Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Octopus accurately predicts World Cup results
The funniest things happen during the World Cup.
One would think Paul the octopus would back his own team, just like any other Pom at the international tournament. But this English-born sea creature (born at Sea Life in Weymouth, on the south English coast) is keeping it real.
When two plastic boxes containing food were placed into the octopus' tank in Sea Life, Oberhausen, western Germany, one with a German flag, the other an England flag, Paul lost no time climbing into the German box.
He was right too, Germany beat England 4-1 today in their last 16 clash.
The 'oracle' is on a winning streak. Earlier in the tournament, he correctly predicted Germany would beat Ghana and Australia in their group D matches and that they would lose to Serbia.
So is it just pure luck or is there magic in the water?
Either way, I'm looking forward to following the animal's next predictions.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Why watch people play soccer when you can watch robots?
The 2010 FIFA World Cup is taking the world by storm, and although China didn't qualify for the real tournament in South Africa, they are determined to participate in the world game- robot style.
Over the next three days, China will host the inaugural International Humanoid Robot Olympic Games. (As if hosting the Olympics two years ago wasn't enough.) In this Olympic Games- with a twist- nineteen teams from China, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Germany will compete their shiny, humanoid robots in a number of events including track-and-field, soccer, volleyball, boxing and weight-lifting.
While the competition may not draw the same crowds as the World Cup, the event looks to be a hallmark of the future. The organisers have even gone so far as to claim that the robot Olympics is designed to help make more intelligent robots for use at home. (My Mum always said she would invest in new technology when it could clean the house and cook dinner. Perhaps her waiting days are almost over.)
If you ask me, the robots look like an unsettling mix between evil automatons straight out of Dr Who and toy transformers.
But if robots are more your 'thing', you can have your very own soccer-playing android for the bargain price of $1,000, according to RIA Novosti. (Warning: designing a robot also involves many months of painstaking work. I'm just saying...)
Sounds like it would be easier to just go watch real people kick a ball around, even if the refs are terrible and some of the players are whingers (don't get me started on the vuvuzelas). I'd imagine the boys are easier on the eyes as well. Robots are butt ugly, don't you think?
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Rural Communities Given a Sporting Chance
PERTH GLORY captain Tanya Oxtoby is set to help aspiring young soccer fans kick their own goals this month as part of Football Federation Australia's new Indigenous Football Development Program.
Throughout May, seven sports mentors will team up with Ms Oxtoby to visit rural communities such as Launceston, Shepparton, Alice Springs, Port Augusta, Dubbo and Townsville to give children an opportunity to develop their football skills.
Ms Oxtoby is thrilled to showcase the positive benefits football can bring to young people and hopes to inspire fellow Indigenous players to work towards their dreams.
“The FFA program is not only aimed at promoting the sport, but also getting numbers of Indigenous people playing football throughout Australia a lot higher- not only from the grass roots level but all the way up into the elite levels,” she said.
“We want to develop really good players and get them into A-league and W-League clubs.”
The first visit in May will encourage participation by children and educate the community about football. The second meeting later in June will help form a Perth team to participate in the annual Indigenous Football Festival held in Townsville in July.
“This will give people in communities who wouldn't usually have had the platform to go to Townsville, the chance to meet new friends, try new things and express themselves.”
Ms Oxtoby has come a long way from playing in her local soccer team coached by her father when she was eight, and hopes communities won't let the small percentages of professional Indigenous football players scare off the young hopefuls.
“The pathways are now so much more open than when I was starting off in my career,” she said.
“Players should use their heritage and remoteness as motivating factors, if you want it bad enough, chase after that dream because you never know what will happen.”
Other mentors participating in the development program include A-League players Travis Dodd from Adelaide United and Fred Agius from North Queensland Fury, former Socceroo Alistair Edwards, and football analyst Andy Harper.
Throughout May, seven sports mentors will team up with Ms Oxtoby to visit rural communities such as Launceston, Shepparton, Alice Springs, Port Augusta, Dubbo and Townsville to give children an opportunity to develop their football skills.
Ms Oxtoby is thrilled to showcase the positive benefits football can bring to young people and hopes to inspire fellow Indigenous players to work towards their dreams.
“The FFA program is not only aimed at promoting the sport, but also getting numbers of Indigenous people playing football throughout Australia a lot higher- not only from the grass roots level but all the way up into the elite levels,” she said.
“We want to develop really good players and get them into A-league and W-League clubs.”
The first visit in May will encourage participation by children and educate the community about football. The second meeting later in June will help form a Perth team to participate in the annual Indigenous Football Festival held in Townsville in July.
“This will give people in communities who wouldn't usually have had the platform to go to Townsville, the chance to meet new friends, try new things and express themselves.”
Ms Oxtoby has come a long way from playing in her local soccer team coached by her father when she was eight, and hopes communities won't let the small percentages of professional Indigenous football players scare off the young hopefuls.
“The pathways are now so much more open than when I was starting off in my career,” she said.
“Players should use their heritage and remoteness as motivating factors, if you want it bad enough, chase after that dream because you never know what will happen.”
Other mentors participating in the development program include A-League players Travis Dodd from Adelaide United and Fred Agius from North Queensland Fury, former Socceroo Alistair Edwards, and football analyst Andy Harper.
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