One of the coolest aspects of the USSF National Youth License course is that it goes into a lot of detail about how kids learn, how their bodies develop, how they interpret and understand things, and thus what their practice sessions should be like. Their age will dictate what they can realistically understand and process.

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Morning all, welcome to the blog.
Well, Mile Sterjovski didn't feature for the Socceroos - which in a way is good news, because it means he's injury free for Perth Glory. Seems like a selfish way of looking at things, but meh.
Meanwhile, congrats to the Kiwis for joining the party in South Africa - we couldn't dream about going there without ya. Click to continue reading...

Recently, Robb Heineman asked Wizards fans to contact Kansas officials to lend their voice in support of the Wizards Stadium. A fan found these addresses and posted in the thread on Big Soccer. If you want the Wizards to have a stadium built, write them!!! If you love soccer, write them. Even if you just want to support the city in keeping and building for the future, then write an Click to continue reading...

Good morning all, here we are then, the first home game of the season. Teams of busy little Arsenal volunteers have been Arsenalising the stadium, scarves are being left on seats, the stadium has been Gunnerfied and we're ready to go.

The manager's press conference took place yesterday and as always some interesting stuff emerged.

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As already seen with Eduardo, when a player returns from a long term injury, it is inevitable that they will soon be struck down by muscular problems. Today, it was confirmed that Rosicky has the predictable groin strain, which will keep him out for a few weeks.

And by a few, I mean an unknown amount.

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There's an excellent interview with John Yogi hughes by the BBC here. He just keeps on saying the right things. I'm much more positive about next season now. Some interesting stuff about Benji at th end too, seems Hibs have lost patience but that the door is not totally closed - if that makes sense.

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Happy Sunday to you all.

Some interesting stuff going on, particularly in regard to Felipe Melo. As we all know he just signed a new contract extension with Fiorentina which seemed to rule him out of making any kind of move this summer. However, yesterday the Italian club countered rumours in the Italian press that the player was about to sign for Juventus and released a statement on their official website saying Arsenal were the only club to come close to making an offer close to the new buy-out clause.

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I hope all of you are sitting down because, well, here's something that will come as a shock:
It appears that Steven Cohen may have been the moving force behind the online "Supporter's Petition" as well as the website set up to collect donations for his show.
I'll give you a minute to recover from the shock. Click to continue reading...

While we're all anticipating Confederations Cup semifinal...boy, typing that feels weird. What next? "Now that Freddy Adu has realized his potential...."
Anyway. Probably lost in the excitement was this interview with Peter Wilt that Paul Demko conducted and posted at DuNord. It's not JUST about WPS, you crybabies - some interesting stuff about the Fire's salad days, the Minnesota Thunder, Toyota Park, attendance - I'll give you a little taste, though. Click to continue reading...

To coincide with the release today of the 2009/10 fixtures, there was an piece on the BBC's site covering the process of how the fixture list is put together.
Interesting stuff, but may take a while to get your head round it all. Click to continue reading...

The Attendance Depths post and Not So Fast analysis of last week drew some interesting responses from people, several of whom are much better at stats than I am. Rather they put them in separate posts, I'll lump a couple of them together for everyone to see. There is certainly some interesting stuff in here. Click to continue reading...

Some interesting stuff on the chalkboards.

First: Clint's charged down shots. Everton were really in his face weren't they?
Second: Zoltan Gera. I thought he'd played badly, but he was doing a lot of work in and around their area, which we don't see too often from Fulham players, so perhaps he was more dangerous than I gave him credit for.

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Interesting stuff, as ever, from Malcolm Gladwell at the New Yorker. The central point of Gladwell's essay here is that, as an underdog, to upset the odds you must do something surprising.

As with many Gladwell pieces, you read it, are initially intrigued, but then start to wonder if he's really telling you much (why does he use an U12 girls' basketball team?

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Jeffery Marcus at the always interesting New York Times Goal blog has some interesting comments from Don Garber on the American soccer market. There's some interesting stuff there, not the least of... Click to continue reading...

As part of his latest shot at rehabilitation, Paul Gascoigne appeared as a special guest on Match of the Day 2 on Sunday.
I sincerely hope Gazza doesn't go the way of George Best, though I wouldn't bet money against it. Indeed, while Best remained mentally sharp until his dying day, Gazza – who was, let's not forget, as "daft as a brush" to begin with – now slurs his words horribly. Click to continue reading...

Ever since the beginning of January the pair have been arguing. Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez kicked it all off when he made his outburst about the FA's leniency towards Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson when it comes to referees.
Since then, they have argued about a variety of different things including kick-off times following mid-week European games, United being "scared" of Liverpool and, of course, the title race. Click to continue reading...

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Donovan wins Honda Award as clueless voters get it wrong, Ives is not subtle in his opinions. He is not wrong either... Speaking of Mr. Forehead, Donovan To Train With Bayern Munich (Alternate headline: Donovan willing to do anything to escape "the Bruce") England storms up Fifa rankings - now if they can only qualify for something. Click to continue reading...

Goff reports that Tom Soehn to return for third season with DC United. The rest of the coaches in the east all applaud that move. Another rumor: Lopez returning to Mexico is being discussed. I asked a couple people about this yesterday and found out nothing. Seems one or two admitted they had heard that but only online, not through the club. Click to continue reading...

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(Summary is not available.) Click to continue reading...

Mike over at Down The Byline found out that there may be a Kurt Morsink call up. Costa Rica will be in a tournament and may take that opportunity to look at Kurt. A few weeks a go I asked Kurt about his Costa Rica dream and it is clear he wants to play for them. Speaking of Mike, he has his usual Sunday after stats post up. Click to continue reading...