Friday, February 27, 2015

The differrents internationals teams of FIFA and UEFA


Welcome back to my blog! Today I will be talking about the different international teams of FIFA. As you can see in my last post, soccer is very popular all over the world that they made different types of leagues, for example FIFA. In FIFA there are many international teams that participate and get chosen each four years for the event.
Here is a list of the teams that played in the 2014 FIFA WORLD CUP.

Costa Rica
Algeria
Cameroon
Ghana
Italy
Germany    
Ivory Coast
Nigeria
Honduras
Mexico
USA
Colombia
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Ecuador
Uruguay
Croatia
 Japan
Russia
Bosnia-Herzegovina
England
France
Greece
Netherlands
Iran
South Korea
Switzerland
Portugal
Spain
Belgium

  
Many teams have won a World Cup for example,  the top team with the most world cups, Brazil. Brazil have won 5 FIFA World Cups. Coming in second place is Italy and joining in is Germany with their win of 2014 both with 4 world cups. Third place goes to Argentina and Uruguay with the win of two cups. Finally, in last place is England,Spain and France with the count of 1 world cup.
It’s really hard to believe how so many teams are amazing at playing soccer. Incredible teamwork, balance, skills and strategies is not easy obtain. In addition, in my opinion, it's very fascinating how many poor countries like Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Portugal and many others, are wonderful and magnificent soccer teams. Some of them are the best of the best, like Brazil. They got thatl title in reason of their biggest amount of World cups compared to the others and their outstanding players like Pelé, Ronaldinho, Neymar,Zico, etc. You would have never guessed that even a poor country has something big to show and are giving people something really nice to think about when they hear the name, Brazil.

There are not only teams that represent their country, but there are also teams formed of famous soccer players from different international teams which are called clubs. These clubs are used in the UEFA Champions League. For example, Barcelona. Barcelona is formed of the most famous players in the world like Messi, Neymar, Suárez, Daniel Alves and many more. 


There is one player among the ones I just named that are is not really my favorite even though he is very popular. That is Suárez. I love everyone else, but Suárez is my least. Here is why. Luis Suárez is his full name and a good nickname for him would probably be mad dog. In the 2014 FIFA World Cup, he did an unbelievable, kind of funny and mean thing to Giorgio Chiellini, a member of the Italy team. Luis Suárez bit him. My thoughts are thats it's pretty funny but at the same time it was a harsh thing to do and very unprofessional. I mean come on, who on earth would do that while playing in an important event like the World Cup and he is a famous soccer player who millions of people look up too. He did not only bite Chiellini, he also bit Branisalv Ivanovic and Otman Bakkal throughout his career. Yes, he is definitely a mad dog.


On the bright side, soccer has made a lot of popular teams and has brought them together to work hard and communicate better which sets a great example for everyone in the world, maybe except for Suárez, but it’s a great way to entertain us!

Used Sources:

"World Cup 2014 Squads." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/10839226/World-Cup-2014-squads.html

"Google." Google. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=soccer+team+that+have+won+a+world+cup&spell=1

"Barcelona – UEFA.com." Uefa.com. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
http://www.uefa.com/teamsandplayers/teams/club=50080/domestic/

 "Top Ten Best Brazilian Soccer Players - TheTopTens.com." Top Ten Best Brazilian Soccer Players - TheTopTens.com. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
http://www.thetoptens.com/best-brazilian-soccer-players/

 Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
http://www.firstpost.com/sports/otman-bakkal-giorgio-chiellini-three-victims-vampire-suarez-1587823.html

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Why and how is soccer so popular?

To me soccer is my favorite sport of all time, so it is to several other people. Soccer is known and played all over the world. There are many reasons why soccer is popular. Firstly speaking, soccer is not a hard game to understand. The main point is to shoot the ball into the opposite's team's net. Also, it's a sport for girls and guys of all ages. In addition, it's a team sport which helps people communicate better, become more social and you can make friends on the way.



Kids in Haiti playing soccer barefeet.
One of the main reasons why soccer is so popular is that it doesn't really require any equipment or a special field. Many poor countries play barefoot on dirt or rock and use a homemade soccer ball. It’s not like other sports, for example skating, that require ice skates and hockey that requires high body protection. Some countries grew up playing soccer, like for example Brazil, India, Lebanon, Spain, Germany, Sweden, etc. Soccer is a world sport. It is the most popular in South America,
Europe, Africa and the Middle-East. 



Soccer has been around for a long time. It started around 255-206 BC in China. Soldiers during the Tsin Dynasty would kick a leather ball and shoot it into a net. As you can see, soccer has a big part in history which draws attention to a lot of people. To add, Soccer is named as football in many other countries. In Canada and America, we usually say soccer but the word soccer was actually invented by the British. There are sports that are called football also, for example rugby and the famous american football. This is why so many Americans and Canadians call football, soccer. I am a Lebanese - Canadian so when I talk in Arabic, I say football and when I talk English, I call it soccer. Football, of course, sounds more suitable for the game, since it's only played specifically with the feet but soccer sounds cool too and it's unique. 


Another reason to why soccer became popular and how it became more popular is the famous international federation football association, FIFA, also known as the FIFA World Cup. It is a soccer tournament between the national soccer teams of countries that have been picked based on their play. It is a really exciting sporting event that only comes each 4 years for one month. The FIFA World Cup is broadcasted in 204 countries and billions of people watch it. One of those billions of people is me. I always watch the World cup and never miss a match even if I had something super important to do. I just don't like how it takes forever to come back. Four years is a very long time to me. The World cup is so exciting. During one month all you see is thousands of people on the street wearing their jersey of their favourite soccer player or soccer team, kids and adults playing outside and flags everywhere. My favorite team is Germany and guess what! They won the 2014 FIFA World Cup this year. I was so happy! My cousins who were rooting for Argentina said that Germany wasn't going to win but they thought wrong. At the moment of declaration to the World Cup champions, my family and I went to the downtown of our city and started beeping our horns with our car while holding up Germany flags. There were so many other people doing the same. It was so much fun. Since the World Cup takes a long time to come back, there are other associations that bring popularity to soccer and to keep entertaining us; there is the Euro Cup, UEFA Champions League, there is even the Woman's FIFA World Cup, etc. All in all, soccer is an amazing sport and is loved and shared by many people all over the world.
Germany were the FIFA World Cup Champions in 2014



Used Sources:

Crocombe, Mike. "Who Invented Soccer? - The Origin of the Game." Web. 11 Apr. 2015.  

"HISTORY OF SOCCER." SoccerRefereeUSA. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.  

"A Football History: From Its Origin to Now." Soccer History Timeline. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.  


"Greatest Soccer Nations - Top Ten List - TheTopTens.com." Greatest Soccer Nations - Top Ten List - TheTopTens.com. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.

"MAP: The Most Popular Sport in Every Country (soccer Is Really Popular)." Vox. 3 July 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.  

"FIFA World Cup™." FIFA.com. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. 

"FIFA World Cup." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.

"Countries That Play Soccer Barefoot - Google Search." Countries That Play Soccer Barefoot - Google Search. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.  

"The Origin of the Word." Today I Found Out. 23 June 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/06/the-origin-of-the-word-soccer/