Goals On and Off the Pitch

Welcome to the final post of my blog–Goals On and Off the Pitch. While I have talked a lot about soccer and my love and knowledge of the game throughout my blog, this final post will be a little different. Since the title is called Goals On and Off the Pitch, now is when I will address the Off the Pitch portion. I am coming up the final few weeks of my high school career and preparing myself to move on to the next big stage of my life. 

My high school experience was one I never thought I would have when I first came into health class on my first day of school. I believe that high school has transformed me for the better. Coming in from New-Holland Middletown, I knew very few people at the start. I think the biggest thing that got me through my first few weeks was my soccer team. I have really connected with that team over the years and it has aided me in my social development. I would say I have grown a lot as a person in high school. Coming in I had much more anxiety and awkwardness. I think I have learned a lot in high school and not just academics. I have learned to try new things and meet new people. The biggest thing I think I am beginning to understand is how to enjoy the time and place you are in. These times were extremely fun and beneficial to me, but I also know I will have many great new things to come. 

College will be my next great adventure. I have committed to Bradley University, and I plan to study industrial engineering and get a minor in management and potentially spanish. I think I will enjoy my time there, but I am nervous about moving to a new place and having to make new friends. I know looking back it will be fine, but it is stressful. While I am not ready to leave LCHS, I am extremely ready to be done with the work. In all seriousness, I am ready to move on, but I am sad for the great times I am about to put behind me here. I may not have felt at home when I started, but now it is a shame I have to leave what is clearly a home now. 

While I do love talking about soccer, there are bigger things in life. This time, it happens to be my individual thoughts on the present and plans for the future that have dominated this blog post. My idol on the world soccer stage is Lionel Messi, and he once said: Take advantage of every minute that you have, in football and in life. This is exactly what I am striving to do. 

Christiano Ronaldo will forever be remembered as one of the greatest soccer players of all time. Many players move from team to team in today’s era of soccer, and Ronaldo is no exception. He has played for four different club teams in his career and also his Portuguese national team. My history as a soccer fan is very mixed for Ronaldo. Since he is the rival of my GOAT, Lionel Messi, I did not like Ronaldo very much. Now, I like Ronaldo a lot more because I can appreciate the great skill he has and I understand that rivalries do not mean you have to hate the other side. While my likeness for Ronaldo has gone up in the past few years, my opinion is that his legacy has been tarnished a little by his recent move. 

The top five soccer leagues in the world are in England, Spain, Italy, France, and Germany. Ronaldo has played in one of these top leagues for the entirety of his career since his upbringing at his Portuguese club: Sporting CP. Almost all players start at local clubs in their home country so it is understandable that he played for Sporting. After Sporting, Ronaldo moved to Manchester United in England, which is a very prestigious club. Next he moved to Real Madrid, another very prestigious club in Spain, where he became the top scorer of all time for the club. After this he moved to the Italian club Juventus, where he had arguably converted it into the top club in the Serie A. And in the penultimate stage in his career he moved back to Manchester United. Here there are many issues with the management, and it turned out to be a terrible move for Ronaldo and the club. Finally, he has made what will probably be the final move of his career, which is to Saudi Arabia. 

There is a reason why Saudi Arabian soccer is rarely talked about: the quality of soccer there is not very good. Personally, I believe that Ronaldo is still good enough at the age of 38 to play in one of the top five leagues. Messi is still playing in one of the top five leagues and he is one year younger than Ronaldo. The GOAT title is one that these two are constantly in contention for, and I think this will demote Ronaldo slightly. While there was talk of Messi moving to the MLS, which is almost as bad, he didn’t. Ronaldo is playing for Al Nassr FC in Saudi Arabia’s capital city of Riyadh. 

Ronaldo’s decision to move to Saudi Arabia was motivated by one thing: Money. The Saudi club will be paying Ronaldo a yearly salary of around $200 million. The money drew Ronaldo in, but the Saudi Arabian sports scene had a greater goal. They want to diversify and intensify the quality of sport in Saudi Arabia, which is understandable because we are trying to do the same thing in America. While they have succeeded in this by bringing in one of the greatest footballers of all time, it will take more than money to become a global soccer superpower. The top five leagues have three things that Saudi Arabia does not–culture (many people in these countries grow up with it), reputation (players are honored to play where their heroes have played), and players (Saudi Arabia would have to buy an entire league worth of players to raise the overall quality immediately). While I understand the trade from both sides, I feel like Ronaldo is too good for the Saudi league and it will slightly tarnish his legacy.

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog: Goals On and Off the Pitch. This week I am going to be talking about a German soccer club: Borussia Dortmund (BVB). There are so many clubs in the world, and so many leagues. The best leagues in the world are obviously made up of the best teams, and these leagues produce the best quality of soccer. In order to understand the best brands of soccer in the world, it is important to know and understand the top teams. One of the top teams in Germany is Dortmund, which I have selected to highlight today. 

To highlight the Dortmund squad, I will first start with the manager. Dortmund’s manager is Edin Terzić, who has been the manager for the last few years. As for the squad itself, I will start with the 1 spot. For those of you that don’t know, soccer has numbers for positions just like basketball, but it can get confusing because the numbers are all dependent on the formation. The one number that is always the same is the 1 spot–the goalkeeper. Dortmund runs a 4-2-3-1, which has four defenders, two defensive midfielders, three attacking midfielders and one striker up top. Their goalkeeper is Gregor Kobel, who is Swiss. Their defensive line consists of the Belgian Thomas Muenier at right back, the German Mats Hummels at right center back, Nico Schlotterbeck (German) at left center back, and the Portuguese Raphael Guerriero at left back. The right defensive midfielder is Emere Can (German), and the left defensive midfielder is the Englishman, Jude Bellingham. At the spot of center attacking midfielder is the legendary Marco Reus. With incredible pace on the right wing is the young German stiker Karim Adeyemi. The left wing has another incredible striker in the Dutch Donyell Malen. Finally, up top at the striker position is the big man from Ivory Coast, Sebastien Haller. 

Dortmund, like all major professional teams has a skilled, and internationally diverse squad. As Dortmund is one of the most famous teams in Germany, it most maintain a squad to back up its status. With the balance of talented youngsters and skilled veterans, Dortmund will continue to be a top team in Germany. Dortmund has always been a prominent German club throughout my childhood, and they are the rival of my uncle’s favorite club, Bayern Munich. My uncle is from Germany, and he is one of the only people in my family that I can talk soccer with. Since I don’t have the history of the rivalry that my uncle does, I like both teams and rivalries add to the quality of play in those games, so I hope Dortmund can continue to play at a high level and keep the rivalry competitive and exciting for me, my uncle, and other soccer fans in the world.

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog: Goals On and Off the Pitch. Today is my sixth post: Current US Soccer Rumblings. Since the World Cup just recently happened, there is a lot of news on different teams and the aftermath. Argentina obviously won the cup, but I’ll dive deeper into that in a later issue. The US team did pretty well considering where we were in the previous world cup, but now the coach, Gregg Berhalter, is being put in question because of an unreported domestic assault charge from over 25 years ago. Personally, I really like Berhalter and I think he has done a great job coaching the team. The US is playing the best and most exciting soccer in decades. 

First off, how we did in the world cup, which I believe is relevant to the Berhalter story because it should be considered in the decision making process of whether or not he stays. In the previous World Cup, it came down to the last qualifying game for us. With one game left in qualifying, we needed to tie a 1-7 Trinidad and Tobago to make it to the World Cup. Instead we lost. After this happened, US Soccer rebuilt the team completely, they started using their batch of young players and brought in new coaching staff, like Berhalter. The team transitioned to a fast-paced, high-pressure, exciting play style with many young players and Berhalter at the helm. In this World Cup’s qualifying, the US came second in North America, with the top four advances. We had a little bit of breathing room in qualifying, and then the groups were selected. We were put in a group with Iran, England and Wales. Many believed that Wales was our biggest competition for second in the group (the top two teams advance). We ended up tying first place England and also Wales. Iran was much tougher than we expected, but we got the win we needed to progress to the round of 16. We lost to the Netherlands 3-1 in that round but it was still the farest we’ve made it in a long time. I believe Berhalter changed the team for the better, so it will be very disappointing if he gets fired. 

The allegations against Berhalter are a very complex situation. Basically, someone said that Berhalter had kicked his now wife in a drunk accident. Berhalter said that this incident did in fact happen, but after the fact he sought counseling and the two were able to reconcile things and have four kids. Berhalter also said that his kids are aware of this incident, and that there has never been any repeats of this. This incident was also unreported, and just came out recently. Unfortunately for him, Berhalter’s Incident had been exposed by none other than Claudio Reyna. Claudio and Berhalter were friends and former teammates on the national team, and Claudio’s son Gio is currently on the national team. Claudio blackmailed Berhalter to play Gio in the World Cup, but Berhalter didn’t budge. I feel bad for Gio because now he has gone from a very promising player to a player with potential for turmoil from his father. The whole situation is a mess for everyone involved and I hope that Berhalter keeps his job because I believe he is still the right man to coach our national team.

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. Today is the fifth post–Soccer on the Holidays. Today my inspiration for my blog has to do with the festivities of the holidays because Christmas is approaching. Today I decided to highlight the Premier League fixtures around the Christmas season. The reason why I chose the Premier League is because in England, soccer is a major part of their culture and even the festivities of Christmas. There are no games on Christmas in England because it is like America in the sense that Christmas is a widely celebrated holiday. However, there are games on 10 of the 11 days after Christmas. 

I love soccer, but personally, even as a professional, I would not want to play on Christmas day. In England they don’t have to, and they get to enjoy Christmas with their families, but after that they get back on the pitch and provide entertainment for all of the jolly and festive fans. The first games are December 26th, and there are seven games the day after Christmas. The games are: Brentford v Tottenham, Crystal Palace v Fulham, Everton v Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City v Newcastle United, Southampton v Brighton & Hove Albion, Aston Villa v Liverpool, Arsenal v West Ham United. On December 27th, there are two games: Chelsea v Bournemouth, and Manchester United v Nottingham Forest. On the 28th, the only game is Leeds United v Manchester City, and on the 29th there are no games at all. December 30th holds a couple massive fixtures in West Ham United v Brentford, and Liverpool v Leicester City. Saturday, December 31st has a total of six games. The first day of the new year, January 1st, holds the two fixtures of Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa, and Nottingham Forest v Chelsea. The Monday through Thursday of January 2nd to January 5th has a total of ten matches across the four days. 

England obviously loves soccer, but soccer is a part of the holiday season in England too. Everyone embraces the culture and prepares for the 30 total games that take place in the 11 days following Christmas. This year is also likely extra festive for English soccer fans because with the world cup taking place now, league play all over the world has ceased. The Premier League took a month and a half hiatus from November 13th to December 26th, so they are likely trying to fit in the games that had to be postponed. 

Personally, I like the world cup in the summer because I think that is a time when it is more accessible to watch in people’s lives, but it is a good change. I like how it is a bit of a prelude to the holiday season and because of that, the Premier League is now an epilogue. For soccer fans, the holiday season has been enhanced this year with the amount of quality games. Happy Holidays to all, and enjoy the festivities on and off the pitch. 

Hello everyone and welcome back for the fourth post on my blog–The Hand of God. At the introduction of my blog, I mentioned that I would use many different types of soccer stories and today is the first time I look to the past for my inspiration. Almost everyone who knows anyone about soccer knows Diego Maradona, and for those of you who don’t know him, I’ll tell you about the most famous moment of his decorated career. 

Diego Armando Maradona is an Argentine professional soccer player who retired in 1997. While Maradona’s career is very exceptional, sadly, it is a topic that is also tragic. Maradona was an attacking midfielder that scored 293 goals for club and country and left an incredible legacy. Unfortunately for the Argentinian legend, he passed away on November 25th, 2020 at the age of 60 from a heart attack. Personally I believe Maradona is remembered more for his international play than his club play. Maradona rose through many local clubs in Argentina, like Boca Juniors and a team called The Little Onions. For clubs of more renown, Maradona moved to FC Barcelona as his first European club. He only stayed for two years there and moved on to Napoli, where he elevated this team to the top division in italian football: Serie A. Maradona won the Serie A title in 1987 and 1990, but his spell for the club ended in 1991 when he was arrested for cocaine possession and received a 15 month suspension. After his suspension, he played for Sevilla in Spain and then Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina. Finally, in 1995, Maradona returned to his former club, Boca Juniors, and played his last match on October 25, 1997. While Maradona’s legacy is spotted with controversy, he is still revered as one of the greatest footballers of all time (Diego Maaradona). 

With his history addressed it is time to tell you about his most famous moment. Believe it or not, his most famous moment was when he scored by cheating to win the world cup. A ball was sent into the box and Maradona somehow managed to win an aerial battle against the goalkeeper and score. With no VAR (Video Assistant Referee) and the referee not seeing the illegal act of play, the goal stood. While the most famous moment of his career was when he cheated on the biggest global stage, he is still remembered as an icon. His death is a very tragic event and even more so because he died young. Maradona is an integral part of world soccer history.  

I believe that my biggest connection to Maradona lies in the fact that he was the one who inspired Lionel Messi, my favorite player of all time. Messi has had a big impact on me through his play and through his story, so one of his idols, like Maradona, is also an interesting story for me. Both are from Argentina, and both have achieved incredible feats , despite the hands that they were both dealt. 

Maradona can be used as an example for some aspects of life. While I am not saying you should cheat, this story can still provide a good message because it shows if you want something bad enough you have to be prepared to do whatever it takes to get it.

Hello all and welcome to my third post on my blog–Goals on and Off the Pitch. This week I am going to be talking about the top five leagues in the world for soccer. Instead of talking about FC Barcelona again this week, I will shift my focus to the league tables of the top five. The reason why I am focusing on the top five or the focus of my inspiration for this week is defying expectations. The league tables this year in the top five are very strange for me personally because of my expectations, but that is something in our own lives that is ok. Some teams do better and some do worse than what is expected, but in the end, teams will bounce back. 

I will be addressing only a few of the top five leagues, and the first league is the Premier League. One team that has really defied expectations is Arsenal. Two seasons ago, Arsenal was in 14th place and now they are in 1st place of arguably the top league in the world. A team that has defied expectations in a bad way is Leicester City because they have been a top ten team for the last few years and now they are in 19th place looking to be relegated if they can’t turn this season around. Another league is the Bundesliga in Germany. There is one team in the Bundesliga that has really surprised everyone, including me–Union Berlin. Union Berlin was fifth last season and 7th the season before, so for them to be 1st this season so far is very impressive (Football Critic-Bundesliga). A team that I expected to do better in the Bundesliga was Leverkusen. Leverkusen has been a very good team previously but now their position is hanging in the balance because they are in a spot where they have to win the relegation playoffs to avoid getting relegated. 

While these aforementioned teams have performed contrary to the expectations, it does not mean these teams are now bad or good. Just like people, every team has exceptionally good and bad times. When a really good team has a bad season, nobody views them as a bad team, they just had a bad spell. This can help our self awareness when we apply this same concept to ourselves. Expectations can weigh heavy on anyone, and to not live up to those expectations can be difficult. For example, when I decided to drop my accelerated English class, I almost didn’t because of the expectations. I am sixth in my class and many other students that I believe have less academic potential than myself were in that class, which made me believe I should be too. The expectations from myself and others weighed heavily on me and almost affected my decision, but I ignored the expectations and now I am much happier for it. In the soccer season, I expected the season to go fairly well, but after the first game was a 7-1 loss, it was looking like I would fall short. I kept with it, and went for it every game. I came out with the 2nd place record for shutouts in a season, with 10. I was sixth in the state in saves, and kept my goals against average under 2 a game. And I ended the season as the first in all of the state (1A, 2A, and 3A) in minutes played. So while I may not have gotten as close to the shutout record as I thought I might, I believe I still defied expectations because this was my first season playing varsity goalkeeper. 

While expectations will always be present, they should not be a sole motivator or destroyer because when we look at others we don’t think differently of them for not obeying expectations, so we all should apply this concept to ourselves.

Hello everyone and welcome to my second post here on my blog–Goals On and Off the Pitch. For my first post I introduced you to my favorite team, FC Barcelona, and talked about how they had overcome change. In this post I have another story from Barcelona about adversity, but this time it is a little different. 

Everyone who knows anything about sports knows that injuries happen. Unfortunately for Barcelona, many of these injuries seemed to happen at the same time. After sliding into first place in La Liga, which is the top division of Spanish soccer, Barcelona lost seven key players around the international break. An international break is a short hiatus from league play so that international teams can play in friendlies or competitions. These key players that were lost are all starters or first team players. The first injury I am going to mention is that of Dutch midfielder Frenkie De Jong. He is not out for sure for the next game due to his hamstring injury, but he is very questionable. Memphis Depay, a Dutch forward, is also out with a hamstring injury. Also, Jules Konde (French Center Back) is out with a hamstring injury. Both Frank Kessie (Defensive Midfielder from Ivory Coast) and Ronald Araujo (Uruguayan Center Back) are out with thigh injuries. Spanish Full Back Hector Bellerin is out with a calf injury and Danish Center Back Andres Christensen is out with an ankle injury. 

After all of these injuries Barcelona is in first place in one of the greatest leagues in the world. A few different things can be gleaned from all of these injuries and their success despite these unfortunate events. One, adversity will happen, but it is how you respond to it that matters. Barcelona have responded very well to adversity and now have been able to continue their great run of form. The second thing that can be gleaned from Barca’s response to these injuries is about the importance of the team. Soccer is a team sport, and without everyone, the team will fail. This is why the team can continue even without many key players, because they are a unit that works together. 

While it does seem like Barcelona have really suffered this season, they have responded really well to the adversity they have faced. Eventually when they are all back, the unit they have formed will mesh even better then at the start of the season. Since they are a good unit now, they will be able to cover for the injuries due to very good coaching and chemistry, which are crucial to any good team.

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog–Goals On and Off the Pitch. In this blog I will be talking about soccer and inspiration, and to start this series I will introduce you to my favorite team in world soccer, FC Barcelona. I’ll also give you a little perspective on how I can put an inspirational twist on the stories and examples I choose to tell. 

Barcelona has been my favorite soccer team since I was very young, and while my love for the club may have started with Lionel Messi, now that he has left, I am still a big fan of Barca. This season has been very interesting for Barca fans because of the roller coaster of an offseason the team has had. Barcelona have made over 10 new signings in the last year and have also gotten rid of over 15 players. This is a very large rebuild for the Barcelona roster, which can affect a team and their system. Barcelona also signed a new manager: Xavi, who is a former Barcelona center mid, seems to be doing well in the role considering Barcelona is second in the league to only Madrid six games into the season. With all of these transfers, Barcelona have essentially gone through a full team rebuild, which makes it very promising to see that they have had a very strong start. They are undefeated and have only tied one team, which was a disappointing 0-0 result against Rayo Vallecano with a red card. 

As a sports team, many people can look at this situation with Barcelona’s start to the season and just say that they have done a good job, but when you take a deeper look at it, it is remarkable what they have done despite the challenges faced. For a very long time, Barcelona was led by one of the greatest players of all time in Lionel Messi, and he recently left the only team he had ever played for. Many people, including myself, thought that Barcelona would have a difficult time bouncing back from this change. With Messi gone, management decided to go all the way and completely reshape the team for a new era. A winning team normally has a system or certain players that keep the team together, but when both of these things change in the course of a few months, normally a lot of time is needed to adjust. 

This scenario is one that is very inspiring for people who know nothing about soccer. Imagine a different scenario: someone loses their mother, who is very influential in their life. Then they go to college and completely change their study habits from high school, even though they worked well. With all of this change, mentally and emotionally, one would think this person would struggle, I would. However despite this, they go into their hardest college class and miss one question. They were close to acing it, but it wasn’t perfect. Would you not be surprised and inspired if you knew this person? This scenario, while imaginary, is very similar to what happened to FC Barcelona at the start of this season, and while you may not be able to connect on a personal level to a soccer club, it is still an inspiring situation about overcoming adversity when you look at it through a different perspective. 

Some people may not know a thing about soccer, and to others it may seem like just a game, but it is so much more than that. There are so many inspirational layers to soccer when you are able to look at it from a deeper perspective.