lunes, 31 de octubre de 2011

Women's Soccer

Women have been playing association football since the first recorded women's game in 1895 in North London. It has traditionally been associated with charity games and physical exercise, particularly in the United Kingdom. This perception began to change in the 1970s with the breakthrough of organised women's association football. Association football is the most prominent team sport for women in several countries, and one of the few women's team sports with professional leagues.
The growth in women's football has seen major competitions being launched at both national and international level mirroring the male competitions. Women's football faced many struggles throughout its fight for right. It had a "golden age" in the United Kingdom in the early 1920s when crowds reached 50,000 at some matches; this was stopped on 5 December 1921 when England's Football Association voted to ban the game from grounds used by its member clubs. The FA's ban was rescinded in December 1969 with UEFA voting to officially recognise women's football in 1971.The FIFA Women's World Cup was inaugurated in 1991 and has been held every four years since.

Soccer

soccer is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. At the turn of the 21st century, the game was played by over 250 million players in over 200 countries, making it the world's most popular sport.
The game is played on a rectangular field of grass or green artificial turf, with a goal in the middle of each of the short ends. The object of the game is to score by driving the ball into the opposing goal. In general play, the goalkeepers are the only players allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms, while the field players typically use their feet to kick the ball into position, occasionally using their torso or head to intercept a ball in midair. The team that scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is tied at the end of the game, either a draw is declared or the game goes into extra time and/or a penalty shootout, depending on the format of the competition.

 GAMEPLAY

Association football is played in accordance with a set of rules known as the Laws of the Game. The game is played using a spherical ball  known as the football. Two teams of eleven players each compete to get the ball into the other team's goal (between the posts and under the bar), thereby scoring a goal. The team that has scored more goals at the end of the game is the winner; if both teams have scored an equal number of goals then the game is a draw. Each team is led by a captain who has only one official responsibility as mandated by the Laws of the Game: to be involved in the coin toss prior to kick-off or penalty kicks.
The primary law is that players other than goalkeepers may not deliberately handle the ball with their hands or arms during play, though they do use their hands during a throw-in restart. Although players usually use their feet to move the ball around, they may use any part of their body other than their hands or arms. Within normal play, all players are free to play the ball in any direction and move throughout the pitch, though the ball cannot be received in an offside position.
In typical game play, players attempt to create goal-scoring opportunities through individual control of the ball, such as by dribbling, passing the ball to a team-mate, and by taking shots at the goal, which is guarded by the opposing goalkeeper. Opposing players may try to regain control of the ball by intercepting a pass or through tackling the opponent in possession of the ball; however, physical contact between opponents is restricted. Football is generally a free-flowing game, with play stopping only when the ball has left the field of play or when play is stopped by the referee for an infringement of the rules. After a stoppage, play recommences with a specified restart.
A goalkeeper dives to stop the ball from entering his goal
At a professional level, most matches produce only a few goals. For example, the 2005–06 season of the English Premier League produced an average of 2.48 goals per match.The Laws of the Game do not specify any player positions other than goalkeeper,[13] but a number of specialised roles have evolved. Broadly, these include three main categories: strikers, or forwards, whose main task is to score goals; defenders, who specialise in preventing their opponents from scoring; and midfielders, who dispossess the opposition and keep possession of the ball in order to pass it to the forwards on their team. Players in these positions are referred to as outfield players, in order to distinguish them from the goalkeeper. These positions are further subdivided according to the area of the field in which the player spends most time. For example, there are central defenders, and left and right midfielders. The ten outfield players may be arranged in any combination. The number of players in each position determines the style of the team's play; more forwards and fewer defenders creates a more aggressive and offensive-minded game, while the reverse creates a slower, more defensive style of play. While players typically spend most of the game in a specific position, there are few restrictions on player movement, and players can switch positions at any time. The layout of a team's players is known as a formation. Defining the team's formation and tactics is usually the prerogative of the team's manager.

Real madrid Important information and Best goals



Real Madrid
Real Madrid C.F. emblem
Full name Real Madrid Club de Fútbol
Nickname(s) Los Blancos (The Whites) Los Merengues (The Meringues) Los Vikingos (The Vikings)
Founded March 6, 1902 (109 years ago)
as Madrid Football Club
Ground Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid
(Capacity: 85,454)
President Florentino Pérez
Manager José Mourinho
League La Liga


jueves, 13 de octubre de 2011

Early years (1902–1945)

Real Madrid's origins go back to when football was introduced to Madrid by the academics and students of the Institución libre de enseñanza, which included several Oxbridge graduates. They founded Football Club Sky in 1897, playing on Sunday mornings at Moncloa. It split into two clubs in 1900: New Foot-Ball de Madrid and Club Español de Madrid. The latter club split again in 1902, resulting in the formation of Madrid Football Club on 6 March 1902. Three years after its foundation, in 1905, Madrid FC won its first title after defeating Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Cup final. The club became one of the founding sides of the Royal Spanish Football Federation on 4 January 1909, when club president Adolfo Meléndez signed the foundation agreement of the Spanish FA. After moving between grounds the team moved to the Campo de O'Donnell in 1912. In 1920, the club's name was changed to Real Madrid after King Alfonso XIII granted the title of Real (Royal) to the club.
In 1929, the first Spanish football league was founded. Real Madrid led the first league season until the last match, a loss to Athletic Bilbao, meant they finished runners-up to Barcelona. Real Madrid won its first League title in the 1931–32 season. Real won the League again the following year, becoming the first side to have won the championship twice.

sábado, 8 de octubre de 2011

Real Madrid

Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. It is the most successful club in Spanish football in terms of international and overall trophies, and was voted by FIFA as the most successful football club of the 20th century, having won a record 31 La Liga titles, 18 Spanish "Copa del Rey" Cups, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la Liga, a record 9 UEFA Champions Leagues, 2 UEFA Cups, 1 UEFA Super Cup and 3 Intercontinental Cups.
Real Madrid was a founding member of FIFA and the now-defunct G-14 group of Europe's leading football clubs as well as its replacement, the European Club Association. The word "Real" in the club's name is the Spanish term for "royal", and was given by the King Alfonso XIII in 1920 together with the royal crown in the emblem – several other Spanish football teams also received this royal distinction: Real Sociedad, Real Unión de Irún, Real Betis, and Real Zaragoza.
Founded in 1902 by two catalan brothers, Juan Padrós and Carlos Padrós, Real Madrid has never been relegated from La Liga, the top league of Spanish football. The club established itself as a major force in both Spanish and European football during the 1950s. In the 1980s, the club had one of the best teams  in Spain and Europe, winning two UEFA Cups, five consecutive Spanish championships, one Spanish Cup and three Spanish Super Cups.