971, During that time Yashin won the USSR league championship of the USSR five times as well as the Soviet Cup three times. Strangely enough, Yashin also played in goal for Dinamo Moscow’s ice hockey team and even won the USSR ice-hockey championship as a goalkeeper. Despite his tremendous goalkeeping skills, Yashin was only called up to the national team for the first time in 1954, and from then went on to play 78 times for his country, which was a remarkable achievement in those times, when considerably fewer internationals take place. With Yashin in between the sticks, the USSR team made it to three World Cup finals (1958, 1962 and 1966), although they were then, as today, terrible un-achievers in the final stages of the World’s most prestigious soccer tournament. However despite the USSR turning in their usual “grey performances”, with their best being fourth place in 1966, Yashin caught the eye of most of the leading European clubs with solid performances. He made four clean sheets out of all the 13 games that he played in the three World Cup finals. Rumours had it that the mighty Real Madrid were interested in bringing Yashin to the Bernabeu, however the powers that be in Russian sport were not prepared to consider that the “black spider” would practice his trade on the other side of the iron curtain. Although the USSR team always did relatively poorly in the World Cup, with Yashin in goal they did win the 1956 Olympics soccer gold as well as the inaugural 1960 European championships. The Russian victory was not such a big achievement, as just 17 teams entered the tournament with West Germany and Italy refusing to take part, and Spain withdrawing rather than travel to Moscow to play in the second leg of the knockout stages. The finals, held in Paris, were a four team affair and Russia won a typically “iron curtain” final 2-1 after extra time against Yugoslavia Lev Yashin is particularly remembered in the Western world for his outstanding performance in the 1963 FA Centenary match. Yashin was picked out to play in goal for the ‘Rest of the World XI’ against the England team at Wembley Stadium. The crowd looked on in wonder as Yashin made a number of the breathtaking unbelievable saves. Largely on the back of this single performance Lev Yashin became the only goalkeeper ever to win the European Footballer of the Year Award in 1963.

Did you know which team hosted and won the first ever FIFA world Cup? It was Uruguay and the year was 1930. Its next win had been in the year 1950 where they beat Brazil to take the cup home. It’s been 60 years and Uruguay hasn’t had any World Cup Win. The other tournaments in which this team has made significant impact include the FIFA Considerations Cup Tournament in the year 1997. This tournament was hosted in Saudi Arabia and Uruguay managed to finish 4th. The FIFA ranking list currently ranks Uruguay in the 19th spot. Out of the 40 Copa America tournaments in which Uruguay participated, they managed to win 14. The first competed in this tournament in the year 1916. However Uruguay is once again participating in FIFA World Cup in this year.

The national football team of Uruguay is called by 3 nicknames. The names are “Charnias”, “La Celeste Olympica” and “La Celeste”. Oscar Tabarez currently dons the cap of the head coach of this team. He has the experience of coaching the football teams of South America and Europe since the last 30 years. Before taking up this position as the Uruguay national team’s football coach, he had been coaching Boca Juniors, an Argentinean Club, for 4 years. In the Uruguayan football history, the player who achieved the record of donning the maximum number of caps is Rodolfo Rodrigiues. He played a total of 79 matches in a span of 10 years. He was the goalkeeper of the team. The highest scoring Uruguayan footballer is Hector Scaone. He has played a total of 52 matches and has scored 32 goals. He had taken the position of the manager of the Real Madrid football club for a couple of years as well.  Read more...

Soccer enthusiasts and historians will argue that there are many great soccer players who have graced the World stage over the last half century, Maradona, Di Stefano, Puskas and Ronaldo to name but a select few. However, if it came down to a consensus, there would be an agreement that the greatest player to play soccer would be none other than Edison Arantes do Nascimento; known to everyone who ever kicked a ball as Pele.  Read more...

Three of the four soccer uniforms on display at Wembley Stadium for the F.A Cup semi-finals were decided over the weekend. Chelsea, Portsmouth and Aston Villa are sure to be there while Tottenham and Fulham will fight it out for the last place in a replay after drawing 0-0 in their quarter-final.

Both Chelsea and Fulham had comfortable 2-0 wins over Stoke City and Birmingham City respectively but the match of the round was Aston Villa’s come from behind 4-2 victory away at Reading who had previously knocked Liverpool out of the F.A. Cup. Reading went into the half-time break with a deserved 2-0 lead but after a blast from manager Martin O’Neill during the break, Villa knocked in four second half goals including a hat-trick from Norwegian international striker John Carew. “We were struggling in the first half and the gaffer told us some serious words at the break,” said the Norwegian. “I won’t go into what he said but you can see on the pitch what happened.”  Read more...

Fabio Capello to Coach Russia? Fabio Capello has been approach by representatives of the Russian F.A. sounding him out on a potentially lucrative contract to coach the Russian team after the World Cup.

Such a move would see him double his yearly salary. While Capello is under contract with England until 2012 he was still willing to meet with representatives during the recent Chelsea match against Manchester City. Sources suggest that Capello is unhappy with the media intrusion that seems to be undermining the England World Cup campaign with John Terry and Ashley Cole the latest to be put under the media spotlight.  Read more...

To be selected as for a soccer ball such worldwide-type rivalry, the ball should fulfill some requirements. The organization operates started up balls through 1963 and today Adidas is actually a top organization for their development. Champion right now is Jabulani, the new Official Fifa World cup 2010 match ball.

Checks have been conducted in the Adidas Innovation Team (A.I.T) from the most rigorous laboratory environments. Later the sphere is granted to soccer teams and then expert competitors to check out the football stadium. One of the leading associations inside the planet – the Sports Technology Investigation Team in the University of Loughborough have furthermore conducted analysis. Each assessments executed proved that Jabulani Adidas holds a good flight and also is more spherical compared to any other ball in numerous contests.

Good quality requirements, which was created from FIFA, to ensure the greatest norm to the best competitors at the most well-liked sporting occasion. All assessments accomplished by Loughborough University and Adidas football laboratory in Scheinfeld confirm that Official Fifa World cup 2010 match ball not just meets, and is actually much better when compared with all of the requirements! The tests which are made are: Circumference Test, H2o Absorption Analyze, Permanent Roundness Analyze. All of them, the Official Fifa World cup 2010 match ball meets the worldwide degree!

Circumference Analyze: To be able to accomplish ideal outcomes in preserving or dribble to estimate the common circumference of every single ball, as tested on 10 distinct points.  Read more...

When you participate in soccer training, you will find that you are introduced to many different types of methods of play. One of the most important aspects of your soccer training regime is learning the basics of kicking the soccer ball. In this article, we will explore the general kicks for soccer training so that you may develop an understanding of them. It is important to know that the kicks that are performed in a soccer training session are based on where the soccer ball is positioned, and how the ball comes in contact with your body. There are two types of kicks in soccer training that are essential to know. These are the volleys and the ground kick.

The volleys kick is a type of kick that will require some strategic thinking. These kicks are done while the ball is off of the ground. This means that a person must practice balancing techniques. Furthermore, it is important to make certain that you are the right distance from the soccer ball when attempting a volley kick. If you do not have the proper balance and are not distanced appropriately from the soccer ball, the kick will be unsuccessful. Many injuries occur on the soccer field when a volley kick is not initiated appropriately.  Read more...

Selecting the right soccer ball boils down to choosing the size and construction of the ball based on the player’s age and league requirements. The younger the player, the smaller the ball in most cases. Cost is also a big factor in selecting the correct soccer ball. Synthetic-leather balls are the most expensive and basic rubber-type soccer balls cost the least. Leather is no longer the favorite choice of soccer ball coverings because leather absorbs more moisture than synthetic soccer balls. A wet leather ball gets heavier over time and becomes much slower in play.

There are three basic categories of soccer balls. Match soccer balls used in professional international matches meet all Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) requirements and are imprinted with the organization’s logo on the ball. They are also the most expensive type of soccer ball. In the middle range are the competition balls used in college and high school competition. Recreational and training balls fill are the least expensive.

Most soccer balls are made of blends of polyurethane (PU), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and common rubber or nylon. The best and most expensive PU balls feel like leather and are very firm, durable and water-resistant. The PVC balls are also very durable but are not as soft and responsive as the PU-blend balls. Common rubber and nylon balls can present a real value because they cost the least and last the longest. Although the rubber and nylon soccer balls lack the feel of match balls, they are fine for practice and training.  Read more...