Mayor Kicks Kid In Face; Not Good in Re-Election Year.

Last week a chartiy soccer match took place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, pitting the city's officials against some local children. Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz took part, much to the chagrin of the kid on the receiving end of his high kick. 

Mr. Mayor was awarded a yellow card for his actions, not to mention much grief and probably a few less votes in the upcoming election.

Click here to see the video from Deadspin.com. 

Hair-pulling Soccer Player Reinstated

Elizabeth Lambert, the New Mexico women's soccer player who became notorious on YouTube for her vicious play in conference tournament game last year, will be back on the field. Lambert has been reinstated for her senior season after serving a two-game suspension. Her worst offense was grabbing the hair of BYU's Kassidy Shumway and jerking her to the ground, but the game was physical on both sides.

Surprisingly, there was only one misconduct card handed out by officials.

Lambert didn't attend a news conference where school officials discussed her reinstatement. Here's the video of lowlights from last year's game.

Beckham still makes the most MLS bucks

According to the latest Major League Soccer Players Union salary list released just last week, superstar David Beckham tops the league with a guaranteed salary of $6.5 million.

The New York Red Bulls employ three of the five highest earners in the league: Thierry Henry at #2 ($5.6 million), Rafael Márquez ($5.544 million) at #3, and forward Juan Pablo Ángel ($1.918 million) at #5. Sliding into #4 overall is the most well-compensated American player, Landon Donovan, who will pull down $2.128 million this year.

Three other players round out the MLS millionaires' club: Chicago Fire forward Nery Castillo ($1.788 million), Toronto FC midfielder Julian de Guzman ($1.718 million) and Chicago's Freddy Ljungberg ($1.314 million).

On the other end of the spectrum, more than 90 MLS players are being paid the league minimum of $40,000 for their work this season. Fittingly, one of those players is Graham Zusi of Kansas City, who appears at the very end (as alphabetized by last name) of the salary list.

The way we figure, good ol' Becks could afford to buy one of our 'Nova' soccer jerseys (team price of just $20) for 325,000 of this closest friends.

Soccer Practice Makes Perfect. Plan Ahead.

As a soccer coach, you know it's very important to decide what skill or technique you want your players to work on before you step onto the practice field. You also need to decide how you're going to organize the practice and what warm-ups, games and drills you're going to use.

Where to begin? Our friends at Footy4Kids have put together a great array of soccer practice plans including drills, techniques, games and skill-building exercises focused on specific aspects of the game. Ball handling, dribbling, passing, defense, shooting, keeper training...it's all here.

For more helpful info, visit the Soccer Training Books & DVDs page of our Code Four Athletics website. Or if you just need a cool shirt for the sideline, check out our soccer coach polo. Happy Coaching!

Great Goalie Saves

For those of you who need a little shot of soccer goalie saves, we present 3 1/2 minutes of keeper classics. Enjoy!

Penalty Kick...FAIL.

Off the crossbar? Fine. Just past the post? Sure. But this?

Great Goal Celebration.

In case you missed it, check out this goal celebration...it even made ESPN's Top 10 Plays last week.