Written in the Stars: June 2007

Arsenal

Arsenal

The departure of Henry and Dein and Wenger's refusal to commit to a new contract has set an uncertainty in the London camp. Inevitably, stars will want to leave to safe guard their already short playing career. Without their talisman/Captain Henry, Arsenal is likely to under perform again for the upcoming season.

Sweden captain Ljungberg left the Gunners yesterday for West Ham United after nine seasons in North London.

Beckham

Beckham

Beckham has shown people its ok to look this great.

Beckham, now No. 23 for the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team, has made his name in fashion by becoming a kind of chameleon, trying on hairstyles, trends and designers to suit each passing whim. He has cultivated an eclectic style, wearing everything from tight Armani suits to deconstructed jeans to flashy rhinestone-encrusted tracksuits.

Beckham's new dressings and hairstyles has never failed to set new trends among fashion cautious people and get ready to see people on the streets of America sporting Beckham's newest hairdo and attire!

Leeds United

Its very sad to see Leeds United in this state and just some years ago they were up in the EPL fighting with the big boys with a club consisting of many talents such as England's goalkeeper Paul Robinson, Liverpool's Harry Kewell, Newcastle's Mark Viduka etc. Its a pity to see the club go bust and it'll be quite some years before we can see Leeds back again.. Till then..

Soccer Kicking Techniques - the Volley

Volley technique

Volley technique is a difficult soccer skill to master, but volleys have produced many spectacular goals. As well as goal scoring, volleys can be used for passing, and kicking the ball away from danger in your own area. In tight situations, it is often better for a defender to volley the ball away than to try to control the ball at a difficult height. The kicking techniques used for the full volley is different from the half volley, and the side volley pass.

One of the secrets of great volleys is the swivel motion. Start from a square position with both feet a comfortable distance apart. Then, without moving your feet twist your upper body to the right until your left shoulder is facing directly in front of you. Next, twist back to the right until your right shoulder is facing in front of you. This is the swivel motion that can improve your volleying technique, and it can be practised without a ball. Another way of thinking of this twisting motion is as a corkscrew. For a left-footed volley twist first to the right, and then to the left.

Keeping the ball down is one of the worst problems with volleying technique. As with all kicking skills watching the ball, and keeping the head down helps, but it is important to try to keep the knee over the ball.

The volley technique uses a twisting motion with the head down, and the knee in a high position.

Manchester City

The timely take-over just before the season opener has given Manchester City a great morale booster. The club is hoping to improve their dismay performance for last season.

Even with the major cash injection, unless they can attract quality players, Manchester City will be likely to be lingering in the middle table all season...

Friendlies

Pre-season friendlies have their pros and cons and they are indeed useful to sharpen players for the upcoming campaign and for all the lucrative revenues coming from the far east teams but they also can have a devastating effect to the clubs just before the start of any league season if they turned unfriendly. Just imagine having your inspiration captain ruled out for a season before the opener...

Steven Finnan - Right Back

Steve Finnan

Steve Finnan is a great right back for liverpool. A hugely unrated defender who plays his hearts out for every game in the reds jersey. His ability to play as a right winger is also a great asset to the team and this can be seen by the number of telling crosses made during the the 2006/7 season.

Kaka

Kaka is a immense talent with great passing, dribbling and shooting ability. On his day, Kaka can single-handedly destroy defences on his own. Ac Milan will be very glad that he did not exchange his love for the club for more money...

Update

Hi i'm back everyone =) Nothing much to update though... Juz finished my mocks exams and some unlucky stuff happened haha...

Misinterpreted the instructions resulting in much more questions being done in juz 3 hrs.. with 2 big questions cancelled out and the divided attention in each of the question roughly tells me how well i'll fare for that paper. haha

Yup, worst thing happened during my statistics paper... was calculating half way and the image on the calculator screen slowly faded with every sec! Kept resetting the cal with no use haha.. So it lasted till the middle of the paper and a replacement calculator only came at the last 20min of the paper. haha.. Luckily its juz a mock exam..

Learnt my lesson to read the instructions carefully from the front page onwards although they may not seem to tally at times hahah =p . And to get a additional calculator for the actual exams in May.. No room for slip-up...
Pretty basic stuff to observe though but juz got more complacent overtime..

Working hard to polish up every subjects..And bring on the exams!!! =p haha.. Long to be free when whole thing ends on the 24th of May.. =)

Was there for the SINGAPORE VS THAILAND finals at the national stadium some time before the mock exams with some of the soccer guys such as ben ang, desmond, kianseng etc.. Many celebrities came too..Pretty good atmosphere!! The whole national was filled with supporters and the weather was exceptionally cold and windy (during the unusually cold period in singapore juz before the new year). The howling wind, floating streamers and the full capacity of the stadium juz added to the great atmosphere.

Entertaining match with lots of incidents throughout.. The last straw came when the referee wrongly awarded a penalty to singapore which sparked the whole thailand team to walk out of the pitch in protest...