Sports Then and Now

There is no doubt that soccer has gained some popularity over the past few years. The women’s national soccer team winning the World Cup tournament in 2015 drew a lot of attention. Unfortunately, the attention was short-lived. So, why is soccer less popular than football in the United States? Find the answer to this question and more information in the article below.

It’s About Winning

In America, it is about winning, which is why soccer cannot gain any popularity. While the women’s national soccer team have several World Cup titles under their belt, the men just cannot muster up enough skills to pull off a single win. When you compare the popularity of hockey and soccer in the United States, the two sports are lacking a lot. With that said, hockey does appear to be more popular than soccer in America. This is probably due to the Lake Placid Olympics win in 1980.

If the U.S. men’s team can pull off a win, it may actually help draw some fans. It is unclear whether or not Americans will be tuning in to the upcoming World Cup.

Substitutions Are Limited

Unlike football, soccer has a lot of regulations that Americans view as unnecessary. One regulation has to do with substitutions. When a player gets injured in soccer, the entire team is punished, at least that is how Americans see it. This is because the injured player cannot be substituted. When you look at it, losing a player makes the team weaker. So, they are not on a competitive level with their components, which gives them an unfair advantage.

Sports has evolved in some aspects while completely changing in others as in the early days of the NFL seeing players smoking cigarettes on the sideline was not uncommon. The money that is now generated is immense compared to the past due to TV deals and the expansion of ways to watch the game due to technology. Being able to watch a soccer match across the world used to take some lucky local programming but now it can be accessed by nearly any smartphone with an internet connection. Sports were due to change in one way or another but this will incorporate the social media aspect of how sports has changed for the better…as well as for the worse in the rest of this article.

Players Posting Their Offseason Training Sessions

The secret training regimen being kept from competitors was a common tactic used in the past. Now athletes are friendlier than in the past with players training with rivals on other teams that might have knocked them out of the playoffs. This is due to more opportunities for young elite athletes to play on teams and in camps against other top prospects. In essence many professional athletes grow up together whether they live near each other or see each other a few times a year at large tournaments. Social media helps them stay connected while in the past they would have had to call each other or write letters. There are still those old school players that do not train with rivals as they think they could use they gained knowledge to their advantage during the next professional season. Kobe Bryant noted that he used playing with the Olympic team as a way to pick up tendencies of players that might not be visible on tape.

Roman Abramovich brought Chelsea for £140 million in 2003, but by no means was that the end to his spending. Over the last 16 years, the Russian has spent over £1.5 billion on new players, with not all of those being of the caliber needed to compete for honors.

The Abramovich era has seen a trophy haul of 13 major trophies; including five Premier League titles, five FA Cups and one Champions League success. The 2009/10 campaign also saw the Blues complete their first FA Cup and Premier League double.

One place where you won’t be guilty of wasting time is NetBet. Here you will find all the perfect markets for your sports betting needs. There is an array of markets for soccer, basketball and American football.

1.            Adrian Mutu (£16 Million from Parma)

Things started very well for Mutu following his big-money move from Italy. He scored four goals in his opening three matches and was shaping up to be a top quality signing. However, things quickly turned sour for the Romanian international.

Chelsea signed the former Series A star in 2003, and he was quick to fall out with new manager José Mourinho who arrived the following season due to questions about the Romanian’s attitude. Read the rest of this entry →

You love football, but do not always have time to follow all the results? Then the Internet portal of 1xBet company is exactly what you need. Here, users are provided with unique broadcasts, as well as the opportunity to place bets live.

The latter is especially important, because one bet is enough to make you rich quickly. Today, betting is also available to users of mobile devices, which allows you to save time and make forecasts regardless of where you are geographically.

Naturally, despite the huge variety of sports, the most popular one among fans is football. This becomes especially noticeable when European championships begin. You can follow the results of the competitions and make profitable forecasts at our Internet portal. It has an excellent functionality and thought-out user interface that will allow you not to waste time and immediately receive the necessary information.

The broadcast provided by 1xbet.com — live football stream — offers a huge variety of competitions from all around the world. The European Cups that have already started caused an unprecedented stir among users; however, they are not the only ones to deal with. Here, attention is also paid to dozens of live matches so that you can find the most interesting confrontations that will definitely not leave you indifferent. Read the rest of this entry →

There is a lot of leadership that goes into the successful running of a football club. While the strategic direction of the club is often determined by the club manager, much of the strategic decisions remain in the hands of the directors. And the manager has to have enough justification for every approach he takes because at the end, results are the true measure of success. The very survival of the club depends upon these results.

In order to guarantee the desired results, there are certain fundamental principles that should guide the leadership of any club. Here’s a rundown of four of these guidelines.

Have a philosophy

Coaches are known to bring specific styles and approaches to the football teams that they manage. However, managers come and go, and the club should be able to retain some kind of identity even in the absence of these important individuals and their distinctive styles.

It is the club’s way of doing things that gives it its identity. It is imperative therefore to have a club philosophy; a vision, a set of values which clearly define the way of doing things within that particular club.

Once you develop a solid club philosophy, the next important phase of things is to see to its survival. Make your players develop an understanding of how things are done in the club. Every new sign-on needs to be properly onboarded and absorbed into this culture. Similarly, every new manager should abide by the club’s philosophy even as they play around with it to develop a winning style.  Read the rest of this entry →

Current Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, for nearly two decades now, has perhaps been the most important coach operating in the game of football. Champions League and Uefa Cup successes at Porto, turning Chelsea into the leviathan they are today, guiding Internazionale out of the wilderness and into the limelight and stopping Pep’s Barcelona, (albeit briefly) with Real Madrid all marked him out as one of the game’s brightest minds.

However, it is undeniable that his star is beginning to wane.

In fact, Mourinho’s position at Old Trafford is looking more perilous with each passing day. Despite signing a contract extension that theoretically sees him employed until the year 2020, Mourinho sits at odds of just 5/1 with Titanbet to leave his post in the summer.

After spending a total nearing £300 million, Jose Mourinho has ensured that the fans demand the utmost from his side. Of course, a club like Manchester United always need to be in the hunt for trophies, yet the Salford club’s demands extend far beyond the need for silverware. The club long for the brand football so regularly displayed by Sir Alex Ferguson.

Fearing that Manchester United are losing what made them unique and are in the process of morphing into ‘just another big club’, we often hear a chorus of fans singing, “ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK!!”.

Manchester United have the players to play a more cavalier style of football, yet the manager in the dugout is reluctant to shift his foot too far from the break peddle. Mourinho, by his very nature, is a cautious individual, and nowhere was this more evident than in Manchester United’s recent elimination from the Champions League. Read the rest of this entry →