Footballs used in association football or soccer have a circumference of 27 to 28 inches. It weighs around 410 to 450 grams and is inflated to a pressure of 60 to 10 kPa. Footballs are usually covered with leather. But, today different types of materials are used to cover it. The footballs used in modern day games are stitched from 32 panels of leather or plastic. Leather and plastic used in football should have waterproof property. It is also stitched from 2 regular pentagons and 20 regular hexagons. Truncated icosahedron is the name given to the 32 panel. It is quite similar to the polyhedron but is more spherical. The spherical shape is due to the pressure of the air inside the football.
Footballs have a long history. It is the product of the pleasure that we get by kicking something. Earlier footballs were anything that was suitable for kicking. Stitched plant leaves filled with soft materials, skulls, animal bladders and similar objects were used as footballs. Ancient cultures around the world is said to have used objects similar to present day football. Pig bladders were used as football during the medieval period. Rubber was used during the 18th century. The first vulcanized football was designed and built in 1855. Inflatable rubber bladders were developed in 1862. Soon the English Football Association brought in the rules regarding footballs which were changed several times. The 20th century saw the evolution of football into its present day characteristics. High tech designs and materials are used in the present day footballs.
The design of black pentagon and white hexagon in 32 panel was the official ball of 1970 Mexico world cup. It is the most widely accepted design mainly due to its visibility. But several companies have now brought out premium branded balls with elaborate designs. The standard football size is 5. The other sizes that are available are 4 and 3. In indoor competitions the size of football used is 4. The material used in the football varies according to the manufacturer. Most of the important brands still manufacture leather football, which is popular with football fans. Attractive logos and designs feature in most of the latest footballs.
The ideal place to search for footballs is the Internet. Most of the manufacturers offer their products online. Information regarding the product, picture, size and price are displayed by most of the websites. Before buying a product, you should check out the reviews about the product in other sites. Bloggers give very good product reviews. Details regarding stitching and leather paneling should be given priority while looking for the quality of the product.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Playing Better Soccer
Meticulous practice, an improved sense of controlling the ball and effective use of the multitude soccer skills during a match differentiates players who can play ‘better’ soccer from average players who can merely “kick a ball”. If you want to become the next Diego Maradona , Ronaldinho or even Tony Philliskirk you need to adopt lightning quick attacking skills, fearless defensive capabilities, powerful shooting, long or short passing and at the top ultimate control over the ball.
Before you can master the game of soccer you need to determine what position you want to play in. There is no doubt that hard practice and complete dedication is necessary to play better soccer. However, soccer practices vary based on the position of a player. If you want to be a goalkeeper and have balls pelted at you at 100 miles per hour all game then your practice will be different than a defender, midfielder or striker. Before considering further soccer coaching you need to have it clear in your mind where on the field you want to play.
Playing soccer like a professional player is quite different and requires practice under the supervision of a fully qualified and licensed soccer coach. To get one of the precious few places at a professional soccer club you have to adopt all types of soccer skills to set you apart from the thousands of other players who think they can “make it”.
At the same time, it is important to apply these skills and knowledge during a match. A soccer coach not only trains you but also teaches you to understand soccer sense and understanding of how the game is and should be played. The soccer coach determines the game strategy and subsequently the player’s formation. Traditional formations you may be familiar with are a standard 4-4-2, defensive 4-5-1 or more attacking 4-3-3. There are more complicated formations such as the defensive 3-2-2-3 and almost all-out-attack 1-3-3-3 option.
If you can understand a formation and know your role within it, take on board the overall game plan and then use and apply your skills when on the pitch you have the attributes of being a good soccer player. Based on your ability, strength and speed you can judge the best position for yourself on the pitch but it is the coach who can bring the best out of you and guide you in the right direction. Repeated and incessant practice and application of soccer skills are necessary to play better soccer.
Adopting the many different skills necessary to play soccer is the only way you have any chance of becoming a professional. Think back to the best players who you played in school with. Even if they seemed “amazing”, statistically they will be extremely lucky if they could play in the lower reaches of the professional game, apart from exceptional circumstances.
If you want to play as midfielder, defender or striker then you must learn both attacking and defensive skills and try to apply them during a soccer match. Attacking skills includes dribbling, kicking, lofting, turning, weighted pass and penetrating opponent’s defence through running with the ball. These are common attacking skills which you will find among midfielders and strikers. Defensive skills include making defensive wall during a free kick, redirecting the ball with defensive head and both long and short passes. For goalkeepers, diving and saving or defending a shot by using hand or head are basic techniques. However, in order to be the best goalkeeper, judging which way to dive for a penalty kick and successfully saving a free kick are what sets apart the best from the rest.
There are some general techniques, which are required irrespective of the position. Taking long shot, running without the ball to make space for other teammates, tackling an opponent,, controlling the ball with your chest, thigh, shin and ankle and taking long or short throws are some common techniques of playing soccer.
Apart from practice, you have to maintain a strict and balanced diet. Proper nutrition is essential for keeping your body fit and flexible and all professional clubs have some sort of dietician or nutritionist on the payroll. Like an athlete, you have to run with the ball throughout the 90 minutes, barely having a few seconds to take a break apart from the half-time interval. Only eat the foods recommended by your diet chart and concentrate on your practice – by this, you will develop stamina and the playing techniques necessary to becoming a better, or even professional, soccer player.
Before you can master the game of soccer you need to determine what position you want to play in. There is no doubt that hard practice and complete dedication is necessary to play better soccer. However, soccer practices vary based on the position of a player. If you want to be a goalkeeper and have balls pelted at you at 100 miles per hour all game then your practice will be different than a defender, midfielder or striker. Before considering further soccer coaching you need to have it clear in your mind where on the field you want to play.
Playing soccer like a professional player is quite different and requires practice under the supervision of a fully qualified and licensed soccer coach. To get one of the precious few places at a professional soccer club you have to adopt all types of soccer skills to set you apart from the thousands of other players who think they can “make it”.
At the same time, it is important to apply these skills and knowledge during a match. A soccer coach not only trains you but also teaches you to understand soccer sense and understanding of how the game is and should be played. The soccer coach determines the game strategy and subsequently the player’s formation. Traditional formations you may be familiar with are a standard 4-4-2, defensive 4-5-1 or more attacking 4-3-3. There are more complicated formations such as the defensive 3-2-2-3 and almost all-out-attack 1-3-3-3 option.
If you can understand a formation and know your role within it, take on board the overall game plan and then use and apply your skills when on the pitch you have the attributes of being a good soccer player. Based on your ability, strength and speed you can judge the best position for yourself on the pitch but it is the coach who can bring the best out of you and guide you in the right direction. Repeated and incessant practice and application of soccer skills are necessary to play better soccer.
Adopting the many different skills necessary to play soccer is the only way you have any chance of becoming a professional. Think back to the best players who you played in school with. Even if they seemed “amazing”, statistically they will be extremely lucky if they could play in the lower reaches of the professional game, apart from exceptional circumstances.
If you want to play as midfielder, defender or striker then you must learn both attacking and defensive skills and try to apply them during a soccer match. Attacking skills includes dribbling, kicking, lofting, turning, weighted pass and penetrating opponent’s defence through running with the ball. These are common attacking skills which you will find among midfielders and strikers. Defensive skills include making defensive wall during a free kick, redirecting the ball with defensive head and both long and short passes. For goalkeepers, diving and saving or defending a shot by using hand or head are basic techniques. However, in order to be the best goalkeeper, judging which way to dive for a penalty kick and successfully saving a free kick are what sets apart the best from the rest.
There are some general techniques, which are required irrespective of the position. Taking long shot, running without the ball to make space for other teammates, tackling an opponent,, controlling the ball with your chest, thigh, shin and ankle and taking long or short throws are some common techniques of playing soccer.
Apart from practice, you have to maintain a strict and balanced diet. Proper nutrition is essential for keeping your body fit and flexible and all professional clubs have some sort of dietician or nutritionist on the payroll. Like an athlete, you have to run with the ball throughout the 90 minutes, barely having a few seconds to take a break apart from the half-time interval. Only eat the foods recommended by your diet chart and concentrate on your practice – by this, you will develop stamina and the playing techniques necessary to becoming a better, or even professional, soccer player.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Improve Your Soccer Betting Using The Rateform Method
Improve Your Soccer Betting is a series of articles that describe some well known and well used statistical techniques that will help the soccer punter make more informed bets. Each of the techniques has its own advantages and disadvantages and using them in isolation will improve your chances of winning. However, together they will prove invaluable in your battle with the bookies. In each article we will describe in detail how a particular method works giving you enough information for you to go ahead and create your own forecasts. We will also give you information as to where you can already find websites that use this technique in comprising their weekly soccer betting forecasts.
The statistical methods described in this set of articles will help you to arrive at a better decision about the match, or matches, that you are betting on.
In this article we will be describing the well known Rateform method. The Rateform method has its origins in The Rating Of Chessplayers by Professor Elo, and from the Punters Revenge by Tony Drapkin and Richard Forsyth. The basis of the Rateform method is that each of the two teams taking part in a match is given a point score that is based on their current form. Although this sounds very simplistic, and it is, its calculation is a little more involved.
Here are the basic rules…
1. Each team is given a point score representing their current form.
2. At the start of the season each team is given 1000 points.
3. When a match is played both teams contribute some of their points towards a kitty.
4. The home team supply more points into the kitty than the away team. This is done to reflect the home teams advantage of playing at home.
5. The winning team takes the kitty, unless the result is a draw in which case both sides share the points. In the case of a draw the away side gains points and the home side looses points.
Here is how a typical calculation is made…
home team points total = HTPOINTS
away team points total = ATPOINTS
home team contribution to kitty = HTKITTY = 7% of HTPOINTS
away team contribution to kitty = ATKITTY = 5% of ATPOINTS
the kitty therefore = KITTY = HTKITTY + ATKITTY
if the result is a HOME WIN then
home team receives KITTY points added to HTPOINTS
away team receives zero points added to ATPOINTS and looses its 5% contribution to the kitty
if result is an AWAY WIN then
home team receives zero points added to HTPOINTS and looses its 7% contribution to the kitty
away team receives KITTY points added to ATPOINTS
if the result is a DRAW then
home team receives KITTY / 2 points added to HTPOINTS
away team receives KITTY / 2 points added to ATPOINTS
Let’s look at a simple example of how you could apply this…
To calculate the possible outcome of a match based on rateform the away rateform is subtracted from the home rateform and the difference is compared against set values for home, away and draw possibilities.
For example we could make our set values as follows:
AWAY WIN -250 DRAW 150 HOME WIN
RATEFORM DIFFERENCE = HOME TEAM RATEFORM – AWAY TEAM RATEFORM
So, if the RATEFORM DIFFERENCE is less than -250 then the match is likely to be an away win, if the RATEFORM DIFFERENCE is greater than 150 then the match is likely to be a home win, and if the RATEFORM DIFFERENCE lies between then the outcome is most likely to be a draw.
Now it’s your turn…
Of course you may choose to use different values to those shown above and by experimenting you may come up with better values to use. You could also decide not to reset each teams points to 1000 at the start of the season but instead let them carry over into the next season. Another alternative would be to have a rolling calculation where you calculate the rateform for each team on say the last six months.
If you have the necessary skills you could go away and build your own spreadsheet of data or even write a piece of software to take in results and fixtures and apply the Rateform method to your data. Or, if you’re lazy like me, you could grab some free software that already does this for you. 1X2Monster and Footyforecast have been providing this kind of facility since 1999. A total of seven different statistical methods are used to determine the outcome of each game played in each league, and a comprehensive record of how each method in each game performed is kept. Apart from how each tip performed within its respective league 1X2Monster also provides the league tables of how each league has performed in successfully predicting outcomes of games. The league tables of prediction performance are produced for home win predictions, draw predictions, away win predictions, and for overall predictions and are invaluable tools to the soccer punter when deciding where to target their European soccer betting predictions.
The statistical methods described in this set of articles will help you to arrive at a better decision about the match, or matches, that you are betting on.
In this article we will be describing the well known Rateform method. The Rateform method has its origins in The Rating Of Chessplayers by Professor Elo, and from the Punters Revenge by Tony Drapkin and Richard Forsyth. The basis of the Rateform method is that each of the two teams taking part in a match is given a point score that is based on their current form. Although this sounds very simplistic, and it is, its calculation is a little more involved.
Here are the basic rules…
1. Each team is given a point score representing their current form.
2. At the start of the season each team is given 1000 points.
3. When a match is played both teams contribute some of their points towards a kitty.
4. The home team supply more points into the kitty than the away team. This is done to reflect the home teams advantage of playing at home.
5. The winning team takes the kitty, unless the result is a draw in which case both sides share the points. In the case of a draw the away side gains points and the home side looses points.
Here is how a typical calculation is made…
home team points total = HTPOINTS
away team points total = ATPOINTS
home team contribution to kitty = HTKITTY = 7% of HTPOINTS
away team contribution to kitty = ATKITTY = 5% of ATPOINTS
the kitty therefore = KITTY = HTKITTY + ATKITTY
if the result is a HOME WIN then
home team receives KITTY points added to HTPOINTS
away team receives zero points added to ATPOINTS and looses its 5% contribution to the kitty
if result is an AWAY WIN then
home team receives zero points added to HTPOINTS and looses its 7% contribution to the kitty
away team receives KITTY points added to ATPOINTS
if the result is a DRAW then
home team receives KITTY / 2 points added to HTPOINTS
away team receives KITTY / 2 points added to ATPOINTS
Let’s look at a simple example of how you could apply this…
To calculate the possible outcome of a match based on rateform the away rateform is subtracted from the home rateform and the difference is compared against set values for home, away and draw possibilities.
For example we could make our set values as follows:
AWAY WIN -250 DRAW 150 HOME WIN
RATEFORM DIFFERENCE = HOME TEAM RATEFORM – AWAY TEAM RATEFORM
So, if the RATEFORM DIFFERENCE is less than -250 then the match is likely to be an away win, if the RATEFORM DIFFERENCE is greater than 150 then the match is likely to be a home win, and if the RATEFORM DIFFERENCE lies between then the outcome is most likely to be a draw.
Now it’s your turn…
Of course you may choose to use different values to those shown above and by experimenting you may come up with better values to use. You could also decide not to reset each teams points to 1000 at the start of the season but instead let them carry over into the next season. Another alternative would be to have a rolling calculation where you calculate the rateform for each team on say the last six months.
If you have the necessary skills you could go away and build your own spreadsheet of data or even write a piece of software to take in results and fixtures and apply the Rateform method to your data. Or, if you’re lazy like me, you could grab some free software that already does this for you. 1X2Monster and Footyforecast have been providing this kind of facility since 1999. A total of seven different statistical methods are used to determine the outcome of each game played in each league, and a comprehensive record of how each method in each game performed is kept. Apart from how each tip performed within its respective league 1X2Monster also provides the league tables of how each league has performed in successfully predicting outcomes of games. The league tables of prediction performance are produced for home win predictions, draw predictions, away win predictions, and for overall predictions and are invaluable tools to the soccer punter when deciding where to target their European soccer betting predictions.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Major League Soccer - Then & Now
With it’s primary goal to be the world’s most competitive and prestigious soccer league, along with one of America’s premier sports and entertainment properties, Major League Soccer is a large part of worldwide soccer news and is making great strides toward accomplishing it’s objective. With 6 teams making up the Eastern Conference and an equal number featured in the Western Conference, Major League Soccer is going strong with 12 clubs in only it’s 11th season.
However, soccer news recalls that the league has made great achievements since it’s inception in 1993. It’s inaugural season began in 1995 and soccer news stirred around the new formation of teams, event locations and new players. In 1996, soccer news reported the League’s first player draft and spring training. As attendance continued to grow, ESPN began televising soccer news and popularity soared across the nation. During this year, more soccer news reports and members of the media began covering MLS events. Supporters turned out in large fashion to catch a glimpse of their favorite teams and players.
In 1998, Major League Soccer underwent it’s first expansion season, which meant big changes for the League. With the addition of two teams, which brought the club count from it’s original 10 to the 12, soccer news introduced the latest League members as Chicago and Miami. Both teams proved powerful during their first year as they advanced to the playoffs. The following year, in 1999, Columbus Crew Stadium officially opened as the first major league stadium in the United States that was constructed specifically for soccer. It’s presence paid off as thousands of fans packed the house to watch featured competitions.
In 2002, Major League Soccer removed 2 of their 12 clubs from the roster and once again returned to 10 teams. Tampa Bay and Miami were no longer League teams, but were replaced in 2004 with other expansion teams. Real Salt Lake and Club Deportivo Chivas USA joined the League and brought the club number back up to it’s current 12 teams.
The clubs of Major League Soccer consist of both domestic and international competitors. With such a diverse roster, players are constantly being featured in soccer news magazines, soccer news televised programs and interviews.
Today, Major League Soccer continues to gain in popularity in the United States and around the world. Cheering fans, exciting competitions and major soccer news coverage are among the many indications that Major League Soccer is here to stay.
However, soccer news recalls that the league has made great achievements since it’s inception in 1993. It’s inaugural season began in 1995 and soccer news stirred around the new formation of teams, event locations and new players. In 1996, soccer news reported the League’s first player draft and spring training. As attendance continued to grow, ESPN began televising soccer news and popularity soared across the nation. During this year, more soccer news reports and members of the media began covering MLS events. Supporters turned out in large fashion to catch a glimpse of their favorite teams and players.
In 1998, Major League Soccer underwent it’s first expansion season, which meant big changes for the League. With the addition of two teams, which brought the club count from it’s original 10 to the 12, soccer news introduced the latest League members as Chicago and Miami. Both teams proved powerful during their first year as they advanced to the playoffs. The following year, in 1999, Columbus Crew Stadium officially opened as the first major league stadium in the United States that was constructed specifically for soccer. It’s presence paid off as thousands of fans packed the house to watch featured competitions.
In 2002, Major League Soccer removed 2 of their 12 clubs from the roster and once again returned to 10 teams. Tampa Bay and Miami were no longer League teams, but were replaced in 2004 with other expansion teams. Real Salt Lake and Club Deportivo Chivas USA joined the League and brought the club number back up to it’s current 12 teams.
The clubs of Major League Soccer consist of both domestic and international competitors. With such a diverse roster, players are constantly being featured in soccer news magazines, soccer news televised programs and interviews.
Today, Major League Soccer continues to gain in popularity in the United States and around the world. Cheering fans, exciting competitions and major soccer news coverage are among the many indications that Major League Soccer is here to stay.
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