Guardiola Steps Down

Wow! So the great mastermind behind the mesmerizing style and incomparable success of what has arguably been the greatest team in history of football, Jose Pep Guardiola, announced that he won't renew his contract with the blaugrana at the end of this season.

Throughout the four years that he coached at Barcelona Jose Pep Guardiola achieved 13 major trophies including 3 consecutive La Liga titles, 2 Champions Leagues, 2 Club World Cups and 2 Super Cups, and he still has a chance to win his 2nd Copa del Rey before the end of his contract this season. The young coach not only achieved great success consistently throughout his regime at Camp Nou, but also dominated rivals like Real Madrid with his eye-catching style of play.

Some might argue that all Guardiols's success was only due to the group of players he was lucky to have in his team and that anyone with such lineout would be able to win titles, but we all have to realize that even though he did have an amazing team, they wouldn't have been able to get anywhere without a mastermind leading them. Take chelsea, a team not at the same level as barcelona but certainly with a world class squad. The blues were no good without a suitable boss in charge, but when a leader that could handle the big names took over, the same players that were considered out of form began doing the unthinkable, and proved everybody wrong. With that in mind, next season the same Barcelona will probably not be able to achieve as much success as they did under Guardiola, and for that matter I don't think that what Pep accomplished will ever be repeated in the future.

For those of us that follow the game closely, it is clear that Pep Guardiola has earned a break from performing at the highest level, and all we can do is hope that he will come back to the big stage soon, as football needs the man who showed the world in every game that it is in fact a beautiful game.

Lightweight Obsession

Over the past couple years weight has "sprinted" its way up the priority list of football boot manufacturers. we have gone from adding an extra ounce of weight to the sole of the boot in order to have a more powerful shot to lightweight insoles because any extra padding might slow you down on the field.

the hole idea of an ultralight football boot emerged with the introduction of concept boots by Nike (Mercurial SL) and Puma (V1.815). Since then the world of football boots has developed an extreme case of anorexia, where nothing will ever be light enough.

This obsession picked up in 2010 with the revolutionary (and advertisement packed) launch of the adizero, the boot that changed the meaning of F50 from ultimate personalization to lightweight performance.

The adizero were a massive hit during the WC, and puma followed and topped adidas' extraordinary achievement with their own take at the world's lightest boot: the V1.10 SL.

and so the race began, holding the title of "lightest boot" has become as much of an obsession for all manufacturers as it is for Roman Abramovich to win the UCL.

As a result adidas has now modified all their line-outs to meet the lightweight requirements and even went a step further to create an SL version of their already "superlight" boots, resulting in players all over the world having to pay more money for less boot (just think about how many of the pro's actually wear SL versions of adidas' boots).

Adidas are not the only example of this, as Nike also created their Elite series that failed miserably because of their outrageous prices.

All kinds of brands are being sucked into the lightweight obsession, as an example Pele Sports currently holds the crown of lightest boo in the world with the Trinity 3E

Now don't get me wrong, the hole idea of an ultralight football boot doesn't bother me at all, in fact I prefer to wear minimalist boots that have as little extra material as possible. The problem comes when we take the concept out of proportion and start replacing all the traditional heritage boots with their "SL" counterpart. Puma with the king SL, Mizuno with the Morelia neo, and to top it all off Adidas with the adi-not-so-pure 11pro and the upcoming meteor that is the LZ, that will mark the end of the real Predator that we all know and love.

The idea behind lightweight shoes is that if your legs have less weight to carry you don't get as tired and will sprint faster for longer periods of time. In my opinion if you sacrifice comfort and support for lightweight your feet have to do all the work to keep you stable which in some cases could mean more energy being used on stabilization and less on sprinting. At the end of the day if it is true that every gram is going to drag you back then you shouldn't wear shin-pads, or socks, or even a shirt because all that added weight will slow you down.`

The bottom line is, if you are fast, you are fast no matter what shoes you wear (as an example Messi terrorized defenders in La Liga wearing Tiempos before the idea of a sub-7 ounce shoe crossed anybody's mind) and if you are not a pair of "SL" boots wont make you catch up with Usain Bolt in a 100m sprint.

From The Spot

Breathing heavily and filled with adrenaline, you step up and claim the sphere like it is your own child. Nobody will take this chance from you after working so hard for it. You carefully place it on the edge of the white spot and take a few steps back. Its the calm before the storm. You look up and realize the three posts seem much closer together now that there is a titan between them. After almost 90 minutes of giving all you have your heart is trying to escape from your chest but with a deep breath of fresh air you manage to put it at wrest. As the official demands everybody to stand behind the white line you get a chance to fix your socks and set your mind straight. You hear the titan heavily clashing his hands together but you have been preparing for this moment. Suddenly the world around you starts to fade out. The heavy breathing from the awaiting stampede behind you disappears and it is now just you and the so familiar sphere. You have been practicing this act every night and from the moment you stepped up to the spot you knew how it was going to end. You have been writing your destiny throughout the restless nights on the grass, letter by letter, strike by strike. When the high pitch whistle screams through your ears you take a deep breath, calmly jog up to the spot and strike like you have done many times before. It doesn't matter how small the gap is between the titan's long arm and the right post because all you needs is that narrow gate in the bottom right corner. As you look up you hear the cold white metal's noise. after the so familiar sound the ball caresses the net behind the beaten soul laying on the ground and you lift your arms in relief and satisfaction.