Soccer Boss: 5/20/12

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Soccer as Self Expression- The Philosophy Behind the Futsal Genius of Kauai

"If you cannot organize five, you will not be able to organize eleven."

For those of you who don't know, or haven't assumed this by now, I am a soccer magnet... or maybe I just have a weird radar fine tuned to pick up any kick of a ball within a ten mile radius. Either way, I was lamenting the loss of my regular footy packed lifestyle earlier this month as I vacationed in Hawaii with my family. We were on the small but vibrant and diverse island of Kauai, one of the last places on earth I would have expected to stumble upon a thriving soccer culture that revolved around futsal.

A Fond Farewell in St. Jakob Park

Tomorrow night FC Basel will face off against their rivals Young Boys Bern in their home stadium in the concluding match of a successful 2011/2012 campaign. Beloved veterans Scott Chipperfield and Benjamin Huggel bring their successful and long careers to a close and second string goalkeeper Massimo Colomba will retire from the pitch and take over as club goalkeeper coach. Long time center back David Abraham's contract expires this summer and he too will be playing his last match in St. Jakob park. Basel success stories Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka, products of the youth academy, are both bound for the Bundesliga (Shaqiri to Bayern Munich, Xhaka to Borussia Mönchengladbach) and will be paying their final contributions to the club as well.
It will be an emotional evening at St. Jakob Park tomorrow night, but it provides a great opportunity for the fans to express their gratitude for their long-serving players who hold special places in their red and blue hearts.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Kitsap Pumas Beat Renamed Tacoma Rivals

The whole team comes to celebrate Matt Friesen's stunning volley

The Kitsap Pumas were able to polish off their week with a win over the Sounders U23’s at Bremerton Memorial Stadium despite losing to Cal FC in the U.S. Open cup. In front of 585 home fans they faced off against the former Tacoma Tide, now taken over by the Sounders, and put on an exciting display for their dedicated supporters.

The Soccer Boss

When I was eight years old, I watched my first professional soccer match. I don't remember much, but I know it was an EPL match most likely featuring my stepdad's beloved Liverpool FC and I know that I was very bored watching twenty-two men run back and forth and keep missing the goal. I understood the concept of soccer, I had played since I was six but watching was a whole other story. Now, eight years up the road, I can't go a day without watching or playing soccer. Soccer is my world. Everything I know today is soccer. My friends, my family, my school schedule, revolve around soccer. Eight years later, a hobby has turned into an obsession, a curiosity has turned into a craving for more knowledge on the game and a simple result from a weekend fixture will dictate my happiness for the 5-6 days until the next one. I hope to share my outlook on the game and present to readers some of the information I have stored in my brain. Sometimes it will be funny, sometimes it will be sad, sometimes it will be confusing and a lot of the time it will plain suck but I hope that readers will exit out of this page knowing something they didn't know before and hopefully having their perspective of the American teenager slightly altered. Cheers!

http://soccer-boss.blogspot.com/p/about-madi.html

Soccer Boss

Inside the Brain of a Teenage Soccer Genius