Soccer Conditioning Drills

As Spain were crowned World Champions in Johannesburg, the curtain came down on the very first World Cup to be staged in Africa. European nations completed a 1-2-3 with Spain beating Holland in the final as well as Germany taking third place after a 3-2 success over Uruguay.

This simply backs up the discussion that European football is the best in the world and that the European Championships are a wonderful tournament. Qualifying matches for the Euro 2012 finals will start in Sept and regardless of finishing third, Germany will, no doubt be among the favourites to win the title. Their young side produced some vibrant football all the way through the World Cup with Thomas Muller getting the Golden Boot with 5 goals and three assists. With some other young stars like Ozil, Boateng and Kediera, Germany will be one of the teams to look out for.

As current World and European champions, Spain is certainly a really difficult competitor. A good number of their team will still be young enough in 2012 to give solid opposition and they will definitely be wanting to defend their title.

For once Netherlands was able to abandon their individual egos at home at the FIFA World Cup and subsequently, the Dutch made it to their third World Cup final conquering numerous peoples favourite, Brazil, en route. With more clinical shooting from Robben, Netherlands could well have won the tournament as opposed to Spain and they will look to carry on in the same vein in the course of Euro 2012.

The typically strong teams of France, England and Italy all failed miserably in South Africa and consequently, the curtain will absolutely come down on many of the older footballers careers. England have a number of fascinating young players to take to the international stage and if they can replicate Germany, there will be high hopes amidst the English supporters.

The Euro 2012 host nations of Poland and Ukraine will both see massive support but in due course, they most certainly achieve not have the quality to seriously challenge for the title.

When England departed these shores for South Africa a few short weeks ago, there was much hope that at long last, they could bring the trophy home. Yet, that dream was destroyed in no uncertain terms by the old enemy Germany in Bloemfontein as England crashed out of the competition losing 4-1. How could quite possibly such an experienced team who qualified so easily fail to perform? Not surprisingly, the English media has found no shortage of scape goats and causes for what was England’s worst defeat at a World Cup. There has been enough talk about the Italian manager, formations and more but the troubles are a lot more serious.

Since its formation in 1992, the EPL has achieved fabulous success as a global brand. The price of this success has been felt by English football. Improved television cash has forced wages to increase. Consequently this has meant there has been an increasing split between club and country. Clubs pay their footballers a lot of money and are increasingly more hesitant to let their footballers play for their countries.

In turn, players get massively rewarded by Premiership clubs to the extent that success is recognised by getting rewarding contracts rather than anything they accomplish on the pitch. Mediocre players who rarely turn out for their teams are still millionaires and once these footballers put money ahead of playing matches at club level, there is certainly little doubt they don’t have the mental strength or hunger to play international football.

Typically, there was always a regional reserve league which meant young players from lower league clubs could well be guaranteed playing versus decent reserve teams from larger clubs like Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs and Manchester United. Yet, in recent years, the EPL has changed which means they will only play versus other EPL reserve teams. This means that Championship reserve teams no longer get to play against EPL sides. For clubs like Ipswich Town, it means their reserve team now plays against Stevenage as an alternative to Tottenham and this drop in standard in opposition obviously has a negative effect on the learning curve of young footballers.

With a great deal of money at stake, things are tailored for EPL survival. Teams spend large amounts of money attracting apparently first-class foreign managers and players in a bid to keep their Premiership status. The ambition of promoted teams to the Premier League extends no further than finished 4th bottom. The EPL cash bonanza means that Premiership clubs can give you £1-2m for young players at lower division sides. The players are keen to move and secure their financial futures but it could very well also signal the conclude of their careers. The young Crystal Palace star joined Tottenham Hotspurs but barely made an appearance and was last seen on loan at Brentford, a division lower than when he was at Palace. From a football outlook, Bostock would have been best served staying at Palace and learning his trade. How many more young footballers careers are curtailed like this pursuing the money as opposed to playing the game?  Its difficult to blame the young footballers for taking the money.

Addititionally there is the popular accusation that clubs take part in too many games in England and an increasing number of managers want a winter break. Of course, players don’t appear to be tired the minute asked to fly off to the Usa or Far East on pre-season trips. Or how about England’s friendly game next June away in Thailand?

There are simply too numerous ready made excuses for failure that players are ready to accept. They live a life well away from real life with their mansions, expensive cars and trophy wives. Simply, there is not enough hunger or desire.

The fixture in Thailand also illustrates another difficulty. As well as the EPL being an international brand name, so are the England team. Supporters want to observe the big Premiership stars play for England and in friendly matches like this, those stars will be expected, if not contracted, to turn out.  All the same, it is not the case that the best 11 players make the recommended team. Too several footballers are in the team based on good reputation rather than performances. Young players should be promoted into the senior squad sooner.

For the imminent Euro 2012 campaign, England should dispense with the services of all players aged 30 or over. None of them have played well in South Africa thus why should we persist with them. It would be more effective to promote younger footballers who may still be hungry for success. Having said that, while the worshiping of the EPL persists, things are unlikely to get better anytime immediately.

The old Wembley Stadium was unveiled in 1923 and had a reputation for possessing one of the finest pitches in Britain. Its wide open spaces would sap the power from the legs of even the fittest players. When the Empire Stadium at long last shut its doors in 2000, the superb playing surface was torn up along with the entire arena.

England had to wait 7 long years until finally the new Wembley Stadium opened its doors. The new 90,000 seater stadium was categorised by UEFA as a 5* Elite Arena and is the second largest in Europe after the Camp Nou in Barcelona. The initial full international was played against Brazil on 1st June 2007.

The development of the stadium was overdue and way over budget but the concerns didn’t stop there. Operational problems like defective escalators on match days were experienced but there is a continuing difficulty that so far has not be sufficiently answered – the pitch.

Pitches at brand new stadia in general take time to settle down but at Wembley the pitch is a headache and is probably one of the worst around. It cuts up far too easily and players lose their footing too often. In a recent FA Cup semi final, at least one of the goals was put down to a defender slipping at a vital point as the playing surface gave way. By the end of the 2009/2010 season, the grass had been relaid 10 times at an expense of one million pounds and the arena had not even been in operation for 3 years.

However, relaying the playing surface every 3 months isn’t the resolution. The plan of the stadium is the reason why the natural conditions of light and wind can’t get to the playing surface to stimulate the playing surface to grow. Some stadiums much like the one in Gelsenkirchen in Germany is on rollers so in between games, the full pitch is moved out of the arena. Most other stadia have enough air flow in the stands allowing the wind to move around and it is possible to use artificial lights to encourage the pitch to grow.

However, there are still issues and an answer has to be worked out. In September 2010, England begin their qualification for Euro 2012 and they are certainly the best team in their group. The last thing England don’t need, is their opponents aided by a low quality Wembley playing surface. The fixtures at Wembley are meant to give England home advantage.

The Euro 2012 tournament  will be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The event is the final one to be 16 teams as the future one in 2016 will broaden to 24 teams. Poland and Ukraine defeated Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to host the tournament.

 

The games will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish cities to host matches will be Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. The Ukrainian cities will be Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.

 

The final will take place in Kiev which will also hold a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after development will be one of the leading stadia and sporting complexes on the planet. The new venue in Warsaw is also being built and promises to be a state of the art stadium.

 

The draw for the competition has been carried out and qualifying fixtures will get started following the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Each of the nine group winners and the best runner-up will be given direct entry into the competition. Following that the remaining eight runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.

 

From Group A you would presume Germany and Turkey would be too strong with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.

Group B looks to be a three way competition between Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.

 

In Group C it looks like it will be comfortable for Italy and Serbia. France is the favorite from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take 2nd.

 

There is a northern European vibe to Group E where it probably will be Netherlands and Sweden.

 

Croatia and Greece are the likely challengers with regards to Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.

 

From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and lastly from Group I it would appear to be Spain and the Czech Republic.

 

Qualifying concludes in October 2011 by which time passion and expectancy for the Euro 2012 Finals will be well and truly underway.