Soccer Update

A few weeks ago, I went to my brother’s soccer game. It wasn’t with the school team but with a separate soccer school called A.C. Milan. This school gives very talented players the chance to get noticed. Every year, this team goes to a city in Europe to compete and scouts from major teams come to find new talents. These scouts go to the school and choose a player to take to Europe and play. I actually met one of the players that was taken to play for a year. He was normal and down to Earth but also very talented. Anyways, this school gives many chances and that’s why my brother plays there. As I told you before, I went to see one of the games. The soccer field was normal sized and the players seemed a little bit older than 15. They looked professional and prepared unlike my brother. I’ve heard him say that in the school games he shines but in these games he’s unnoticeable. These players looked tough and ready to do whatever to take the ball. As I saw them play, I realized that I suck at playing soccer. Whenever they took the ball it looked like they didn’t even know the had the ball and they glided through the field. Whenever I take the ball, I look at it while I’m running. These players didn’t have to look at it. They knew it was there and they are so used to having it, they don’t have to concentrate on taking it but on getting through the field with it. It was amazing how they looked like they had been playing soccer for they’re whole lives. For them, soccer is a lifestyle not a sport. As I watched the players from both teams, I realized that it all takes practice. Even if you know all the theories, it all takes practice to be productive. This practice requires some sacrifice as I notice in all good players. Practice is also very useful because all players need a very good resistance to be able to play through the whole game. Our school games are very patronizing because they only last 60 minutes while professional games last 90 minutes. The games of A.C. Milan do last 90 minutes and that’s why it’s so very tiring. In my brother’s case, he can only play for half the game because he doesn’t have as much resistance as the rest of the players. When I watched the players play every minute until the game ended, they never stopped giving they’re best during the whole game. Even though they were tired, when they got the ball they would run as fast as possible with the ball. The two goals that they scored were amazing and were scored with so much style and perfectness. Watching the game was wonderful and I’m sure I am going to go watch one again.

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A few days ago, we all had a school trip to Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica. The second day we were there, we went to the beach but we weren’t allowed to get in the water which I think is ridiculous because there wasn’t any thunder and it was barely raining. After a while of taking pictures with my friends, I got bored of the same pictures and looked for something else to do. One one side of the beach, a bunch of boys were playing American Football but I wasn’t interested in playing that because they all become savages when they start playing. On the other side of the beach, there were some boys playing soccer. At first I was worried to go play with them because there were many dangerous rocks on the sides and I wasn’t sure if they would let me play. Then I noticed that Diana was playing soccer with them so I went to ask her how everything was. She told that I should play because it was very fun and the boys were not like the boys playing football. I asked  Ariel if I could play because he was the first one I saw and he said it was okay. I started a little shy because I wasn’t used to my team but after a while, I got used to it. I looked for the ball the whole time and when I got it, I tried to dribble with it as long as I could. Every once in a while I would hit a small rock and get hurt but I got over it quickly. There was one moment when I was close to the goal and I shot at the goal. I think I made a goal but I’m not sure because we went back to playing. There was one inconvenience throughout the game though. Every once in a while, a big wave would reach the area where we were playing and the ball was hard to control. It would float and go back to the beach along with the water. Luckily, it never got past the shore so it never got lost. Besides that, there where no other inconveniences until something very hurtful happened. One of the players, Brandon, was running with the ball and he hit his foot with a big, pointy rock. He cut his foot pretty bad because he was bleeding very bad. He stopped playing and after that, other people stopped, too, and the game ended. A few minutes later, we had to go back to the hotel. I enjoyed the game a lot because I had not played soccer like that in a long time. 

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I’m lost. For all of you readers that like this blog because it’s about soccer, I’m sorry to dispapoint you because I have no idea what to write anymore. Any suggestions? I mean, I really like soccer but to play it… not to write about it. I wanted to write about it at the beginning because I don’t have many passions and that was the only thing that came to my mind. But now, I’m starting to regret it. When writing posts, I can’t really express my feelings that much because it’s all about collecting the facts and that just bores me. Let’s say I decide to write about a soccer game. Yes, I can say how I feel about the results and the players but it’s mostly just collecting the facts and reporting what happened. It involves research and time but I prefer to talk about something that I know about and don’t have many opportunities in giving voice to the writing. The other day in class, we had a discussion about giving voice to our writing. Voice is very important because it differentiates out writing from the rest which is very important because writing something is not the same thing as saying it. When saying something, we can give it our “personal touch” but when writing something, it’s just the same as everything else so voice is something very important so that people feel like they’re talking to them and that there is a uniqueness in the writing. When I write about soccer, it is harder for me to give that voice to my blog. So what can I do to give that voice but still talk about soccer? Well, let me tell you that I’m going to keep writing about soccer for the rest of the school year but I’m going to try to write more about some experiences that I myself had with soccer than informing about a soccer event.

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The other day the middle school was told that there was going to be a soccer game at ICS. The soccer season had ended so we were all surprised that there was a soccer game out of the sudden. We were told about 2 weeks before so when the day came, I had already forgotten. I hadn’t brought the soccer uniform nor the cleats and socks. I wasn’t ready to play and I wasn’t feeling very well to go so I decided not to go to the game. Unfortunately, not many people were going so I was asked to go. I had to call my mom quickly so that I could get my uniform on time and be able to go play. My mom was able to get the stuff on time and I hurried to get ready. So we went to the school after a half hour bus ride. When we got there, we waited for the other team to get there so that we could start playing. We were having this game because the ICS school was having of a sports day. We were in the semifinals but the other team never came and we won for default so we went directly to play in the finals with ICS. The game was different than other games because we only played with 6 players including the goalkeeper and the game only lasted 30 minutes with 15 minutes each half. The game was quick but not that easy. The other team’s goalkeeper was very good and tough. She wasn’t afraid to jump in front of the ball and risk getting hurt. There was another girl that really got in my nerves because she wouldn’t let me play and one time, I  was running with the ball and she bumped into me from the side and I fell to the ground. I wasn’t hurt or anything but it really annoyed me. The rest of the game went pretty well. Marian scored a goal and the other team scored a goal, too. It was a tie so we went to penalties. After a long while of shooting at the goal, Eva scored a goal and we won the finals. We won the tournament and a trophy was given to us. Even though the game wasn’t that long, I had a really good time and enjoyed playing again.

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I don’t feel like I have a long history of soccer or that huge passion for it. I don’t feel like playing soccer every time of the day. I’m not trying to learn every new trick I see. So why did I chose to write every single entry about soccer? I’ve been trying to answer myself that question since a few weeks and I’ve still haven’t reached a conclusion with my answer. I never really thought about playing soccer before last school year. Back in Honduras, I was dedicated to ballet and I was really in love with it. Of course sometimes I had my doubts about staying in the classes but almost all of the time I loved dancing. I loved going out on stage and being able to do what I wanted. Another thing I liked was that the light was on me and that I wasn’t able to see the audience’s faces. This way I wouldn’t worry about their faces or whether they liked it or not. I wasn’t worrying about pleasing them but about enjoying the moment myself. The last year I was in Honduras before moving here to Costa Rica, I was really in the group of the best ones in my class. I was chosen to be in front for the presentations. I had important parts in the play. I was starting to get comfortable with the pointe ballet slippers and I was in love with ballet. When I came to Costa Rica, everything changed. I started having classes in a new academy but my inspiration was taken away. The teacher wasn’t interested in what I had learned in Honduras and she sent me back to the regular classes. She lowered my category and sent me back to where I had worked so hard to get to the top. I was disappointed and degraded. After that I stopped dancing ballet and just went to school. Since I had to do exercise, I looked for an afterschool activity to do. The options were volleyball, soccer, and basketball. I was completely against basketball because I just don’t like it. Volleyball had already started so my only option was soccer. I had never considered soccer because it had always been my brother who played soccer and I was the one who danced. He had always been very successful in soccer and scored uncountable goals. He was the soccer star in my house as I was the dance star. When I decided to play soccer, I told my parents who didn’t believe me. They thought I wasn’t going to last more than that season. I wanted to prove my point to my parents that not only my brother could play. I went to all the classes and tried my best but I wasn’t used to that kind of sport. I had bad resistance and couldn’t last that long running. Obviously, I wasn’t even close to my brother in soccer abilities. That season, I didn’t do well at all and I was disappointed. I don’t recall playing that much in games and when I played, I didn’t do much. This year, I played in the soccer team again and everything changed. I believe that I improved a lot … and I scored my first goal! I really felt proud of myself and I couldn’t wait to tell my parents. When I told them, they didn’t believe me and then they congratulated me. Later on, I played in all the games and I felt like I did a lot this time. We ended up champions…out of four teams…but we all felt proud anyways. Of course I couldn’t compare myself to my brother because it was just impossible that I was better than him, but I felt proud of myself. I think that the moment I scored the goal felt like every time I went on stage to dance. To remember that feeling was like the awakening of passion for soccer. After that, I wanted to score a goal in every game, but that didn’t happen. Even though it didn’t, I had that encouragement to get better, not to impress someone else, but to have that wonderful feeling again. The season ended even though I would’ve wanted to keep going but it ended. So why did I chose to write about soccer? I haven’t answered that question but I think I got that inspiration from a wonderful feeling that resembled to the one I got when I danced ballet. The bad thing is that writing about soccer is not as fun as playing it. I still don’t think I have that inspiration and love for soccer like my brother. There is another person that I think really is in love with soccer and could not do anything else than that. That person is Lima. His blog is lima77.edublogs.org. If what you are looking for is many things about soccer, I thing you should take a look at his blog because he really has that inspiration for soccer.

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For those people who are huge fans of soccer, they mostly live it. They always want to do everything that relates to soccer. One of those people is my brother. The thing I admire about him is his ability on soccer. Since I live with him, I know by experience that he would not be able to live without soccer. One of his greatest obsessions is playing soccer in video games. He has a collection of the FIFA Soccer games in Xbox. The collection he has right now starts from 2003 to 2008. I believe he had more before but he sold the ones from years before. Anyways, he is obsessed with playing soccer any way he can no matter what and so do other people around the globe. For those people, FIFA has made soccer games that keep improving every year, mostly in graphics. Seeing the video game know, the computerized players actually look real. I’m not exaggerating. You can even see their sweat. One of the features of the game is the Be A Pro Mode. This feature gives you the role of a soccer player that you will have learn the disciplines and challenges of a real player. In this mode, you will play games controlling only that player and having to also be a good team player. Another feature of this game is the Xbox Live. This gives you the advantage to play with other people online! If you have internet, you can go live and play against other people around the world. The 2008 version of the game has many improvements like its size. In this version, there are 30 international leagues which is 5 times as much as the 2007 version. There are 15,000 players divided in over 620 teams so there are good chances you’ll find your favorite players.

Engineers worked hard on making the kicks and curve balls more realistic and accurate. You can alter the power you hit it with, the angle at which you hit it and the images will vary on the way you hit it. There are also many options in the shot aim that you can control manually. The engineers from EA have been working on the players and know, they move gracefully and smoothly. This improvement also applies to the skill moves like body fakes, dribbles and “slow dribbles”, feints, and many more.

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David Suazo was born in November 5, 1979 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. When he was younger, he played in Olimpia which is the major soccer team in Honduras. His first game was against another Honduran team Motagua and he scored a goal. He ended the season with 4 scored goals in 1o games. By the time he was 20 years old, he had a starting spot in Olimpia. He participated in the Corea Japon 2002 World Cup , Alemania 2006 World Cup and the CONCACAF in 2000. He also played in the Copa America in Columbia in 2001.After going to the Olimpic Games in Sydney playing with Nigeria in 1999, an italian coach was impressed by him and took him to Italy to play in Cagliari(Italian soccer team). During Suazo’s time playing with that team, he attended to 113 matches and scored 40 goals. After this, he was nicknamed La Pantera( The Panther) and El Rey David(King David). In 2006, King David played in another season with Cagliari, he scored 23 goals out of 37 games breaking historic Gigi Riva’s record.After this he became the captain and leader of the team. Later, Suazo was given the Serie A Award for Best Foreign Player and shared it with brazilian player, Kaka. He aso received the award of the most goals scored in a season in Cagliari in 2006.Many famous teams like Juventus, Manchester United, AC Milan, Inter de Milan, Sevilla de España, and many more wanted him in their teams but Massimo Cellini( cagliari coach) considered Suazo too valuable to sell. Finally Massimo decided that he couldn’t hold Suazo back so he let him go. In 2007, he joined the Inter Milan team with a deal of €10 million. He has a contract know with Inter Milan for the next three seasons. With Inter Milan, Suazo is going to play in the UEFA Champions League and the Serie A of Italy. Sauzo is currently playing as a forward player and the first Honduran player that plays in this team.

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Cleats are a very important part of soccer. You can even see that famous players have their cleats be specially designed for them. One of the most recent petitions by David Beckham, Steven Gerard, and brazillian wonderkid Anderson were the Predator Powerswerve cleats by Adidas. This powerswerve is designed so you can “increase the power of your shot”. The powerpulse is a sole that you can change every time you like with wheight that causes a pendulum effect increases the force acting on the ball giving the shot more power. In addition, there is a very unique feature of the cleat that helps you control the ball easier even when there is rain. This technology keeps the front of the cleat to get slippery and helps you control the ball.This cleat also has a small heel counter that releases less pressure on the Achilles tendonn. This gives more stability and comfort.  This cleat is being used by many famous players like David Beckham,Steven Gerard, Anderson and many more. The cleat is also recognized by its rubber strips on the top of the cleat that helps increase power and accuracy.  This cleat is made in Germany and has a glove material that molds to your foot. The first predator was made in 1994 intended for Zinedine Zidane and since then, a new version of the cleat is launched every year for the every professional league in the world.The version made for David Beckham was made out of lightwheight microfiber while other versions is made out of kangaroo leather. Even though the kangaroo leather is considered to be cruel, it is actually better because it adjusts to the foot better while the lighweight microfiber is considered to be harder.Because of this use of kangaroo leather, there have been protests form the Viva! animal rights group. This cleat at $200.

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What is freedom of speech? In the United States Constitution under the First Amendment:Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. What does this mean to you as a blogger?

In my opinion, freedom of speech has always been very important because people have to be able to say or write whatever they want without getting harsh consequences. There are other parts to this first amendment that make it very important, too. This amendment also states that there has to be freedom of religion, freedom of speech and press, freedom to assemble peacefully and to ask Government to change laws. These other rights are very important too because people cannot be stopped to worship whatever they want and to express their feelings and opinions. The part where the amendment says that there is freedom of speech and press applies to me as a blogger because when writing blogs, we have the right to give our opinions and talk about them freely. I think that is one of the major reasons why we blog, to express ourselves however we want as long as we don’t disrespect others. If we didn’t have the freedom to right about whatever we wanted, we wouldn’t be able to express ourselves. Expressing what we think and like is very important in someone’s life because we need to let everything out.  Perhaps everyone does express theirselves in some other way but the purpose of writing is trying to express yourself in a way that you couldn’t do with a person. Maybe with a topic like soccer, freedom of speech perhaps is not very important but when giving opinions about anything( soccer players, rules, etc.) it is very important not to have many bonds.

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