Update on Missouri

~ Haley ~ Leave a comment

In one of my last posts, I believe in March, I talked about the college coach from Culver-Stockton approaching me to see if I was interested in playing for them. I wasn’t so sure about the idea of moving across country to play for a small school located in the middle of nowhere. It has since then come to my attention that it was also a Christian school, making the option seem even more bleak and fading away. But about a month ago, I received a call from the head coach of said school. 

76FE14D5-9589-4BBA-A0C6-423B31585204We talked for about thirty minutes and went more into detail about what would be asked of me if I did come to play for him. He asked me about what I wanted to major in, and when I responded with Physical Therapy, he told me great things on the kinesiology program in the school and how it was a very popular with the soccer program and the athletes of the school. 

After we had a conversation about what I wanted to study, he talked to me about the area and how the campus is so small. He explained to me that if I was to go to the school without visiting it first, I may not enjoy being there. And if you don’t like where you are living and going to school, it will not help you or the school’s team. So overall, he invited me to see the college and practice with the team on June 22nd, and I think I am going to take him up on the offer.

Leicester v. Arsenal

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On Sunday, April 28th, Leicester pulled out a victory over Arsenal with the score of 3-0. Early in the match, Ainsley Maitland-Niles received two yellow cards resulting in an automatic red, leaving Arsenal with only 10 players for the rest of the match.

Throughout the match, Leicester had overall domination. They held 66% of possession leaving 34% to Arsenal. All twelve of the shots that Leicester had, landed on frame, while Arsenal had 5 overall shots with Jamie Vardy scores Leicester’s third goal against a demoralised Arsenal side at the King Power Stadium on Sunday.only one on target. All three goals were scored during the second half, the last two within the last ten minutes of the match.

Arsenal may have had a bad game, run out of luck, or not preformed to the best of their ability, but that does not hide the fact that they lost a match that was well within their reach if they were to play as a well oiled machine, not playing fro themselves.

College Recruit?

~ Haley ~ Leave a comment

This past weekend, March 14th – 17th, my team attended a college showcase located in Las Vegas, NevadaCD9B1E0D-F7D6-485F-A7BC-5166B533EFBC. My dad, his girlfriend, and I drove up on Thursday. I stayed at Treasure Island, located on the strip, for three nights, while my dad and his girlfriend stayed an extra night. My team played four games in three days and had around 40 college coaches stop by to watch some of the games. After our first game, a coach from Missouri pulled me aside and had a conversation with me and my dad, after talking to my club coach first. He had said that he saw a lot of potential and hoped that I can fly out sometime soon to check out the campus. The school is called Culver – Stockton College, and it has less than 900 people in each class. which makes it a harder decision than originally thought. I like a large community, and big city. However, if I was to be offered scholarships, I would most likely play for that school.

Man City beats Chelsea

~ Haley ~ Leave a comment

On Sunday, February 26th, Man City played a match against Chelsea. Overall, I thought this match was one of Man City’s stronger games, especially in the recent league matches. Although it wasn’t one of the most exciting games, there was definitely key points that made the match worth watching. Both teams played well and could have gone either direction if certain things had developed further than they had.

The match was played at Wembley Stadium in England. Man City had dominated most of the game with 62% of the possession. They made 807 passes – compared to the 513 Chelsea made – with 88% accuracy. Chelsea had 82% accuracy with their passes, which doesn’t differ greatly from Man City. Neither team had much success after the build up of passes, which resulted in a 0-0 draw. Meaning PK’s… Man City made 4 while Chelsea made 3.

Chelsea took the first shot with their center midfielder, Jorginho, who failed to execute the shot and missed. Gundogan took the next shot for Man City, who placed the ball with ease, making it 0-1. Azpilicueta tied it up with the following shot for Chelsea. However, it doesn’t stay tied for long when Aguero made the next shot for Man City. Palmieri, left mid/wing back, made his shot, keeping Chelsea in the match with a score of 2-2. Sane unfortunately missed his shot and left Chelsea with a sense of hope that they could come out victorious. But hopes fled when Chelsea’s next shooter, Luiz, missed and kept the score at 2-2. Man City’s Silva made his PK making the score 2-3, with hope to win. Hazard was the last shooter for Chelsea and thankfully made his shot, making the match tied once again. 75C8C62B-452B-4641-9F86-0AE3D011DBD8With all the pressure lying upon the shoulders of Sterling, he places the ball in the back of the net for the winning goal, making Man City the victors of this match.

My experience watching this match wasn’t something so simple that can be explained easily. At times there were plays that got exciting and well executed, but there were other times where the match slowed down a bit and became quite boring, to say the least. However, I am not an extreme fan of either team, so for someone who is fully committed to one of these teams, their experiences could totally differ from the ones I received from this certain match.

I think that both teams never gave up and kept fighting until it came down to the last resort – being PK’s. Although this match was a slightly slower played one, it was still a great match to watch and no one could have imagined the results and how they happened.  For this specific match, I rate it a 6.5/10 for the action, but a 8/10 for unpredictability.

 

Thomas Muller; Suspended!

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Bayern Munich’s Tomas Muller was recently suspended from both legs of the Champions League round-of-16. In the match against Ajax FC, Muller was trying to settle a high ball, but did not end up with the ball at his feet.358dbc94-f6a9-40d2-9717-d31aaac8399c However, instead of bringing the ball down, the boot ended up in the back of Ajax defender, Nicolas Tagliafico’s head.

Tagliafico was examined and appeared to have needed stitches as well as several staples put into the back of his head. Tomas Muller received an immediate red card, ejecting him from the match as well as the next. Tragliafico came back in the 95th minute to score the equalizer to put the match 3-3 for the final score.

What I’ve learned

~ Haley ~ Leave a comment

evening field football field goal

I never realized how much soccer has impacted my life. I’ve always just thought it was a sport that I enjoyed and that the reason I continue to play, is because I was told that I am never aloud to quit. I may have taken it for granted and that became very clear to me due to some recent events.

93C9DC83-6D26-4F50-BCBD-9BADD34ED342I have recently fractured my ankle as well as suffering a grade three sprain. Thus meaning that I am not able to play for at least another month, maybe two. I am missing my entire high school soccer season without playing a single game on this team, but at least I have one more year to play.

close up photo of a soccer ball

After this occurred, I realized that soccer meant much more to me than it just being a sport that I’ve played for years. I realized that soccer is my life, my identity, and the reason I’m motivated to do mostly anything. The thing with soccer is that you can express your emotions through the game play and that’s what I think I love the most about the sport. I have never wanted to play more than I do in my life, and that’s because I have had a short experience with having the thing I love ripped away from me.

green and white wall plaque

Now I am learning to appreciate the amazing game from the sidelines and help support the team in any way I can. And if that means helping coach the ones on the field and giving the people playing my positions pointers then that is what I am going to have to deal with for a little longer than I wanted.

Pushing Through Might Not be the Best

~ Haley ~ Leave a comment

I know I usually write about the major things going on in the great sport of futbol (soccer) but tonight, I am going to write about a personal story that happened recently. On Wednesday, November 21st, I was at my high school team’s morning practice. I had gotten there a few minutes late because I had overslept. So once I got there, I had just joined in, without stretching properly – I do not advise doing that. But as time went on, I had loosened up and was performing well. This is the part that I have trouble understanding… My coach had known that over half of our varsity team had a showcase that upcoming weekend, but he decided that it was a good idea for us to scrimmage against each other.

During this scrimmage, I had taken a poor touch and, like always, was working my way back to win the ball again. But while I was running, my foot had caught on the turf, and all I heard was three loud cracks. I was on the floor in an instant and was down for about five minutes before I was carried off the field. Once I arrived home, I took my 93C9DC83-6D26-4F50-BCBD-9BADD34ED342cleat and sock off, my ankle was three times the size it was supposed to be and I couldn’t put any pressure on it. The next night, I noticed it began to bruise in unusual patterns, but I had a game the next day so I didn’t bring it up.

Once we got to the fields for my games, 3 in total but one game a day, I had the trainers tape my ankle and then I put a brace on it to keep it stable. I did that all three games and played almost every minute of each game. Little did I know, I was making the injury so much worse than I thought I was. I went to an urgent care on the next Tuesday, the 27th, and they took X-Rays. The doctor said when he looked initially, he didn’t find any breaks but would pass the scans to radiology just in case. Later that night we got a call that I had fractured my ankle and needed to go see my primary doctor.DD662420-952A-4916-985A-5C398B37C471

So I went to my primary doctor last Friday, the 30th, and they informed me that not only did I have a fracture, I had three bone chips and the tendon that had been injured was so stretched out of place that I may need to get surgery to repair it. I am going to get an MRI tomorrow morning to find out what the extent of my injuries are. The lesson I’m conveying is to listen to when your body is telling you that you need to stop, of you could suffer greater injuries than you originally had.

Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich

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On November 10th, 2018, the first place team, Borussia Dortmund played the fifth place team, Bayern Munich, for the 11th game in Bundesliga. Bundesliga is a professional association football league, located in Germany, containing 18 different clubs. Dortmund’s current record is 8-3-0 (W-L-T) while Munich’s is 6-2-3 (W-L-T). Munich knew coming into the match, that they were goinBBE4A1A4-A1A6-49CB-B7BF-FCD0DAF9CA03g to have to play an almost perfect game with little to no mistakes to capture a win over the current leaders in the standings.

In the 26th minute, Lewandowski, from Munich, scored the first goal of the match with a diving header. The cross was put in from Serge Gnabry from the right side of the 18 yard box. Thus putting Munich at a 1-0 lead early in the match. At the start of the second half, in the 49th minute, a penalty was called inside the box on Neuer (goal keeper) from Bayern Munich. Center Midfielder, Reus stepped up to take the penalty kick, placing it in the right hand side of the goal while Neuer dives to the left. Making the match tied 1-1. In the 52nd minute, Lewandowski scored his second goal of the match with yet another header. The ball was played in to the box from Muller to Gnabry. Gnabry then back-heeled it to Kimmich who then chipped it up for perfect header by Lewandowski. Munich took the lead 2-1 and kept it that way for about 15 minutes. Piszczek crossed the ball to Reus for a one touch finish in the back of the net, tying the match once again. Reus laid the ball off to Sancho who played the ball through the back line to Paco Alcacer, who was then 1v1 with the goalie and placed the ball perfectly in the bottom corner of the far post. Making the final score, 3-2 Dortmund

The overall statistics of the match were in favor of Munich, but they could not finish of the chances they had made for themselves. Dortmund had 11 shots with 5 on frame and 3 hitting the back of the net, while Munich had 10 shots with 3 on frame, and 2 making it into the goal. Munich had possession for 57% of the game completing 84% of the 602 passes made. Dortmund had possession for 43% of the game completing 80% of the 465 passes that they made.

Messi’s Injury; Good or Bad?

~ Haley ~ Leave a comment

This past Saturday, October 20th, Lionel Messi fractured his radius during a match against Sevilla. While trying to get around a player to go for a tackle, Messi got caught behind Franco Vasquez while in the air. When he landed, he landed on his right arm, and it bent inwards then outwards. It was reported that he fractured the radial bone in his right arm, Lionel Messiand Barcelona confirmed that he will be out for three weeks.

With Messi being out for three weeks, he will miss the scheduled El Clasico match against Real Madrid happening this upcoming Sunday. This will be the first time he has missed Clasico since 2007. He will also be sitting on the sideline for the Champion League double header against Inter-Milan. Three years ago, Lionel Messi was out for almost two months with a knee injury; however, the record of Barcelona did not drop like it was expected.

Although the star player of Barcelona is out on injury, it is hoped that the level of play stays up to the standard they are used to playing at. With Messi being gone, it will give more opportunity for less seen players to step up and make an impact in the game.

Paulo Dybala. What’s Ahead for Him?

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Paulo Dybala, a 24 year old, Argentinian futbol player, that is currently on the Italian team, Juventus. Dybala has been apart of Juventus for 3 years, and in that three years he has played 155 matches and has scored 74 goals. He averages 0C2D5169-7B00-437F-9F01-0EB6668CD8771 goal every other game and has scored 6 goals already this season. He completes 89% of his passes but has not yet produced any assists. These are just the statistics of Paulo Dybala, but lets talk about where he started off versus where he is now.

When Dybala was 21, he signed to Juventus and is in a contract until 2022. He has improved greatly from when he first started to play with the club, and has acknowledged that Juventus has helped him achieve great things in his career. His on the ball skills have improved as well as his pass accuracy. Although Dybala has done great things for Juventus and vastly improved, there are rumors about him getting traded to Manchester United when his contract ends. Now lets get into the trade, that could potentially start the downfall of his career.

Now, I’m not saying that Manchester United is a bad club, I’m just asking the big question, “Is this really what’s best for Paulo Dybala?” Manchester United plays in the Premier League and places in the upper half of the league. Juventus, on the other hand, plays in the Champions League, also placing high in the standings. If Dybala was to be moved to Man U, he would definitely be one of the best players. However, would you really want to be the best if you didn’t have a constant supply of competition, pushing you to the best of your abilities to make you the best player you could be? In my opinion, I do not think that trading Paulo Dybala is the best move to further him in his career.