On the weekend Barcelona was pitted against Getafe and it was the same story as usual, Barcelona needed to win to keep their title hopes alive. In their previous encounter with Getafe, Barca lost 4-0 in a convincing display by the opposition. Barca went into this game looking to avenge their humiliating loss and put the points up on the table to remain in strong contention for the title. I am happy to say that Ronaldinho was the star of the show, which featured a game of highs and lows for the Brazilian.

Ronaldinho Scores The Goal and The Card

Ronaldinho became the hero for Barcelona in the first half with a well timed and thought out run by Samuel Eto’o. On his way down the Cameroonian was able to cut the ball through to the Brazilian who had only one defender to beat and did so by placing the ball in the bottom corner. It was towards the end of the first half where violent tackles began to be made against Ronaldinho and after a few encounters, he retaliated after going down near the half way line. I have the highlights below and if you watch closely, Ronaldinho kicks the Getafe player in the nether regions. The referee had no issues going for his red card. You can see that Ronaldinho feels that he has been hard done by here. He has now received a one match ban for his actions.

FC Barcelona To Appeal One Match Ban

It is in the interests of the club to keep Ronaldinho out on that field playing for the club, so every measure has been taken to get him back for the game on the weekend against Gimnastic. Therefore they will go to the Appeals Committee and present their case of the violent tackles against Ronaldinho leading up to the incident. I hope all goes well for Ron. In another note, today I received my second yellow card this season

Yes it’s that time of the month where I showcase the recent posts that I have made and make them available to you without having to search through the archives. This is also for those newer visitors who have not come across this blog and have missed out on the previous posts. These have been hand picked by me and are probably my favourite posts. This blog has been up for nearly 3 months now and has accumulated around 80 posts in that time, which I’m happy about. The only draw back is that I do not get a lot of visitors to this website and only a few people are benefiting from the advice here so once again I say, if you know someone who plays football or follows football, let them know about Be Like Ronaldinho because they will really benefit from the blog. Now on with the posts.

• Don’t Let Anyone Tell You You’re Not Good Enough
• Having A Shot At Goal
• Going To The Gym While Playing Football - Good Or Bad?
• Top 10 Most Valuable Footballers
• Being Fearless Like Young Ronaldinho
• Having Fun While Playing Football
• Building Up Your Speed
• Chase After Your Dreams
• How To Get Prepared For A Football Match
• Ronaldinho Shines in Barcelona Win
• Never Give Up The Ball Foolishly
• Ronaldinho Freestyle
• Ronaldinho Blogged During The World Cup
• Studying While Playing Football
• 10R Boots After 2 Months
• Ronaldinho’s Much Needed Break And His Future
• Sports Drinks In Cans?
• Talking Back To The Referee
• Hitting The Ball First Time
• The Number One Rule For Team Success

And there you have it. Personally, I love looking back at the posts that I’ve made over the past couple of months and puts things in perspective in terms of how far I’ve come with helping out others. It is also at this time every month that I look back and contemplate reasons as to why I should go on with this blog, so if you enjoy reading this collection of posts, it would be my pleasure to keep going, just as long as I know you benefit from it. If there is at least one person who benefits from the site, then it is good enough reason to continue helping them.

Indoor football, the bizarro version of outdoor football that we all know and love. There are no throw-ins, there are spot kicks from the side line. There are no football boots and you couldn’t even play in them even if you wanted. Personally, I know in my heart of hearts it isn’t for me, even though I have played the game for over 5 years. It can be a lot of fun however, when you play with your mates every week. As I write this, I think about all the times I have had fun when playing this game. It can truly be very enjoyable and a great break away from the seriousness that you face on the field, and the unforgiving nature of that aspect of the game.

What You Need To Take Into Account

It is not very physical, but a very fast game. Therefore, forget about using your shoulder to use body weight to take the ball off other players because you won’t have enough time for that because once you decide to tackle a player, they’ve probably already disposed of that ball. The indoor ball is heavier and smaller than a normal size 5 outdoor ball. So therefore, shot strength that you have might not be good enough, so you need to be aware of that. Your short passing becomes a large part of the game and ultimately determines how your team does and how you do on the court. In addition, all your bursts of speed become a large benefactor for possession, because there is no long distance running like outdoor. Being a court and all, slide tackles are a no go, unless you want a nice court burn on your legs. I hear a lot of people say that those that play indoor are much more skilled than outdoor players.

Here’s What I Say To Them

Every footballer that crosses over to outdoor doesn’t do well and every outdoor player that does the same, has the same outcome. You see outdoor has the physical aspect of running players down, long crosses sent over 35 metres to the other side of the field, pin point passes that go through countless players to see the striker on the other end several metres away and what’s more, you can bicycle kick, dive for headers and kick the football as high up as you’d like, unlike indoor. It all comes down to personal preference. The big bucks are in professional outdoor football, where Ronaldinho and others thrive, however, like the old saying goes:

“Do what you love and the money will follow”

And this applies here. Do whichever you like more and you will do well, on or off the court and financially. I didn’t mention that I went to an indoor game this weekend because my football game got cancelled, did I? The next post you will see here will be the coverage of the Barcelona Vs Getafe match where Ronaldinho received a red card in the 40th minute. Disappointing, but we’ll discuss that tomorrow.

It’s taken me a while to come to this conclusion because there are so many different reasons that there would be a decline in a team’s performance. However, after much observation and countless games of watching under prepared teams, I can safely say that most of the time, the biggest reason a team will suffer with their team work and cohesion is the lack of training that is done together as a team during the week. Some people will say teams need to go have bonding sessions, but what I say to that is bonding sessions socially are good, but in terms of on-field performance, they do not help.

The Success Of The Team Depends On The Turn Out

The turn out at training that is. With more people at training during the week, there is a better chance to work on the passing game of the players and their roles on the field. This means that when it comes to the usual weekend game against another side, you come with a team that has had considerable bonding time on the field and the side will not lack cohesion but rather, understand all the plays and tricks that their teammates might pull. I can’t begin to express the amount of times that I have done a Ronaldinho style trick and my team mates have not seen it coming, even though I do these things all the time at training. The reason here is because it’s these duds that don’t show up to training to understand how I and other people play and let the team down.

Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images

Training Sessions Are Very Important

If you didn’t realise this already, these training sessions that you have with your team are one of the most influential parts about playing football and it is with your team that you will shine. I have never heard of any footballer getting anywhere by individual brilliance alone. Ronaldinho is great individually, but if you see most of his plays involve his team mates, the one-two passes, the back heel flicks and other manoeuvres involve a team mate in some way, and that is what makes the techniques Ronaldinho does, look so great. Your team members are like your arms and legs, they allow you to do a lot more different things that you could not normally do without them. So, if there are any coaches reading this, whether your players show up to training or not can mean the difference between a loss or win on game day, so control the situation.

With the UEFA Champions League Final decided in favour of AC Milan, Barcelona can no longer claim to be the best in Europe or the world for that matter. As you might know, Barcelona was kicked out of the Champions League nearly 3 months ago and it was the first post that I made about Barcelona unfortunately. Liverpool ironically went all the way to the final to face Milan and have come out second best. Small revenge smile for Barca fans right now

Goals Of The Game And Thoughts

The first goal came for Milan in a fire of freakiness. Pirlo stepped up to take a free kick for AC Milan before the half time whistle was to blow. Once struck, the ball went towards the goal only to take a wild deflection off of Filipo Inzaghi’s shoulder and sent goal keeper Reina wrong footed as he watched the ball sail past him. Other than that, the game was quite a normal one and was nothing special in my opinion and many others can vouch for what I’m talking about. I must say the next two goals scored by Inzaghi and Kuyt for AC Milan and Liverpool respectively, are good goals. You can find these highlights below. Barcelona for next year