Soccer.Football (The Beautiful Game)

Newsletter March 2008.

Hello all.

Hope you are enjoying this soccer season, and your team is doing well.

In this issue:

Newcastle Jets win A League.
European Champions League Quarter Finals.
UEFA CUP Quarter Finals.
FA Cup Semi Finals.
Coaching The Coach.
MLS, new season.
Women's Football.

Newcastle Jets win A League.

Congratulations to the Newcastle Jets, who won a historic Australian A League Championship.

Watch the video of their victory here

http://www.newcastlejets.com.au/

European Champions League Quarter Finals.

In the European Champions League, history is made as four English teams qualify for the Quarter Finals, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United join Barcelona, Roma, Schalke 04 and Fenerbahce in the draw at midday GMT today.

UEFA CUP Quarter Finals.

The UEFA Cup Quarter final draw is also today, Rangers, Bayern Munich, Sporting, Fiorentina, Getafe, Bayer Leverkusen, PSV and Zenit St Petersburg await to see who they will play against.

FA Cup Semi Finals.

In the FA Cup in England, there were plenty of shocks in the Quarter Finals. For the first time in over a decade, none of the top 4 teams will be in the final.

Second tier Barnsley pulled of a shock victory against the Cup holders Chelsea, whilst Portsmouth knocked out the favourites and last years League Champions Manchester United.

The Semi Final Draw is as follows.

Barnsley v Cardiff
West Brom v Portsmouth

In the meantime, the FA are to review Cardiff's Uefa Cup case. As Cardiff are a Welsh team playing in Englands FA Cup, they are currently not allowed to take up a place in the UEFA Cup, should they go on to win it. The rules currently state that they should only qualify if they won the Welsh Cup.

The Football Association is to review the rule which prevents Cardiff qualifying for Europe were they to win the FA Cup.

Uefa president Michel Platini promised to intervene to help Cardiff and the FA is now reviewing its own rule.

"The FA is considering its position on European qualification for the winners of the FA Cup," said a spokesman for the UEFA President.

"Historically, the understanding of the FA has been that Welsh clubs were ineligible for the Uefa Cup should they have won the FA Cup.

Coaching The Coach.

Have any of you taken up coaching? Are you interested in being a soccer coach or are you a parent or youth leader involved with young players?
I would love to hear your stories on the forum.

I have reviewed a book this week called Coaching the Coach, A Complete Guide How to Coach Soccer Skills Through Drills
by Richard Seedhouse.

You can read the Book review here.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art55860.asp

I thoroughly reccomend this book as the first coaching book you buy, or the book you should keep at your side. It is unique from other coaching books in it's approach in Coaching the Coach, and developing an approach to the complete education of the trainer.

MLS, new season.

The new season 2008 of Major League Soccer is just a few weeks away. LA Galaxy are expected to make big improvements this year on their disappointing performance last season. If you are supporting MLS please get involved on the forums and let us know how your team is doing. The Superdraft is underway, has your team made big changes this year? Let us know.

Women's Football.

Congratulations to Everton Ladies, on winning the League Cup and bringing the unbeaten run of Arsenal to an end.

http://www.thefa.com/Womens/PremierLeagueCup/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2008/02/FAWPLC_reacionMarley.htm

Arsenal have an excellent team and I am sure they will win other competitions this season.

Their winning run of over a year was remarkable, they are a great team to watch with som many international players and they are a very difficult team to beat.

If you are a supporter of women's football in England or elsewhere please get in touch by email or on the forum. I would love to hear from you.

Please visit soccer.bellaonline.com for even more great content about Soccer.

To participate in free, fun online discussions, this site has a community forum all about Soccer located here -

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=356

I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback!

Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!

Alice Jones, Soccer Editor
http://soccer.bellaonline.com

One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com