Goal From Half Line!

From a recent Scotland-vs-Iceland match...tough to defend this one!

5 Ways To Improve Your Soccer Skills

1 TOUCH. Juggle with the ball. Aim for 1000 touches on the ball each day. You learn to juggle in 3 stages, 1-3 juggles, 3-10 juggles, 10+ juggles. To help you get started, you can use your hands and you can let the ball bounce as well, all you are aiming for is lots of touches on the ball. The hardest stage is 3-10 touches, this seems to cause beginners the most frustration, but stick with it. Once you can consistently juggle the ball 10 times, you are off to the races and 10-20 gets easier, the 50, then 100 and beyond.

2. PASS and/or SHOOT against a WALL. Find a wall and pass and shoot against it and control the rebound. This may sound simple and basic, but it is no different to going to the driving range to practice your golf shot or using one of those machines at tennis that serve balls to you. You can work on passing, shooting and controlling the ball and start with controlling the ball first and then passing or shooting and then build up to first time passes and shots.

3. TURNS. Practice all six turns, INSIDE HOOK, OUTSIDE HOOK, DRAG BACK, STEPOVER, CRUYFF and STOP TURN. Master each turn at game like speed and then do combinations of turns e.g. inside hook, take a touch into space and then do a stop turn. Keep working on this until you can do routines involving all 6 turns one after another.

4. MOVES/DRIBBLES. There are so many fancy moves, some named after stars e.g. Stanley Matthews, Maradona, Scissors, Touch Touch etc. You don’t need to know how to do all of them. Just perfect two moves that you can do with both feet and that you can both take on the defender on their inside and outside. When I say perfect them, you need to be able to do these at game like speed without looking at the ball and be able to produce an end product, either a shot or a pass.

5. CONTROL. Find some open space and kick the ball up in the air. As it comes down work on controlling it with your feet, thighs, chest and head. Once you get the hang of controlling the ball, then add a turn or a move or a shot or pass against the wall.

FINALLY: Concentrate on these five areas and you'll be one of the best players on the pitch. Along with that, you and your team will want to look sharp...so of course we suggest you check out our exclusive collection of soccer uniforms when have time inbetween all of that practice!

Matty Burrows buries it.

Check out this off-the-heel winner from yesterday's Glentoran match!

33 years ago on October 1st: Pele's last match.

They say all good things must come to an end and that proved to be true today in 1977 as the career of the world’s most famous footballer came to a close, as Brazilian legend Pele played his last game at Giants Stadium in New York.

For the last three years Pele had been plying his trade for the New York Cosmos in the short-lived NASL, where he shared the pitch with the likes of Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto and Giorgio Chinaglia. His final game was a friendly with Santos, the only other club side he had played for during his illustrious twenty-one year old career.

As was the case with the NASL, hype and over exuberance were the order of the day. Covered by 650 journalists from 38 nations, the game was the hottest ticket in town, and the Cosmos had unintentionally over-sold the fixture, as almost 100,000 had managed to buy tickets for the 77,000 capacity stadium. A public relations disaster, and a host of lawsuits were narrowly avoided when the organisers gave out refunds and free tickets for future games.

Celeb-spotters had a field-day also, as President Jimmy Carter made a speech for Pele and he was joined in the dressing by a certain Muhammad Ali, who characteristically said that “I don’t know if he’s a good player, but I’m definitely prettier than him.” He would later admit that “now there are two of the greatest,” confirming their place as the planets two most recognisable sports stars.
The game itself saw Pele play the first half for the Cosmos, where he would score his final goal with a thirty-yard free kick, and the second half for Santos. At half-time Pele’s number ten shirt was retired and full-time saw yet more speeches and flag-waving amongst the pomp and circumstance of the day. The only sour note of the day was the fact that it was pouring it down with rain by the end of the game, but a Brazilian newspaper explained that it was because “even the sky was crying.”

Vuvuzelas banned from Euro 2012, Champions League.

UEFA has banned fans from bringing vuvuzelas into stadiums for European Championship and Champions League matches. UEFA said Wednesday it wanted to protect the culture and tradition of fans singing at European soccer matches from the "negative effect" of the South African plastic trumpets made famous - and notorious - at the World Cup.

"UEFA feels that the instrument's widespread use would not be appropriate in Europe," the organization said in a statement. All 53 European soccer nations have been told to enforce the ban at UEFA's national team and club competition matches.

Vuvuzelas provided the World Cup soundtrack in South Africa, where every match was accompanied by a low-pitch drone likened to a swarm of buzzing bees. FIFA refused to ban vuvuzelas despite repeated calls from players and broadcasters, defending them as part of South African soccer culture. However, they have since been banned by organizers of events such as basketball's world championship and the Little League World Series, and by most English Premier League clubs.

The ban will take effect when qualifying for Euro 2012 begins today, and when the group stage of the Champions League and Europa League starts in two weeks. European broadcasters, who developed sound filters during the World Cup to try to control the vuvuzela noise, will likely be pleased by the ban.

Valuable television rights deals help to ensure that the Champions League earns more than $1.28 billion in commercial revenue each season.