Motivation | The formula for player confidence

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The long awaited African inauguration of the biggest show on earth, the FIFA 2010 World Cup, will be contested by the international giants of football at ten venues spread across the “Rainbow Nation”. Nine South African cities will open their hearts and minds to an anticipated armada of footie fans, with the economic capital of the country, Egoli “City of Gold”, best known as Johannesburg, hosting both the opening and closing battles for world football supremacy at two different venues.

Whichever way you look at it, Pep Guardiola’s first season in charge at Barcelona has been a phenomenal success. On Wednesday, he became the youngest manager to ever lead a team to Champions League success, and in doing so, he rounded off the Spanish treble: the La Liga title, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League in one season. Not bad for a 38-year-old manager who is currently managing his first ever professional side.

In late April, it was announced in Italy that Serie A is to split from Serie B to form the new ‘Lega Calcio Serie A’; a move that displays glaring similarities to the formation of the English Premier League in 1992. Italian football has not exactly steered clear of controversy over the past few years; 2006 saw the latest of a series of scandals in which Serie A champions Juventus were relegated to Serie B as punishment for match-fixing.

Next season’s UEFA Europa League matches will be the first to trial new a ‘five officials’ scheme, with two extra assistant referees, one behind each goal. The proposed system, which has already been trialled at under-19 level, involves the use of the additional officials to help referees with decisions such as penalties and handballs, as well as making it easier to determine whether the ball has crossed the goal-line or not.

Both Everton and Liverpool plan to build new stadiums. But in the current economic climate some believe one shared stadium would be best for the city, and also help secure Liverpool as a venue for a future World Cup. Fans of both clubs would be loathe to share and also sad to leave their present historic homes.

Two deals that have already shocked the footballing world were made by the same Spanish league football club, Real Madrid. Over the past five seasons, the Sky 4 English clubs (Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal) have all dominated the European football scene. Liverpool (winners 2005, runners up 2007), Arsenal (finalists 2006), Manchester Utd (winners 2008, finalists 2009) and Chelsea (finalists 2008) show their strength in the competition. So it really comes as a shock that Real Madrid, who last won the Champions League way back in 2002 are able to outlay these two massive record breaking fees within a week.

With the US Confederations Cup Roster set, Coach Bradley faces many decisions regarding his lineup and how to prepare his players for Brazil, Italy, and Egypt. It is conceivable that playing against great competition could result in a three and out series. After struggling to perform at a mediocre level against both El Salvador and Costa Rica, the USMNT must utilize these games as a barrometer for evaluating their level against World Cup Worthy opponents. What formation will Coach Bob Bradley deploy against the physical Italians and skillful Brazilians.

The Confederations Cup organized by the official football federation after the four years. There are eight teams that participate in confederations cup from all around the world. The eight teams divided into two groups.

Penalty kicks are a decidedly cruel format for deciding championships. Quite often the team who performed best over the 90 minutes go home empty handed because the opposing team had the better penalty takers.

Five Champions’ League semi-finals in the past six years. As Chelsea’s newly appointed manager, Carlo Ancelotti, pointed out in his first interview, that is a wonderful achievement. However, it clearly isn’t quite good enough. The fact that those five semi-finals have only resulted in one ill-fated final appearance must be a source of incredible frustration for Chelsea’s billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich, and the club’s supporters – although a little less so for them, perhaps.

The 2008-2009 season is barely finished but Barca is already on the move for some new signings. Calalan giants are looking to add 3 to 5 new names to their list.

It was quite a season, 2008/09, with possibly the tightest challenge for the title in many a year. Even the battle for relegation was tight for up to ten clubs until the last few weeks of the season, and few would have predicted that outcome at the beginning of August 2008. So, here is a quick premier league review of season 08-09.