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Weird Womens Soccer Facts. In America, women's soccer is a tame sport. However, once you go overseas, it is rife with weird overtures. Whether you are in Europe, the Middle East, or near Australia, calling soccer by the name of "football" is not the only strange thing going on. Too modest for soccer When women's ideas about modesty travel from the Middle East to the Western world, a lot gets lost in translation. This was the unfortunate case for Iran with the clothing regulations for the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). In 2010, the Iranian women decided not to play a game against Jordan because they could not wear a style of clothing that covered them up.

In the end, after reviewing the code, an exception was made. No men allowed at a soccer game Are you sick of going to women's soccer games and listening to men hoot at players from the bleachers? After the announcement to ban men was made, the Istanbul arena distributed almost 20,000 free tickets to encourage fans. A swift Norwegian wind. Abby Wambach claims her first FIFA Women’s Player of the Year. Abby Wambach has won U.S. Soccer’s Athlete of the Year five times, but only once had she been a finalist for FIFA World Player of the Year. Last year she finished third in voting for an award destined to go to Japan’s Homare Sawa. Today, however, the focal point of the U.S.’s attack was recognized by the international community as the world’s best player, claiming her first Player of the Year honor.

“I’m very, very surprised,” Wambach said of the award. “Individual honors only happen if you have great teams and great people who have given you the chance to be here.” It was the right choice, though many might consider it an upset. After Marta won this award from 2006-2010, the Brazilian has become the default choice. That Wambach beat out Alex Morgan, the third-place finisher, is more noteworthy since the U.S.’s biggest star had a truly award-worthy year. All of which would be mute if Wambach wasn’t putting up numbers of her own. But surprisingly, FIFA got it right. Fernando Torres Bio, Stats, News - Football / Soccer - UNC women win 21st soccer title, beat Penn State. Importance Of Soccer. Soccer players at a quarter-billion strong, joined by soccer fans in the additional hundreds of millions, create a community of enormous solidarity worldwide. A Fiorentina shirt worn by an American tourist in Tuscany, much like a Reggae Boyz jersey sported in Jamaica or a Kaizer Chiefs shirt worn in South Africa, creates instant conversation and bonding with local residents.

The reach of soccer can be seen on rattletrap buses in Honduras that pick sides: stickers for either Real Madrid or Barcelona, teams half a world away, peek from the back window. Soccer’s importance eclipses that of any other sport given the exceptional scale of its popularity. Soccer fans are more than willing to spend on their favorite sport. In the 2009-10 season, for example, Manchester United’s revenues reached $428 million, notes Forbes.com, while Barcelona pulled in $488 million. The bond of soccer has been a means to defuse hostilities since its late 19th century spread around the world. What Soccer Means to the World. For much of the world soccer has long served as a form of ritual combat onto which neighborhoods, tribes and even nations could project their most passionate enmities. When Real Sociedad, the pride of the Basque country, comes up against Real Madrid, the soccer symbol of the Spanish crown, it's more than simply an athletic spectacle involving 22 men and a ball.

And when a Republic of Ireland striker puts one past the England goalkeeper in an international fixture, the roar heard across the Irish Diaspora expresses a passion that long predates the game of soccer itself. But just as the forces of globalization are challenging long-established notions of identity by eroding traditional boundaries of nation and tribe, so is the globalization of professional soccer challenging some of the traditional bases of identification with the game. How Soccer Explains the World As an American, Foer must be commended for venturing onto terrain inherently foreign to his home readership. Soccer_Glossary. Women's World Cup Soccer Facts. Women. Soccer. Soccer equipment. The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking - Ranking Table. Calculation of points for a single matchP = M x I x T x C M: points for Match result Teams gain 3 points for a victory, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a defeat. In a penalty shoot-out, the winning team gains 2 points and the losing team gains 1 point.

I: Importance of match Friendly match (including small competitions): I = 1.0 FIFA World Cup™ qualifier or confederation-level qualifier: I = 2.5 Confederation-level final competition or FIFA Confederations Cup: I = 3.0 FIFA World Cup™ final competition: I = 4.0 T: strength of opposing Team The strength of the opponents is based on the formula: 200 – the ranking position of the opponents.As an exception to this formula, the team at the top of the ranking is always assigned the value 200 and the teams ranked 150th and below are assigned a minimum value of 50.

C: strength of Confederation. Soccer improves health, fitness and social abilities. Soccer is a pleasurable team sport that provides an all-round fitness and can be used as treatment for lifestyle-related diseases. Men worry less when playing soccer than when running. Women's soccer creates we-stories and helps women stay active. The above statements are taken from some of the results from an extensive soccer research project involving more than 50 researchers from seven countries. The researchers studied physiological, psychological and sociological aspects of recreational soccer and compared it with running. Led by Professors Peter Krustrup and Jens Bangsbo from the Department of Exercise and Sports Sciences, University of Copenhagen, the 3-year project covered several intervention studies involving both men, women and children, who were divided into soccer, running and control groups. Soccer for Health The researchers studied the physical effects of soccer training for untrained subjects aged 9 to 77 years.

Soccer creates we-stories and helps women stay active. How Does Soccer Affect The Body? Playing a 90-minute game of soccer is an intense experience, and affects your whole body, from your brain to your feet. Playing the sport provides cardiovascular and muscular fitness. The bulk of the work is done by your legs, but you use many other muscles as well. You will also use your head, both physically and mentally, strengthening your mind-body connection. Injuries are also part of the sport; however, proper training can reduce your risk.

One of the most prominent benefits of playing soccer is its ability to improve your cardiovascular fitness level. Cardiovascular fitness is, according to the American Sports Medicine Institute, the efficiency of your heart, lungs and vascular system to deliver oxygen to your muscles to maintain activity. Running involves moving large muscle groups, like your legs, which causes your heart beat and respiration to increase. In addition to cardiovascular fitness, soccer demands a great deal of muscular strength. History Of Soccer! Omen's soccer history has interesting turns and twists starting all the way in Europe. The urban form of soccer set up by the Football Association in 1863 in London was a male sport played by all ages of men and was popularised as men’s favorite pastime Some historians mention casual competitions in Scotland and parts of England of soccer matches between married and unmarried women during late 19th century.

By early 20th century, you could see women playing the game seriously in different parts of Great Britain, France and Canada. Some facts point that in Central Europe, competitive soccer was not uncommon. Such games were often played without compliance with the civil and church authorities. One of the popular records of the game comes from the Boxing day in 1920, at Goodison Park in Liverpool. The first few decades of the 20th century saw women soccer being restricted to casual gym classes, games and college competitions.

Women's Soccer History in the USA: An Overview. Maintained by David Litterer spectrum@sover.net Women’s soccer has had an unusual genesis in the United States. As the 21st century commences, the US finds itself as arguably the top country in the world for women’s soccer, both in terms of participation and in international competition. Yet, women’s soccer got off to a fairly late start in this country. Women’s leagues existed in Europe as far back as 1930, and international competitions date back to the 1950s. In the United States, however, organized women’s soccer did not take root until the late 1970’s, and even this was partly an outgrowth of the Title IX legislation of 1972 mandating gender equity in education. But when women’s soccer did finally take off in the US, it was with a vengeance, fueled by enormous participation at the youth and amateur levels, rapidly growing interest by mainstream sport fans and the media, and the growing acceptance of women’s sports in general.

The early years: European Origins The National Team. Women's World Cup Soccer Facts. The modern game of soccer began in 1863 in Great Britain, according to the world's football association, the Federation Internationale de Football Association. FIFA began sponsoring competitions between countries with a match between Belgium and France in 1904. The first World Cup occurred in 1930 in Uruguay and the stage was set for many more years of world class soccer and generations of famous black soccer athletes. Few soccer fans would dispute Pele's title as the best soccer player ever. Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento in a small town in Brazil, Pele grew up playing soccer and was the youngest player to win a World Cup medal when he was only 17 years old. He went on to score 1281 goals in a career of 1360 games.

In his 15 year career with the Brazilian national team, Pele broke many soccer records, such as winning three World Cups and scoring more competition points than anyone else. Among famous black U.S. players is Eddie Pope, who played on the U.S. Soccer girls. Sermanni Names 23-Player Roster For 2013 Algarve Cup. News Feb 21, 2013 CHICAGO (Feb. 21, 2013) – Following two victories against Scotland in his first two matches as head coach of the U.S.

Women’s National Team, Tom Sermanni has named a 23-player roster that will travel to the 2013 Algarve Cup in Portugal. This year’s tournament is being staged a week later than in recent years, from March 6-13, and the U.S. team will depart for Europe on Feb. 25. The majority of the games will be played at small venues across the Algarve region on the southern coast of the country, with several matches at the 30,000-seat Algarve Stadium. For the first time, fans in the United States will be able to watch the Algarve Cup matches live on television. The matches will also be available to follow online via ussoccer.com’s MatchTracker, on Twitter @ussoccer_wnt and highlights will be available on ussoccer.com. The U.S. team, which has been placed into Group B at the annual tournament, will open play on March 6 against Iceland (9 a.m.

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