Tag: Soccer

Common Goal

by Cole Pontefract, posted in Fundraising, Soccer

For those of you who follow soccer or the premier league, you would know being a manchester united fan is not easy right now. From losing to teams with not as much class to losing some of our best players consequential to bad ownership.

Through all of the bad that is going on with the club, there are many positive and bright things coming for the club in the near future. From the staff itself to some of the players. Time will only tell what happens to the club on the sports side but when it comes to the players, it is amazing. One of the best examples is by Juan Mata, the 31-year-old from Spain has started a fund-raiser called common goal.

It’s for soccer players to donate 1% of their salary a week. Where if you sign up, you donate 1% of your salary to charities. Now when you think about how much soccer players earn, it is mind-blowing.

Some making up too $500,000 pounds a week. (Nearly 850,000 Canadian dollars a week!) Some big-name players like Serge Gnabry, Mats Hummels, Peter Schmeichel Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool manager)  and Juan Mata himself all doing this. Most of them making at least $200,000 pounds a week each.

The other real positive thing about this is that Mata is very humble about this and not doing this to look cool or sound like a good person. No one told him to do this, and no one made this idea for him. Things like this are very positive for a team like manchester united where the owners could almost look up at Mata and the little things like this. 

Image result for common goal"

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UEFA Champions League

by Cole Pontefract, posted in Soccer

Personally, soccer is the greatest sport on the planet. It’s also currently the most played sport in the world with over 300 million people playing it for a team. And many many more are also playing for fun. Think about this, the record for the most watched super bowl is 144.4 million people watching. That’s a lot. Now, we have the world cup final. Over 3.5 billion people were either watching listening or playing. (Russia 2018 world cup final France vs Croatia)

But the world cup happens every 4 years and that is countries. There is another competition that is called the Champions League. 32 of the best teams across Europe compete in one tournament. This year though, it was something else. Records were set here and there.

One of those records were set by a team named ‘AJAX’ from the Netherlands. No one thought they would have got to the Champions League semi-final but they did! They beat a team where one of the other team’s players was worth of all of AJAX’s team including the bench. The record that AJAX set was the first time ever a team has made it to the semi-finals after making it through 3 qualifying rounds. (Qualifying rounds are for teams outside of England, France, Germany and Spain)

The other really important record set this year is related to resilience. This year, there have been 7 comebacks. In Champions League you play two games and you play one home and away. It’s pretty complicated but to explain it easily, if you get more goals you go through and if it’s a tie then the team with more away goals goes through. (Away goals are goals you scored when you play away from home in the other game)

I think that this year’s Champions League can teach us all about resilience and how to believe. Believe you can do the impossible or believe in yourself and the people around you.

Image result for champions league

Youth World Cup (Gothia Sweden) fund raising

by Cole Pontefract, posted in Soccer, Sports

So, as the school year approaches and the soccer season starts up again, my team and I all have Gothia on our minds now. Every single thing we do now is to help us in the near future. So far I have raised quite a bit of money by going to people’s door and asking if they would be interested in buying a raffle ticket to win a gift basket from a local Cafe and a wine bottle from Napa Valley. I am doing some other things but now it’s time for me to do a GoFundMe.

GoFundMe is a way for people to donate to me and is an awesome company founded by Brad Damphousse and Andrew Ballester back in 2010. Since then, the company has raised over 5 BILLION dollars! That’s right you read that correct, 5 billion dollars. Not only is it a way to raise money, but it is a way to share your stories to others and why you are doing this and other things like how you got to where you are now.

Using this link here, even you can help me achieve this dream by donating.  By the beginning of the may long weekend 2019 I need to have raised $3000 dollars minimum. It is very appreciated if you would donate.

Image result for gothia sweden world cup

Image result for gothia sweden world cup

Image result for gothia sweden world cup

World Cup Predictions

by Cole Pontefract, posted in Soccer, Sports

On June 14, the 2018 Russia world cup starts! The last world cup was in Brazil and Germany won. They beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time. The tournament starts out with 8 groups with 4 nationalities in each group and there are 32 teams in total. In this post, I will be predicting the 2018 World Cup.

Groups

Group A: Russia, Uruguay, Egypt and Saudia Rabia|Group B: Iran, Spain, Portugal and Morocco| Group C: France, Peru, Denmark and Australia| Group D: Argentina, Croatia, Nigeria and Iceland| Group E: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland and Costa Rica|Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden and South Korea|Group G: England, Belgium, Panama and Tunsia| Group H: Colombia, Japan, Poland and Senegal

 My Predictions

In group A, I predict that Uruguay and Egypt are going through. In group B, Spain and Portugal. Group C, France and Denmark. Group D, Argentina and Iceland. Group E, Brazil and Costa Rica. Group F, Germany and Sweden. Group G, Belgium and England. And last but not least, Group H, Colombia and Poland.

Now, in the tournament tree, on the left-hand side for the round of sixteen, Uruguay lost to Portugal 2-1, France beat Iceland 3-1, Brazil beat Sweden 4-1 and Belgium beat Poland 2-0. On the right-hand side of the tournament tree, Spain beat Egypt 3-1, Argentina beat Denmark 4-1, Germany beat Costa Rica 4-0 and Colombia lost to England 2-1.

In the quarterfinals on the left-hand side, France beat Portugal 4-2 on PK’S after being a 1-1 draw and Brazil beat Belgium 3-1. On the right-hand side, Spain beat Argentina 2-0 and Germany beat England 3-1.

In the semi-finals on the left-hand side, France beat Brazil 3-2 and on the right-hand side, Germany beat Spain 1-0.

In the third place game, Spain beat Brazil 1-0. And, in the 2018 World Cup Final, I predict that Germany will beat France 2-1.

What You Have To Know

This is a prediction and this is not who I want to win. Yes, I am cheering for England, Germany, France and Iceland but mainly for Germany and England. I would also like to see Iceland do well since it is there the first time in the world cup. I think Iceland will do well because of how well they played in the 2016 Euros. (Portugal won)

Russia World Cup 2018 Tournament Tree 2

 

Sports

by Cole Pontefract, posted in Soccer, Sports

LatelyIMG_6354 I have been playing a lot at school( At SMUS) and at home.

I have been playing Soccer, Hockey, Cross Country and lots of others.

I have been playing for a team on Bays United and in our first game we won 3-1!

IMG_6418_2 IMG_6487_2 IMG_6500_2I scored all of the goals!

My first team I got traded because there where to many players on the other team!

I have also been playing the viola at home and at SMUS.

What sports do you like?