Nicholas’ Soccer Blog

The matchup that everyone was waiting for the defending champions Manchester United vs FC Barcelona who has won the championship two out of the last three times. To start off the game both clubs had a lot of chances then finally Samuel Eto’o carved around a defender with a beautiful move and found the back of the net. To start the second half same thing as the starting of the first, lots of chances for both teams especially Manchester in the beginning but unfortunately they just couldn’t finish. And then to “put the game in the bag” an absolutely sensational pin point cross from Xavi was sent to Barcelona star Lionel Messi who finished it with an even more amazing play after scoring on a header. The final score was 2-0

So Manchester had lost there chance of becoming the first team to defend the title in the Uefa Champions League and Barcelona had capitalized on there chance to be the first Spanish league to complete the treble (league champions, cup play champions and Uefa Champions League winners) in one season.

Can’t wait until next years finals and I will probably write a post about it. Leave a comment and tell me you you were going for? I have to be honest, I was going for Manchester.

Photos by azote (Cristiano Ronaldo) and prettyfriendship (Lionel Messi)

Hi Readers,

I don’t think I have ever mentioned my cleats were getting way to small and my dad said he would get me bran new ones. Well, anyways I was looking at cleats on the internet and these nice orange, black and silver cleats got my eye they were Nike total 90 lasers.

I was so excited (they were on sale). I quickly brought my dad over to the internet and told him how much I liked those cleats. My dad ordered them right away. Unfortunately they had to be shipped from the U.S. Yet obviously I was willing to wait.

The exciting thing is they just arrived to days ago! I already wore them to a game and played awesome.

The cleats I have are not the same colour as the ones shown in the picture above. My cleats are mostly black with a silver front and orange swoosh and studs.

This was just a quick post about what’s happening in my life. Leave a comment or write a post and link to this post and let me know about sports equipment you have received or purchased.

       Today I am going to teach you a few soccer drills to help improve your skill.

1. The Give and Go Drill-  For this drill you will need three players (one defender and two forwards). Using the three players form a triangle. Decide on which player will play as the defender . One forward will start with the ball. He will pass it to the other forward and then immediately run around the other side of the defender to receive a pass. This sort of one-two pass can help you get around a defender in almost any situation.
2. The One on One Drill- This is one of the most basic and most well known drill. To perform this drill you need three players (one forward, defender and goalie). Set up two cones about 3 yards apart to use as a goal. You will only need one net. The Forward starts with the ball with his body facing toward both the goalie and the defender. He now attempts to pass the defender and have a shot on goal. Take turns playing each position to gain both defensive and offensive skill. The purpose of this drill is to help you learn how to take on a defender by yourself when there is no one to pass to.
3. The Warm Up Drill- This drill is great to do before a game. For this drill you will need about 12 players (position doesn’t matter). Get into 4 lines of three two lines spread about 2 yards apart and they other two facing them on the opposite side. Keep the two lines on one side about 9 yards away from the two lines on the other side. Get one ball and give it to a player in the front of one of the for lines. He will then pass it to the line vertical to him and follow his pass to the back of that line. The current player with the ball will than pass to the line diagonal to him and follow his pass. The next player with the ball will pass to the line vertical to him and so on.

 Use these soccer drills to help you improve your skills. Leave a comment and let me know if these tips helped you or if you have ideas for soccer drills you would like to share. Hopefully I will have another soccer drills post coming soon. Bye for now.

Unfortunately…. when there is tons of snow outside it is difficult to play soccer. Even if you can get the ball to roll it is still wet…. not to mention running in snow is difficult.

Do you play soccer in the snow? If so, is there a particular way you do? Do you enjoy playing soccer in the snow better then on the dry grass? I sure don’t!

Photo Credits: Stew pendous

A very young, poor but optimistic boy named Andrio has a dream to become a professional soccer/football player. Andrio plays on a team with other very minimally skilled players. No one in the whole town he lives in is skilled enough to teach him high quality soccer. He works all day long and doesn’t even get a chance to go to school. Yet he still follows his dream. He has been saving up money to go to a soccer camp for years.

The day has come, it is time for him to attend soccer camp. Andrio feels incredible, as if everything was not even reality. It is to good to be true! He realizes he actually isn’t that bad of a player. Since he is playing with people more skilled then him he challenges himself. After a few more training camps Andrio realizes if he wishes to pursue his dream he must tryout for a select team or at least a better team then he is playing on now.

To actually be able to make the team he must first attend a regular house season. Andrio has been improving on a massive scale. Therefore by the end of the season Andrio gets a tryout chance on the select team.

The coaches are strict and they except much more than the house coaches. By the end of the tryouts Andrio believed he would make it. He had put in 110% in everything he did.

Now decision ending day had finally came. The suspense was building in Andrio’s head. He knew to become a pro he needed to make this team. It was like a stepping stone that you only had one chance to try and step on. If you missed it everything would be lost!

Photo Credits- Me

Hey Guys,

I decided to have another servey since survey’s have been really fun so far. This time the survey is going to be about your favourite soccer player. Cast your vote on the link below.

Click Here to take survey
Now that you have left your vote invite your friend to come and vote!

I look forward to the results.

Photo Credits: Wayne Rooney by: sam_herd, Cristiano Ronaldo by: azote, Ronaldinho by: Thundershead

Last week, on Friday, I went to a soccer tryout. The tryout was for the provincial team. It was held in Victoria. If anyone is wondering what Danone means here’s your answer. Danone is a yogurt company that makes all different types of yogurt. At the tryouts there was a mascot and everything. I played my best and did very well. It was extremely exciting. The whole thing was sponsored by Zenedine Zidane. He is a french soccer pro who is know retired.

If anyone else has recently had a soccer tryout or anything they want to tell me about please leave a comment.

Hey Guys, today I am going to teach you the basics on how to kick a soccer ball. Here are the steps:

1. Place your non-kicking foot on a diagonal line behind the ball (not TOO far away from the ball)
2. When you kick, kick with the laces of your cleat (get your foot underneath the ball)
3. Get your body bended over the ball (this way the ball won’t go flying out of control)
4. And finally, strike the ball with your cleat and follow through with your shot. Score!                    

Another good way to kick the ball is putting a curl on it. Which makes it much harder for the Goalkeeper to save. Putting a curl on your shot is quite a bit more tricky but I will teach you anyway. It is pretty much the same steps as normally kicking the ball except when you strike the ball you have to move your leg in the other direction at the last moment of contact with the ball. Also when you run up to the ball you want to run up at it with even more of an angle.

Try out these tips and let me know how you did.

Bye! More tips coming soon. Photo by: Paul-W

Hey Guys

This time I am going to teach you how to do a bicycle kick. A bicycle kick is much harder then curling the ball. It involves more skill and practice to get it just right. Here are the steps:

1. Timing is everything so be patient before you attempt the bicycle kick
2. When the ball comes in the air wait for it to be just above your head
3. Then leap off both feet (leaning back of course) and swing your non kicking foot in the air towards your head for momentum
4. To finish it off fall backwards while striking the ball with power (strike the ball with your non kicking foot of course).

Try this out and let me know how you did!

 Photo by: djbiesack

The results so far for the “your favourite sport survey” is: soccer-11, swimming-8, football-5, basketball- 5, hockey-3, badminton-3, horseback riding-2, volleyball- 1 and tennis-1. Wow! What a wide variety of sports people are interested in. I will update the results every time someone sends me a comment telling me what their favourite sport is so if you want your favourite sport to win this survey comment, comment, comment!