In light of her maiden voyage from Hamburg last week, allow me to introduce The Eclipse, a £724
million ($1.2 billion) 557 ft yacht owned by your favorite and mine, Roman Abramovich.
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Officiating in modern day football has already received its fair share of flak. Of course,
whenever a certain team is at the receiving end of harsh refereeing decisions, its passionate fans
jump at the opportunity to hit back at the match officials with great force. In this article,
however, I will not go ahead with the oft-repeated idea of accusing the referees of lacking the
ability to call big games without the heavily proposed use of technology.
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In the Mixer 19 August @ 01:41 PM EST
Most people haven't attended a refereeing course, but we can only assume that Lesson One covers
what to do when a player hits the round thing between the two white posts – or maybe not if
Crystal Palace's recent trip to Bristol City is anything to go by.
It did not take long for the season to witness its first truly calamitous piece of refereeing, or
for those in favour of introducing technology to aid officials to re-issue their orders to drag the
game into the 21st century.
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They Think It's All Over... sneaks a look into the future of the game and decides if we're heading
somewhere good...
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The Technology in Sport series will delve in to many ways in which science and technology are being
applied to the various components of Soccer – from balls to the goal line, and beyond. In this
part, we take a look at a new medical technique – Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy – and try to
[...]
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This weekend I am going to BarCamp NOLA, a meeting for Technology people in New Orleans, being
held at Launchpad. I am looking forward to listening, participating, and engaging with some very
smart Tech people. I want to learn everything I can on becoming a better Tech person and making
my Online Soccer Academy and social media efforts as best I can for my players and readers!
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Football FanCast columnist Mike Harvey feels that technology in
football is not the answer.
Officiating in football is headline news these days. The past few weeks left a sour taste in the
mouths of many fans. FIFA is at a crossroads and how they choose to handle this problem will affect
the game for years.
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Dear athlete,
Whether you know it or not you are, quite literally, a marketable product... but unless you're
one of the few headliners in your league, chances are you just can't afford a team of people to get
your name out there, build a cool website, or create a personalized marketing campaign.
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WPS, and our Commissioner in particular, recognizes the unique opportunity social media presents
us. I've started to compile a comprehensive list of all the WPS Tweeters. Here's the ones I already
know are in the Twitter-mix off-hand (more will follow - I will keep a comprehensive list for you
here and on my Big Soccer blog).
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SoccerLens 18 March @ 04:00 AM EST
Let's face it, the game of football is a high-pressure affair. Throw in two clubs playing a local
derby or a must-win match, a crowd full of supporters going absolutely mental and a ball and you
have yourself a potential recipe for disaster. That's not to say that every match between rival
clubs or nations is [.
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So I spent the better part of my weekend sorting out all my bookmarks and RSS feeds. Then, I posted
all the WPS team Social Media links on my Big Soccer blog at
http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/blog.php?b=3803SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The Ultimate WPS
Social Media Resource is on Big Soccer", url: "http://www.
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18 yards 15 February @ 04:22 AM EST
Nike recently posted a video on their site which gives a rare look into their production and R&D
processes of football boots/cleats. It's fairly interesting to see how these boots are designed,
made and put together. I wouldn't mind knowing what glue they use to hold the upper to the bottom
plate so I could [.
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18 yards 15 February @ 04:22 AM EST
Nike recently posted a video on their site which gives a rare look into their production and R&D
processes of football boots/cleats. It's fairly interesting to see how these boots are designed,
made and put together. I wouldn't mind knowing what glue they use to hold the upper to the bottom
plate so I could [.
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18 yards 09 February @ 09:51 AM EST
The new Nike Mercurial Vapor 5 isn't too far away apparently. I've been searching around for info
about them and have managed to collate bits and pieces from a few different sources. Expert
football's forum has some pics and info although the early pics look mostly looks like the IV to
me. The colour schemes [.
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18 yards 09 February @ 09:51 AM EST
The new Nike Mercurial Vapor 5 isn't too far away apparently. I've been searching around for info
about them and have managed to collate bits and pieces from a few different sources. Expert
football's forum has some pics and info although the early pics look mostly looks like the IV to
me. The colour schemes [.
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Rob Penner, the Director of PR here at WPS, just sent this article out to all our teams about the
change in media coverage for professional sports. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "L.A. Sol
Bloggers - Anybody out there? C'mon you've got MARTA!", url:
"http://www.amandavandervort.com/blog/2009/01/la-sol-bloggers-anybody-out-there-cmon-youve-got-marta/"
});
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Amanda's top 8 social media sites. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Amanda's Social Media Sites
Exposed", url:
"http://www.amandavandervort.com/blog/2009/01/amandas-social-media-sites-exposed/" });
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My photo stream on Flickr... http://www.flickr.com/photos/24522405@N08/sets/72157612598365435/
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Live Photos from the WPS Draft!!!!", url:
"http://www.amandavandervort.com/blog/2009/01/live-photos-from-the-wps-draft/" });
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I just sent this email to the Women's Committee, and I wanted to share it with you.
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Email to the Women's Committe - Good links!", url:
"http://www.amandavandervort.com/blog/2009/01/email-to-the-womens-committe-good-links/"
});
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Another indication that the technology crunch on the mainstream media is happening at a much faster
pace than first anticipated. A memo went out today to ALL Gannett employees that said ALL employees
must take a one week off without pay before March 1st. It's a wider problem than just the local tv
station, as their [.
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Burger King, through their insanely creative advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (see their
recent Burger King perfume launch), launches a Facebook application that encourages users to remove
Facebook friends. Sacrifice ten of them and you got a free Whopper. 233,906 friends were removed by
82,771 people in less than a week.
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$695 bucks get you hotel room (double occupancy - $250 extra for single occupancy), breakfast,
transportation to/from games, meeting rooms, field rentals, NSCAA notebook, and entrance to all
Algarve Cup games.SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Wanna Go To Portugal in March?", url:
"http://www.amandavandervort.
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The Offside 12 January @ 08:00 PM EST
Stuff to read while you watch Franck Ribery steal the Bayern team bus...... Mardona is a ManU spy.
(Unprofessional Foul) The good and bad from the weekend of La Liga. (La Liga Loca) What would
Martin O'Neill do? (EPL Talk) Talking football and technology. (SoccerLens) Talking Sevilla's
current manager.
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SoccerLens 12 January @ 06:36 AM EST
We should've known. This season has been no different to any of the seasons before it. Sooner or
later, the age-old football technology debate becomes a central feature of pub discussions and
television sensation. Every year the pro-technology side of the argument seems to be getting more
and more frustrated as other walks of life embrace [.
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I read a blog post a while back that read, "...While MySpace's popularity is starting to fade
and more people are embracing Facebook, we thought it'd be good timing to point out which famous
footballers are on the cutting edge of social networking and who have their own Facebook pages. 1.
Peter [.
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18 yards 09 December @ 09:39 AM EST
I quite like this one. Ronaldo leaves his undershirt behind and silly antics ensue. Big fan of the
nike compression under tops actually. Seems to help pull the sweat away to keep you fairly cool as
well as offering a little support too.
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The Offside 27 October @ 08:00 AM EST
Italian referees could use some damage control PR today, after managing to royally fuck up two
games. In Palermo-Fiorentina, Alberto Gilardino - who is quite hot at the moment so we can maybe
forgive their assumptions he'd magically huffed and puffed the ball into the net - scored with what
appeared to be his hand.
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Turns out that one of the few, most notable, soccer writers in the country was in Chicago this
weekend for a couple big events.SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Beau Dure from USA Today visits
the Chicago Red Stars office", url:
"http://www.amandavandervort.com/blog/2008/10/beau-dure-from-usa-today-visits-the-chicago-red-stars-office/"
});
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SoccerLens 12 October @ 07:32 AM EST
The fiasco that passed off as a "goal" at Vicarage Road when Reading visited Watford once
again raised the question of video technology. Hell! – I am still recovering from the second
"goal" in the 1984 FA cup final! Steve Sherwood clearly had the ball in both hands before
that cheating Andy Gray headed it [.
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It was first reported two months ago that Major League Baseball was moving to allow instant replay
for in-game use - but for limited purpose of determing home runs. It is said that this will be the
only circumstance in which the technology, which espn.com reported today, will be used. On
Thursday, months of speculation will cease when the use of intsant replay will be made flesh.
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USA soccer fans gathered at the Globe Pub in Chicago to watch the Olympic team defeat Brazil for
the Gold Medal! The breakfast was sponsored by the Chicago Red Stars.SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title:
"News Video From The 'Golden Globe' Pub Olympic Viewing Party", url:
"http://www.amandavandervort.com/blog/2008/08/news-video-from-the-golden-globe-pub-olympic-viewing-party/"
});
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Last week, we went mobile, now we have decided to start a Twitter site that will allow us to send
up dates to the site from a Blackberry or mobile phone. All of the updates will appear on the right
hand side of the site, under the Twitter headline. We will be able to update from different
tailgating events and even while watching games, so look out world here we come.
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The use of technology in soccer for things like goal line calls, offside, and more has always been
experimental, and even then has been controversial. While arguing over a referee's call is often a
soccer fan's favorite pastime, few fans or officials support its use in the beautiful game.
However, more often than not the debate is about technology's impact on the flow of the game, not
accuracy.
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mCalcio 06 May @ 10:20 PM EST
There could be tough times ahead for Luca Toni. The Bayern Munich striker, just recently crowned
Bundesliga champion and currently leading the scoring charts with 21 goals, may soon be confronted
with an unsurpassable obstacle... of the robotic kind. Its name is Goalias (or GoalIAS if you
prefer), and it's the first robot-goalkepeer capable of [.
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I am just off a conference call with the National Soccer Coaches' Association of America Diversity
Committee. The purpose of this blog post is to suggest using the Internet for (1) PRIVATE commitee
websites, and (2) PUBLIC marketing campaigns.
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