Bayer 04 Leverkusen – VfL Wolfsburg 0-2 | Highlights | Matchday 10 – Bundesliga 2021/22

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It was a magnificent game of football from start to end but the pace and power of Liverpool prevailed in the end. Arsenal were irresistible in the beginning and they rightly took the lead through Abou Diaby following some wonderful play involving Alex Hleb, Mathieu Flamini, Cesc Fabregas, Emmanuel Adebayor and Emmanuel Eboue as when Diaby finally got a pass from Hleb and hit a shot that beat Beppe Reina on his near side.

It seems every man and his dog has started a soccer school. From the next door neighbor to ex football players and almost everyone in between.

One of the real underrated pleasures of being a sports fan is having a close friend with opposing team loyalties. You love the Red Sox, he loves the Yankees; you live and die with Real Madrid, he is all about Barca; you are Brazil through and through, and for some dang reason the guy has a man-crush on Lionel Messi. If all of your friends support your team, how can you give a postgame in-your-face telephone call, and who can you annoy by wearing your team’s jersey to his family barbecue?

My boys and I came up with a game one afternoon after watching the World Cup that still is a big favorite of theirs. Kids like to shoot and score, and this game is all about shooting and scoring. They just call it “Penalty Kicks.”

This is a true story that happened to me as a soccer parent. I have two boys playing soccer right now, Donovan & Deven. I usually try to switch off coaching their teams from season to season since they are in different age groups and they both want Dad to coach them up.

Being a great youth soccer coach is not rocket science. You can do it, but you might need a bit of help to get off on the right foot. I’ve made plenty of mistakes over the years as a coach. Most of them weren’t fatal, but having a good understanding of the most common mistakes and how to avoid them will help you have much more fun as you develop your own winning team of soccer studs.

This morning, whilst wading through my daily intake of news and sports, I came across an interesting article. This particular news piece, found in the BBC’s football pages, raised a question that I myself have been asking for some time, and until now, with few conclusions. The question is essentially very simple; why have Premier League clubs become so dominant…

It is quite remarkable how Liverpool of recent can be just above average in the premiership with them consistently being so far away from the league leaders in terms of points and head to head records but can be so consistent in the champions league. Supporters of Liverpool would tell you that Rafa Benitez has mastered European football and his rotation policy has worked out well in terms of champions league as his players are less tired at this time of the season.

Having seen the performance of Middlesboro against Manchester United on Saturday, highlights of their game against Chelsea and then how they played against Arsenal, it just made me wonder how they can be in such a low position in the league. Against Manchester United they performed better than Roma managed to and it was not as if United played poorly, Middlesboro just played extremely well and could have won the game in the end.

It is slapstick to think that this can happen as Cardiff has always played in the English league. If they did qualify for the premiership and finish ion the top 4, does that mean they would not be allowed to represent England? It makes you wonder why they have been trying hard to qualify for the premiership all this while and why different chairmen have been trying to invest in them to attain that aim.

Some might say that to be successful you need lots of money and it does not matter who is in charge of the club, as long as there is finance then that club would be successful. This is may be true in most cases but you also need to have someone competent in charge of your club for the success to be almost guaranteed.

One of the real trends taking place in US Soccer now is a renewed focus on developing technical skills. The ability to run at a defender and beat him off the dribble will cause all kinds of chaos for the defense.