5 Soccer Facts You Wouldn't Know!!

Fact #1
Diego Armando Maradona has his own religion made by his fans.

• Maradona is Argentina's retired soccer player who is basically admired to the point of being worshiped like a God by his fans. There is a Maradonian church where obviously their God is Maradona and they even have two festivities which are Maradonian Easter which falls on the 22nd of June (celebration of his true glory which sank England in the Azteca) and Christmas on the 30th of December (the date of birth of Diego Armando Maradona).

Fact #2
The word "soccer" originated as a slang abbreviation of the word "association".

• "Soccer" and "football" has the same meaning. "Soccer" originated as an Oxford "-er" slang abbreviation of "association". It is also credited to the late nineteenth century English footballer named Charles Wreford-Brown.

Fact #3
The Vatican has its own soccer team.

• Most of us may know about this but for those who don't, well, Vatican City is the smallest country in the world therefore, it has its own soccer team but UNFORTUNATELY, it is one of the seven national soccer teams that are not FIFA members. Why?? It is due to the fact that the only eligible people to play for the Vatican national soccer team are the Swiss Guards and the museum guards so obviously because of their responsibilities, they have very limited time for practice and they could even go for days without one too.

Fact #4

Ronaldinho's deal with Coca-cola ended because of Pepsi.

• Ronaldinho was dropped as an ambassador of Coca-cola and lost his £500,000 a year contract because he was caught sipping Pepsi at a press conference for his new club, Atletico Mineiro which happened to be sponsored by Pepsi.

Fact #5

FIFA has more member countries than the U.N.

• As we all know, there are 193 member states of the United Nations but FIFA has 209 member states which is more than the United Nations.
  

10 Soccer Facts!!

Did you know????

Fact #1

149 - 0 is the highest score that is ever made in a soccer game!!

• It is a game played between A S Adema and SO l'Emyrne in Antananarivo, Madagascar on 31st October 2002. It is the highest score ever won and even recognized by The Guinness Book of Records. They actually overcome their previous record that was set in 1885 which is 36 - 0. WOW!!

Fact #2

The fastest red card ever given is just in 2 seconds!!

• Soccer player; Lee Todd receives a red card for muttering "F*ck me, that was loud." right after the referee has blown the whistle to the start of the game. This incident happened in year 2000 however it is not recorded in the book as it is just an amateur game. Todd was sent off the field for using foul and abusive language but his team still won the game by 11 - 2.

Fact #3

After being signed up by a Belgian Club, he became the youngest professional soccer player ever!!

• A 20-month old baby named Bryce Brites gets his spot in the Boxberg squad under-5's. The coach said the baby was signed because of his talent.

Fact #4

Qatar's 2022 World Cup will take more lives than 9/11!!

• It is due to the horrible working conditions for migrant workers building stadiums and infrastructure. There are 717 deaths among Indians working in Qatar since the Gulf of the country has been awarded to be the host of the 2022 World Cup last December 2010. It is also confirmed by the embassy of India in Qatar. The International Trade Union Confederation even estimated that 4,000 workers will die before the 2022 World Cup.

Fact #5

8 of the 12 host cities for the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil are among the 50 most violent cities in the world.

Fact #6

City host of the 2022 Fifa World Cup Final Game does not exist yet!!

• It is named the City of Lusail but it is still does not exist cause it was the newest city planned in Qatar.

Fact #7

Soccer player; Christiano Ronaldo opened a museum dedicated to himself!!

• The museum was opened in year 2013. It is situated in Madeira where there are more than 125 awards are exhibited.

Fact #8

The first soccer game televised is in 1937!!

• It was a friendly match between Arsenal and Arsenal Reserves on 16 September 1937.

Fact #9

More than 1 in 20 soccer injuries are caused by celebrating goals on the pitch.

• Celebrating the scoring of a goal, there are a lot of ways. Some could be very dangerous too. For example, the somersault which can causes spinal injuries and could result in death too.

Fact #10

The word "soccer" originated as a slang abbreviation of the word "association".

Volleyball

Volleyball Rules – Competition Rules

Volleyball is a group of six playing sport, by 21 points where three games will be played. Volleyball now is a very popular sport, even in Malaysia online Sportsbook, you can bet on volleyball as well just like how you bet on football. Let me explain the rules of the game now.

 

A. Team Clothing
Team apparel including T-shirt, shorts and sneakers. T-shirt, shorts and socks must be uniform, neat and consistent color. For international competition, the team must use the same color shoes but a trademark can be different. T-shirt numbers must be 1-18, coat color number must be significantly different. In front, the number must be at least 10 cm wide while at the back, the numbers must be at least 15 cm high, the number of strokes must be in at least 2 cm width.

 

B. Prohibited Items
Banned on wearing items that may cause harm and is conducive to human. You can participate in the competition while wearing glasses, but all consequences caused is the individual’s responsibility.

 

C. Serve
To start the game, a player basically needs to serve the ball from behind the inline in an attempt to drive the ball into the opponent’s court. The main objective is to make the ball land inside the court (the opponent’s side). To make it difficult for the receiver to handle the ball, it is desired that you set the ball’s direction, speed and acceleration. If the ball lands directly onto the court or travels outside the court after being touched by an opponent, that serve is called an “Ace”. Practically, there are many types of serves you can learn such as; Underhand, sky ball serve, topspin, float, jump serve, and jump float.

D. Passing
The most important skills in volleyball is passing. The chance of delivering an effective attack would be low if you don’t get your pass right because it makes the set and hit suffer.
E. Rotation
This part is very important too because it can be very confusing if not fully understood. Basically, in volleyball, there are six players whereby three will be positioned in the front while the other three will be positioned in the back. The rules are simple, when you’re at the back, you can hit the ball on the third hit BUT you cannot jump in front of the 10-foot line. If you’re wondering, attacks are also known as “hits” or “spikes”.
F. Switching
It is possible for you to play the same position every play despite the mandatory rotation where you switch a place after the other team gets the ball. The only thing you have to do is to wait until after the ball has gone over the net on a serve to move to that spot.

Badminton

In my previous post, I've talked a little about badminton. Just some information about the equipment used for badminton. In this post, I would like to continue more about badminton. So here, I will talk about the scoring system and the strokes used while playing badminton.

SCORING SYSTEM & SERVICE

i) SERVING

   - The shuttlecock must pass over the net into the opponent's court when the server serves. Badminton is almost similar as tennis. The only difference is that a badminton serve must be hit below waist height standing inside their service courts and the shuttlecock is not allowed to bounce at all. The serve will be passed to their opponent(s) when the serving side loses.

ii) SCORING

   - The scoring is easy. Each games will be played to 21 points but if the scores are tied as 20-all, then the game will continue until the scores are two-points ahead. The game will be played up to a maximum of 30 points.

STROKES

FOREHAND & BACKHAND

Basically, forehand and backhand strokes are the basic strokes in badminton. To use them effectively, obviously you need to have a higher level of skills. What is a forehand stroke? If you're a right-handed person, your forehand stroke will be on your right while your left side is where your backhand stroke will be. Forehand strokes are hit with the front of the hand leading whereas backhand strokes are hit with the back of the hand leading. Players will attempt to play as many forehand strokes as possible because there are disadvantage in playing a backhand strokes. First disadvantage for a backhand stroke is that the player must turn their back to their opponent which restricted their view of them and the court. The second disadvantage is that a backhand stroke can't be hit with as much power as the ones used for a forehand stroke.

Badminton is very easy to be played as long as you have the equipment needed and enough players, you can start your game either in the court or at the field which is not really a good place to play badminton because of the wind. Sometimes, people are so addicted to the game that they started betting on it. Rarely on badminton game but other sports game.

They started to create their own group of friends and started betting but sometimes, people who got so addicted to the bet got broke and ran away which caused a lot of problems not only to themselves but to people who are involved at the same time. In this generation, everything is now advanced. With the knowledge or the internet, you could search for anything that you wanted. Want to bet on the game you're interested, fret not. Just online and search for the right and trusted site and off you go with your bet. 

Badminton

Badminton consists of a racket and a shuttlecock. It is played either by two opposing players as singles or two opposing pairs as doubles. The game is played in a rectangular court that was divided by a net in the middle of the court. To score a point however, a player strikes the shuttlecock with his racket so that it'll fly past the net and landed onto half of the opponent's court. A shuttlecock can only be strike once by each player for it to passes over the net to the opponent's area and the game ends once the shuttlecock has struck the floor.

RULES
COURT DIMENSIONS
The court is obviously in a rectangular shape which is divided halves by a net. Even though the court is marked only for singles play, it is also suitable for doubles play. The only difference during singles and doubles play is the serve length dimension. The width of the court is 6.1 metres but in singles play, the width is reduced to 5.18 metres. The length of the court however is 13.4 metres long. The net on the other hand is 1.55 metres high at the edges and 1.524 metres high in the center.

EQUIPMENT
i) Racket
    - Badminton rackets are lightweight weighing between 70 and 95 grams not including grip or strings. Light metals such as aluminium was used to make a racket before carbon fibre composite was adopted. Carbon fibre is stiff, has an excellent strength to weight ratio and also gives excellent kinetic energy transfer. Nowadays, rackets has an isometric head shape however if you want to find the traditional oval head shape racket, it is still available in the market.

ii) Strings
     - Strings to the rackets are very thin ranging from about 0.62 to 0.73 mm. Even though thicker strings are more durable, players prefer the feel of thinner strings.

iii) Grip
      - Depends on players to choose a comfortable surface to hold. There are two main types of grip; replacement grips and over-grips. Replacement grips are thicker while over-grips are thinner.

iv) Shuttlecock
      - A shuttlecock is formed from sixteen overlapping feathers embedded into a rounded cork base.

v) Shoes
    - Lightweight shoes are the most suitable type of shoes for badminton.

History of Basketball

Have you ever wondered who or where does basketball comes from? Well, in my previous posts, I talked generally about basketball but in this post, I'll share with you of what I know about basketball. So, instead of evolution from an ancient game or another sport, basketball has its origins and it is actually invented by a well known Dr. James W. Naismith.

Naismith is a physician at McGill University in Montreal who was also interested in sports physiology. He was born in Ramsay Township in 1861. When Naismith was working in YMCA International Training School which is now known as Springfield College in US, as a physical education teacher in 1891, he faced a problem to provide an indoor "athletic distraction" for the students at the school for Christian Workers. At that current time, Naismith was also a Presbyterian Minister.

The idea of adapting outdoor games like soccer and lacrosse were given but he chooses to discard the idea. Instead of having the same games to be played indoor, he quickly thought of a game he once played during his schooling days called duck-on-a-rock which involves an attempt to knock a "duck" off the top of a large rock by tossing another rock.

From there, Naismith developed 13 rules to basketball game. The first game, however, was played with a soccer ball and two peach baskets that was nailed 10-feet above the ground as a goal. During the time, the bottoms to the baskets was retained and each time a person scored, the balls had to be poked out with a long dowel and bouncing the ball while moving was not allowed at all.

The ball can be thrown and batted in any directions with one or both hands but definitely not by using a fist. However, a player cannot run with the ball but to throw it from the spot where he catches the ball. Furthermore, the ball only can be held between the hands not the arms or body.

Basketball's popularity quickly grew nationwide thanks to the impulse received by the YMCA's movement. It was an instant success and although Naismith never get to see the development of the game that turns into such a spectacular game known worldwide these days yet he still had the honor to witness it becoming an Olympic sport at the 1936 Games that was held in Berlin.

Basketball

Basketball is a dynamic, fast-paced game played by two teams of five players. It is basically one of the most popular sports in the world besides football. To win the game, it is obvious that you have to shoot hoops. In other words, it means that you have to shoot a ball through a hoop which is 10-feet above the ground.

Even if there are roles defined for each player, every player still has to play both as offense and defense. The game will be played on a rectangular floor where there will be a hoop 10-feet above the ground on each end. Basketball can easily be practiced with one person; shooting and dribbling, to make it easier to learn.

When the game starts, the ball will be moved down towards the basket generally by dribbling or passing. Before the game starts however, you have to understand two simple thing which is the offender is the team with the ball and the defender is the team without the ball in which they try to steal the ball, steal and deflect passes, contest shots, and garner rebounds.

COURT & EQUIPMENT

Basketball can be played anywhere. All you need is just a ball and an elevated hoop where you can shoot the ball. For competition, however, it will be played indoor where there will be a hard wood court measuring 94 feet X 50 feet ready for the league. The court dimensions can vary depending on the level of the competition.

SCORING

Every time a player throws a ball into the opponent's hoop, their team scored two points unless it is made outside the three point arc. Points are given depending on the type of shots made;

  # FOUL SHOT/FREE THROW - A player who is fouled while shooting will be granted a foul shot. Each successful free throw is worth one point.

  # 2 POINTS - Shots made in between the end line and the three point arc.

  # 3 POINTS - A successful shot made behind the three point arc. By the end of the game, the team that scores the most points wins the game. However, if the scores are tied when the buzzer sounded, an extra period called "over time" will be played to determine the winner.

VIOLATIONS

When a player breaks one of the "non-foul" related rules, it is a violation.

  # TRAVELING - It is illegal to take more than one step while holding the ball. A pivot foot is allowed but once it is determined, it cannot be lifted before the player shoots, dribbles, or passes the ball.

  # ILLEGAL DRIBBLE - After the first dribble has ended, the player shall not dribble the second time.

  # CARRYING/PALMING - Resting the ball in one or both hands while dribbling.

  # OUT OF BOUNDS - A player must not have a contact with the boundary line that are marked by a solid line about two inches thick while in possession of the ball.

  # BACK-COURT VIOLATION - No player of a team shall touch a ball that is knocked into the back-court if the team in in possession of the front-court.

Basketball is actually interesting if you get the hang of it. Sometimes, if you understand the game well enough, you will know the strength and weakness of the players. Once you understand the strengths and weaknesses, you will have the urge to take up the chance to win more money by betting. After betting, you would want to be at the game personally to cheer for the team that you bet on in hopes that they would win the match. Did you know how awful you looked like when you cheer or maybe scolded the player from afar just because he made a slight mistake that could jeopardize your winnings? Why not do it at home from the comfort of your own living room instead? It's quite easy to find an online casino nowadays and pretty sure they'll have betting for sports. It is just right in the Sportsbook column. Try it out. Who knows luck is on your side?