USA Soccer on the rise.

Most people say soccer is the most popular sport internationally except in the US. However, Interest in soccer within the United States has grown rapidly starting in the 1990s. This has been attributed to the fact that the 1994 FIFA world cup was played in the United States, the first time the event was held in the U.S. This won the sport more attention from both the media and casual sports fans. American soccer is now gaining popularity all over the country due to the arrival of superstars in the American League, the trail of success of the United States men’s and women’s national teams, and more youth sports organizations adopting soccer into their programs.

First, the Arrival of superstars in the American League helped to boost the Major League Soccer (MLS) and consequently, the soccer popularity in the country. The Arrival of David Beckham has clearly had a positive impact on soccer in the US. Not since the US Women’s National Team won the 1999 Women’s World Cup has the sport generated such mainstream interest. What has not received equivalent coverage is that before Beckham’s signing, soccer in the US – particularly Major League Soccer (MLS) – was at its strongest point ever and already poised for significant growth. Attendance is another area that Beckham has already impacted positively. The Galaxy has sold an additional 7000 season tickets since the Beckham signing – increasing revenue by $5 million compared to 2006 – and will almost certainly sell-out all of its post-Beckham arrival matches at the 27000-seat Home Depot Centre. Despite its worst ever start to a season, the team is averaging around 24000 per match, up 3000 on last season and top among the 13-team MLS (the league has averaged approximately 15000 per match over its first eleven seasons, well below its potential yet still ranking it among the top-12 leagues in the world). In fact the arrival of superstars to the professional soccer league in America brought not only more supporters to the ‘beautiful game’ but also, commercial impact and more revenues. Therefore, American soccer is now gaining popularity all over the country due to the arrival of superstars in the American League.

Second, the trail of success of the United States men’s and women’s national teams helped to gain a place in the American hearts. Unlike in most soccer playing nations, the growth of the women’s game in the U.S. has helped increase overall interest in soccer in the United States. Both the 1999 and 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cups were held in the United States, and the United States has emerged as one of the best national teams in the world. They are currently the ranked first in the FIFA Women’s World Rankings, have won two of the five FIFA Women’s World Cups held thus far, and have also won gold medals in three of the four Olympic women’s football tournaments held to date. The crowd of over 90,000 at the Rose Ball for the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final remains the largest crowd in the world ever to witness any women’s sporting event. About the men’s national team, after hosting the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the team proved its value reaching the quarterfinal in the 2002 World Cup and more recently, were Runners-Up at the 2009 FIFA Confederation Cup losing to Brazil. Such results describe before will certainly make more Americans to be keen on soccer. So, with the success of both men’s and women’s national teams, the US are taking a leap forward to make the sport popular in the country.

Third, more youth sports organizations adopting soccer into their programs. Until 1980s, most high schools did not offer soccer at all, and youth soccer programs were extremely rare until the 1970s. Thus, older generations of Americans living today grew up with virtually no exposure to the sport. In recent decades, more and more youth sports organizations have turned to soccer as either a supplement to or a replacement for American football in their programs. This is primarily for economic reasons, as cash-strapped programs find it more difficult to justify the high costs of American football, due to the large amount of expensive equipment required, while at the same time the insurance risks associated with American football are far greater. For instance, Bubba Hunt, the general manager of the Columbus Youth Soccer Club (CYSC), thinks that this generation of soccer players is the one to do it, too. In 1996, six years into Hunt’s youth soccer career, he noticed an increase in the number of kids playing in clubs. Hunt attributes this to the inclusion of soccer units in elementary school physical education programs. The U.S. Youth Soccer League, the largest youth sports organization in the United States, has noted a dramatic rise since it was established over 30 years ago: from 100,000 registered players in 1974 to 3.2 million registered players today. Despite the growth of men’s women’s professional soccer in the United States in the last few decades, by far the largest category of soccer in the United States, at least in terms of participation, is boys and girls youth soccer. Therefore, the rising of youth soccer clubs contributes to increase the soccer popularity.

American soccer is now gaining popularity all over the country due to the arrival of superstars in the American League, the trail of success of the United States men’s and women’s national teams, and more youth sports organizations adopting soccer into their programs. However, soccer in America still faces challenges in the US; particularly they compete in a crowded sports marketplace which includes the major US professional sports such Baseball, American Football, Basketball and Ice Hockey. Only with massive investment in the youth sport, soccer will move closer to becoming a ‘soccer nation’.

Mid Term – Traveling alone for the first time

About a Year ago, I’d went on vacation from college in the end of the year before when my parents and my realtives scheduled a banquet in a exquisete restaurant located in the main avenus in São Paulo.to cameback my cousin, a 29 year manwho has just came from a 2 month traveling alone around South East Asia visiting the most exotic countries that I’d seen just on the TV. On the day of the dinner, my family and I, arrived late in the dinner because of the huge traffic in rush hour. When I got into the restaurant,I came across my cousin who I greeted very happily, after the basic snapping patter about the trip, he said that he had gotten something for me and gave a 500 pages guide book with all the information about Europe. When he had just gave me that book I decided what I was going to do on that vacation.

Trying to plan everything as perfect as possible , I started to choose the main countries that i had to visit. After that,I made some hostel reservations,  bought train passes and others pre plan actions to make the trip cheaper and less stressful. After 10 full days balacing the book, I was ready to explore the whole country alone. My mother was reluctant at first to let me go to this trip, but did it after she realize that it would be a real life experience for me.

Just when I arrived in Lisboa to start the trip, I faced with my first problem: I found that the hostel where I should spend that night was closed. At that point, worring to save money for the rest of the trip, I slept that day inside the airport. Also, as a brazilian used to live in a tropical country, I faced problems with the freezing winter in some countries. In my opinion that was the biggest problem I had faced in this trip  because I planned to visit tall the places, monuments and other places so forth on foot, trying to use at least a public transportaion around so, I faced with the cold weather almost every day in this trip. Moreover I had almost got  pickpocket a couple of times. The positive side was that i had contact with people all over the world, learning different cultures, people and beliefs.

 

I’d spent exactly 47 days travelling the whole continent from the Atlantic Sea of Portugal to the cold lands of Finland. I say that is a special vacation for me because it was my first travelling alone and I learned a huge experience to live by myself. From this time, I have realized that it had been the best days of my life 

 

Writing 2 – Against Marijuana Legalization

Legalizing the marijuana use in the country? Definitely a bad idea. This trend started in the Netherlands, is spreading all over the Europe and even some US states are considering legalize the use. In Brazil, more and more politicians are considering legalizing the marijuana use.The legalization of marijuana in Brazil will be a step behind because smoking the herb is extremely unhealthy, it won’t reduce the crime rate in the country, and it is a gateway drug that leads to the use of harder and more dangerous drugs.

The first reason why the legalization of marijuana will in Brazil be a step behind is the fact that smoking the herb is extremely harmful. According to those in favor of legalization, marijuana is an innocent substance that is nowhere near as damaging as tobacco or other drugs, and it offer benefits to those suffering cancer. However, the truth is the opposite. According to an American Cancer Society article, marijuana impairs the immune system, enhances tumor growth and causes bronchitis and lung cancer, thanks to it containing four times the amount of the carcinogenic substance known as tar, which is also used in cigarettes. In addition, the effects of using marijuana include psychological effects. A number of studies indicate that marijuana use negatively impacts such cognitive functions as concentration, learning, and memory, also cause coordination and perception impairment and a number of mental disorders including depression, hostility and increased aggressiveness, general apathy, memory loss. For example, Marcos T. de Souza, 26, will never forget about his car accident in the night of March 27th, 2006. Driving in high speed under the influence of marijuana, he crashed his car against a truck which resulted in 2 two broken legs, severe injure in his face and, the worst of it, became paralytic from the neck down. Driving under the influence of marijuana also contributes to traffic accidents which regularly result in injuries and death. Therefore, the government should think twice before passing a law legalizing the use of marijuana in the country.

The second reason why cannabis should not be legalized in Brazil is the fact that it won’t reduce the criminality rate in the country.  Advocates for legalizing say that it will take the drug industry away from organized crime and it will reduce the drug related crimes. Again, this is a myth. It is know that the production, transport, the commerce and all the logistics of cannabis process is still in the organized crime and making it legal, will increase their profits. Job Cohen, Mayor of Amsterdam since January 1^st, 2001, decided to close half of the 78 coffee shops located in the center of the city by three main reasons: the crime rate in the city rose 23% from the year before, these places are used by the organized crime as money laundering and the city became a drug tourism route, attracting thousands of drug addicted people. Therefore, if the Brazilian government legalizes the drug as a solution to cut the high crime rate in the country, the effect will certainly be adverse.

The third reason why cannabis should not be legalized in Brazil is because it is a gateway drug that leads to the use of harder and more dangerous drugs. It is proved that the THC (tetrahydrocannabiol), the main psychoactive substance found in cannabis, is highly addictive. The substance acts in the brain’s reward system by liberating dopamine and to achieve the same effect of pleasure, the user start taking higher doses which results in addiction. The abstinence of the reward effect in brain leads the user to find pleasure in other drugs such cocaine and crack. According to the Drugs Prevention National Service 41% of the cannabis users from the State of Ceara which entered in contact with the institution admitted have consumed cocaine or crack besides marijuana. The Rates are even higher in the State of Para and São Paulo with 70% and 63% respectively. It shows that consuming the herb, the user became closer to the other drugs. Therefore, if the Brazilian government legalizes the drug as a solution to cut the high crime rate in the country, the effect will certainly be adverse.

The legalization of marijuana in Brazil will be a step behind because smoking the herb is extremely unhealthy, it won’t reduce the crime rate in the country, and it is a gateway drug that leads to the use of harder and more dangerous drugs. Law must be reinforced to punish drug dealers more severely. Also, the government must invest more on drug campaign prevention. All these solutions are necessary to prove that legalizing the marijuana is definitely a bad idea.

Renato Writing 1

Several years ago, just don’t remember exactly when it was, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, my dad and I decided to watch one of the greatest derbies in Brazil: Sao Paulo, the team I support, play against Corinthians at Morumbi stadium.

Although we had already bought the tickets a couple of days before the game, we left home early in the afternoon heading to the stadium about two hours before the(beginning of the game to avoid traffic and huge lines to get in to the stadium. We were also looking forward to finding a good place to park on a street near Morumbi.

Half way to the stadium, we started to face the huge traffic with plenty of street vendors, selling snacks and beverages in the middle of the street, yelling and sometimes begging to the car drivers to buy at least, a drink. I was feeling anxious the closer we got to the stadium. My heart started to beat faster as my T-shirt became soaked due to the excessive sweating. Just near the stadium, both of us started to see that something was really awkward around us: too many Corintianos. My dad, caring for our security, looked for a way to get us to the right side of the stadium. Our hopes ended when, out of the blue, we bumped into a throng of Corinthians fans hounding the only two sao paulinos: us. To our luck, neither my dad nor I were wearing SPFC T-shirts, so about half hour before the game, we parked our car in a very residential street with just only big houses and we headed to the stadium on foot.

Despite the problem we faced just before the game, it was worth watching it at the stadium because not only was it exciting but also my team won that day. Just before some minutes to the final whistle, we left the stadium together with a few people, who just like us, wanted to avoid the huge traffic around the stadium just after the game. Heading to our car among Corinthians supporters, we could see the sadness in their faces after losing to Sao Paulo. On our way to the car, a SPFC fan, a kid of about 15 wearing a Sao Paulo T- shirt came across the mob. I was just wondering how he had gotten there, probably lost. Having no chance to defend himself, he was immediately surrounded by a dozen of trouble makers who were much bigger than he was and started to beat him mercilessly.

At that moment, I felt helpless. I wouldn’t face the group alone, trying to stop such a coward act like this one. The big guys left the kid lying down unconscious on the street. This incident really shocked me. I was about the same age as the boy and I’d never seen such violence before my eyes. I had been thinking about it for days and it is still fresh in my memories. The lesson I learned from that day is that I need to tolerate the differences among people because the poor kid was beaten for supporting a different soccer team.