The 2008 soccer world cup

Football, or soccer depending what part of the world you originate from, has become an internationally loved sport. The 2006 World Cup was a huge media event and Euro 2004 followed in its footsteps. Euro 2008 is already shaping up to be a big deal as well. There will not be another world cup tournament until 2010, when it will be hosted in Africa.

But there is a 2008 World Cup, a very unusual one. In November of 2008, Melbourne, Australia, will host the Homeless World Cup, an international football tournament whose teams are made up of long-term unemployed or hopeless people. It will be played at Federation Square.

The game is also a little different that the soccer everyone is used to watching. It is played in an enclosed pitch 20 by 14 meters, and it is designed to look like a street. Players are allowed to ricochet the ball off the walls and it is played four against four. There is supposed to be a major international conference on the homeless in Melbourne at the same time and it is expected to help boost the economy.

Not only is the tournament designed to be fun, it is also designed to help boost the understanding of world’s population when it comes to homeless people. They need to understand why these people have no place to go and no job to support them and recognize that not everyone has control over their circumstances.

Already this annual tournament has helped many people. There are training programs in Melbourne and the sacred Heart Mission in St. Kilda has been a major source of support for many homeless people. Many of them have participated in the tournament in an effort to explain their plight to others. By playing in the league, the homeless have the opportunity to excel at sports, set personal and attainable goals, develop positive relationships with their fellow team mates, and see the results of their hard work right before their eyes. It helps them build confidence, resilience, and gives them a chance to a healthier lifestyle as well as getting the assistance they need without losing their pride.

Visitors to Melbourne, Australia in November 2008 are encouraged to come to Federation Square and watch this fast paced, international soccer tournament, as well as learn how they can help the homeless in their own country and truly understand what these people are faced with on a daily basis.

Euro 2008 on television

At this point in time, television stations around the world are still working on finalizing what part of Euro 2008 is going to be broadcast and on what channels. Right now the broadcasting rights are still being negotiated on a market-by-market basis. American fans of football will be happy to know that as of November 2007, EPSN had gained the broadcasting rights for the tournament. For fans in the United Kingdom, BBC/ITV is working on getting the matches as well.

There was question at first as to whether or not people having ‘football parties’ would be required to obtain a license to watch the games in large groups at home. Licenses will only be required if the venue hosting the party is a commercial venue – such as a restaurant or pub – or non-commercial venues with television sets measuring three meters diagonally. Non-commercial licenses will be issued for free if there is no charge to watch the game. Commercial venues can expect to pay somewhere around ?6.00 per square meter per match is they are charging an entry fee or it is associated with one of the corporate sponsors. Corporate sponsors include McDonalds, JVC, and Coca-Cola. All the revenue from the licences will be donated to a charitable cause and used for fan-related projects. Online license applications for interested parties are available on the official UEFA website.

Fans of Euro 2008 interested in the final schedule can find it with the match-ups and approximate kick-off times on the official UEFA website. They will also want to check their local listings closer to June 7, 2008, when the final matches will begin.

Euro 2004’s final tournament broke all viewing records for such a match. Over 7.9 billion people watched it on television and were seen all over the world. It was in increase of 157 percent from Euro 2000, making it one of the largest sporting events to ever be watched by an international audience. The game between Portugal and Greece had so many viewers that it surpassed the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. 446 million American viewers, 986 African viewers, and 1.1 billion Asian viewers all watched Euro 2004.

Fans will also be able to watch the matches online over the Internet. The many different broadcast stations and affiliates will be airing simultaneous broadcasts for customers who are also online, allowing people to keep up with what is going on with their favourite teams from anywhere in the world as well as on their cell phones if their service provides Internet access.

Soccer goalkeeper gloves

The goalkeeper is that member of the football team who is found into a goal along the game, having as purpose the hindering of goals marking towards the opponent team. He is the only player who can touch the ball with his hands, but only in his interior square of 16 centimeters. The “small” square of 6 meters is considered the “protection” area of the goalkeepers and the goalkeeper intervention over the small square is sanctioned with free kick.

Gloves for goalkeepers – Starting with the 1970s, any goalkeeper had to wear gloves, although there were known the advantages of these gloves. At the end of the 19th century, people had made in England a pair of hidden gloves, for goalkeepers. These gloves were covered with a coating of natural rubber, having as purpose, protection, and amortization.
What does a goalkeeper expect from his gloves?

On the one hand they have to assure the hands protection and on the other hand to contribute to the acquirement of an adherence towards the ball. In the progressing period of these gloves, there were used various materials combinations with the purpose to obtain this adherence. Obviously, they must protect the goalkeeper’s hands against shock and bangs with the ball. For this purpose it is necessary an adequate facing of the gloves. Still they must be careful that the glove does not be too large in comparison with the hand. Besides, it must be careful with the hand anatomy so that palm and fingers to move well. A very important problem is the finger return in the hand direction. This must be stopped through adequate protectors or other constructive measures. A goalkeeper glove must be durable to wear. The wear through rubbing can be very emerging depend on the place condition and of the kicks numbers of the opponent team.

All these show that the requirements concerning the goalkeeper gloves of football are not too strict. It seems to be a “simple” product which can be realized easier, but is not so.
For the moment, we do not find a standard for the goalkeeper football gloves. However, in Germany the experts think how this actual situation can be changed. They are agree with the fact that the goalkeeper football gloves, with their protective action constitute an equipment of personal protection at the time of Directive 89/686/CCE happening.
A suitable standard would establish the adequate technical parameters.

Fifa 2008 videos

It is always enjoyable to see videos of games that we are interested in purchasing. What does the graphics look like? Has it improved since the last time? Where do the gamers get to play? Being able to look at the graphics can sometimes be a deciding factor. FIFA 2008 videos are all over the Internet and gamers have a great chance to see what is in store for them.

YouTube carries quiet a few videos of the game. One of the mores interesting videos is a ‘making of’, showing gamers how the game was developed by using interviews with the programmers combined with screen shots of the game. While the videos on YouTube may not be the best quality one can find since many of them are uploaded by players themselves, they still give a potential purchaser an idea of what the graphics look like.

IGN.com offers buyers videos showing how to make various moves, such as arsenal attacks and how the Wii controller works. Two video interviews are also available for viewing and players who are members of the site have the option of downloading the videos in larger and better formats for later viewing.

Metacafe.com has videos of matches played between two different gamers. It includes celebration footage after a good play and a closer look at the graphics, including different view aspects, like overhead and from the side lines.

Gamers can rate most of the videos our there as well as get a feel for how the game moves and sounds. Most clips are approximately two minutes long and gamers who watch the videos may want to read some of the comments by other people to get a feel of whether or not the game is worth purchasing. If a gamer is considering purchasing a new gaming console, they may want to view the numerous different videos available on line in order to make an informed visual decision.

While game consoles are a matter of personal choice, gamers should keep in mind that not all games that they enjoy playing are released on all formats. They should investigate the systems and games available carefully before making a final decision in order to make sure they get the system that is going to suit them for a long to come. Each gaming system has their own pros and cons, such as graphics, ease of use, and features of the game.

Pro evolution soccer 2008

Next to FIFA 2008, Pr Evolution Soccer 2008 is one of the most popular video games on the market. Marketed for the Playstation 2, Playstation 3, PSP and Nintendo DS, this game is produced by Teamvision, implementing a new adaptive AI system. This system adapts according to the way a gamer plays, building a database of attacks, counter attacks, and defensive errors. It was designed to play more like the game in real life, including all the tactical skills a player needs.

A glitch has been found, however, in the Playstation 3 version of the game. There is an issue with the graphics, although, according to Konami, the game’s manufacturer, this issue only occurs on televisions that are not high definition. There are a few downloads available via the Internet to fix these problems, including a problem with slow movement on one of the game systems. There is also a regional lockout for X-box users with certain systems which has caused some controversy in the gaming world.

Some of the new features for Pro Evolution 2008 include: improved graphics that shows facial animations and clothing movement; fifteen stadiums for next generation versions and twenty-four stadiums for the PS2; better dribble techniques; diving and shirt pulling; and world and tour and community mode expressly for the PS2. It also offers gamers the opportunity to play licensed and unlicensed leagues that includes the names and attributes of real life players. The game also includes seven national teams.

Gamers can also play in a separate league with eighteen generic teams. All of them can be fully edited and then integrated into the league when ready. Anyone interested in the game, but who have never previously played it can download a demo version onto their personal computer to get a feel for the graphics and the way the game plays. Players can also upload their scored and play head to head with other gamers via the Internet, taking their experience up an extra notch.

There is also a companion magazine produced by Konami that offers gamer’s tips and tricks for playing the game on the variety systems that it was released for. It also includes interviews with real life players. Both issue number one and number two are currently available online and can be downloaded for free. The magazine and website also offer their subscribers competitions and contests they can enter to win prizes such as PES Mobiles and Nokia NSeries multimedia computer.

Euro 2008 qualifier group

There is a little over six months before the Euro 2008 football championships kicks off in Basel, Switzerland on June 7, 2008. This year, the rules changed so that the top team and runner-up in each group made it on to the final championship tournament. Not counting Austria and Switzerland’s teams – as they are the hosts for the tournament – fourteen other teams made it to move closer to getting that Euro 2008 trophy.

While trying to decide exactly which three teams out of those twenty-four are the top in their game, one must look at a variety of factors, such as how many games the won, draw or lost in, how many goals were scored for the team and how many against, and how many total points were gained over the course of the qualifying competitions. When you eliminate the runner-ups and only concentrate on the winners, the seven that are left are so close in their point spreads that it’s very difficult to make that final call.

Of course Greece is probably the top team, having scored thirty-one total points in their qualifying round. They get to go up against Sweden, Spain and Russia in the group round of the final competition. It is interesting to note here that Spain was another winning team, come out with twenty-eight overall points, with twenty-three goals scored for them and only eight scored against them.

If one wants to judge the teams based on their statistics alone, Croatia would probably be the next on in line. The scored a total of twenty-nine overall points in the qualifying matches, coming away with twenty-eight goals for and only eight against. They will be grouped up with Austria, Germany, and Poland. Austria is a host team, so their points are pretty much null and void as they were automatically in the finals. Poland, another group winner, scored twenty-eight overall points to move on.

The final team of what could be called the top three would be the Czech Republic. Tying Croatia, Italy, and Romania with twenty-nine overall points, they won nine of their games, tied two and lost only one, scoring twenty-seven goals for the team and only giving up five for the opponent. They are going up against Switzerland, Portugal and Turkey.

Romania, while tying with Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Italy with twenty-nine overall points, won nine games, tied two and lost one. They scored twenty-six goals for the team and seven against. Italy scored twenty-two goals for and nine against.