GOLO

Here is a collection of 10 of the best goals this week:

Scoring goals is a state of mind.

Howto Improve Your Play: Get Some Rest

A recent Stanford study has found that athletes performed better on their drills & exercises after increasing their sleep times. Specifically, improvements were observed after the athletes extended their sleep to 10 hours a night for five to six weeks. Ten hours is probably more sleep than many of us can afford, but the study still demonstrates just how much sleep matters to your performance.

So are you getting enough sleep to perform at the highest level?

Visualize Your Performance

A great way to help you prepare mentally for a big game is to visualize your skills.

Imagine your self on the field playing. Imagine a soccer situation, receiving the ball with pressure on you, and how you can deal with it. Visualize scoring goals. Visualize winning tackles. Visualize making the big game winning play.

But don't just take it from me.

Visualisation by Wayne Rooney

“I always like to picture the game the night before: I’ll ask the kitman what kit we’re wearing, so I can visualize it. It’s something I’ve always done, from when I was a young boy. It helps to train your mind to situations that might happen the following day. I think about it as I’m lying in bed. What will I do if the ball gets crossed in the box this way? What movement will I have to make to get on the end of it? Just different things that might make you one per cent sharper.”

Goals Goals Gols Gols

US WNT wins Four Nations Cup: Highlights

Technique, Technique, Technique

Gerard Piqué:

I think when you're young the most important thing is the technical stuff: how to control the ball, how to pass the ball short and long, how to treat the ball really well. And maybe the results are not so important. I remember when I was really young and we played against all the Catalonian teams, Barcelona against Espanyol and all the others. Espanyol always wanted to win, to get the results, and they worked a lot physically with all the young lads. It's good to work the physical stuff, but when they're older they need the technical stuff to be different. Now with Messi and Iniesta and Xavi, they are all really great players because they are technically very good. Maybe physically they are not so good. Now the soccer in America, it has to get more technical than physical, you know. The difference between La Masía and all the others is they do the technical stuff for the lads.

Read the rest.

Know Your Options

Here is Andres Iniesta talking about his soccer development:


And here are two of his best match winning moments.



Watch it again. You can see how he moves to make space for a shot before the pass is played AND his body is shaped to be able to strike in one touch.

Then there is this one..maybe you remember it.