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Winning the championship is the primary goal of any football team, or any sports team at all really. There is only one reason to go out and play and that is to win the championship. A championship season is not only rewarding to the players that duke it out on the field, but also to the fans that root them on. Cities and regions should be very proud of their championship winning teams.

Baltimore is a great football town and professional football has been present there in one form or another for more than 60 years. Many people don’t know this, but four different professional football teams have won championships while representing the city of Baltimore.

The Baltimore Ravens – 2000

The last Baltimore team to win a league title in pro football was the team that currently represents the city in the NFL, the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens began as a franchise in 1996, having been active as the Cleveland Browns the previous year. They had a few tough years, but in 2000 everything came together behind a strong running game and an out of this world defense. They ended up defeating the New York Giants 34-7 in Super Bowl XXXV.

The Baltimore Colts – 1958, 1959, and 1970

The Baltimore Colts won championships three times. In 1958, they defeated the New York Giants for the NFL title in what many would refer to as the greatest game ever played. After trailing most of the 1959 title game, the Colts would eventually score 24 unanswered points and defeat the Giants in a rematch of the previous year’s championship game by the score of 31-16. The Colts won their third league title in 1970 when they beat the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl V by the score of 27-17. Technically, the Colts have a fourth title as they were champions of the NFL in 1968, but went on to lose Super Bowl III to the New York Jets of the American Football League before the two leagues merged.

The Baltimore Stars – 1985

The Stars franchise had played the first two seasons of their time in the USFL in the city of Philadelphia. The team was moved to Baltimore for 1985 and though they weren’t as successful as they had been in the past, they were able to make it into the playoffs. The magic was still there though and they marched through the post season and would win the last championship game in USFL history by defeating the Oakland Invaders.

The Baltimore Stallions – 1995

The Canadian Football League expanded into the United States in the mid 1990’s, and one of the cities that got a team was Baltimore. In 1995, their second season, the Baltimore Stallions not only won their division, but they became the first team based in America to win the Grey Cup as champions of the Canadian Football League. The team was gone the next year as they were moved to Montreal and renamed the Allouettes.

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There are many fun aspects of fantasy football that draw people towards the game. The first and arguably the most important reason is that it is free to sign up, as well as being easy to set up with your friends. All you need an email address, several friends and your fantasy league is born. There are also three key aspects to the game that will help make your experience more enjoyable as well as the equation to winning a league championship.

The first signature attribute of fantasy is the live draft which is one of my favorite things about fantasy football. Every draft night, you get together with friends and have a hangout centered around the live draft of your fantasy football league. It is also where every person (usually) feels good about their virtual football team as the draft happens before the actual games are played meaning that a lot of times in fantasy football, many different teams make the playoffs. The draft is only the icing on the cake in terms of managing a fantasy football team. Fantasy football experts often have said that fantasy football is a three-part game with three equal parts. The draft is one-third of the game, the waiver wire is the second part, and simply luck is the final aspect of the game. Drafting is important, but it hardly sinks your season as long as you stay on top of managing your fantasy team.

The second part of that three-step equation to fantasy football is the waiver wire, my favorite aspect of managing a fantasy team. It is the center driving force of playing the game of fantasy football as it is general managers trying to improve their teams each week whether through opportunity share or to injury/suspension towards another player. Do not ignore this aspect of the equation! I have seen players that have had excellent drafts but didn’t make enough moves on the waiver wire resulting in them missing the playoffs despite having a good team at the beginning. Managing a fantasy team is sort of like running a business, changes are going to happen and how to adjust to those changes on the waiver wire will help you get to the fantasy playoffs.

The last thing is that luck plays a huge role as well into winning a fantasy championship. The first two key aspects of the equation will get a team into the playoffs, but winning one requires a little luck. There is an old adage and it is «sometimes it is better to be lucky than good,» and that saying applies directly here. Get to the playoffs and hopefully some good luck is on your side.

Fantasy football is one of the most fun things to do whenever you need some down time either from school or work. The nuances of the game are what make it so fun for people to play and learning the basics of fantasy are what go a long way towards having fun which is of course is the most important part of playing.

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If you enjoy football, and having a kick about with your friends, perhaps you’ve never seriously considered joining a football team.  You might have thought that you weren’t good enough or were too old or too young.  These days there are many local teams, and if there isn’t one near you, why not start one up?

1. Improve as a player

If you’re a keen footballer already, you might be getting a bit frustrated with the people you play with. Perhaps you take your game seriously, and want to improve, whereas your mates might just see it as a bit of fun.

2. Play regularly

Playing football regularly will help you improve, and you’ll learn a great deal about the game.  You might even change position; you might have seen yourself as a defender, but the manager might see you as a winger, or a striker.

3. Exercise and fitness

Playing football will keep you fit and healthy, and if you take your game seriously, you might begin to think more about your body, and your diet. Lasting 90 minutes on a Sunday is a hard task, especially if you’re not used to it, and not in the best shape.  You’ll soon improve though, if you’re serious about your game.

4. Improve as a person

Becoming a regular in your football team will give you added responsibilities and will help you to mature.  You’ll have to turn up on time, and bring your kit, and be prepared for a training session or a match.  This can help you be more organized at work and at home.

5. Make new friends

Joining a team will be a great opportunity to make new friends, and benefit from their skills and experiences.

6. Not expensive

Football is a cheap sport to get involved in.  There’s no need to spend a fortune on expensive equipment.  As long as your boots are comfortable and you have suitable shin pads and gloves if you’re a goalkeeper, that’s probably all you’ll need, as the rest of the kit is likely to be provided by your team.

7. Work as a team

Working as part of a team will help you to play as a team, rather than 11 players.  You’ll need to follow the manager’s instructions during a game, and the coaching sessions will enable you to learn formations and tactics, as well as improve fitness and skills.

8. Achieve your potential

If you think you’ve got what it takes to be a footballer, you’ll want to give it a go, and not wonder if you could have made it as a professional.  Joining a team will give you this opportunity.

9. Play like a professional

You might wear the same boots as your favorite player, and try and emulate them, especially if you play in the same position.  You might spend a lot of time watching other football, to help you improve, or have the same discipline as a professional, as you take the game seriously

10. Because you enjoy the game

If you didn’t enjoy playing football, you wouldn’t want to play it.  So if you’re playing for a team, and you’re not enjoying it, for whatever reasons, why not consider putting in a transfer request, and trying out for a different team?

You might not be the speediest winger with all the tricks, you might not get a hat trick every game, but as a player in the team, you’re just as important.  If you let the team down, you let yourself down.  If you take your football seriously then you owe it to yourself to be the best player you can be. 

Who knows, you might even be spotted by a scout, become a professional footballer, and hit the big time!

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Playing in Space is the key term.

We aren’t talking about playing football on the moon, zero gravity would make us all have to rethink the game quite a bit.

«In Space» means playing with distance between your players and the other team. If your team is bigger and more athletic and can handle the other teams players one on one, you want space, it is your friend.

However, if you don’t have bigger and better athletes than the other team, space is your enemy.

Playing «In space» means just what it says, putting your players with space in-between them and the opposition. If your team is made up of faster, bigger and more athletic kids, they will dominate in one on one match-ups. That’s why you see teams with lots of big fast receivers do very well in the «spread» offenses where they isolate weaker defenders out very wide versus these dominant receivers, of course you have to have a QB that can throw it in these cases. If that stud receiver can just get the ball «in space» he will have a chance to score in most cases.

On the other hand, most youth football teams do not have the player truly dominates the league. Most of us are blessed with just an average group of kids and some of us will have that odd grouping of kids that is just smaller and less athletic than the teams we face. In these cases you want to have as little space as possible between your kids and the opposition.

Just think about your tackling drills, when you have a tackling drill run in close quarters, lets say a 1 yard square box, most of your even non-athletic kids can often make the tackle. But turn that tackling drill into an open field tackling drill of a 20 yard by 20 yard square, how many of your less athletic kids can now make a tackle in that drill? The same is true for blocking; very athletic kids can make blocks «in space» less athletic kids can’t.

Less athletic teams nearly always perform better if they tighten their line splits down, double team block and pull to have overwhelming numbers at the point of attack. Less athletic teams need to run traps and other close quarter running plays like the wedge in order to keep more athletic teams at bay. The less athletic teams need to run lots of misdirection to keep the defense moving away from the play, while they run it between the tackles. The spinner series in kryptonite to the supermen on these squads. There are just some plays that make NO SENSE against teams like this, sweeps, drop back passes, deep reverses, these will be negative yardage plays.

The good news is with the Single Wing Offense, less athletic teams can compete with very athletic teams. Often called «football in a phone booth» the spinners and traps keep the very athletic teams from flowing hard to your base plays. The double team blocks, wedges and pulling give your team numbers advantages at the point of attack so even smaller or weaker linemen can have success. The tight splits, misdirection and pulling linemen help even very average backs to put up big numbers with this offense.

In 2002 we had a very average sized back named J.A. with average speed. For our age 8-10 team he weighed 81 pounds and when we ran our eval races he was about 6th out of 25 kids. J.A. was a very obedient player, he was a patient runner, he always kept his legs moving and was always looking for an opening, but nothing special. In 2002 he played Fullback for us and ran just 2 plays that year, wedge and trap. He scored 31 TDs for us on FB wedge plays alone, of course we had a very weak backfield that year and he got a lot of carries. Had we had the spinner series in he would have done even better.

As to beating bigger or more athletic teams: In 2003 my age 8-10 team from Omaha was undefeated in league and put up some very gaudy numbers. We scored at will, went 11-0 and won our league title game 46-12 after leading 46-0 in the third quarter. We went on to beat two league champions from other leagues that were age 11-12. In 2004 I started a new program in rural Nebraska in an area where the existing youth program had won something like 4-5 total games in 5 years before I got here. The first year there we had all rookie players with the exception of 2-3 bench-warming castoffs from the other team in town. We had just one player over 100lbs at age 8-10. Slowly but surely we improved each week and by seasons end we started looking pretty good. We played a very big and fast Inner-city team from Lincoln that year the Salvation Army. They had not lost a game in 3 years, we were out-manned, outsized and had less speed, but beat them in a nail biter by a single TD in route to an 11-0 season.

Our biggest win in an extreme overmatch with in 2005 verses the Omaha Select Black. That age 8-10 team chose from over 150 kids, had at least 5 kids over 150 lbs and had not lost in 3 years in Omaha’s «select» league. They were a very aggressive Inner-city team with plenty of speed and confidence. I on the other hand had just the 25 country kids that showed up, not cuts or selects and plenty of younger kids on it. To make a long story short, we had this team by 4 TDS in the first half and could have named the score. Needless to say that team, their parents and our parents for that matter were shocked. The good thing is with this offense you can compete with anyone, the bad news is once you do it’s hard to get extra out of league games. Big Inner-city teams like the North Omaha Boys Club will not even play us on their home fields, it is embarrassing getting beat by much smaller and slower teams, they have turned me down twice in the last 2 years for extra games that we both had open dates at seasons end.

The Single Wing does offer some flexibility if you do have that stud player that you want to isolate «In space». We added the mesh series in 2005 to accommodate a player we thought would make sense to put «in space». When we went against weaker opponents the «mesh» series worked very well, no one could handle our stud. When we played against equal or lesser competition we had to move back to our tight splits base offense to move the ball consistently.

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If we are talking about playing football, I think most of us want to be a striker or forward player, it’s because we think that the striker is the best position in the game and the others just for supporting the striker. And also we think that the striker is a hero for the team because he makes scores and finally wins the game. Sometimes common people say that they win only because of the Forward players or the strikers. But actually, their assumption is wrong, because the main thing that is important in football game is teamwork. Each player in the game must be discipline and do their duty based on their position. Without that, the play will be bad and the team won’t win the game.

In football game, basically we know about 4 positions of players; Goalkeeper (GK), Defender (DF), Midfielder (MF), and Forward or Striker (FW). In each position, they have their main duty in a game. So, what are actually the characteristics of each of them? Okay, let’s check it out.

The first position is a Goalkeeper. Goalkeeper is a position which has a main task to protect the goal post from opponent attack. This position actually is placed in the back of the others position. So, he just stands under the goal post and blocks the ball that comes to the goal. The characteristic of this position is goalkeeper is allowed to touch the ball with his hand.

The second position is a Defender or we usually call it as Back. Someone in this position has main task to protect their area from opponent attack. The position of back is in front of the goalkeeper. Usually in a game, defender is divided into two; Center Back (CB) and Side Back (SB). Center Back is a player who stands in the middle of defense area and in front of the goalkeeper. This kind of position holds the biggest responsibility in team after the Goalkeeper. Then the Side Back is a player who plays in the side of the defense area. Sometimes, this kind of position is helpful when attacking.

The next position is Midfielder. I think this is the most flexible position in the match. Because someone in this position can do everything, both attacking and defending. The midfielders play in the middle of the field. And also, midfielder is a position that is very important in a team. Because, they can make the defender are connected to the forward players. It means that the midfielders are the Playmakers in the game. Actually in the real game, the midfielder is divided into 4 positions; Center Midfielder (CMF), Defending Midfielder (DMF), Attacking Midfielder (AMF), and Side Midfielder. CMF tends to make the beautiful play by giving pass to others teammate. While DMF tends to more help the defender to defense. It means this kind of player is more defensive. Then an AMF is the contrary of DMF. It means that this player is more offensive. And the last is SMF, this player can both defending and attacking in the side of the field. This kind of player is usually called as a Winger.

And the fourth position in football game is a Striker or Forward player. This player has the main task to make scores by driving the ball into the goal post. In this position, the player should have good instinct and can make good positioning. And the Striker should be able to maximize the chance to make a score, because in the real game, the striker is always kept by opponent player.

By knowing about the characteristics of football players, we can conclude that, each position have their own duty and role in playing football. It means that the striker that cannot bring the team into victory without support from their teammate. Also the team cannot win the game without the participation of strikers. So we can say that all types of position in the game are important and each of them cannot stands alone, it means that the most important thing is teamwork. Without that, I think it is hard to reach victory.

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There’s no question to every body that loves football (soocer), loves to see a world class dribbler. The player that can run past defenders with ease. They set the crowd a light, the fans want to see them, young player want to be them. Every player wants to know their secret, the simple tricks is hard work, dedication and sacrifices. During your football training (soccer training) either individually or as a team you must try to get as many touches on the ball as possible. There are a vast a ray tricks and dummies world class players use to beat there opponents, but the truth is that you really only need to master a couple to be an effective dribbler. Look at Leo Messi consistently goes past defenders like they were standing still, the weird thing about Messi is that defenders know what his going to do but they still can’t stop it. Why because his perfected and worked hard to hone his technique.

The Body Swerve

An all time favorite of Messi. You start by dribbling at slow to moderate pace toward a defender, then feint both with body and feet to take the ball one way. You drop your shoulder, leaning to take the ball right or left, then quickly changing direction and accelerating away from the defender.

You should first practice during your soccer training sessions by your dribbling toward another ball, cone or leaf it doesn’t matter. perform the move slowly, and as you start to feel more comfortable start to increase the speed, while also keeping an eye on making sure that you will put the defender off balance by your feint. The quicker running pace you can perform this move effectively the more you will have the defender on his heels making it easier to put him or her off balance. The next key step is the acceleration away from the defender, you don’t want to be repeatedly beating the same defender, thats why acceleration after you beat the defender is so crucial. You must learn to perform this move with both feet, this will make unpredictable to defenders.

It’s important that you continue to hone and maintain your skills, during your soccer training. Never become complacent, always strive to be better, thats why players like Messi are the best in world, because the worked harder and smarter then anyone else to be the best. The more you put into your soccer training the more you will get out of it.

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Wear different and usually more colourful soccer uniforms than the rest of the team, and sometimes even a nice hat. Goalkeepers not only play differently but often have their own training coach, who will be more than likely a former goalkeeper. They rarely achieve the status of being the captain of the team, simply because they are too far away from the center of play. In general, goalkeepers shout a lot and often get very upset with their team mates as well as the opposing team, the referee and anyone else who comes within distance. That may be why, goalkeepers, over the years, may have earned the title of being a bit crazy.

There are a number of theories around as to why a footballer would want to become a goalkeeper. Some say that they are failed strikers, who were too big and clumsy to make the grade or frustrated central defenders. One thing for sure is that a goalkeeper’s role is difficult. Supporters will eventually forget a major blunder that a striker, midfield player or even a defender makes, but they will take a lot longer to forgive a goalkeeper their transgressions.

On the other hand a goalkeeper may spend 80 minutes as a virtual spectator in a one sided football match, but needs to be ready to spring into action should the opposing team spring into action.

So is it any wonder that keepers tend to be a little «eccentric». The history of soccer has produced a very large number, only some of who can be mentioned, and not necessarily in order of eccentricity.

One of the most outstanding goalkeepers of the 1980s and D90’s was the Paraguayan Jose Luis Felix Chilavert, Chilavert played his club football in Argentina and Spain and ran the roost as the Paraguay goalkeeper for more than a decade winning the title World Goalkeeper of the Year by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) in 1995, 1997, and 1998. As a club player, Chilavert enjoyed the most success of his career playing for Vélez Sársfield, helping them win the Argentine championship four times as well as the Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup, both in 1994.

A large and imposing personality, Chilavert expressed his ability as a frustrated outfield player by insisting in taking all the free kicks and penalties for the clubs that he played for. First of all, he was too big and crazy to be argued with, and secondly because he was an exceptional dead ball expert. Chilavert earned his place in soccer becoming the first (and to date only) goalkeeper to score a hat-trick in the history of football, while playing for Vélez, with all three goals through penalties. He is also remembered fondly or otherwise for a memorable free-kick goal from behind the half-way line against River Plate. Chilavert took part in 74 international for Paraguay and holds the goalkeeper-record of eight international goals. Chilavert retired from international football in 2003, surprisingly enough after a feud with the team directors.

It is said that Welsh born Neville Southall became a goalkeeper simply because when he discovered soccer he was too old and a little too overweight to play outfield. Yet at his peak, also in the 1990s Southall was regarded as the finest goalkeeper in the world. Southall dominated his penalty area like few others, and when found in a one-on-one situation mostly always came out on top. Neville, who played most of his club football with Everton in the English league, where he made a club record 578 league appearances (over 750 in all competitions) and won two Football League championships. Unlike Chilavert, Southall was a very placid character, who rarely ventured out of his penalty area. Short for a goalkeeper, Southall earned some notoriety as being a bit «unkempt» and needing a haircut, shave and a diet.

Despite that, Southall was voted England’s Footballer of The Year in 1985, extremely rare for a goalkeeper, He represented Wales a record 92 times.

Another famous «eccentric» goalkeeper is Rene Higuita of Colombia, Higuita also liked to have a shot at goal now and again, scoring three goals in 69 international appearances, However Higuita is particularly remembered for three highlights of his career, best described as the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good: The remarkable «scorpion kick», save he made in a friendly against England at Wembley. Higuita saved a shot between his feet while perched on his hands, a trick he succeeded in repeating on a number of occasions.

The Bad: Higuita was already known for having an eccentric playing style and taking risks, when an unforced error in the full glare of the World media that got knocked Colombia out of the 1990 World Cup. Higuita was caught in possession 35 yards from goal enabling Cameroon striker Roger Milla to dispossess him, and score the winning goal.

The Ugly: Higuita’s amazing hairstyle which only went further to prove that goalkeepers are crazy.

Hello today I am continuing my series violin from A-Z. We are now on X for Xiang Gao. Born in the people’s republic of China, Xiang Gao is one of the most successful violinists of his generation and was cited by the New York Times as a rare and soulful virtuoso.

He has performed for many of the world’s leaders including the former presidents of the US and China. He has gained worldwide acclaim for his technique and virtuosity. In 1994 he became the first Chinese violinist to join Columbia records and began his professional recording career.

During his long career he has performed with the Detroit symphony orchestra the Czech Philharmonic orchestra the National Orchestra of Sweden the Philharmonic orchestra of Russia the Estonia national symphony the Mexico state symphony the Kansas Symphony the Memphis symphony and many others he has also given recitals and master-classes throughout North America, Asia, Europe and South America.

Xiang Gao composes, arranges and performs in the styles of jazz, bluegrass and Asian folk. On August 8, 2007 he was featured live as soloist for CCTV’s concert in Macau to celebrate the one year countdown to the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony. This event was viewed by more than one billion viewers worldwide.

He is also a dedicated chamber music performer and promoter; he has collaborated with some of the world’s leading chamber musicians. Gao lives in Newark, Delaware and is the youngest Associate Professor of music at the University of Delaware’s department of music.

His hobbies include cooking Chinese cuisine watching college football and skiing. He is married and has one daughter born in May of 2005.

The Ivy League is an athletic union of American educational institutes based in the north-east of The States including Harvard, Yale and Columbia University. Many people mistakenly believe MIT and Stanford are members of this union. While we reference these institutes in this article, they are not.

There are a series of factors that will determine your acceptance to the Ivy League or other elite institutes. Here we’ll analyse the best approach. Let’s begin with your GPA.

GPA Requirements

Of course, your GPA is a pillar of your application. But is your application a house of cards without it? Not necessarily. Why is it that some students with 4.0 GPA’s are rejected, while others with sub-3 GPA’s are accepted? Because the value of the courses you took is often of equal value to your result. Because your application needs to demonstrate extra-curricular pedigree.

Your record at school needs to display academic rigor – don’t opt for the easiest courses. A prescribed high school path featuring 4 years of the cornerstone subjects, English, Math and Science, are best complimented with 4 years dedicated to History and learning a foreign language.

That brings us on to Extra-Curriculars.

Those Darn Extra-Curriculars

Meet John. John has a 2.7 grade point average and equally unremarkable SAT results. Although John was never the best student, he excelled in sports, holding the post as captain for his Baseball, Basketball and Football teams, winning awards for his sporting ability. It’s these strengths that secured his place at Harvard. Meanwhile many thousands of students are rejected every year with outstanding academics.

Stories of a sub-3 GPA turned Harvard graduate are the exception, but there’s a moral to this tale. If two students are equal academically, universities like employers, will opt for the candidate who has held leadership roles or displayed an extra-curricular spike. Without these traits, your application will be lost.

Financial Aid

Unfortunately, you’ll have to factor cost into attending your dream school. Fortunately, though, the world’s most prestigious schools are often in possession of the largest financial aid endowments. Consider Harvard which has a financial aid budget of $172,000,000. This aid is reserved for students whose parents are earning under $60,000 per year. The net result means the cost of attending actually matches or bests 90% of other universities. Before preparing your FAFSA application (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), you’ll need to know where you stand.

What About Reach Schools?

Universities with low admissions rates, including Harvard and Yale are considered ‘Reach Schools’. A ‘Match School’ is one that has a high probability of acceptance. Identifying reach schools and match schools is smart forward planning.

Perhaps your heart is set on attending Yale. You may dream of being published in Yale Law Review before one day running for Congress. Students negotiate a path towards their dreams every year. Equally there are who students fail to reach the school of their dreams without Plan B. Identify other institutes with a prestigious record of graduating the finest minds in your field.

Post-Graduate Success

When creating a shortlist of schools, it’s wise to assess the post-graduate success student’s are likely to experience. Let’s take MIT. While the US economy struggles and jobs are scare, MIT bucks the trend. Studies demonstrate just 20% of students find employment on graduation. MIT students however, fare better than the national average with on-campus hiring still prevalent.

The idea that your post-graduate success is purely dependent on your education, however, is mistaken. History is shaped by those who defy the rules and define their own route. Be they a Harvard reject Warren Buffet or Princeton reject Ted Turner. So, you don’t need to graduate the Ivy League to be a success… But it helps.

All the debates are now taking place around the world as everyone turns into a soccer pundit. Many are looking at making money off the bookies to soften the blow of watching their favourites get beaten by one of the unfancied countries.

It can be worthwhile placing your bets for this year’s FIFA World Cup in South Africa before it kicks off, as the odds are higher. With all the 32 squads being named on 1st June, the date of this article being written, now is the time to check the fixture schedules and see who will progress to the later stages.

If you don’t know how to go about placing bets on line, then there are a whole host of sites out there giving you that information. One thing you will need though is an account with one or more online betting companies. The vast majority, if not all of them now, will offer you incentives to sign up with them usually by way of them matching your first bet up to a maximum value; this will be offered as ‘free bets’ and is definitely a good way to start.

You’ll then be asked to deposit funds to your account by using a credit or debit card, and the bets you place are obviously taken from this deposit, After your first bet is finished, you will be credited with the amount of that bet as per your sign up offer. This can then be used in future bets, either immediately or another day.

Using the 2010 World Cup as a topical example, you can just place a simple bet on the outright winner or you can go into much finer detail, such as who you think will qualify for the quarter finals, in which game will the first red card be shown and so on. For those more detailed bets, you need to keep up to date with as much information you can with regard to player suspensions and injuries as they will weaken teams as the tournament progresses.

You can make a fair stab at who will qualify from the opening group stages, and maybe you can spot a surprise or two in there. Will France and South Africa outgun Mexico and Uruguay in Group A? That seems a very open group and is too close to call for some. It is safe to assume Italy will win Group F at a canter, but will complete outsiders New Zealand be able to compete for second spot with Paraguay and Slovakia? The bookies don’t think so but do you think it’s worth a punt?

For betting on the first group stages, there are good chances to get off to a good start, as some of the more fancies countries tend to start slowly and this is where most of the shock results traditionally occur. An example is that Argentina qualified by the narrowest of margins, and one of the rated nations always seem to get knocked out during the Group stages. The bookies are favouring Argentina to be the early faller, and are giving generous odds on this. More worrying is that Diego Maradona has promised to run naked through Buenos Aires if they win the final, so let’s all hope they get beaten early as no one will be able to sleep at night until they lose. Their opening game is against Nigeria, and they will remember losing to Cameroon at the same stage in 1990.

To the later stages then and can you predict the semi-finalists from this early stage? Well perhaps you can, as the fixture schedule is often kinder to some teams than it is to others. Occasionally a smaller nation can reach this stage, as per South Korea in 2002 but it is a risky bet to go against the key nations.

It does make sense to bet on one of the more dominant footballing nations to be the outright winners, only seven countries have ever won the World Cup and although African nations are getting stronger and stronger, they don’t appear to be quite ready to walk away with football’s top prize. A couple of interesting facts are that (1) only two countries have ever won the world cup twice in succession, Italy and Brazil, and no one has retained since 1962. Also (2) only one country has ever won a World Cup outside of their own continent, and that is also Brazil. Does that increase the chances of an African nation winning this time round?

At this moment in time, there are three obvious favourites to win in South Africa, and they are Spain, Brazil and England, The rest are a little further out but never write off Italy and Germany. More recently, more money has gone on Holland as they appear to be in great form going into the World Cup.

The ‘Golden Boot’ award always attracts healthy betting; this is the trophy presented to the top individual goalscorer at the finals, English money is going on Wayne Rooney, but every country has a scorer amongst them, you really need to scour the squad lists and the player’s goal scoring records before you pick one above all the others.