Category: Soccer

Current essay deals with the development of soccer as a favorite game of the millions of people all over the world. In introduction we observe basic questions that will be risen in our paper, prove the relevance of chosen topic and theoretical and practical significance. In the first part of the main body of the text we provide readers with historical background of soccer’s development and its evolution starting from its foundation in England, institutalization in national and international championships and tournaments.

The main emphasis is put on the analysis of rules dynamics, soccer’s symbols and traditions. In the following section of our research paper we start the analysis of soccer’s development in different continents including Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Latin America and North America. The main emphasis is put on the development of national championship, soccer clubs, fan clubs, mass character of translations, transformation of symbols, traditions, game’s strategy, techniques and other approaches. In the fourth chapter some close attention is paid specifically for the development of soccer in such countries as Argentina, Portugal and Brazil.

The fifth chapter is devoted to the analysis of interesting and relevant issues of the reasons of low popularity of soccer in the United States where other sports like baseball and basketball are dominant. Finally, based on the collected information and conducted analysis we make conclusions of our research paper where we summarize its main findings, future directions and necessary shortcomings if they exist.

The thesis of our paper is that the development of soccer was uneven and complex process characterized by its fusion with various national traditions and peculiarities. Notwithstanding this fact, soccer quickly became the most popular sport over the world and the Mecca for all fans and amateurs. As our research suggests it happened not by chance but as a predictable result of a unique combination of soccer’s exciting character, complex nature and interesting rules.

Introduction

The incredible popularity of soccer has a “historical” dimension dealing with changes that have taken place in global culture and social movements on the American scene at the present time. Football now reflects the basic, underlying cultural dynamics of contemporary America. Football is urban, it uses “educated” players, it is complex, specialized, violent and sexy. In football every second counts, as it does in America, where “time is money.” And soccer has another important virtue — it televises well. In all these respects it reflects values and impulses that are now dominant. It is now even more American than baseball and other sports. These changes line up with the values people find in football. Baseball became irrelevant. Soccer provides people with an opportunity to let off steam, to get rid of tensions, to have what is called a “catharsis.”

The history of soccer goes back to 2-3 century BC when Chinese performed the same techniques as modern players. Also, “soccer” was popular in Roman Empire and medieval Europe. “During the second part of the 19th century in England, rugby as well as most sports experienced a massive surge in popularity. This was mostly an effect of the Industrial Revolution, which drew people in cities and factories, depriving them from the typical outdoor activities of rural life” (Expert Football 2008). the first unified rules were developed in 1858 in England at Cambridge University. In 1853, the first football association was formed. During the same period of time, soccer became popular in Australia where football players developed Victorian rules of the game (Expert Football 2008).

During the 1920s, for the first time, school became the center of teen social life. The number of curriculum-related clubs began to decline as the number of social organizations and activities increased. Athletics, especially football, became the dominant unifying force for high school students; boosting the team was the duty of all students in all grades, and the athletes themselves were the stars of school life. Football was still a sport played only in wealthier high schools and colleges, but it was becoming popular across the country as fans followed their college teams to victory. Being a teen football star was becoming a ticket to national fame. The big Eastern colleges built huge stadiums to hold the thousands who attended their games, and smaller schools tried to do the same, sometimes with disastrous financial consequences if they did not produce winning teams. The need to recruit winning players grew from this period in the history of the sport.

In modern sense, soccer was developed only in 1960s. “On October 1963, eleven London clubs and schools sent their representatives to the Freemason’s Tavern. These representatives were intent on clarifying the muddle by establishing a set of fundamental rules, acceptable to all parties, to govern the matches played amongst them. This meeting marked the birth of The Football Association” (Soccer History and Information 2008). Certainly, sporting culture and especially soccer culture have long been seen to embody certain values and principles which have been taken as blueprints for living. Increasingly, as the twentieth century has drawn to a close, the intervention of various social forces (the market, the media, the law, the state) into the once ‘private’ area of sporting culture has been perceived to be transforming that particular cultural domain or ‘field’ (Expert Football 2008).

Critics admit that proliferation of soccer to other countries was caused by the increased influence of England and the English language. People adopted English culture and values, borrowed its traditions and games. The European countries joined the first Football Association were the Netherlands and Denmark (1889), New Zealand (1891), Argentina (1893), Chile (1895), Belgium (1895), Italy (1898), Germany and Uruguay (1900), Hungary (1901) and Finland (1907) (Soccer History and Information 2008). The international Football Association was founded in 1904, and marked the global development of the soccer culture. Today, FIFA includes 204 states from all continents (Expert Football 2008).

When news came that the pro football’s strike of 1970 was settled, it was a source of great relief for millions of fans. For a while it looked as if there would be no season. Sports pundits were predicting a season of re-runs, replays, computer games and other absurdities, and football owners and television networks were going crazy, having “withdrawal of revenue” nightmares. But finally an accommodation was reached and the pros were to play for us again. This great scare phenomenon is extremely interesting. Since the fans would still have had college football to watch, they would not have been deprived of all television football. The reason the threatened strike seemed calamitous, I think, is that professional football is more than a mere sport — it is a religion of sorts which expresses a philosophy that orients viewers to the world and explains how it “runs.”

College football, in this respect, is like a lay church. It functions the same way, but without a professional clergy it is not quite as satisfying (Hjalm et al 415). With political decay also came a drastic slowdown in sport participation. By the late nineteenth century, however, sport was alive and well in northern Italy. Many sport clubs had already grouped themselves into federations. The most popular federation, in terms of number of participants, was the football (soccer) federation which was founded in 1885. The years when the Italians were organizing their sport federations coincided with the period of heavy Italian emigration. Some four million Italians came to the United States between 1899 and 1924, with over two million returning to Italy during the same period. The persistent discrimination the Italians had to endure is demonstrated by the fact that, when the Nativists were able to carry the day by stopping the huge emigration from southern and eastern Europe, the yearly quota assigned to Italians was only 3,845. Following Levendis:

“Nationalism and the quest for independent political identity can been exemplified in the Catalan separatist movement, and in the team named after their biggest city, Barcelona. During his reign Generalissimo Franco threw his political power behind his favorite club, Real Madrid, the rivals of Barcelona” (Levendis 86).

Asian countries and Africa joined FIFA during the post war period (after the WWII). Thanks to the miracle of television (which has made football — professional and college — so much a part of the way of life) fans are treated from time to time to real-life dramas of great passion and poignancy. These countries are given of professional football coaches pacing nervously along the sidelines, giving frantic orders to various lesser coaches and other millions. When their teams are doing poorly, their agonies tear at the heartstrings. Furthermore, coaches pass from one “identity” to another, eventually, except for a few geniuses who do not experience the agony along the sidelines. During 1950-1960s, soccer became a part of the Chinese and Japanese culture (Expert Football 2008). “However, when Iran–lead by a foreign, non-Muslim coach–beat Australia in World Cup qualifying in 1997, things would change. Iranians ran into the streets celebrating. Some women threw off their head-coverings, and celebrated right next to the men” (Levendis 85)..

Soccer was popular in Australia since 1900s but had no a great impact on the national culture and traditions. In Latin America, soccer was popular since 1930s-1950s. The hyperreality of televised sports culture and commonly taken as innately a ‘bad’ thing, a development which undermines what is recalled as ‘real’ soccer, ‘real’ sport, ‘real’ culture (Levendis 86). The crux of that contemporary debate in the mid-1970s—and, in fact, was the extent to which television programs in general, and sports coverage in particular, were not so much a record of events as socially constructed phenomena (Soccer History and Information 2008). At the time of the 1978 finals in Argentina, as the venue controversially moved to the then reviled authoritarian South American regime, two contrasting European perspectives were developed on the World Cup. Critics, focusing on Argentina 1978, explicitly built on the BFI study, theorizing television as ‘never exactly a reproduction of’ a cultural event but ‘always, in some way or other, a representation’, recognizing nevertheless that ‘the prejudice dies hard that television is there to reproduce; that its subject is given reality’ (Hjalm et al 415). Critics noted the irony of holding the World Cup finals in a country where government and other groups’ terror reigned and citizens frequently ‘disappeared’ (Garland and Rowe 335).

Soccer penetrated the American continent at the end of 19^th century and was brought by English immigrants. The first league champions took place in 1894. Critics admit that the USA hasten change in European football culture, which itself is hurtling towards continent-wide super leagues controlled by international media. It creates a male dominated post-youth culture, the tradition of exploring the links between law and popular culture which has been done so well in the arena of cricket (Garland and Rowe 335).

For a long time, soccer was a game the Italians of the old and new world played with passion and skill. It is doubtful that the first wave of immigrants played the game with much regularity. But later immigrants brought with them the knowledge and love for the sport which was very popular in Italy at the turn of the century. During the 1920s, many Italian soccer clubs had been established in the Italian neighborhoods of many eastern cities. In 1929 the Italian Soccer Club was organized in Chicago. This team, according to the organizers, was the first step in uniting the Italian soccer players into a club of their own. Previously, many Italian players had been playing for teams of other ethnic groups. St. Louis was also a hotbed of soccer in the 1920s, and Italians of the second generation were conspicuous by their participation (Soccer History and Information 2008; Shugart 4).

During the 1928-29 season, the first in which players from the Hill played together defending Calcaterra Undertakers colors, they won the city title. This was no small accomplishment. The Germans and the Irish had played soccer in St. Louis for many years and were proud of their records. Yet the Italians established superiority in the sport. According to historian Gary R. Mormino, by 1955 the Hill had spawned a half dozen professional baseball players—Joe Garagiola and Yogi Berra being the most famous—twice that number of professional soccer players, and several national soccer club championships (Levendis 86). In New York City, because of the large Italian immigrant population, soccer clubs had been active for a long time. Yet the most amazing event in early Italian soccer participation took place in 1909 when the Coal City Maroons Soccer Club, which had been active since the turn of the century in that downstate Michigan Italian mining community, challenged and tied the Olympic Soccer Champs from England who had won their title in 1908 (Glamser and Vincent 31).

In 1925 soccer teams were started in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg (the latter called the “Hammer and Sickle Club”), and smaller centers such as Oshawa, Renfrew, Kirkland Lake, Lethbridge, Sylvan Lake (the “Red Hope Club”), and Drumheller reported field days, team games, boxing clubs, swimming parties, picnics, and “tramps” or hikes. By 1926 WSAs were established in 17 centers. The Toronto WSA operated a seven-team softball league, with two teams of cigar makers, one of jewelers, one from the Earlscourt Labour Party, and three WSA teams. The Montreal WSA fielded senior and junior soccer and basketball leagues and attracted a large following. “You didn’t have to be a communist to go to Fletcher’s Field on a Saturday afternoon and cheer for the WSA,” one participant has remembered. During the 1930s the Toronto and Montreal WSA soccer teams played each other on an annual basis, and these games attracted crowds as large as 5,000. (Montreal usually won.) Games were followed by speeches, songs, a collection, and an invitation to the WSA dance in the evening (Belka 3; Soccer History and Information 2008).

The WSAs encouraged a diversity of activity, but the staple was the mass drills, acrobatics, and stunts of gymnastics. The great majority of WSA members were eastern European immigrants for whom these were familiar, if not favorite, activities. Gymnastics could be practiced almost anywhere, in back‐ yards, community halls, and parks (Briley 134). Routines could be set to music and combined with choral and theatrical performances in movement “concerts” of great appeal (Glamser and Vincent 31). In Toronto, a Jewish Workers’ Sports Club held competitions in the “Olympic” events, but elsewhere gymnastics were pursued for mass exercise and display (Majer-O’Sickey 82). Usually an entire group would participate in sequences of carefully coordinated field or floor exercises, while smaller groups and individuals would perfect statue posing, and apparatus, tumbling, and acrobatic stunts: hand and head balancing; teeter, trapeze, and trampoline twists and spins; and sometimes juggling. The most frequently performed routine was the multiperson pyramid, which the YCL encouraged because it was believed to depict the importance of working class solidarity during the class struggle (Lopes 239).

This regulation of the soccer field has occurred alongside apparently contradictory and confusing processes of ‘privatisation and deregulation of hitherto public areas of concern and provision’, as critical legal theorists have sharply observed. Disciplinary fields within formerly ‘black letter law’ parts of the law school curriculum—looking at the legal instances of these processes—have also emerged, such as sports law, media law and entertainment law, with their specialist practitioners, associations and journals, as professional lawyers have colonised ever more areas of social life and the American culture of ‘litigiousness’ has spread to Europe (Merkel 69).

In the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, British soccer was probably best known globally for the phenomenon of soccer violence associated with a proportion of its spectators. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the mass media gradually created a consensus about the ‘disappearance’ of soccer-related violence which was based on stereotypical reporting almost as grotesque as the moral panics which had proclaimed, and sustained, the ‘golden ages (Briley 134; Pleban and Wiersma 23). Critics admit that today

“World soccer is based upon the English model in which leagues are open. Depending upon a team’s performance, it is possible to move up and down within league hierarchies. This more competitive model owes its origins to the conflict between amateurism and professionalism within English soccer. This division was papered over with a unified governing body” (Briley 134).

The noticeable shift since the watershed month of May in 1985—when Birmingham, Brussels and even Bradford, in initial media accounts, became tragically entwined as instances of the so-called ‘English Disease’, later to be parodied on LP by Adrian Sherwood’s Barmy Army—is not the mass media exposure of soccer as a sport with specific social problems such as hooligan violence, but rather the marked redrawing of the boundaries of the largely ‘private’, heavily gendered world of professional soccer as an industry (Pollard 169).

Economic, political and, specifically, legal regulation are involved in this redefinition of the domain of the ‘social’, as most aspects of the soccer business find themselves being reshaped for the brave new era that beckoned in the single European (sports labor) market (Brown 134). In England, since 1985 alone, five important pieces of what might be called ‘football legislation’ have been enacted. The narratives embedded in the texts of the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act 1985, Public Order Act 1986, Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987, Football (Offences) Act 1991 and, eventually after much controversy, the Football Spectators Act 1989, taken together with the two investigations undertaken by Mr Justice Popplewell (interim and final) and the two reports by Lord Justice Taylor on the Hillsborough disaster (interim and final), amount to a vast body of official ‘stories’ about the control of soccer as a global business in the late twentieth century (Soccer History and Information 2008).

Further, the rhetorics of this official discourse, in the English scenario are, significantly, marked by a designation of soccer culture as equivalent to ‘disorder’ or ‘violence’ (Brown 134; Quinn and Carr 13). The articles written around the subsequent World Cup Finals which reflect this apparently incremental process of ‘mediatisation’ are largely in the academic field of mass communications, media or cultural studies (Glamser and Vincent 31; Shugart 4). After the 1974 finals in West Germany, a pamphlet called ‘Football on Television’ was produced by Edward Buscombe which comprised a study of television coverage of the 1974 World Cup, eventually won by the hosts in the final against the ‘total football’ of Holland (Buraimo 204; Terrell 14; Soccer History and Information 2008). Following Briley “the competitive nature of world soccer contributes to financial problems for many soccer clubs and leagues, while Major League Baseball’s current economic health is sound” (134).

Soccer traditions in Brasil, Portugal and Argentina

In this section we will outline basic trends of soccer development in such important soccer countries as Brazil, Portugal and Argentina. It will help us to defend the initial thesis of the paper.

Soccer in Brazil

There is no denying the importance of the fact that soccer is very popular in Brazil though this country was not founder of this game. First of all, one of the main preconditions of these developments is not the policy of Brazilian national federation of football but the number of people which engage in the football culture in this country. Football is played everywhere and especially in poor suburbs of Brazilian cities where it become the substitute for other cultural activities.

Brazilian national team encourages many young people to tie their life with football as they see themselves as the heirs of such football stars as Pele, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Romario and others. Brazilian National Team is the most prominent in the world since it won FIFA World Cup in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002 years which is the greatest achievements among all national teams in the world (Lopes, 2000, p. 245).

Brazil is often referred by foreigners as football country. It is notable that more than 10,000 people play football professionally in Brazil and in other countries.

Besides this, it should be noted that football in Brazil has significant impact on the development of overall Brazilian cultural traditions. Even politicians often try to use World Cups as the source of bringing nations together for support of special candidate who is described as a great football supporter and fan. Many former footballers are often elected at the most prominent and influential state and legislative positions in Brazil.

Another phenomenon peculiar to Brazilian football is its national championship which due to country’s size and the lack of good communication between provinces is often neglected and is replaced by different Cups and tournaments. Considering this fact, it is strange how Brazil managed to create such strong national teams during the history of its soccer.

Due to abovementioned conditions and peculiarities Brazil can be described as football nation par excellence.

Football in Portugal

As of 19^th century the football in Portugal became popular after Portuguese students came back home from England and played it. The exhibition of the new game was organized by Pinto Basto in 1888 and he also was the organizer of the first football match in Portugal. This match feature two rivals – Portugal and England and the former won the latter. In this way Portuguese football tradition was founded.

After that the process of football development in Portugal became rapid and was implemented in schools, colleges. New football clubs were created such as Clube Lisbonense, Braco de Prate and many others. The first Portuguese club which played abroad was the Clube Internacional de Futebol which defeated Madrid’s team in 1907 and become famous in Europe.

The dominant domestic tournament is Portuguese League where few teams such as SL Benfica, Porto and Sporting are predominant. These teams are not very successful in European tournaments such as Champions League but more successful in their participation in UEFA cup. The oldest professional team in Portugal which is not very successful now is Boavista which was created in 1903.

There is no denying the importance of the fact that Portuguese national team has recently became one of the most influential in Europe and global football arena. Now Portugal provides the world with the best football players such as Ronaldinho, Rui Costa etc. Portuguese national team was the 7^th football country in the world among 205 ranked FIFA countries.

Besides this, it should be noted that Portugal hosted such important tournament as EURO 2004 and were defeated by Greece in the final. Portugal managed to reach ½ stage in World Cups – first in 1966 when Eusebio played and recently (The Birmingham Post, 2004).

Why the soccer is not popular in the United States?

The issue of the reasons why soccer was not destined to become a dominant or even minimally popular sport in the United States is very complex and controversial.

To understand it we should analyze multifaceted and interdisciplinary problematic of culture, history, traditions, mindset and the way of life.

First of all, it should be mentioned that soccer was among the first sports that were tried in the United States after it gained its independence. But the history of soccer in the United States began only after its institutalization which in its turn is tied with foundation of the first soccer club in 1862 called Oneida Football Club located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is difficult to find out what rules were used by this club as the first standard rules were formulated by English Football Association. It is claimed that Oneida formulated the rules which later were described as Boston Game in which not only kicking the ball was allowed by feet but also carrying it with hands which is now strongly prohibited in the modern soccer.

The first football match that was played in the United States was between Princeton and Rutgers Universities in 1869 (Gardner, 1996). The number of players was 25 persons on both sides which made the game ‘messy’ and alike rugby. All these soccer undertakings in the United States as the history shows would be transformed in what later would be called American football.

Early developed leagues in the United States carried the name ‘football’, for instance: the American Football Association, American Amateur Football Association etc. However, the world soccer soon became the most widespread description of football competitions. In 1945 both mentioned Football Associations merged and created American Soccer Association which became the centre of soccer development in the United States (Pollard, 2006). In 1967 two new soccer leagues were created such as United Soccer Association and National Professional Soccer League. Later they merged and formed North American Soccer League. As we see, the development of soccer in the United States followed several stages and was not always successful as quick deconstruction of big soccer leagues proves. In these conditions indoor soccer as one of the possible variation of ordinary soccer became dominant in 80s and 90s as it was more convenient for organizers and attracted more public unlike big soccer events.

Therefore, as we see, among the major factors that greatly contributed to not very high popularity of soccer in the United States is American desire to show the own independence from British tradition as they were reflected in game patterns. However, baseball is also popular in Britain it was never regarded as adult sport but was considered to be the prevalent domain of children. Hence, it should be said that American own national spirit and tradition helped develop their own national sports which have much fans and supporters all over the world.

There is no denying the importance of the fact that American desire not to be like British in their sport life had negative consequences for the development of such wonderful and interesting game as soccer surely is in the United States. However, it would be shortsightedly to ascribe all negative reaction to soccer in the United States and the lack of its popularity just to historical controversies with Britain. As it was noted above, the situation is much more complex and controversial.

It should be mentioned that sometimes there existed and even exist now anti-soccer campaigns which are designed and realized to promote negative attitudes towards soccer in youth and to orient them into choosing such traditional for the United States kind of sports such as baseball, American football, basketball etc.

Today, even many anti football sites in the Internet exists which use new technologies to promote negative description of soccer as a game. It is often referred to in gender terms as a ‘game of girl’ – in this way, boy are forced to change their ambitions with other sports not to be mocked out by their classmates and friends. By these means, the campaign against the development of soccer in the United States was so effective by far. However, it should be noted that these negative campaigns can divert people who love to play soccer from their desire and serve as effective tool for preventive anti football actions.

Moreover, if such trend exists, it shows that soccer is regarded by other sports representatives as a potential rival. Besides gender descriptions of soccer, soccer’s haters often claimed that it is communist sport and hence should be neglected and afraid of. The situation was mildly changed after 1994 when the United States first held Soccer World Cup and it proved to be successful for Brazil which won Italy on penalties. During this tournaments new stars of American national team appeared, new journalists attained skills and the new level of soccer popularity and translation in the United States was achieved. However, soccer did not become as popular as hockey, baseball and basketball it attracted new fans and sponsors.

Another important feature of American football should be mentioned to achieve better understanding of the issue. Many Americans play football on a regular basis with their friends and colleagues. But not so many American are regular spectators and fans. It can be explained by the fact that American football teams are not so professional and strong as European ones. Moreover, during its history, American football did not manage to produce the players of world significance such as did England, Brazil and other important football countries. As far as American inability to create good players, it should be explained not by organizational lack of capacities such as football schools and youth clubs but which is more reasonable by the one-dimensional nature of American sports which create players with one specialized skills and functions which is in its turn is inappropriate in soccer where operative and effective players with high creativity and improvisation play (Lopes, 2000).

Whereas American sport culture for the long period of time was dominated by various steroids which were used in various sports, in football they were rarely used by players since they would not give them additional advantages. The best players in soccer were always those players which combined great skills and techniques with good intellectual and psychological capacities.

One of the reasons concerning low popularity of soccer in the United States refers to the fact that Americans historically were more interested and excited by high scoring games such as basketball for example.

Some analytics tie low popularity of soccer in the United States with corruption scandals and a lot of inconsistency that characterized football in early leagues and diverted the interest of fans. Beside this, it should be noted that the soccer’s time format without time-outs and other small brakes was inconvenient for American media industry which is the world’s advertising giant and had not have much desire to loose its profits because of soccer format. Soccer could not become profitable in the United States – hence, it was not welcomed. But, recently the United States came to understand that without joining football trend in the global sport, they will become significantly alienated and hence much of efforts were made to redress the situation. Sporting community does not welcome soccer much since drawn results are very often in this sport.

Among other reasons for soccer being not very popular in the United States is that many sportsmen and fans think that it lacks physical strength and appearance which are regarded as the primary exciting elements in sports for Americans.

One of other famous explanations concern the fact that neither French nor other nationalities that immigrated to the United States and formed its culture did not play football as a dominant game and were unable to construct soccer tradition in the United States.

And finally, among the basic reasons one should mention the fact that American state does not pay much attention to the development of football and did not create any significant program for its development (Levendis, 2006).

After we analyzed the basic reasons for soccer’s unpopular status in the United States the time has come to outline key transformations that occurred recently.

The beginning of 90s saw a great transformation of soccer in the United State as Major League Soccer (MLS) was created. It is the youngest of all existent soccer leagues in the United States and the most popular among them. There are only 13 teams in this league as of 2007 but it ranks 12^th place among the most attended premier leagues all over the world.

In 2006 the record of MLS attendance was bitten when more than 90,000 spectators visited Los Angeles Coliseum. With arrival of many international superstars to MLS in 2007 such as David Beckham, the levels of attendance significantly grew for certain MLS teams and the stadiums. TV channels started paying more attention to football than in the past. Besides this, Mexican and American national teams played recently and broke several important regional records on attendance and translation audience. It should be noted that until recently soccer was a regional phenomenon in the United States and was popular mainly among immigrant communities which remember it. But now it gradually becomes popular all over the country due to various youth programs, new success of women’s and men’s national teams.

Conclusions

It is time to return to our initial thesis. As we proceeded through the analysis it became more and more evident that the development of football was not even and easy process and was influenced by various national and cultural traditions. If England historically offered the best conditions for the development of football – it created the game and organized the first tournaments and clubs, such countries as the United States which were successful in other games neglected soccer for much time and even created negative attitudes to it as not so physical and feminine. But as the history showed soccer was enough strong to overcome commercial and other prejudices that were dominant in the American sports culture. In other countries such as Portugal and Brazil soccer found fruitful soil for its massive development transforming these nations in the basic providers of the best players, national teams and soccer traditions.

Besides this, as our analysis has shown the development of football at the global scale was characterized by organization of world football organizations such as FIFA and UEFA which promote football in various countries and sponsored world and continental championships. This was a very important factor of creating favorable conditions for football as universal sport and the wide-spread cultural language of different nations.

As we think, the priorities of soccer’s development are immense as it continues to attract new fans, players and spectators. There is no denying the importance of the fact that the industry which organizes soccer became so influential that it is now impossible to stop its commercialization and future development.

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On the 20-th of May took place a very significant event in the world of European soccer which defined the real contender to get one of few main prizes in this part of the world. It is the final UEFA Cup match between German team Werder, Bremen and Ukrainian Shakhtar, Donetsk. The match which impressed by its tension and beauty of separate multiple moments to have great impacts on the match outcome afterwards cannot put aside any of the fans.

Looking back the result of the match should be recalled: 2:1 in Shakhtar’s favor. The game was full of striking episodes in ball possession which was mainly on the ground. Shakhtar made many of long and at times effective diagonal handoffs. The players demonstrated a great play in terms of technique and urge to win. The arrangement of players was designed so that to play in the first line mainly with Luiz Adriano as the forward, Jadson as the midfielder, Ilsinho being the right half-back and Willian to possess the left wing oh half-back line.

On the whole with the rest of Shakhtar players the game spread out on the whole area of the field and change for rather long periods of time the halves of the field provoking alternate attacks and counterattacks. The main feature of the manner to play about this club is that the players succeed usually by having an effective handoff near penalty zone and passing ball on the central players directly within it. Such attempts were not read by players of Werder in time that is why the first goal was due to Shakhtar and Luiz Adriano in particular. One full-fledged opportunity to score a goal was missed by players of Shakhtar when Fernandinho ventured to kick the ball through the wall of German backs.

It was very exiting and at the moment bore in mind the idea that the team had a great tactics realized throughout the whole period of game. Dmytro Chygrynskiy and Kucher defended the net by a fantastic and reasonable ball possession near own penalty zone. Their game was led in law drive mainly and resulted in better defendence strategy which was showed opposing to Werder’s play. Backs were always deep in their own half of the field and predominantly did not leave their positions. The team was demonstrating all time long the aggressive plays despite the physical predominance of Werder, Brazilian main players of Shakhtar are short.

Darjio Srna who is the captain of the team and was previously acknowledged as one of the best right-hand backs in Europe made the most of handoffs one of which in the 97th minute of additional time resulted Jadson’s 15-yard shot into the net of Werder.

All in all the team held down the leadership because of strong defence and active attacking reactions. The strongest part of play was observed in the midfield zone due to the frivolous dummies and responsible play within the team respecting the importance of all players’ involvement underway to victory. The weakest moments were connected with the absence of strive at the last thirty minutes of game. It was, of course, because of lack of energies. Nevertheless, the team shifted all possible expectations having gained the first UEFA Cup among the Ukrainian teams.

It is undeniable that soccer is a popular game. It is not easy to think of a place in the world where you cannot find soccer fans. It goes by the name football in places where it is extensively played whereas in the United States where it is not so popular it is identified as soccer. The jubilation and merry that is evident during the topmost soccer challenge in the world commonly referred to as FIFA world cup is testimony to the immense love that fans have for this game as well as the huge number of fans that this game has. The first FIFA world cup was played in 1930 (Freddi, 2006).Since then; many similar events have taken place. The world cup is a moment for the best in the game to show the world all that they know. Besides the FIFA world cup, there are regional and national country tournaments for soccer competitions. The ones that are well known are the European and Latin American clubs. The reason for this is not that they are the best. It is because the governments of these countries are willing to support this clubs.

The religious following that star soccer players have is enviable. Most of them are known more than our famous Hollywood stars and national politicians. For example it is very possible to come across a young man from Zimbabwe correctly identifying Ronaldinho or Thierry Henry as members of the Barcelona football club,( Derbyshire,2006) but hard for this same young man to name the president of neighboring Uganda. When a country has outstanding soccer players, the citizens normally unite behind their team and make it a necessity to appear in all the competitions that it takes part in so as to give it support. A number of people take this a sign of the uniting force that soccer is and go ahead to claim that soccer has the potential to foster national identity among people in a certain nation. In this research paper, I will provide research findings or evidence to support the claim or thesis that soccer does not foster national identity more than any other game.

What happens when the time for the world cup is past and the wait is long to the next? Soccer fans look left right and center and identify clubs that they think are in possession of the soccer qualities that they strongly identify with and then begin supporting them. Does this happen only within the confines of a certain country? The answer to this question is no. For instance, it is no surprise that Arsenal, one of the top clubs in the English Premier League has a huge following outside of the UK, (Spurling, 2004), and especially in the African continent. There have been cases of fans beating up their colleagues for supporting rival clubs such as Manchester United (Tyrell & Meek 1996); which is also a top club in the English Premier League (Murphy, 2006). Where does national identity feature in this scenario? It does not appear anywhere. People follow the game just for the love of it. These fellows are not even within the European Union block of countries so as to claim that they are part of the European identity, and therefore they are supporting these clubs as a sign of national or even regional identity. They are Africans who have chosen to ignore their own underperforming football or soccer clubs so as to watch the game that is played in the way they think is appropriate.

The above point gives us the view that when the nationals of a particular country come together and watch their national team playing, it is not necessarily a function of national identity. They rarely even care about their national identity when they watch the game. The feelings that come with losing do not last long and shift of support to the rival team that displayed a better game normally happens very fast. This is therefore a solid ground to lay the argument that these fans may be doing this just for the love of the game. It is not meant to show that they strongly or loosely identify with their country. Remember as noted above, nationals of distant countries spend several hours in their living rooms with their eyes fixed on their flat screens as they watch young men and women of far away countries kick the ball. These people who are watching the game are not displaying national identity with the players they do not even know and may never meet. They are just enjoying the game.

Other than the love of the game that draws supporters even from other countries, the celebrity culture that has engulfed modern society has not spared soccer. It used to be too much identification with movie stars and musicians but this is not the case anymore. It is not uncommon to come across young men bearing the Thierry Henry hair cut or the Wayne Rooney walking style. This is a unique type of identity that borders on hero worship, but is more about appreciating the talent demonstrated by the person being imitated and silently wishing that he or she had it too. This is more about personality issues and not national identity. It is therefore possible to find millions of young men watching the local team playing soccer and mistaken their presence for a strong feeling of national identity when in the real sense, the local team has one particular individual who is highly appreciated by these youngsters. This appreciation makes them to show up at games where he is playing as a demonstration of their connection to him or her. We often hear people on our television sets openly claiming that they wanted to watch a particular game simply because a certain player was part of the team that was to take part in the competitions. Therefore, it is not correct to state that soccer has a strong connection with national identity.

Besides personality issues, most of the games played in the current world of soccer are sources of revenue. The clubs are owned by specific individuals who have hired competent managers, coaches, and other business people who understand that the whole venture is supposed to be focused on profitability. This means that any game played has to be advertised accordingly as a way of ensuring that a sufficient number of fans show up and pay entrance fee in order to gain access into the stadia and watch the game. These massive campaigns always lead to huge crowd turn outs regardless of the pace where the game is played. A soccer club from Spain can play against a team from England in France and still get huge numbers of fans coming to watch the game and supporting either of the teams. Is there any trace of national identity in this? There is no national identity in this kind of undertaking. The intense campaigns that are carried out by the business minded owners of the teams or clubs always leads to huge turn outs. These huge turn outs of fans can be mistaken for national identity promoted by soccer when it is a home team that is supported by huge numbers of fans. The possible reason for this is the intense media campaign that is carried out as a way of getting as many people as possible to buy tickets and generate profits for the owners of the clubs.

Far from media campaigns that send the fan numbers high, there is a serious question that we need to ask ourselves when we get to the allegation that football or soccer promotes national identity. How come some countries have a long history of standard football, and yet they lack a strong sense of national identity? Nigeria in African is a typical example (Segun, 2009). This country has always had strong soccer. It has won the African cup of nations a number of times and it is always part of the teams that represent Africa in the world cup. Ironically, it is one of the countries with people who are never ready to have a strong attachment to their country. Contrastingly, some countries that have fared badly in soccer have citizens who have a strong sense of attachment and belonging to their countries. They cannot meet you and let you go without disclosing to you that they are from such and such a country. An example of this is the United States of America. Americans will always want to let you know that they are from the United States of America; even when you are too tired to listen. The same applies to Kenyans; who cannot miss a chance to name their country. Both the United States and Kenya have poor history in soccer and their teams do not do very well in leagues, tournaments, and other soccer competitions. What does this mean? This means that there is something else that is responsible for a strong national identity among the people of a particular country and this aspect is not football.

The other possible reason as to why fans fill soccer stadia to watch soccer is the rise of the culture of luxury. It is not a popular trend to find young people planning to attend certain functions during their free time as a way of making use of this uncommitted or unoccupied time. These people decide to spend this time watching a soccer game between the local team and the rusty group o f players from the other side of town. Such a decision is not made based on a strong sense of identification with the country. It is a decision that is made with personal concerns in mind and selfish and individual planning that has little or nothing to do with the nation or country. The numbers of people who wake up from their houses to go and support a team because it is from their country and they therefore feel obliged to be there is small. Life is busy and people are more focused on dealing with private issues.

Still on fans, what is the common thing that we can observe among soccer fans? Soccer fans are able to connect easily even when they are not from the same country. The same kind of friendly disposition I will have towards a fellow American or a fellow Briton who is watching soccer with me is the same type of disposition I will have with a Mexican or South African watching soccer with me. This tells us that the closeness that we see in our national stadia during local tournaments is not an express indication of a strong sense of national identity that emanates from soccer. The fact is the same connection that we witness at the local level is also replicated at the international level.

Leaving the fan area a side, the men and women who pay soccer also have their space in this research. Are they affected in any way by the whole question of soccer and national identity? The observations made on the ground point in the opposite direction. What is the characteristic of a patriotic soccer player who has a strong sense of national identity? This kind of player stays in his or her country and struggles to sharpen his or her skill from there. Then he or she plays for the national team in any competition and participates in the training of more soccer talent. Is this what we see in the world of soccer today?

The answer to the above question is no. Most of the talented soccer payers have shown that they lack national identity just like most ordinary people. As soon as they realize that they can kick the ball in a nice way, they begin looking out for rich clubs that can pay them huge sums of money. This is especially true for African players who their fear of challenging economic conditions is more than their love for their countries. These men, who mostly play for European clubs can miss regional tournaments involving their countries so as to play a friendly match involving their European clubs. All they want is to ensure that their pay for the day is recorded. If national identity is a function of soccer, then we would be seeing a different case. These people would be putting their nationalities first and playing for their countries first before following the money. For clarification, this type of behavior is not restricted to soccer. It is commonplace in western countries in games such as golf, tennis, basketball, and baseball whereby the players are not out to do because of the country. They are doing it because of themselves. They want personal glory and individual wealth. Tiger Woods keenly makes the magic shots with his millions of dollars in mind. Serena Williams does her thing too; not for the United States but for Serena Williams. Kobe Bryant makes the wonder three pointers for the paycheck and not for the United Sates. The country comes in as a side consideration.

Also, the famous soccer leagues and clubs are not famous for playing for their countries. They are known for playing for their clubs; which as it is identified elsewhere in this research paper, it is a money making venture. The players who play for Chelsea football club may be nationals of the United Kingdom, but they are not known for playing for the United Kingdom. Their jerseys do not bear the names of their countries at all. All that is visible on their jerseys are their names, their field numbers or positions and the names of the clubs they are playing for. For example Ronaldinho’s jersey will have his name, his number and the name Barcelona FC, which is the club that he plays for. When he walks through the streets of Brazil, his native country wearing his soccer jersey, he will not be identifying with his country. He will be identifying with his club which is based in a far away country. He will also be teaching young kids who look up to him as a role model to identify not with the country but with the club that e plays for. In this way, soccer ends up diminishing national identity instead of enhancing it.

A contrasting view to the evidence provided above is that soccer has the ability to foster a sense of strong national identity among people of a certain country. Like music or a certain type of food that the people of a certain nation identify with, soccer may be the only area that brings people together in some countries. In such a case, you will find that any time the national team is playing, the people are out in large numbers cheering and cherishing the whole moment. They feel a strong sense of belonging and proudly identify with their nationality. Such countries are characterized by the huge presence of people wearing garments that have members of their national soccer team or a popular national or regional stadium.

Also, some players who play for clubs that are outside their countries have the tendency of going home to their countries to participate in important tournaments. This is a display of national identity by these soccer players. They are driven by the talent that they have to go and give something to their country. Their identification with it is solid till they can put aside all other commitments so as to represent it in tournaments. There is evidence of a number of African players who play for European clubs going to their home countries to represent them during major games such as the African Cup of Nations as well as the World Cup.

It is also been said that sports of whatever kind creates connection among fans and players. Soccer is particularly famous for bringing huge groups of fans together. This kind of gathering can assist in creating national cohesion and promote a common identity among people of the same nationality. If it can work for people who do not share countries of origin, then it can work even better for people who come from the same country.

In conclusion, it is clear from the above that contrary to popular opinion, soccer, the popular game that is also known as football does not necessarily promote a sense of national identity in a way that other sports cannot do. The evidence for this include the enormous support that is given by fans to teams that are not from their home countries and the celebrity culture that has made young men and women work so hard to identify with players, a phenomenon that induces them to attend matches that have their favorite soccer player in the lineup. All they want to do is to watch their adored player kick the ball (Witzig, 2006). It is more of a personality issue. Also, soccer is a business venture. Enormous amounts of resources are spent in media campaigns in a bid to attract fans to flock the stadia and raise money for the clubs though ticket fee. The huge attendances that result from these vigorous media campaigns can easily mislead us into believing that the people like identifying with soccer when in the real sense, they have come to satisfy their curiosity due to the pestering advertisements.

The other piece of evidence given is that some countries have long histories of good soccer but yet they have poor records of national identity. This contrasts with other countries that are not known for soccer prowess, but still have a high sense of national identity. This effectively beats the argument that soccer promotes national identity. Then there is the culture of luxury that makes people to make arrangements to go and watch a soccer game, not because they sense a strong attachment to the nation because of soccer but because they need to spend their luxury time doing something that is either entertaining or taking less mental energy. These people fill the stadia making us think that they have been driven by a strong national identity when in the real sense they are passing time. The indiscriminate connection that takes place even between people soccer fans of different nationalities also warn us against thinking that seeing our fans together cheering our team signifies national identity. It is natural for soccer fans maybe. The capstone in this line of evidence is that players market the clubs they play for more than their countries and this is not national identity.

There is however the fact that some players always feel a sense of necessity to always play for their countries during major tournaments. This is a way of identifying with their nation. Also the rapid connection that takes place between fans of different nationalities can work even better for people of the same nation, thus enhancing national identity. But this counter-evidence is still weak. Therefore the thesis that football or soccer does not necessarily support national identity stands.

References

Derbyshire, O. (2006). Thierry Henry.London: John Blake Publishing Ltd.

Freddi, C. (2006). Complete Book of the World Cup 2006. London: HarperCollins.

Murphy, A. (2006). The Official Illustrated History of Manchester United. London: Orion Books.

Segun, I., S. (2009).Rebranding Nigeria For New National Identity. Web.

Spurling, J. (2004). Rebels for the Cause: The Alternative History of Arsenal Football Club. London: Mainstream.

Tyrrell, T &; Meek, D. (1996). The Hamlyn Illustrated History of Manchester United 1878–1996. 5th ed. London: Hamlyn.

Witzig, R. (2006).The Global Art of Soccer. London: CusiBoy Publishing.

The first article that I chose for this assignment focused on diving in the sport of soccer. This is a practice that involves animatedly falling down when slightly touched by an opponent. This allows for the garnering of penalties that otherwise would not be given if not for this theatrical performance. Therefore, it has been a highly controversial and frowned upon practice in soccer for many years. The article went on to describe and list the so-called “Kings” of diving. These individuals are well known for their less than appealing tactics.

The first on the list is a player called Arjen Robben, who is from the Netherlands. He made the top of the list because he is a seasoned veteran, and usually with time comes maturity and therefore a decrease of diving. However, he has not made any progress to avoid the practice.

“After the then-Chelsea winger went down clutching his neck when tapped by Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina in 2006, Rafael Benitez, the Liverpool manager at the time, famously uttered: ‘I am in a hurry because I must go to the hospital because the injury was so serious that maybe he will be there for one week’” (Ubha, 2012, p. 1). Other individuals that made the list were Pepe, a Portugal star, Ashley Young from Britain, Sergio Busquets from Spain, Mark van Bommel, another Netherlands heavy hitter, and the superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

There were a few interesting elements about the article as a whole. Firstly, is how this practice being so well documented yet survives amid its hatred by audiences and officials. Further, it is intriguing to realize that not only is it a commonplace practice, but it is utilized by some of the top players in the league. I suppose we should not be surprised, with similar tactics employed in the National Basketball Association. Personally, I disagree with soccer’s policy regarding diving. Just by writing about it in an article such as the one previously summarized, it makes it acceptable. This kind of tactic is petty, cheap, and unfair. It must be removed immediately.

The second article that I read was about Wayne Rooney, a famous player both for the England National Team and Manchester United. The article attempts to argue the point that the well-rounded and widely acclaimed player has a brilliant mind running his powerful and dominating physique. It goes on to examine the type of value that England puts on soccer talent.

“(Rooney) He is a far more complete player than, say, David Beckham. He shoots with power and precision. His close control is miraculous. His passing at times is stunningly perceptive. When the mood takes him, he can dribble and juggle like a Brazilian” (Winner, 2012, p. 1).

England as a nation has always been a society that revolves around class, therefore valuing rights that are born, not made over time. There is no difference in how they evaluate soccer talent either. Much of what Rooney has was born to him, although he does hard work on the side, it mostly comes from his sizeable and limitless talent pool.

The article eventually talks about Rooney’s relationship with the media and its convoluted nature. Rooney has had a past with colorful language and distinct opinions, which are obviously brought to light by the newspapers. Later, the article talks about the author’s one on one meeting with Rooney and his attempt to discover whether or not there is brilliance under the rough exterior. The writer proves that his hypothesis is correct, but Rooney does not possess the standard type of intelligence revolving around advanced intellectual prowess, but a strong grasp on soccer as a whole. Rooney is exceedingly intelligent, but it is mostly applicable to soccer.

This piece was very intriguing due to the fact when it comes to sports figures we do not often think of exemplary intelligence. We tend to respect individuals in sports by what they can do in their arenas, often praising their physical feats. It is interesting to see such a well-rounded individual in soccer, who has the brilliance and physicality to match. Moreover, this player has been known as a “bad boy” often being cited as cursing often and making sure that his opinion is known, usually with a lack of niceties. It is quite engaging to think about, due to the fact that there are many professional sports players that are entitled “thugs”, but are just that and lacking any type of intelligence. Now we have a player that exudes some of the characteristics of a thug but is highly learned and clever.

References

Ubha, R. (2012). The Kings of Diving. Web.

Winner, D. (2012). Beautiful Game. Beautiful Mind. Web.

This article is about the scandal during the soccer match between Brazil and Tunisia. A Brazilian attacker was thrown a banana by a fan while celebrating a goal, a type of inequality such as racism. Racially motivated bullying makes everyone who is affected despair; it is a personal insult to the individual, even though no one can choose the color of their skin beforehand. Such incidents interfere with cohesion in society and the state because there is a division between supporters and sympathizers. My knowledge from scholarly sources helped me understand that racism toward stars and athletes is quite common. However, much of society shows more cohesion in such situations, which is evidence that the problem of inequality is gradually being addressed. People and organizations sanction those at the center of the scandal, which, from a sociological point of view, is a natural process through which it is possible to influence racists.

Introduction

Soccer or football, as known outside the U.S., has a rich history, with modern football tracing its origins in Britain in the early 19th century. Since the medieval period, folk football has been hosted in villages and towns according to homegrown traditions and with minimum guidelines (Giulianotti, 2022). The advancement of urbanization and industrialization led to a reduced leisure period coupled with constant violence that undermined and slowed the game’s development. To deepen the understanding of this game, the paper details its narration, description, and process analysis.

Narration

I got fascinated by the 2010 World Cup tournament and that would be the turning point in my strong love of the game. The match between the United States and Algeria in 2010 was my best when Landon Donovan pounced on a loose ball in the 91st minute to score a winning goal (ESPN, 2020). The solo goal was enough to send America to the next round of competition.

Description

Football is played based on a set of rules, using one round ball and two competing teams of eleven participants each brawling to score the opponent. The team that outscores the rival is the winner, while scoring the same number of goals leads to a draw (The International Football Association Board, 2018). Other than the goalkeepers, players are not allowed to deliberately play the ball with their hands and they are permitted to use other body parts to move the ball.

Process Analysis

Playing football requires players, equipment, and officials to help actualize the game. The players are drawn from both sides of opponents to compete. The game is played for 90 minutes with a 15-minute break after the end of the first 45 minutes (The International Football Association Board, 2018). The major equipment includes a ball, shorts, shirt, footwear, socks, and tolerable thin guards. The players should wear attire that distinguishes them from competitors. The game is played on a rectangular pitch of a length of approximately 100 meters and a width of roughly 70 meters.

Conclusion

In conclusion, growing up in a family that loves football, it became obvious that I would quickly develop an affinity towards this magnificent game. As a toddler, I would accompany my parents to the stadium to watch the local team play against other opponents. Over the years, I have watched several games, but the 2010 World Cup game pitting the U.S. and Algeria was the best.

References

ESPN. (2020). Donovan’s world cup goal against Algeria: The oral history of the most famous moment in USMNT history. ESPN. Web.

Giulianotti, R. C. (2022). Football. Britannica. Web.

The International Football Association Board. (2018). Laws of the game 2018/19. Web.

Introduction

The competent use of statistical methods is a sound strategy for handling quantitative data. As a rule, it allows not only tracking measures of the central tendency of a data set but also to find hidden patterns. Thus, the statistical analysis aims at qualitative data processing and offers possibilities of its convenient visualization, simplifying the interpretation of difficult tables. The present project also used statistical analysis to process numerical data, and it was shown how the use of statistical tools makes working with data sets easier.

The research interest of this paper was the use of statistical analysis techniques on sports data. In particular, data on twenty soccer clubs were prepared in advance, with the number of matches played, wins, losses, and draws, as well as the number of goals, scored and conceded. In general, this is an available online information, which in itself is a very ambiguous description of a particular club. In the present project, however, it was decided to use statistical tools, including measures of central tendency and charts, with which it becomes possible to compare and contrast the data collected (Bhandari, 2022). This will answer one of the main questions of the entire research project, namely, to determine which soccer club(s) prove to be the most advantageous. The personal motivation in obtaining this answer stems from my desire to become a true professional soccer player, so this practice is a kind of analysis of opportunities and weaknesses among Premier League clubs.

Methodology

The methodological basis for this project was the use of statistical analysis aimed at solving the problem in which I was interested. In particular, there was previously collected data on twenty soccer clubs in the Premier League (Appendix A), which included the name of the team, the number of wins and losses and draws, the number of goals scored and conceded, as well as their difference. In addition, the number of points assigned to each club depending on the outcome of the game is used: two points are added if the team wins, one point for a draw, and zero points if the team loses (Furniss, 2021). Thus, the Points variable is an excellent historical criterion for ranking a team, as the team with the most points is most likely to win and thus is the strongest.

The data for each game was collected using Wikipedia, so it is secondary in nature. It should be emphasized that all data was current as of February 10, 2022, and values may have changed since then (Premier League, 2022). It is noticeable that all of the variables used are quantitative, so values of mean, standard deviation, maximum and minimum values were easily calculated for them. In addition, frequency histograms were constructed for these data, allowing us to visually identify general trends and create judgments based solely on the graphs.

Calculations and Graphs

Because all of the data used in this project were of the quantitative type, it was relatively easy to calculate the values of the central tendency measures for them. Specifically, formula (1) was used to calculate the mean and formula (2) to estimate the standard deviation. In fact, all calculations were not done manually but using the built-in MS Excel functionality, but it was important to understand the processes behind specific program functions in order to comprehend critically.

Table 1. Summary statistics of the central trend measure for all clubs

Analysis of Data

One of the first results of the calculations performed is summary Table 1, which shows measures of central tendency for each of the variables. In isolation from soccer clubs, this data is not highly informative, but some conclusions can be drawn from it. First, some of the largest scatter was for the number of stakes scored: the SD value for this variable was 11.9. From this, it can be concluded that the data distribution of this variable is highly unequal, as some of the values deviate significantly from the mean of 30.3 (Zach, 2021). Second, it can be reported initially that the mean number of wins and losses among all soccer clubs was equal, with the data being more closely packed for losses (SD = 2.8), meaning that the distribution is no longer scattered; however, any comparison of averages requires the use of parametric tests. Finally, we can see that there is a negative number in the Table, in the GD section. This variable corresponds to the difference between goals scored and goals conceded, and the presence of a negative number (-32) indicates that a particular team is poorly prepared, as it was 32 times more likely to give itself a goal than to score a goal itself.

The second step in the statistical analysis was to construct charts and histograms that would create judgments for the current data set. Referring to Figure 1 shows the distribution of wins among the top four teams in the soccer premier league. It is excellent to see that Manchester City had the highest weighting (32%) of wins among all teams, while the weakest in the number of games won was Manchester United, having only 20% of the total number of wins. This data alone is tentatively enough to determine the best team.

However, a comprehensive analysis should be used to get more reliable results. Therefore, it was decided to create a histogram of the distribution of wins, draws, and losses, shown in Figure 2. From this figure, we can see that the number of wins is uneven but decreases rapidly to the right; the inverse trend, in general, is shown by the dynamics of the number of losses (Yi, 2022). Thus, Manchester City did have the highest number of wins and the lowest number of losses, while Watford, along with Norwich, had the highest number of losses.

At this point, it became interesting to see if there was a possible correlation between the two variables, namely the number of wins and losses. This pair is expected to show a strong inverse correlation (as can be predicted from Figure 2). Using the correlation estimation tools built into MS Excel, it was found that the Pearson correlation coefficient for the variables wins and losses was -0.7114 (Fernando, 2021). This value supports the hypothesis that there is a moderately high negative correlation between these variables, which means that increasing the number of wins generally decreases the number of losses.

Conclusion

To summarize, statistical tools can be used to handle quantitative data, and this year’s soccer premier league example demonstrated this. Measures of central tendency and graphs were created, making tabular data easier to work with and creating judgments. Thus, Manchester City was indeed the strongest club as of February 10, 2022, in both wins and losses. Consequently, we can assume that some of the strongest players are involved with this particular team.

Reference List

Bhandari, P. (2021) Standard deviation | a step by step guide with formulas. Web.

Bhandari, P. (2022) Central tendency | understanding the mean, median and mode. Web.

Fernando, J. (2021) Correlation coefficient. Web.

Furniss, M. (2021) Most points in a premier league season: the leaders. Web.

Premier League (2022) Web.

Thakur, M. (2019) Mean formula. Web.

Yi, M. (2022) A complete guide to histograms. Web.

Zach (2021) Why is standard deviation important? (explanation + examples). Web.

Appendix A

Data

Introduction

This assignment provides an analysis of the dimensions of various balls and the filed sizes for different sports. The study has been done for games such as Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Bowling, Golf, Volleyball and Pool.

List of Charts and Tables

List of Formulas Used

There are two sets of formulas used in the paper: calculation for the ball and calculation for the Playing Field. The formulas used are:

Summary of Results

My Favorite Sport

My favorite sport is soccer. I like the game because it is an action oriented game and requires good physical fitness. It also requires skill in playing, team playing, passing, shooting and other moves. I like the game because it is very popular and everyone I know likes soccer.

Geometry concepts that were necessary to complete the Web Quest

To complete the Web Quest assignment, concepts of area, size, volume, circumference of solids and 2 dimensional objects were needed.

The similarities and differences in the measurements between the different balls

Balls used for sports such as soccer, volleyball, basketball and bowling are of the similar size range. Balls used for soccer, volleyball and basketball are made of leather or rubber and do not cause any damage when struck by the legs, feet or head. Bowling ball is very hard and it can damage the human body if it is struck. Balls used for pool and golf are smaller in size and designed to be hit with a cue or a golf club. Baseball is also quite hard but can be caught with a mitt.

The similarities and differences in the measurements between the playing surfaces

Field for golf is the biggest and made of grass, sand and water and is the biggest and it has no fixed shape. Soccer field is made of grass or synthetic material and is the next biggest in size and is rectangular. Baseball field has a square shape and the outer field has a radius. Fields for soccer and volleyball are the next largest in size and made of wood and synthetic material and is rectangular in shape. Tables for pool are smaller and made of wood with a felt cover and it is rectangular. Bowling field is rectangular and the length is much longer than the width.

What do the area ratios found represent?

The ratios show that the ball size is very much smaller when compared to the field size. In case of the golf course, the ratio is very, very high and this is because the golf course is much bigger. The ratio for pool is smaller since the table is smaller.

References

Baseball, 2007, ‘Area of playing field’, Web.

Bowling, 2007, ‘Facilities and Dimensions’, Web.

Golf, 2007, ‘Stanford Golf Course’, Web.

Length Conversions, 2007, ‘Common Length and Distance Conversions’, Web.

Pool, 2007, ‘Murrey Pool Tables and Billiard Tables’, Web.

Soccer, 2007, ‘Soccer Rules’, Web.

Volleyball, 2007, ‘Size of Volleyball Court’, Web.

The topic of Castro’s (2010) thesis is “Assessment of First Aid Knowledge and Decision Making of Coaches of Youth Soccer.” The main objective of research is to evaluate the first aid knowledge of youth soccer coaches and their decision-making approaches in speculative athletic situations incorporating competition and injured players. The author seeks to find answers to the following research questions in the thesis:

1. Are the coaches having first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification likely to pass the First Aid Assessment more successfully than those without such certification?
2. Do professionals with over two years of experience in training demonstrate better results in the First Aid Assessment test than those that have worked for less than two years?
3. Does the tendency to return an injured player to the field depend on the number of years of coaching experience?
4. Is there an interdependence between CPR and first aid certification and the level of the coach’s education?
5. Do the First Aid Assessment scores differ depending on the trainer’s educational background?

The participants of the study were youth soccer coaches recruited from District-II of the California Youth Soccer Association (CYSA-N) (Castro, 2010). Data were collected via participation in a survey that was preceded by the explanation of the study and the obtaining of consent. Each coach taking part in the study was required to complete the First Aid Assessment test, the game situation data sheet, and the demographic information sheet. Out of the initial 149 respondents, 114 passed the First Aid Assessment test, 112 completed the Game Situation Data Sheet, and 109 filled out the demographic information sheet. Out of 109 participants remaining, twenty-four were female, and eighty-five were male. The mean coaching experience duration was 8.89 (SD = 7.02), the range being between one and thirty years. Thirty-one trainer reported being certified in first aid, and twenty-four were certified in CPR.

The study took place on the Internet with the use of respondents’ emails and www.surveymonkey.com website. The recruitment was performed via email, and the responses were collected on the website. Apart from the test and two sheets that coaches were asked to fill out, they received a cover letter and the consent form. Within a fortnight following the follow-up email, data were gathered and processed. No other surveys were admitted for the study after that point. The analysis of data was performed with the use of Microsoft® Excel® 2007 (Castro, 2010). For the interpretation of the First Aid Assessment test and the evaluation of demographic information, descriptive statistics were employed. To establish the interrelationship between the years of work and success in the First Aid Assessment test, a Pearson Product Correlation was used. To find out the likelihood of coaches’ returning an injured player based on their years of experience, a Chi-squared analysis was exploited. Finally, the ANOVA test was applied to discover whether having a higher education had a positive effect on passing the First Aid Assessment test.

The results of the study indicate that certification does not enhance one’s score in the First Aid Assessment test. Castro (2010) concludes that without practice, first aid skills are quickly forgotten, and the coach will not be able to apply them when needed. These findings are significant for my work since they emphasize the need for school teachers to be trained in first aid (Bashir & Bakarman, 2014; Behairy & Al-Batanony, 2016; Hammett, 2016). Research carried out by Castro (2010) proves that teachers’, as well as coaches’, knowledge of first aid is a crucial prerequisite of keeping schoolchildren’s health under control.

References

Bashir, S. M., & Bakarman, M. A. (2014). Are our children in safe hands? Evaluating the preparedness of primary school staff in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in responding to health related emergencies. Life Science Journal, 11(11), 986-989.

Behairy, S. A., & Al-Batanony, M. A. (2016). Effectiveness of first-aid and basic life support intervention program on school health advisors. Journal of Health, Medicine and Nursing, 24, 136-144.

Castro, L. (2010). Assessment of First Aid Knowledge and Decision Making of Coaches of Youth Soccer.

Hammett, E. (2016). Fulfilling the first aid requirements in schools. British Journal of School Nursing, 11(7), 328-330.

Parenting is not an easy task – there is no book that can teach one to be a good parent; every family has to learn on its mistakes. Despite the fact that many parenting strategies have been created, it is still important to realize that each case of parent-child relationships is unique and, therefore, requires a specific approach.

The issues raised in Chua’s article give a lot of food for thoughts. It is seemingly clear that Chinese children are much more motivated than the American ones. However, such motivation results in making the relationships between a parent and a child based on the authoritative leadership principle, which means that a child is considered to be inferior to the adult, and what the former wants may not come into conflict with what the parent or parents have planned for their kid.

On the one hand, the given issue is a result of a culture clash; the very fact that such a manner of child upbringing raises questions among American people is a clear-cut example of cultural differences, which Lareau (2002) was talking about, i.e., the “pattern of concerned cultivation” (Lareau, 2002, p. 766) that supposedly leads to enlightenment.

However, it seems that Crohn’s idea of positive stepmothering is more relatable to the topic, since the technique of Chinese mothers, in fact, proves positive and does not seem to have any tangible effects on their children’s future life and career, with their “warmth, control functions, attachment, perceived status” (Crohn, 2006, p. 130), which forms the connection between a child and a parent that Dreby spoke about and that helps a child feel the presence of his/her absent parent “even when physically absent” (Dreby, 2010, p. 52).

On the contrary, the latter is shaped rather positively with the help of the given type of parenting. Indeed, according to Chua, the effects of the strategy chosen by the Chinese parents are rather impressive: “The devastated Chinese mother would then get dozens, maybe hundreds of practice tests and work through them with her child for as long as it takes to get the grade up to an A” (Chua, 2011).

However, as other researches explain, in most cases, this method of raising ambitious and successful children comes at a price: “It’s parents who foist life on their kids” (Chua, 2011). The principle of childrearing described by Chua seems to be the exact same concept introduced into the childrearing process in wealthy families and must be leading to the same tension both within a child and in the relationships between a child and his or her parents.

In other words, the example of Tiger Mom provided by Chua proves once again that such issues as race, culture, class and immigrant status affect parenting and childrearing practice immensely. While the personality of a parent or parents is crucial in shaping the childrearing strategy, the standards of childrearing dictated by the culture of a particular race, as well as the principles and set of moral values introduced in a particular class or social status, affect the process of parenting greatly.

Having their personalities shaped by the aforementioned factors, parents mould their children’s personalities according to the socially and culturally accepted pattern.

With that being said, the article clearly makes a strong statement about the issues of present-day parenting, at the same time suggesting the ways in which these issues can be addressed. Moreover, it is rather peculiar that the method of child rearing mentioned in the article is not portrayed as wrong or unacceptable – instead, the author honestly mentions the positive and the negative aspects of each.

The cases considered above show, however, that the most reasonable parenting technique is remaining within the acceptable boundaries and avoiding extremes.

Reference List

Chua, A. (2011). Why Chinese mothers are superior. The Wall Street Journal. Web.

Crohn, H. (2006). Five types of positive stepmothering. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 46, 1/2, pp. 119–134.

Dreby, J. (2010). Ofelia and German Cruz: Migrant time versus child time. In J. Dreby (Ed.), Divided by borders: Mexican immigrants and their children (pp. 35–57). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Lareau, A. (2002). Invisible inequality: Social class and childrearing in Black families and white families. American Sociological Review, 67(5), 747–776.