Mississippi native and former Ridgedland high school standout Rachel Givan will be playing in the semifinals of the NCAA Women’s Championship on Friday December 4th.  The Tar Heels who are ranked 3rd in the country defeated #9 ranked Wake Forest 5-2  to advance to the semifinals. 

Given  is a junior defender and has been solid on defense throughout the season. When asked to comment on their big win against Wake Forest, she said ” I am extremely excited to be back in the semifinals.  My teammates and I have been working very hard all season long. We really want to win this championship for our awesome seniors”. 

If the Tar Heels were to advance to the championship game and win, It would be their 20th  NCAA Championship tittle in the 27  year of  the NCAA  Championship. This game will be televised live at 7:00pm  on ESPNU on Friday the 4th.

Good luck Rachel! 

To read more click here http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/113009aaa.html

I am back in the US. I got back last night. I haven’t been able to post stuff on the blog since I was away. Once again, thanks to everyone that participated in the photo competition. I will announced or contact the  winners after I chat with my computer guy who was monitoring the competition while I was gone.

In a few days I will have a post about the Juggling event I have been training for. Actually, I haven’t done much in the last two or three weeks since I was away. I need to get back on track starting today. I am hoping to have 100% participation from all soccer players and parents, because this Juggling event will be a fundraiser for Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital. I will explain everything in a few days. Everyone have a givingthanks happy!!

Landon Donovan won the best goal of the year award for 2009. He was also voted MLS 2009 MVP. He led his team with 12 goals this season. His team, the LA Galaxy will be playing against the Real Salt Lake  for the MLS championship on Sunday. Take a look at this beautiful goal.

VOTING NOW CLOSED!
LETS GET THE VOTING GOING! Call some friends, teammates, family member, classmates and co-workers and ask them to vote for your picture. Anyone can vote. Good luck to the winner.

Get off my back!! I guess we both should open our eyes to head the ball. Guess where the keeper is?

Do you think you have the best soccer picture around? Do you want a chance to prove it? Then check your photo album and pull out the best soccer picture of your son or daughter and enter it into the Dwyane Demmin photo contest. The picture can be an action shot of a player jumping, heading, tackling, falling down, shooting, diving, running or even standing. The picture can be serious or funny; just enter whatever soccer picture you have of your child.

Email the pictures to me at ddemmin34@gmail.com . I will post the pictures on my blog for your friends and family members to vote on. I will select the top male and female pictures based on the number of votes they receive. The pictures with the most votes, will be the winners. The winners will receive 5 days of private quality soccer lessons from me free of charge. The lesson will be one hour and a half for each of the 5 days. The winners will also receive a soccer ball and a T-shirt. Each winner can bring along 2 friends to the lessons(smile). So start calling your friends and family members to vote for you at www.ddemminsoccer.com

I will begin collecting pictures from October 15th to October 20th. Then I will post the pictures on my blog for voting, beginning October 19th. The voting poll will be up on October 27th- November 15th. I will contact the winners to set up the time and dates for training.

Let the competition begin…. by voting for the picture you like the most.

Rules for the contest

1. You can only enter one picture of yourself(choose the best).
2. Anyone can vote @ www.ddemminsoccer.com
3. Email your name and contact number with your picture.
4. You can vote as many time as you like, However you will only be able to vote once from the same computer.
5. If you are from out of state and you would like to send in your picture, you can. I will post it on the blog for viewing, but you will not be able to vote on it.
6. Ages 4-18 can enter the photo contest/boys and girls

#1 Courthney Hurst: Wearing green

#2 Ana Abramson: Wearing green

#3 Luke Bryant

#4 Pera Massy: Wearing green

#5 Taylor Collum: Wearing red

#6 Cameron Strong: Wearing red

# 7 We are having fun in the rain.

#8 Mary Grace Rea

#9 Cheyne Bush: wearing blue top.

# 10 Alex Jwainat

# 11 Parker: Wearing white.

#12 Reilly Reeves: Wearing all red.

Brilla vs Laredo Heat

Superman

Superman

Superman

Superman

Dwyane

Thanks to all of you guys that participated in the photo competition. I thought it was a huge success and I am looking forward to doing another one sometime soon. Currently, I am in Trinidad working on some visa issues and visiting some jungle friends(smile). I will be back in the US on the 24th of  November.

Good luck to the winners and I will have to bring you back a surprise from the jungle(smile).

5  questions that all soccer players must know. Leave your answers in the comment area. Thank You!

1. The referee awards a throw-in to Team Cheyne, Team Cheyen throws the ball to her goal keeper Abi, Abi slips and fall. The ball rolls into the goal without touching Abi or anyone else. Team Solane is jumping and celebrating the goal. What does the referee do?

• Make the player retake the throw-in.
• Allow the goal.
• Give a goal kick
• Give the other team the throw-in.

2.   A player takes a penalty kick and hit the crossbar, it rebounds to this player without touching anyone else. This
player kick it a second time and score. How does the referee restarts play?

• A kick off from the center
  
• Ask the player to retake the kick.
  
• Give an indirect kick to the defense
• Give a free kick on top of the box to the offense team.

3.    What is the hand signal for an indirect free kick?

• There are no hand signal.
• The referee raise his hand in the air until the kick is taken and has touched another player
• The referee points his hand in the direction that the kick is to be taken.
• The referee jumps up and down shouting go ahead.

4.    A player can ask for timeout during a soccer game and the referee must stop the game.

• True
• False

5.   When someone takes a goal kick, the ball only has to go outside the six yard box.

• True
• False

Cheyne  left the correct answers in the comment area. Good job Cheyne.

Rachel Givan

Defending NCAA Champions to host High Point in first round.

We have concluded our ACC season! We had some bumps in the road at the end of our regular season losing to Miami and Florida State.

 However, we pulled out some wins against Maryland and Clemson. We won the ACC tournament which was held this past weekend November 4, 6, 8^th. This makes it our 20^th  ACC championship.

We met Maryland November 4^th in the quarterfinals beating them 3-0. We then played Boston College on the 6^th in the semifinals beating them 1-0 in double overtime! It was an exciting win and we played really well. We then played Florida State in the finals on Sunday, November 8^th we beat them 3-0.

It was a great way to win the ACC championship after losing to Florida State in regular season. We finished the regular season with a record of 17-3-1 and will host High Point in the first round of the NCAA Championship, which begins on Friday November 13^th.

High Point has a record of 7-14-2. They were the winners of the Big South Conference.  The team is very excited for NCAA play. Our seniors are such an amazing class and we are going to work hard and play for them. (Written by Rachel Givan).

To read more about the Rachel givan and UNC women’s soccer click here http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/w-soccer/unc-w-soccer-body.html

Soccer is a rough game but this is a different type of roughness. Everyone seems to be talking about Elizabeth, and they should. My question is, what about the center ref and his assistants. The fact that Elizabeth only got a yellow card late in the game tells me something is definitely wrong with the referees.

The team had to suspend Elizabeth, not the referee. I think someone needs to suspend the referees. Take a look at this video.

click here to read more about Elizabeth Lambert: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=4629837&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

Who is Edeson Arantes Nacsimento?

I am sure you have never heard that name before. But if I were to ask, who is Pele? A name that everyone who has played soccer should know.

Edson Arantes Nacimento is better know as Pele, the legend and perhaps the best soccer player to ever played the game.

He was discovered at age 11 and at the age of 17 he played in his first World Cup. He shocked the world when he scored six goals, including two in the championship game to help Brazil win its first World Cup 5-2 against Sweden.

Shortly after the World Cup, many of the wealthy Europeans Clubs offered huge amount of fees to sign him, but the government of Brazil declared Pele an official natural treasure to prevent him from being transferred out of the country.

He had great speed, excellent vision, excellent control and the ability to shoot powerfully and accurately with both feet. During his career he scored 1,280 goals in 1,360 games. He scored at least one goal in almost every  game. Pele also holds the records for hatricks (92).

Take a look at the greatest player that ever played the game of soccer. The bicycle kick was invented by  Pele.