Manchester United’s Dominance Continuied – Get Helpful Info

Posted by pfauthor on February 24th, 2009 under Soccer News  •  No Comments

How about this for dribble.

I am 54 years old & been a supporter all my life. When I was a boy you went to the match, and even the pro footballers got payed an average wage or less. The only thing that hindered or helped the club was the fitness of the players, and the quality of the training. Now look!

Manchester United’s dominance of English football, on and off the pitch, is underlined today with the release of a financial survey that shows a £45m leap in United’s year-on-year income. Thanks in large part to last season’s Premier League and Champions League double, United’s turnover grew by 21 per cent in the 2007-08 season to £257.1m.

Manchester United is by far the highest earning club in Britain, ahead of Chelsea (in second place, income £212.9m in the same period), Arsenal (£209.3m) and Liverpool (£167m).

The figures are the latest form the Football Money League report by Deloitte, it shows Real Madrid remain the world’s richest club, ahead of United in second, then Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Chelsea.

Only a drastic slump in the value of the pound has prevented United from the title of world’s richest club from Real. Real Madrid’s income for 2007-08 rose four per cent to, £289.6m when converted at the June 2008 exchange rate of £1 = 1.2632 euros.

The same exchange rate as in their previous report (£1 = 1.4856 euros, from June 2007), United’s latest income would have been 381.9m euros against Real’s 365.8m euros.

United will provide more details of their
results in due course, including data on large profits, but Chelsea are expected to remain conspicuously quiet this week about their own results.

A press conference and briefing, scheduled for Friday, has been indefinitely shelved, and it is understood that this is partly because of the sacking of Luiz Felipe Scolari. His pay-off, of around £7.5m, would not have been in the 2007-08 accounts but would have prompted embarrassing questions about Chelsea’s huge and ongoing losses.

An annual loss of £74.8m in 2006-07 on turnover of £190.5m meant the club had posted cumulative losses of £384m in four years. Haemorrhaging of money at such levels has always heaped ridicule on the long-standing claims of Chelsea’s chief executive, Peter Kenyon, that the club can break even by 2010. Yet further losses in the tens of millions are expected in the 2007-08 figures. And combined with the latest change in manager
and wobble in form (and the financial ramifications of both) any suggestions of financial self-sufficiency soon are hollow jokes, as, increasingly, are Kenyon and Roman Abramovich themselves.

As the Deloitte report points out, Chelsea’s annual income growth of 12 per cent (£22.4m) in 2007-08 was driven mainly by increased TV cash, but the club needs new successes with its match day and commercial revenues to deliver future growth and keep pace with its biggest European rivals.

See what I mean it’s all about the money, But the true fans want it all to be about the skill.

Want to experience the virtual football drive – get yourself a cheap PlayStation 3.

Kids Fun Soccer Drills – How To Keep Your Players Interested In Training

Posted by pfauthor on February 19th, 2009 under Soccer Training  •  No Comments

Keeping your players happy about doing training is one of the key ingredients in maintaining enthusiasm. Establishing a set of fun soccer drills for kids is a challenge for many coaches and one of the key ingredients is coming up with drills which keep them interested.

Just doing goal shooting drills will soon become boring and won’t be effective in nurturing a young players overall skills. Competitive drills pitting players against each other are great for refining skills such as dribbling, receiving and passing.

One on one or two on four drills don’t become boring and in fact, take the boredom out of their training. It also encourages both competitive and team spirit and is very effective in keeping a player focused on developing individual skills.

Kids Fun Soccer Drills

In this article, we highlight a couple of soccer drills which incorporate what we’ve mentioned above.

– Drills where you pit one player against two or more are a great way to develop both the balance of a young player and their competitive nature. Ideally, for inexperienced players, putting two players are against four is preferred.

– Simply place the larger number of players around a made up perimeter of about 30 feet and then put the two other players in the middle.

– The larger group will then pass the ball to each other while the other two will be attempting to “rob” them of the ball. When one of the outside players surrenders the ball to one of the inside players they then swap positions.

The biggest benefits with this soccer drill is it teaches the kids to work in a tight space and not overwork the ball as well work as a team.

One On One Drill

This is another fun soccer drills for kids as it really gets the competitive juices going. No kid likes to look second best and when they are up against just one other opponent they generally want to win to not only impress the coach but also mom or dad who might be looking on not to mention gaining bragging rights.

– One player is the attacker and the other the defender

– Designate a space for them to work in but not too large

– The attacking player must try and pass a point(a line in the sand) using dribbling techniques

– If he succeeds he is award a number of points but if he doesn’t then the defender gets the points

– Set up best out of five drills and to take it a step further, you could introduce a round robin where the last two standing get to square off in a final

Youth Soccer Drills – 5 Drill Tips For Youth Soccer Players

Posted by pfauthor on February 3rd, 2009 under Soccer Training  •  No Comments

A soccer coach has to be mindful not to overwhelm his young players when creating youth soccer drills. We’re talking about young players between the age of three and sixteen. Nurturing a player’s skills at this time is vital for their long term development.

Some young players are just naturally gifted and will progress quickly. A coach needs to pinpoint the strong and weak links in his team structure early but at the same time, needs to be careful not to give a youngster the feeling their not wanted. Every player has to feel they are contributing to a team’s success.

One of the best ways for a new coach or a coach early in the season to get an idea of where his team strengths are is simply to pit them against one another. Organizing games will identify which players are advanced and which need plenty of nurturing.

Unique Youth Soccer Drill Tips

1. Rather than use elimination games, a good youth soccer drill should ensure that the game promotes active participation of the players because a participative game will ensure that the players have a better chance of learning twice what other drills are able to achieve.

2. The importance of making the players keep score during the drill is that it makes their game more realistic and this motivates the players to play harder as well as learn when action is thick and fast. This also ensures that players take greater interest in the drill and will be attracted to it and so will learn a lot more in a shorter span of time.

3. Some useful tips to ensure that your youth soccer drill works out right is learning to avoid lines and making sure those players remain active. In addition, each player should be given their own ball and the players must make at least two hundred touches in each practice session.

4. During the youth soccer drill, the coach needs to also ensure praising and hustling as well as improving the skills of his players and must also inculcate in their minds the need to play the game with a good and positive attitude.

5. The good youth soccer drills will ensure that players are taught the right techniques and the drill must also simulate actual playing conditions. In fact, by ensuring that the players have to keep score the level of competitiveness will rise, pressure will mount and this will help teach players to perform well even under extreme pressure situations.

There are also a number of free soccer drills that can give life to the adage that practice makes a person perfect. Therefore it is necessary to pick only those soccer drills that will help in transforming an ordinary person into becoming a star player.

Soccer Drills – Secrets To Great Soccer Drills For Kids

Posted by pfauthor on January 29th, 2009 under Soccer Training  •  No Comments

Developing the skills of young soccer players depends a lot on the early education they receive and this is where the value of a good coach is invaluable.

Whatever soccer drill a coach employs at training they must be mindful that some kids may not be as co-ordinated as others at a similar age but with a little patience, a young player can blossom into a quality player. Pinpointing their strengths is important and once these have been identified, then their role in the team structure can be worked on.

A coach needs to be more than just a figurehead and an object of authority – they need to continually work on which soccer drills will benefit the team most. Midfielders are pivotal to a team’s success and it’s not surprising that a coach will concentrate on his midfield players as they make up the engine room of the side.

It is also required that the coach is sure of the team formation and the role of the midfielder should be defined so that a soccer drill can be tailored to suit these roles.

Soccer Drill Tips

1. A soccer drill must also focus on promoting team strategies that are to be employed during actual match-play. In addition, it is also necessary to identify key areas of weaknesses as well as strengths in the players and also knows which skills need to be developed in order to ensure that players, especially midfielders, are able to perform to the best of their abilities.

2. A common mistake made by many coaches is to copy soccer drills from other coaches or by searching online, use certain soccer drills that could in fact turn out to be ill-suited for your players.

3. Ideally, the best soccer drill is one that is tailored to suit the team’s playing formation, the skill levels of the players as well as special roles to be played by key members of a soccer team.

4. Also, the right soccer drill is one that involves every player of the team and it should also be fun for everyone concerned. When players are made to take a more active role in the soccer drill they will learn more, especially if the drill is realistic.

5. The bottom line is that a good soccer drill is one that will instruct players how to react in real match-play situations and those situations should also be mimicked during the drill.

6. A good youth soccer drill should help young soccer players learn among other things the proper way to dribble with the football. In addition, it should also be fun to do and it must involve every child who should be taught to remain active and must also be encouraged to participate wholeheartedly.

Manchester United Working Hard To Avoid Injury

Posted by pfauthor on December 22nd, 2008 under Soccer News  •  No Comments

With the English premier league hotting up with Liverpool looking to bolster their advantage by over coming Arsenal in the coming match and pushing forward by 4 points. With Manchester United off in Japan for the Club World Cup, Liverpool can get ahead of their historic opposition.
Its pretty clear that Manchester United and Liverpool will both be hoping that none of their team members off. As at the rate these footballers are bought and sold for the final thing you need is a player lying on the sideline on their paraguard stretcher with weeks of physio and rehabilitation reports to get them healthy again.
Manchester United is specifically aware in this section with Saha currently nursing hamstring damage which he received in Everton’s 1-0 victory over Tottenham in November – the same game in which the great scorer Yakubu damaged his Achilles, an injury that will take the striker away from the game until the summertime.
Aston Villa appear to be looking to overcome the cartel of four on top positions in the Premier League. Strength throughout the team could prove an issue later in the battle for Villa and it’s imperative the English pair of Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young, who have so far scored 17 goals between them this season, remain injury free.
As Manchester United are away in Japan I am sure Alex Ferguson will be having some sleepless nights hoping the team will get through unscathed. The huge pressure put upon players and managers frequently just builds stress which is then passed through to how they play, you can see this in injuries such as groin strain, hamstring injuries etc which is just a sign that the player is pushing to hard.
I hope that the coming season will show Manchester United in great form, giving those who adore the sport with some fantastic soccer. Im sure like me you will be watching the news avidly to find out how they do in the coming matches.