Women’s soccer never would have been the same if Mia Hamm hadn’t started up soccer when she was little. She had such an impact on women’s soccer that she is often thought to mean as much for it as Pele or Cruyff meant for men’s soccer. But before being a great soccer player and athlete that broke down almost every possible record at her level, Mia Hamm is a great person and I’d like you to meet the human behind the soccer god in this Mia Hamm biography.
If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering how and when did Mia Hamm start playing soccer and what events drove her to become a super star of women’s soccer. Mia Hamm’s childhood circled around sports and athleticism and as her brother recalled, she was faster and more athletic than most of the boys on the block, so she was able to play competitively with and against them.
After taking up youth soccer training at her school’s football team when she was only 12 years old, she learned the basics of soccer and started enjoying the sport more and more. Little did she know that three years later, when she was just 15, she would be called up for the United States national women’s soccer team, becoming the youngest player ever to play for her country at that level (one of her first broken records).
That was kind of a weird situation, since Mia Hamm was a soccer player for her national squad but didn’t have a fully professional playing contract with a club. But after seeing her performances, the North Carolina Tar Heels quickly signed her and they made quite a deal, since Mia Hamm stayed with the club for 4 seasons, scoring over 100 goals during her time here.
Probably one of Mia Hamm’s most important accomplishments is that she managed to bring women’s soccer to a level close to what men are playing. She is one of the two women named in Pele’s “List of 125 Best Soccer Players of All Times” and she is a symbol of women’s sports throughout the World.
She also holds two FIFA World Player of the Year awards, which she got in 2001 (the first year the trophy was given) and 2002. Unfortunately, she would have gotten a lot more of these awards, but with the World Player of the Year awards being granted for women when Mia Hamm was already nearing the end of her career, she didn’t really have a chance to widen her trophy room.
In numbers, Mia Hamm was the United States top goal scorer, with 158 goals in 275 matches, a remarkable record that will probably dust and rust before it is beaten. She scored more goals than any man or woman for her national team, although many soccer specialists will agree that the level of women’s soccer is still in an early grade and cannot be compared to men’s soccer yet.
She won the Women’s World Cup twice, in 1991 and 1999 and also put the US national team through a Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in 1996. All these titles, records and awards make Mia Hamm one of the most important players in women’s soccer and the fact that Pele considered to put her on the same list as legendary male players such as Maradona, Cruyff, Platini or Beckenbauer says a lot about the influence she had in the game.
Archive for July, 2011
The Queen Of Soccer – Mia Hamm Biography
07.28
Soccer Scorebooks – Which One Scores the Highest
07.28
In the world of soccer scorebooks there are many choices. Some manufactured by scorebook companies others by well know soccer manufacturers.
So which one do you buy? Most coaches use whatever scorebook they first started with only switching if another is recommended by a fellow coach, why try something new if what you have is working. Others go with the “Hey what’s your cheapest scorebook” method.
Who’s to blame you- most soccer catalogs feature descriptions like this for example:
“Soccer scorebook. $9.95 each”
Well I guess that sums it up huh. If your serious about the game a scorebook can assist you in utilizing your players correctly by review their game stats. I know this is nothing new but the scorebook you use can make that job easy or hard.
You should chose a scorebook that is not only easy for your scorer to use on the field but that works off the field as well.
In this article we will look inside some of the popular scorebooks to see what they offer. Here’s the list of books… Accuscore Official Soccer Scorebook, Brine SB1 Soccer Scorebook, NFHS Official Soccer Scorebook, KwikGoal 20B601 Soccer Scorebook, KwikGoal 20B901 Oversized Soccer Scorebook and last but not least the DOSS Soccer Scorebook.
Accuscore Official Soccer Scorebook
The Accuscore Official Soccer Scorebook has a standard, non glossy, card stock cover. With closer examination it seems to have an eggshell type finish which may resist dampness but is not weather proof. It’s size is standard, like a sheet of paper. The first thing I notice about this book that sets it apart from others is on the first page inside the cover, “made in the U.S.A.”. Call me old fashion but products made in the United States are always on the top of my shopping list.
The first real page of the scorebook is the scoring instructions page. Instructions are simple in only 5 steps however not every part of the scoring pages are mentioned. With a little investigation however learning how to use the other features of the book is not that difficult for a new scorer.
Next thing we find inside the book is the season team roster and schedule. You get spaces for 24 players names under the roster section along with a place for their number, years on the team and their phone number. The season schedule section features space for 24 games with spaces for the date, team name, score and winner Below those columns is space for the head coaches name and up to 3 assistant coaches names.
Turn the page and your ready to score your first game. The Accuscore features scoring pages for 24 games- each game getting 2 pages of scoring area which provides quite a bit of writing space. The first page is for your team offering an offense column and a defense column with space for 19 players. A goalkeeper table offers room for 3 players with space for saves and goals. On the right hand side of the page you’ll find 5 scoring diagrams one of them being marked overtime. There are lines for referee and scorers names as well as corner kicks for each half.
The adjacent page is for the opponents team offering all the same offense and defense lines, field diagrams, goalie box etc. The difference being that the right hand bottom corner is dedicated to the running score of the game. This is probably the most important section of the scorebook. After all in the end it is the finial score that most people will be interested in.
The very last page of the book is the individual and team season record page. A summary of player information and opponent information from the 24 games in the book. This page also contains and awards section for posterity.
The back of the book is a fairly thick cardboard stock. It does flex but offers decent stability for writing on.
Brine SB1 Soccer Scorebook
The Brine Soccer Scorebook has always been popular and it’s easy to see why. It comes packaged in a clear plastic sleeve that serves as a storage case to resist against moisture. The cover is glossy card stock for durability. The Brine SB1 is standard size and it features scoring for 20 games.
When you open the book the spiral binding is at the top and the books orientation is landscape style. The first page of the book assures you that the Brine Scorebook features accurate instantaneous scoring and easy storage for permanent records. You then see a table that offers 16 rows. Each row has a column for “own score”, “opponent” and “opponents score”. This would appear to be a place to keep a running records of games in the book however the table only offers 16 rows while the book offers scoring for 20 games. Very curious design choice.
The next page of the scorebook makes up for that small detail however. This page is the instructions for scoring. Rather than attempting to explain how to use the book, which can get quite wordy and confusing the Brine scorebook simply provides an example page. After a few minutes of studying up on this page you should be ready to use the book to score your first game and it makes a great quick reference if needed.
The next page is for scoring the first game. Scoring pages are compact offering all the necessary boxes and field charts needed to score one game per page. You’ll find a few charts to draw in shot locations, an area to keep track of the number of shots, saves and corner kicks for each team. There are 11 lines for players information with a second table titled “Subs” that offers and additional 9 lines. The “Game Scoring” table features 7 lines for score information… team name, player name, period, time, assist, and description. Below all of that are the lines for fouls, off sides and a running score section.
The last pages of the scorebook are game-by-game statistics and a season totals page.
The back of the book is a very thick cardboard stock that offers a great writing stability on the field.
NFHS Official Soccer Scorebook
The official soccer scorebook of the National Federation Of High Schools starts off with a semi gloss finish cover that features the NFHS insignia. The first inside page is a description of the book along with contact info for the NFHS. Page two has 2 sections. The first section is the “Rules Regarding Scoring” and the second is “Instructions On Scoring” which consists of 3 parts of written instruction for scoring. Page 3 offers an easy to understand example of how to use the book.
The next page starts the scoring pages of which there are enough for 27 games. The left side page is devoted to the visitor and the right hand page to the home team. Running across the top of the two pages are spaces for coaches names, records, scorers name, timers name, officials names, game site, date, weather condition info, field condition info and running score information.
Each individual scoring page features lines for 22 players with their records, a shots table, fouls table, field diagrams for each half and an overtime period, a cautions area with #, time and violation columns, corner kicks table, goal – assist – time table and a saves table.
Skipping through all the scoring pages you will come to a “Individual Cumulative Totals” section. This section starts with an example page and contains a total of 5 pages each of which have space enough for 5 players names with the left most column providing space for 27 opponent names to match the number of games you can score with the book.
The final page of the NFHS Official Soccer Scorebook is a field diagram featuring all necessary measurements for the field, officials area, and coaching areas as well as information on corner flag standards.
Over all the NFHS scorebook is very comprehensive and easy to use.
KwikGoal 20B601 Standard Size Soccer Scorebook
Right off the bat you can tel
l you have a quality scorebook here. Both covers are wrapped in plastic film for weather protection. The film stays on the book all the time unlike other books that provide a plastic sleeve which must be removed.
The first page in the book is a season schedule and scrimmage schedule area with place for home and visitor scores and date. One interesting thing on this page that I have not seen before is the space at the bottom of this page which allows room to write down the local newspapers phone number, radio/TV station phone number, doctors phone number, office phone number and miscellaneous. Promoting your team and school is becoming an important part of the game as well. Obviously the folks at KwikGoal are in touch with today’s coaches. This page also offers field diagrams but for what purpose I’m not sure- one is labeled “goals for” the other “goals against”. There are only the two and they seem out of place. There are no field diagrams on the scoring pages of the book.
The next page offers some advice to the coach reminding them to make sure they appoint someone to keep score and make sure they know how to use the book before the first scrimmage. Seems like obvious advice but in today’s hectic world one may forget I suppose. Below that is the instruction on using the book. Plain English here in large type. Seems simple enough. The next page is an example of a scoring page that is labeled to correspond with the previous pages instruction. Doesn’t get much easier than that.
What follows is scoring pages for 24 games. Each game uses one page only for scoring and stats on both the home and visiting team. Space is at a premium but the book is well laid out. Top left corner of each page is date, time, scorer, timer, field location, field condition, weather condition and referees lines. To the right of that at the top in the middle is the running score for each period and 2 O.T.’s. and to the far right top of each page is a box title “Game Summary”.
The page is then divided in half. The left side being devoted to the Home Team and the right of course to the Visiting Team. Twenty-Four lines are provided for players names and their stats. On the side of that table is 5 small tables on which you place X’s to keep score they are titled in order from top to bottom- Shots on Goal, Keeper Saves, Corner Kicks, Direct Kicks and Indirect Kicks.
Below all of this is a Goal Info area offering space to detail how the goals were scored etc.
After the scoring pages there are 5 pages of Game-By-Game Statistics For Each Player, each page has space for 4 players giving a total of 20. That section is followed by a single page titles End Of Season Summary which has columns for all the needed info and rows for 25 opponents. Finally you will find 3 pages of field diagrams, each page offers two fields.
This book seems to have a little smaller print than others but is very well organized. Let’s not forget the plastic film covers either.
KwikGoal 20B901 Oversized Soccer Scorebook
The KwikGoal Oversized scorebook measures a full 10″ x 14″. Other than the size all of the contents are identical to the above KwikGoal Standard Size Scorebook. Size does matter in this case however. The larger format offers all of those great features of the above model but twice the space. Plenty of room to write with no eye strain. It’s easy to see why this book is so popular.
Doss Official Soccer Scorebook
Last but not least is the Doss Soccer Scorebook. This is also an oversized format scorebook measuring 11″ x 13″. The doss book feels heavy for some reason- it must be the thick cardboard backing. Seems very sturdy.
Cover has some sheen to it so it may resist a little moisture. First thing you see on the inside is an advertisement for Doss Sports, next comes a field diagram that offers players positions. This would be great for the newbie coach or youth coach probably. On that same page is Notes on Scoring and info about proper abbreviations along with measurements for goals and corner flags. The back of this page is blank, I guess it could be used for notes if needed. Then we jump into to scoring pages. There is no example page.
Scoring pages offer a lot of space do to the oversized book. The books score 24 games. At the top of each page are the standard lines for coaches, referee etc. Then line for home and visitor team. The pages are split in half- left for home right for visitor team. On the left and right edge of each page you’ll find 3 field diagrams to mark goals, a table for shots on goals, offensive corner kick, goalie saves, fouls committed and off sides. The middle offers two columns one for each team with spaces for 11 players and 11 substitutions, below that is a large scoring area and finally the running score for each period and overtimes. The back of every page is blank so there is lots of room for additional notes, even a quick free hand sketch of the game (if your scorer has time for that pick up the pace a little).
There are no additional stat areas at the end of the book so this is truly a scorebook and does not offer the ability to compile individual players stats for the end of the year.
Summary
All in all the books are similar each offering a few different features. I don’t score soccer but in my personal opinion the KwikGoal oversized book seems to offer the most room to write and least strain on the eyes which is important to me.
You can find a short video review of these books at www. morleyathletic .com in the video library look for the video title “Soccer Scorebook Review”. You can see the inside of each book there for a better view. Thank you for reading.
You can find all of these soccer scorebooks in the Morley Athletic online team catalog.
Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic?
07.28
The Candlestick price bar in the NASDAQ Composite on Thursday was double-barreled bearish, in that it was a combination of two patterns in one – the “Doji” and the “Hanging Man.” A “Doji” occurs when the opening price and the closing price are the same, or nearly so. A “Hanging Man” occurs at the top of a long advance in prices when the range of prices between the open and the close is very small, and that range is near the top of the total range of prices of the period. The “Hanging Man” requires a lower closing in the next period as “confirmation” of its bearishness. In this particular example (last Thursday’s price bar), the impact is attenuated because the pattern appeared other than at the top of a long advance in prices.
At any rate, we did get the lower close yesterday (Friday), so the bearish intimations of the Hanging Man have been “confirmed.” The patterns in the NASDAQ 100 were quite similar
Now what? We don’t know which way the NASDAQs (or the rest of the market, for that matter) will head from this point. It could be that the market is now consolidating, in preparation for a higher push into the Dow 10000 range (or even higher), which could happen; or it could be that the Rally is over, the tops are in, and that prices will generally decline from this point forward. It could also be that prices will just muddle along sideways for quite a while.
We don’t spend a lot of time contemplating all of the reasons why the markets should continue higher, or why they should not. We have been Long since right after the markets turned up on July 13; we have trailed the insistent price rise since then with trailing safety sell-stops; and if the markets do turn lower our pro.fit will be locked away in Cash by stop-outs. When and if that happens, then we will think about what to do next.
However, there are many observers who do spend a huge amount of time arguing one way or the other about it. We here tend to stand off on the sidelines, watching the fray with some bit of detached amusement, on the basis that the argumentation seems to consist of a good deal of sound and fury signifying not much. If the market goes up, we are happy with our Long position; if it goes down, our accumulated unrealized pro.fit turns into Cash. Not bad.
I would like to invite your attention to a new article by Richard Graham in the publication “Seeking Alpha” on the question of the direction of the market. It’s at http://seekingalpha.com/article/155933-why-this-rally-will-continue?source=article_sb_popular/ The article has generated PLENTY of comment on the state of the recovery and the likely direction of the market, pro and con, which follows right after the article itself. I have a short comment of my own in there, too, writing as “candleman.”
The article contains the comment that “When the front cover of Newsweek says that the recovery will be sluggish, it is safe to say that everyone knows the recovery will be sluggish…”. That is true. When a major popular sentiment is enshrined on the cover of a national newsmagazine, “everybody knows” it. We are then very late in the cycle, too. Financial author Paul Macrae Montgomery brings this phenomenon to life in his “Magazine Cover Index,” which holds that when popular sentiment rises to the point at which “everyone knows” something to be so obviously true that it is honored on the cover of a national newsmagazine, “everyone” is probably wrong.
If that thesis holds true this time, that means that – since “everyone knows” that the recovery will be sluggish – it will NOT be sluggish.
Unless – unless – the underlying premise of both sides of the argument is wrong, and the recovery is ALREADY over, in which case the tiff between the pro’s and the con’s is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
William Kurtz
August 15, 2009
info@candlewave.com