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In every sporting event one can invariably find a player, a team, a nation, poised to become the next memorable story ? a story that will survive the test of time and go down in history. The FIFA World Cup is unique, in that, every country can qualify. It is the only tournament that can unite the world with its common passion for the sport. It is a tournament where everyone celebrates, dances, and rejoices in the streets of their capitals, exulting in the spectacular feats of their players, their teams and their nation.

But what makes the World Cup particularly extraordinary is the national pride that it inspires, especially for the first time qualifiers. Since the first tentative World Cup in Uruguay in 1930, World Cup history was not only about the winner or winning the title, but about the stories. World Cup history resonates with the back-stories that echo through time – of players, teams and nations that surprised the world by achieving the unexpected. From the poignant moments of the underdogs and the worlds Cinderella teams, to the birth of legends and the brilliance of the football giants ? the World Cup brings joy to every nation. It is about the stories of players, teams and nations taking it to the highest levels; the stories about emotions and pride that unites the world.

At 2006 FIFA World Cup, we welcome the heavy favorites – from the European continent and all the way to the South American continent. For these giants, winning is everything. In their spirit is held the promise of thrilling showdowns, individual feats of brilliance and the majestic harmony in motion of a team united in its quest for the world’s most coveted prize in football. Will the European contenders – Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, France, and England have the firepower to overcome the South American power forces from Brazil and Argentina, or will the world be dancing to the samba beat again this year?

What about the other European contenders, the lesser known South American teams, or the North American and Central American zone teams? Or better yet, the Australians? Let’s not overlook the African continent! Will the trophy finally make its first trip south of the Mediterranean Sea? For that matter, even the Asian continent and their desire to bring Asian football to new international acclaim should be considered.

At the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, we hope to see these underdogs, long shots, and Cinderella teams. There is always something special about the underdogs for winning is not everything to them. Simply by qualifying to walk onto the world stage, they have realized their goals and sparked the hopes of their nation. Armed with this impossible hope, win or lose, they are there to defend their national pride, and valiantly defend it they will, sometimes to the very chagrin and amazement of disbelieving onlookers.

As football fans across all continents count down to the opening day of 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, BetUS Sportsbook has launched its 2006 World Cup betting portal for soccer betting enthusiasts around the world. What a day it shall be, June 9th 2006! What a month it shall be, until the truth will set us all free on July 9th 2006! The whole world will be looking to Germany from June to July, watching history in the making. There will be sorrow, there will be joy. There will be dreams crushed, there will be dreams made. There will be silence in the streets, there will be rejoicing and dancing in the streets. After all, this is the World Cup, the tournament of tournaments. So may the best national team win!

Soccer

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Improve Your Soccer Stamina

Word Count:

551

Summary:

A fitter player and, more importantly, a fitter team can play at a faster pace for a longer period of time. Fitness and player stamina is what sets apart professional and part-time teams, especially when they play in ?all or nothing? matches such as the FA Cup where there is no middle ground for a draw.

Keywords:

soccer stamina, soccer training, fitness training

Article Body:

A fitter player and, more importantly, a fitter team can play at a faster pace for a longer period of time. Fitness and player stamina is what sets apart professional and part-time teams, especially when they play in ?all or nothing? matches such as the FA Cup where there is no middle ground for a draw. Stamina training in soccer is just a party of getting and remaining fit for the entire season. A player requires strength to keep the ball and win the match and this means the player must be able to sprint, accelerate and move quickly around the field for 90 minutes.

The warm-up is an essential part of injury prevention, vital when your star player is earning ?70,000 a week and will pick this up whether he plays or is sitting out injured. To improve your fitness and agility, start off with five minutes of jogging on the spot followed by high knees, heel flicks, jumping jacks and then five minutes of stretching. You can also perform press ups, squat thrusts, ?lateral raises’ by using dumbbells or resistance bands, crunches, dips and sit to stand using the dumbbells. Instead of running at a continuous pace, mix up the routine with running, jogging and sprinting in a random manner.

You can start by jogging for five minutes, then sprint for 20 yards, slow jog for 100 yards, cruise for 200 yards, backward running for 20 yards, turn and sprint for 30 yards, walk for 50 yards and then jog again for 300 yards more. When you finish your training session, stretch the hamstrings, groins, quads, calves and lower back for between 20 to 30 seconds to allow your muscles to recuperate properly.

Soccer demands a high level of stamina, thus endurance training is an essential part of any professional soccer training programme. It serves as a great confidence booster when you can see your opponent fading during the later stages of a match and you have reserves to use and take advantage of. Endurance training is a must that requires a solid aerobic base so that you remain active in the playing field for a long period of time.

Stamina fitness training for soccer players include activities like jogging, hill running, cycling and shuttle runs. It requires certain exercise equipments like cross-trainer, stair climbers and treadmills. Sprint training includes shuttle runs, relay runs, and the pattern of sprint-walk-jog. For sprinting, a strong drive is required. The upper body should be relaxed. Strength training includes circuit training and weight training.

You can easily perform some of the activities for improving your overall stamina:

? A full squat with bodyweight

? Clean and press seven-tenths of their weight overhead

? Curl six-tenths of their weights

? Hop 25km distance in 10 hops on each leg (if you are feeling especially masochistic!)

? 40 press-ups in one minute

? 40 bent-knee abdominals in one minute

? 40 squat thrusts in one minute

? Eight chins (male) and three chins (female).

Stamina is developed by completing rounds of continuous activity at moderate intensities, performed for longer than three minutes. The general-endurance component of run-play training has a middle distance event where you carry out a cool run of 2000-3000 metres at around 70 to 75 per cent of maximal heart rate.

Stamina training also includes a distance events where you have to to try a cool run of 3000-5000 metres at about 70 to 75 per cent of maximal heart rate.

Soccer

admin asked:


Soccer 102

Word Count:

1293

Summary:

Welcome to Soccer 102. In Soccer 101, we learned a bit of history surrounding soccer, the rules of the game and some important things about the upcoming 2006 FIFA World Cup. This time around we’ll focus on a little more of the history involving the epic tournament and we’ll get a ?how to? lesson on wagering on soccer, on teams, on pool (group) formations, on predictions and on odds. The World Cup is the largest sporting event on the planet. More people in the USA are getting …

Keywords:

Soccer,FIFA,World,Cup

Article Body:

Welcome to Soccer 102. In Soccer 101, we learned a bit of history surrounding soccer, the rules of the game and some important things about the upcoming 2006 FIFA World Cup. This time around we’ll focus on a little more of the history involving the epic tournament and we’ll get a ?how to? lesson on wagering on soccer, on teams, on pool (group) formations, on predictions and on odds. The World Cup is the largest sporting event on the planet. More people in the USA are getting up to speed on the World Cup. One of the reasons for this could be that many Americans haven’t been educated about this thrilling and time-tested sport.

By the twelfth century, the game of soccer had become an extremely violent sport resembling a sort of riot. The free-for-all version was subsequently banned by the governing royalty of the age. Despite the illegal status, soccer in this form continued to grow in popularity. The current, formal rules of today’s game have evolved throughout the years, and they continue to be tweaked annually by the F?d?ration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

Formed in 1904, the FIFA originated from seven separate European soccer associations. Destined to be the world’s governing soccer body, the annual FIFA Congress originally focused on international competition and a possible international tournament. However, with the start of World War I, all plans for an immense tournament were put on hold until 1930 when the first FIFA sponsored global tournament was held in Uruguay. The host nation won the contest by defeating Argentina in the finals. However, global travel was extremely time-consuming and slow at that time and many European nations declined to play due to the thirty-day float across the big pond.

Up until this point, the Olympic Games represented the highest level of competition in soccer, even though at that time Olympic participation was restricted to amateur athletes. The World Cup offered a new professional level of international competition. It immediately became popular in many countries; however it took some time for the European soccer faction to get completely on board.

The second World Cup was held in Italy, and the location of the event went a long way to bolstering European support. Benito Mussollini was at the helm of the Italian government, and his fascist regime used the tournament to gain popularity for their agenda. Once again the host nation was the champion in 1934.

Many European soccer enthusiasts had succumbed to the governing FIFA, although there were still some strong holdouts. The British Isles – England, Scotland and Wales – still refused to participate partly due to political differences with Italy and partly due to just plain stubbornness. In 1938 for the third world Cup, 36 nations entered the competition, and for the first time preliminary games were played to reduce the field to 16 teams. The British Isles were still a no-show, despite the fact that the tournament was held in France, where diplomatic relations with Great Britain laid in a somewhat benign stasis. Italy repeated as World Champions.

The twelve years that followed saw the world in a horrendous World War and consequently, the World Cup was put on hold. When it resumed, the FIFA World Cup was undisputedly the highest level of international tournament competition in soccer.

Since 1958, the tournament locations have alternated between Europe and the Americas. That is, until 2002, when Korea and Japan were selected to co-host the event. In 2006, the event is being held in Germany. Even though the tournament is in Europe, the odds-on-favorite is Brazil at ~3/1.

If you are thinking of laying down a bet or two on the World Cup, there are some things you might want to consider. First of all, consider that the make-up of the pools or groups is extremely relevant.

Group A; Germany, Costa Rica, Poland and Ecuador.

Group B; England, Paraguay, Trinidad-Tobago and Sweden.

Group C; Argentina, Ivory Coast, Serbia-Montenegro and the Netherlands.

Group D; Mexico, Iran, Angola and Portugal.

Group E; Italy, Ghana, United States and the Czech Republic.

Group F; Brazil, Croatia, Australia and Japan.

Group G; France, Switzerland, South Korea and Togo.

Group H; Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

Typical wagers on soccer usually involve picking the winner. Remember that the odds are set for a reason. The experts have supreme confidence in their ability to loosely predict the outcomes. Currently, the favorites in the FIFA World Cup are Brazil (odds to win it all ~ 3/1), Germany (~ 7/1), England, Italy and Argentina (~ 8/1), France (~12/1), and Spain and Holland (Netherlands) (~ 14/1). Odds change frequently and vary depending on the sportsbook you use.

If you want to get some high odds on possible history making and non-traditional winners, bet on Trinidad-Tobago (~1000/1) or Saudi Arabia (~750/1). Iran, Costa Rica and Togo are also long-shots at about 500/1. If you feel uneasy about wagering on underdogs, you may want to stay with the teams near the middle of the field – Portugal, Sweden, Mexico, Ukraine and the USA. There are countless other ways to lay bets on this titanic tournament. Wagering on a team to place or show, group winner, group qualifying, head-to-head match, final pair, and most goals are just a few of the opportunities for bettors.

Wagering is a mix of luck, art and statistics. There are a number of ways to ?parlay?, or combine your bets, within one sport or through a combination of various sports. These types of bets are a great way to increase your possible payoff, but they are often difficult to hit because of the way the combinations are often presented. If you know what you are doing, or you just have a gut feeling about two or more match-ups, parlaying your wagers into one can offer a bigger payday than just a straight bet.

In World Cup wagering, you can also get campaign wagering on particular nations. The Australian and the England campaign are two of the most popular. A bettor predicts at what phase of the tournament either of these clubs will exit, or even if they will go on to win it all. Wagering within the groups is another popular form of betting in the early rounds. Any big upsets at this stage can produce an adequate return on your investment and these are generally much easier to predict than which teams will win, place or show in the tournament.

I like Germany to win it all. They are playing as the host country and the home team has won six of 17 tournaments. Plus, they are loaded with talent, making them an authentic threat to beat any team on any given day. I also like England’s chances. They are in the same group as Sweden, which has traditionally been a problem for them, but I know the English want to put an end to that long losing streak. Thirty-seven years is a long time to go without a win against a team like Sweden. The English appear to be on a mission to put this controversy to rest. Brazil probably has the best and most talented team in the entire field. Just like any other tournament, it isn’t necessarily the best team that will emerge victorious; it is the team that builds the most momentum through confidence and emotion to perform at their peak potential.

The 2006 FIFA World Cup is an event unlike any other. With all its adversity, triumph and tragedy, it is the defining international event for the soccer world. It is on a scale like no other; pitting nation against nation and culture versus culture as the pride of an entire continent hangs in the balance. From the 9th of June to the 9th of July 2006, this epic contest will be fought on German soil and just about the entire world will be watching.

Soccer