Soccer Books to Read: Inverting the Pyramid, Tor!, and Morbo

I'll admit it, I'm not a big reader. While back in the day I used to devour books of any topic, nowadays I tend to sluggishly skim through books, mainly because the ones I read are uninteresting to me. So, I decided that it was time to change that, and to get some books I would read, enjoy reading, and learn something from.

I browsed, looked around, and found plenty of interesting choices. Ultimately I narrowed my list to three, and ordered them off of Amazon. They are, Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics by Jonathan Wilson, Tor!: The Story of German Football by Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger, and Morbo by Philip Ball. I chose these three because I need to brush up on all three subjects. I know little about football tactics, my knowledge of La Liga is limited, and my knowledge of the Bundesliga is near to nothing.

I've heard great things about these books (especially Inverting the Pyramid), and I really look forward to reading them. They should come within four to seven business days, and by the time I begin reading them it'll be a few weeks from now.

I'll be reviewing each book once I've read it, hopefully giving you a little taste of the books, what they're about, and whether you'd like to read them yourself. Links to the books on Amazon are below, and if you've already read any of these books, or have something to say about them, do comment.

         

CTRUS: Soccer Ball Of The Future?

While there are tons of cool and exciting technological advancements which are coming our way, yet few things seem cooler than AGENT's new soccer ball, the CTRUS. The slogan or theme which goes with this new ball is, "Fair Play is all about Transparency", and it fits very well with this ball, mainly because it's transparent!

The CTRUS has plenty of features, one of which is that it's completely airless! That means it won't lose air, and the pressure will always be perfect with no need for adjustment. Another cool thing about the ball being airless is that altitude won't have an effect on it. While the Jabulani was unpredictable, especially in high altitudes, this ball won't have that degree of unpredictability, sticking to the theme of "transparency".

The CTRUS also boasts the ability to change color thanks to LEDs in the ball, controlled by a CPU (Central Processing Unit, basically a small computer) which utilizes information from a GPS locator and Infra-red positioning indicators. That means a form of goal-line technology! When a team scores a goal, the ball could change and fit the team's colors, and the ball will be able to turn red when it goes out for a throw in, allowing for easier decision making for referees.

The CPU also allows for the CTRUS to properly record the force and speed of a kick! And that's not the only thing, there will be an on-board point-of-view camera (with stabilized image technology) which will allow us to see what the ball sees. If that isn't cool enough, I'm not sure what is...

The CTRUS won the Red Dot Luminary Science award, and has been receiving plenty of attention. This ball certainly seems like something from the future, and a prototype has yet to be made. Yet I have to ask the question, even if it were made and it worked properly and efficiently, would FIFA and UEFA accept it? Sadly, I doubt it, but that doesn't stop me from loving this awesome design, and looking forward to many more interesting things from AGENT.

Here's an awesome video highlighting the amazing things about the CTRUS:

Messi To Win Ballon d'Or?

Will the Argentine be celebrating his second Ballon d'Or?

Having put up a poll some time ago regarding who will win the Ballon d'Or, I've decided to do a little update on what the results are so far. If you haven't voted yet, don't worry! The poll will be up until December 6th, when FIFA announce the winner of the award, so make sure to vote on the right sidebar for who you think will win the Ballon d'Or.

Right now Lionel Messi is sweeping up the competition in our poll, with almost about 27% of the votes going his way! In the first couple of days, there were many votes for Cristiano Ronaldo, but now the tide has slowly evened out to Messi.

Behind Messi is Cristiano Ronaldo with about 20% of the votes. I don't think he's going to win it this year, especially because of his mediocre performance in the World Cup.

And following the two wingers we have Wesley Sneijder, with about 15% of the votes. I think that the Dutch midfielder is the worthy winner for this year's award, having guided Inter to the treble, and then he helped the Netherlands all the way to the World Cup final! In my opinion Sneijder deserves the award.

Arjen isn't happy...

But what has surprised me the most about this poll is the fact that David Villa is last! The Spanish striker who was the key goalscorer for Spain in their World Cup is last in the poll! I truly can't believe it, I expected many more votes for him. And another underachieving player in the poll is Arjen Robben. This Dutch player helped Bayern win the domestic league and cup, and then he took them to the Champions League final where he lost to Wesley Sneijder's team, Inter Milan. Robben also had a fantastic World Cup, scoring plenty of important goals to help take the Netherlands to the final where they lost to Spain.

So I hope you vote in the poll if you haven't already, and here's a funny little blog that I'm running as a little project, it's Poetry about soccer. It's titled Poetry Wrap Up because I couldn't think of a better name, and so far I've done a little haiku about soccer, along with two poems about Barcelona and Real Madrid. So if you're an artistically inclined fan of the beautiful game, or you've got some time to burn, check out Poetry Wrap Up for soccer poems.

And a last random link/video for you to check out! Watch this video below showing the latest Brazilian samba move called, "The Broken Step". It's half elastico, half chop, but to understand it you should see it yourself.

Carling Cup: Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City dumped out

Liverpool's poor start to the season continued as they were sent crashing out of the Carling Cup by League Two side Northampton 4-2 on penalties in a night of shocks.

Nathan Eccleston shows his frustration after missing the penalty.

Abdul Osman scored the winning spot-kick after Nathan Eccleston missed his for Liverpool. Michael Jacobs looked to have sealed an historic win for Northampton in extra-time before David Ngog forced the match to penalties at 2-2. Milan Jovanovic's opener was cancelled out by Billy McKay as the sides were level after 90 minutes.

Shola Ameobi's last-gasp winner secured a surprise 4-3 win for Newcastle to send Chelsea crashing out as well. Nicolas Anelka's two late goals looked to have been enough to force extra-time at Stamford Bridge, but Ameobi's glancing header from Jonas Gutierrez's cross sealed an impressive win for the Magpies.

Chelsea looked set for a comfortable victory after Patrick van Aanholt scored his first senior goal after six minutes, but Nile Ranger, who was at fault for the opener, went some way to atone for his mistake when he equalised shortly before the half-hour mark. Just moments later Ryan Taylor's free-kick put the visitors ahead, and Ameobi scored his first to give Newcastle a 3-1 lead shortly after half-time.

To add insult to injury, Chelsea lost Salomon Kalou to a hamstring injury, and when Yossi Benayoun hobbled off, Chelsea had no option but to continue the match with ten men with Carlo Ancelotti having already employed all three of his substitutes. But two late goals from Anelka, including a casual penalty with three minutes remaining, set up a tense few minutes, but Ameobi wrapped up a memorable victory for Newcastle with his late winner.

Holders Manchester United were forced to come from behind to beat underdogs Scunthorpe 5-2. Josh Wright's long-range strike gave the home side a deserved lead, but it proved to be shortlived as Darron Gibson beat the offside trap to lob Joe Murphy from Chris Smalling's long ball just four minutes later.
After his role in United's opening goal, it was Smalling's turn to get on the scoresheet, netting his first senior United goal to put the visitors ahead.

Scunthorpe could have clawed their way back into the match when Kuszczak palmed Jonathan Forte's long-range effort away, but the ball bounced just in front of his right post before spinning wide.

Scunthorpe battled valiantly, but the gulf in class and fitness began to appear, and the game soon ran away from them with two goals from Michael Owen and one from Park Ji-Sung before Martyn Woolford's 90th-minute consolation.

Ashley Young scored two goals in three minutes as Aston Villa came from behind to beat Blackburn 3-1 at Villa Park. Gael Givet gave Blackburn the lead after 34 minutes before Emile Heskey equalised on the hour mark. And Young's double 13 minutes from time secured victory for Gerard Houllier on his first game in charge of Villa.

West Brom also came from behind to beat Manchester City 2-1. Jo's left-footed strike put the visitors ahead on 19 minutes, but two goals in quick succession from Gianni Zuiverloon and Simon Cox sent Roberto Mancini's men crashing out.

Charles N'Zogbia's 90th-minute strike sealed a late 2-1 win for Wigan at home to Preston North End. Wigan looked to be heading out of the competition after Keith Treacy put the Championship side ahead after 23 minutes, but Jordi Gomez's 87th-minute equaliser looked to have been enough to force extra-time before N'Zogbia spared Roberto Martinez's men's blushes.