Top 10 Soccer Academy

Women’s Professional Soccer in Europe draws 50,000 fans

BJ Pheasant — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:56:01 +0000

Women’s pro soccer may be struggling in the United States, but it’s growing in Europe. A record crowd of 50,212 at Munich’s Olympic Stadium — more than any WPS team totaled for the entire 2011 season — watched Lyon repeat as the UEFA Women’s Champions League champion with a 2-0 win over FFC Frankfurt.

Like last year, UEFA held the women’s final in the same city as the UEFA Champions League final. Chelsea and Bayern Munich meet Saturday at the new home of Bayern Munich, the Allianz Arena. Thursday’s match at the Olympic Stadium, site of the 1974 World Cup final, was the first competitive soccer game there in seven years.

Women’s Professional Soccer ended in the US because of stupidity and greed.

BJ Pheasant — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:42:48 +0000

The Women’s Professional Soccer league has folded after three seasons.

The league had canceled the 2012 season in January, at the time hoping to return next year. But the remaining five owners announced in a statement Friday that all operations were suspended permanently.

“We sincerely regret having to take this course of action,” said T. Fitz Johnson, Atlanta Beat owner and chairman of the WPS.

“We are proud of what WPS has accomplished, having attracted the highest quality players in the world to play in the best women’s league, as well as the progress women’s soccer has enjoyed over the past three years,” Thomas Hofstetter, CEO and president of Sky Blue FC, said.

WPS staved off extinction twice after the 2011 season. U.S. Soccer was reluctant to give the league Division I sanctioning after it dropped to five teams in November, but relented after the league pointed to a surge of interest in expansion prospects.

In January, the league appeared to have settled a legal dispute with Dan Borislow over the termination of his South Florida team, magicJack.

But that deal fell apart, and the league announced in late January that it would not play in 2012.

The legal skirmish continued, with Borislow’s motion for a temporary injunction and reinstatement of his team morphing into an attempt to enforce the January agreement he claimed to be binding.

Each side filed accusatory motions, affidavits and discovery demands. On March 9, Judge Meenu Sasser granted half of Borislow’s discovery requests.

On Friday, WPS and Borislow announced all matters and claims giving rise to the lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County, Fla., have been settled by a mutual confidential agreement outside of court.

Jennifer O’Sullivan, who was hired as CEO in September, and chief financial officer Kristina Hentschel were the last two WPS employees. They departed earlier this month.

Liverpool are Fools

BJ Pheasant — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:12:42 +0000

Liverpool had a great manager in Roy Hodgson (now the England National team manager). They fired him because the new owners listened to the fans (wait for the irony). They hired fan favorite, club hero, and retread Kenny Daglish. They gave him $160 million to waste (sorry spend) in building an old school english soccer team. (un)Surprisingly it hasn’t worked. Old school is called that for a reason.

Now they have fired King Kenny and then Liverpool turned to their fans (again) to get help in finding their new, new manager. They tweeted to more than 930,000 followers: “Who do you want to replace Kenny Dalglish as LFC manager? Reply with your suggestions and reasons.” The tweet was deleted within 30 minutes when, and I am guessing here, the fans showed more ability than whomever is currently in charge in Liverpool? (oh, the irony has landed)

Apparently a coach who knows attractive soccer, but coaches a small club, has turned them down. Brendan Rogers of Swansea will be stolen away to coach a ‘big’ club at some point, but appears to want more seasoning at the top flight before jumping fro the frying pan into the fire. If only clubs would show as much sense in their hiring targets.

I think Tony Pullis of Stoke would be an ideal fit for the style of players Liverpool have at the moment. He is also suitably english in his playing style and has multiple years of experience in the premier league. Of course a favorite of mine has been David Moyes, but what are the odds that the reds would hire a blue? And he has been, according to rumor, tipped to follow Alex Ferguson at ManU. On second thought, wouldn’t Liverpool want to steal a march on their rivals and get title number 18?

Healthy Measure: Replacing BMI with something else

BJ Pheasant — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:38:24 +0000

Ideally, all should aim to keep their waist measurement less than half that of their height, found the scientists.

That means a 6ft (72 inch) tall man should aim to keep his waist less than 36 inches, while a 5ft 4in (64 inch) woman should keep hers under 32 inches.

They have found that the easy-to-calculate ratio between the two is a better predictor of risk than the most widely measure of obesity, called body mass index (BMI).

The team, who analysed the health of some 300,000 people, found this ratio was a better predictor of high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes than body mass index.

While BMI is used almost universally in the medical profession, most people are unfamiliar with it, partially because it is not a straightforward calculation.

BMI is calculated by taking one’s mass in kilograms and dividing it by the square of one’s height in metres.

Dr Margaret Ashwell, former science director of the British Nutrition Foundation, and now an independent consultant, spearheaded the study. She is presenting the research at the European Congress on Obesity in Lyon, France, on Saturday.

“Keeping your waist circumference to less than half your height can help increase life expectancy for every person in the world,” she said.

The ratio was also better than just taking a waist measurement, she added, as it took into account differing height between individuals and ethnic groups.

While BMI was a useful indicator, it failed to take into account the distribution of fat throughout the body.

Abdominal fat, around the heart, liver and kidneys, has been found to be worse than that on the bottom and hips, in terms of heart disease and diabetes.

Dr Ashwell suggested the waist-to-height ratio should be considered as a screening tool.

Margaret Ashwell has been advocating a waist-to-height ratio (WHTR) of 0.5 or less since at least August 2005, thus roughly the last seven years [1]. Ashwell’s collaborator, Shiun Dong Hsieh, has been advocating the use of WHTR since at least 1995, thus the last seventeen years [2].

A slightly more demanding but also handy measure that is useful as a motivational tool, is that our waist should be less than or equal to our inside pants leg. (For most folks, our inside pants leg is about two inches less than our actual inside leg, measured from the floor to the underside of our crotch.)

Hence, if we usually buy a pair of trousers with an inside leg of 30 inches, then the trousers’ waist should be the same – just 30″. The advantage of the trousers’ method is that we don’t even need a tape measure, or have to worry about exactly where we place the tape, or how tight the tape should be etc. If we can’t fit comfortably into a pair of trousers that has a waist the same as the correct inside leg for us, then we’re still too fat.

Further, the trousers’ method can give us a hard but realistic goal to aim for because we can buy the right sized trousers in the hope that one day we will be able to fit into them comfortably. In the meantime, we can feel how tight they are, or how much of a gap there is when we have to leave the top undone. For some folks, the motivational effect of this may be more concrete than a tape measure.

[1] “Six reasons why the waist-to-height ratio is a rapid and effective
global indicator for health risks of obesity and how its use could
simplify the international public health message on obesity.” Ashwell M,
Hsieh SD. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2005 Aug;56(5):303-7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu…

[2] “Waist/height ratio as a simple and useful predictor of coronary heart disease risk factors in women.” Hsieh SD, Yoshinaga H. Intern Med. 1995 Dec;34(12):1147-52. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/a…

ManU screwed by refs and should have won EPL title: Man City fans jazz for cows

BJ Pheasant — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:48:00 +0000

For all you Man City fans that don’t want to hear how you don’t deserve the title I have included a a Jazz concert for cows from youtube. No joke.

The theory that the impact of refereeing decisions evens itself out over the course of the season is challenged by the research. United, for example, had 59.3 per cent of incorrect decisions go against them; City had 73.7 per cent of incorrect calls go against them. The difference between them and United is that when they lost out to refereeing decisions it didn’t alter the eventual result and only cost them two points.

Of course this also shows that Man City were good enough to overcome the disadvantage while Man United were not.

Manchester City will win their first title for 44 years with victory against Queens Park Rangers at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday but thorough analysis of every big decision made by officials has revealed that Manchester United should be four points clear and already crowned as champions.

More than 200 hours has been spent analysing 674 decisions from all 370 games played this season including disallowed goals, penalty incidents and sendings-off.

Each replay was watched repeatedly in slow and super-slow motion with effort made to side with the referee where possible – decisions were not changed unless there was clear evidence that they should be.

Interactive database: a unique survey of the financial health of Premier League clubs

BJ Pheasant — Sat, 12 May 2012 17:33:39 +0000

Interactive database: The Telegraph conducted a unique survey of the financial health of Premier League clubs, based on the most recently available annual accounts, which are from 2010-11.

By Matt Scott, database by Dan Palmer, Mark Oliver and Conrad Quilty-Harper

May 2012

Unlike other surveys, this focuses on the true cash income and expenditure of top flight clubs, giving a far more accurate portrait of their strength than the operating profit or loss figures which have been used previously.

The key figures here are a club’s turnover, what it pays in wages and “other” running costs (comprising heating, lighting, travel expenses etc).

The working capital movements also demonstrate a number of cash items — money spent on buying stock for retail outlets for example.

Amortisation and depreciation are simply accounting charges and do not affect cash flow, but do need to be presented to show how a club’s operating profits or losses are calculated.

When all the elements have been added up, it gives sight of a club’s operating cash flow, the cash left over from revenues after their day-to-day expenses have been paid. After interest bills have been paid, a club’s disposable income available to spend on transfers, or paying down debts, is revealed.

Notes

Net debt: What money is owed to the banks: it does not include football debts such as unpaid transfer fees.

Income: All money earned from television, sponsorship, the gate etc. Transfer fees are not included.

Wages: Salaries paid to players and other staff.

Other costs: Other general running costs, eg: lighting, heating, food, travel, auditing, legal and agents’ fees etc.

Operating profit/loss: A number that includes accounting charges called “amortisation and depreciation” which have no effect on the club’s cash position.

Operating cash flow: The true cash income/losses from running the club day to day. This does not include discretionary spending such as transfers/stadium improvements.

Net interest paid/received: Cash paid/received from bank debts/cash balances .

Net transfer spending/income: Cash received for selling players minus cash paid for signings.

Net cash inflow (before financing): The total cash deficit/income after all the above. £0 is breakeven; a negative number represents what support a club’s owner (or lenders) have had to provide to cover costs. A positive number means the club was richer at the end of last season than at the start.

Soccer Tweeting Records Fall

BJ Pheasant — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 04:11:48 +0000

Barcelona and Real Madrid were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League this week, but both clubs had roles in breaking two records in the Twittersphere.

Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League game between Barcelona and Chelsea broke the tweets-per-second record for a sporting event, peaking at 13,684 messages per second. The old record: 12,233 tweets per second during the climax of the 2012 Super Bowl. The world record? Last year’s airing of the movie “Castle in the Sky” in Japan, which peaked at 25,088 tweets a second.

Real Madrid midfielder Kaka became the first athlete to total 10 million followers on Twitter. He ranks 18th in the Twitter world. The top three are Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. Kaka’s Real Madrid teammate, Cristiano Ronaldo, ranks 21st with 9 million-plus followers.

Real Madrid a disgrace to soccer

BJ Pheasant — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:05:19 +0000

A hugely talented team that cost more to put together than almost any two other teams in the UEFA Champions League – Real Madrid. On the other hand as half time neared a stat I saw flashed across the screen was that Bayern had 64% of the possession. Why does the self-proclaimed most-talented-team-in-the-galaxy refuse to use their talent to play soccer?

The beautiful game should be protected and cherished. The most talented team aught to be able to play it. Why then do they disgrace themselves, Spanish football, and soccer as a whole by not even attempting to play until over time?

Remember that goalie for Shalke that Manchester United thrashed in last year’s Champions League semi finals? Ya, that guy stopped penalties from the most expensive players in the world.

Kaka: 65 million euros, Ronaldo: 94 million euros. Being German in a penalty shootout: Priceless

“English Disease” Alive and well – On the field.

BJ Pheasant — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:59:45 +0000

In a not so distant past English teams were banned from European competition because their fans were spreading mayhem in the stands. Now we have an English team spreading that same mayhem on the field. Should the same measures be used to punish the offenders?

What a disgusting display by Chelsea. Showing that the ‘English Disease’ is alive and well on the field. In a replication to what happened in the World Cup final one team refused to even attempt to play soccer. Much has been made of the need to play by the spirit of the rules and not just the letter, but until it is enforced…

Terry, Lampard, Cole should have had straight reds. Ramierez, Ivanovic, and Mierles should have been off the field with multiple yellows (maybe Drogba as well – although he played very well).

The Refs need to step up and end the farce. All the talk of the beautiful game and no follow through.

Poem: How to Tiki-Taka – Barcelona and Spain

BJ Pheasant — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 06:07:07 +0000

By Musa Okwonga

“To Tiki-Taka”

There is a verb,
“to tiki-taka”:
To slip the ball through gaps
Slim as atoms;
To use wits sharp as the tips of daggers
Leaving rivals bewitched and scattered…
We watch them
Tiki-taka,
Shift the ball in intricate patterns -
So swift and blissful is their magic
That when they leave the pitch,
We’re saddened.
Barca. They are tiki-taka:
They’re humble, and yet rich in swagger -
Not so much athletes as phantoms,
They make hearts swell
Like the best of anthems.