Barcelona Soccer Team Facts

Barcelona is a city long in love with sports, especially the Barcelona Soccer Team.

In addition to hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics, Barcelona hosted parts of the 1982 Football World Cup and has hosted the X FINA World Championship and Eurobasket. The city has two UEFA 5-star rated football stadiums: FC Barcelona's Nou Camp and the Estadi Ol?mpic Llu?s Companys.

FC Barcelona's soccer team is almost a way of life in Barcelona. The rivalry with Madrid rises almost to the point where Barcelona can be considered the Catalonia national team. FC Barca was founded on 29 November 1899 by Joan Gamper, who created the team colors of blue and claret from the Swiss canton in which he lived. Barcelona lost its first ever match with some English expatriates 0-1, but within ten years began a string of Catalan and Spanish championships lasting decades. FC Barcelona went though tough times in the rise to the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, but was able to recover and by the mid 1940s resumed its championship ways.

FC Barcelona is a sports club containing basketball, handball, hockey, ice-hockey, figure skating, indoor football, rugby, baseball, volleyball and women's football, but the jewel in the crown has always been association football, or the Barcelona Soccer Team. The Barcelona team has qualified every year for the European competition since it was founded in 1955.

The club motto is "M?s que un club" and they refer to their stadium as "Camp Nou." In English these are "More than a club" and "Our Ground." Despite a slump at the turn of the century, FC Barcelona has assembled a talented team and once again resumed winning ways. The club currently has a five-year deal with UNICEF, wearing the emblem on their jerseys and paying $1.9 million a year for the privilege.

Among the many claims to fame of the Barca team are that it has more victories than any other Association Football team in the world. They also have more wins in the Copa del Rey, the Spanish tournament, than any other team with 24 victories. There are 18 La Liga Championships, 7 Supercopa de Espana, 2 EUFA Champions League, 4 EUFA Winner's Cups, 3 Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, 1 Inter-City Fairs Cup Trophy Play-off, 2 European Super Cups, 2 Copa Latina, 4 Copa de Oro Argentina, 22 Catalan Championships, 2 Copa Martina Rossi, 4 Coupe de Pyrenees, 1 Mediteranean League, 2 Copa de Ligua, 1 Copa Barcelona, 1 Lligua Catalana, 5 Copa Catalana and one Little World Cup. It is little wonder Barcelona has embraced the Barcelona Soccer Team and reveres it as a symbol of Catalonia.

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Soccer Training Drills

When it comes to soccer training drills, it is very important for the coach to teach the players about how to make the ball do what the players want. Yes, that is possible, but through extensive training and only an expert coach can help the team achieve this impressive skill.

Go In A Cycle

The coaches should teach the players to go in a cycle. This means left and then right foot, then right thigh and then left thigh, and then hitting the ball up to their head and back down to their right foot and then left and so on.

You can teach them how to make various cycles. They can do so by choosing where the ball goes, and not just keeping the ball up in the air, but manipulating the ball on their terms.

The expert coach makes his team learn that it does not really matter much that how many times the players can juggle. What really matters is whether the players are capable enough to make the ball go where you want it.

Manipulating The Ball Even More

Once the players are well versed with the above step, the coaches can teach them the advance steps, such as manipulating the ball even more. In this step, the players are supposed to aim for kicking the ball away from them to the right.

After that, they should kick the ball away from them to the left. They should be able to do so at a slight angle in the air, almost as they are faking going to the right and then the left but all in the air.

Here, the training of the coaches will be on test because the players need to lean their body to the side in which they are kicking the ball.

Once, you see significant improvement in the team regarding the above two steps, you can go ahead and teach the players how to try walking and juggling with the ball.

Soccer training drills is not an easy cake, but when you keep certain things as discussed above in mind during the training session, you can make things easier.

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority on the subject of soccer training drills. His web site, Youth Soccer Drills, provides a wealth of informative soccer articles, resources and tips for soccer coaches, parents and players.