Serious about American Sports? Visit SportsGist

If you're an American, serious about your sport and are looking for a site that can live up to your passion, then Sportsgist could be the place for you. This site offers a wide range of facilities for the American sports devotee, or even those who are involved in college recruiting.

SportsGist is for all the best high school sports live

The sheer volume of information and resources available make this site the one stop destination for American sport lovers. Featuring the best in regularly update sports blogs, the most up to date latest news,  user groups devoted to the sports that you love, a wealth of stats for all levels of sport from high school boys and girls through to the major leagues, forums for debate and discussion about your most loved (and most hated) teams, as well as a classifieds section, not forgetting the option of watching all those future stars in the college recruiting video area. 

If you're truly passionate about American sports, you can become a member which allows you to truly make the most of the SportsGist networking experience by allowing you to upload your own videos of your future sports stars as well as making your online sports scrapbook, as well as allowing those involved in college recruiting to get that all important head start in finding the stars of tomorrow. Make SportsGist your next stop.

Beijing Olympics Women's Football - Can USA Finally Win It?

Expert commentary provided by Ross Howard

Women's football has progressed in leaps and bounds, and there can be no further proof of that than in the Beijing Olympics when watching the live Olympics football. There will be a total of 12 international teams taking part in this edition of the football tournament, and gone are the days when women's football will see huge scorelines in the favor of the more established nations. There is now a close resemblance to the men's game in results, as well as the tactical and technical abilities of the women footballers.

The 2008 edition of the women's Olympic football tournament has a number of excellent teams taking part. The usual suspects of Germany, Brazil, Norway and Asian champions North Korea will all be in the mix and shooting for a medal finish. There is also the very popular USA women's football team, who are in a unique position. They are actually on a better standing in the sport compared to their male counterparts, and have won both the Women's World Cup many times, as well as countless international tournament. It is with this pedigree that expectations are often high of the USA women's football team. But the talent pool is also large, with the sport enjoying immense popularity on various levels from the grassroots up.

The questions are therefore unavoidable. Will the USA women's football team win the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics? They certainly have the players to achieve that, although some key players have suffered unfortunate injuries before the start of the tournament. But with other quality players like Hope Solo still available for selection and fit to play, the strength in depth of the USA team is there for all to see. They have also often competed against their strong rivals like Germany and Brazil, and come out on top at the end of it all.

Perhaps the only point that the USA team might need to take note of that might jeopardize their medal hopes, would be their need to avoid complacency within their ranks. They have been grouped in a relatively easy pool of teams in the initial stage, with the likes of Norway, Japan and New Zealand making up the rest of the competition. On paper, the USA women's football team should overcome these teams easily. Yet, with the leveling up of many teams over the years, the USA will have to be at their best to avoid upset results against their group rivals.

As long as the USA women's soccer team can get off to a good start in the tournament, they should have little trouble qualifying from the group stage. The tough competition will come in the knockout stages, where they might have to face difficult teams like Germany and Brazil. With those matches enjoying a nature not unlike Russian Roulette, it will be the luck of the draw for most teams. But if they are able to safely negotiate the group stage, their medal hopes will be increased dramatically, and the USA women's soccer team will have as good a chance to win the gold medal as Germany and Brazil would have.



About the Author

Ross Howard provides commentary on live streaming football telecasts and will be looking forward to live Olympics football when the men and women's competitions begin.

New English Premiership Season

Well, with the new premiership season on the horizon who is going to come out on top. After the amazing climax to last season with the champions and relegation issues resolved on the final day, can we be so lucky as have the same again.

Mr Scolari will be settling into his new post at the Bridge while the longest serving manager will be the obstacle he will have to overcome. What about the rest? Arsenal, too much in house fighting? Or can the players detach themselves from that? Cup team Liverpool, can they really put up a challenge this year? Who knows?

Outside that top four you have the nearly men, who would love to win the championship, but in reality would settle for a top four place and a spot in the champions league. Everton, Villa, Spurs and perhaps Portsmouth seem to be the main contenders, but can one of them really knock down that door and get in?

After that, the teams who will finish up mid table, their only highlight being when the manage to take a few points off the big four and another false dawn appears until the following week when a team from the relegation zone brings them back to earth.

And finally too the relegation zone. The three teams promoted from last year will be favourites to go straight back down. West Brom are probably best equipped to prove me wrong having been over the course before. If they did avoid the drop that leaves a spot for one of last years survivors, Bolton, Sunderland, Wigan and Fulham are waiting in the wings to fill the vacant spot. Fulham are in the best position to be well away from the relegation area if they can continue from where they left off at the end of last season.

- The Aragones Era Begins: Fenerbahce 2-0 MTK Budapest

Luis Aragones' era as Fenerbahce coach begins with this second round first leg victory over the Hungarians.

The team that Brian built

Richard Williams on Brian Clough

It would have been nicer, perhaps, if Brian Clough had died with Nottingham Forest's record of 42 consecutive league matches unbeaten still intact. But at least when Arsenal finally surpassed it just under four weeks ago the old magician's name returned to the sports pages for the right reasons.

Bungs or no bungs, what Cloughie did for Forest was nothing short of a miracle. He took an old and proud but stagnant club and, with the minimum of resources, lifted it to the pinnacle of European football for two years running. While a statue inside the City Ground and his name on a grandstand are the visible signs of his 18 years there, his enduring place in the hearts of supporters ensures that all his successors will be measured by his achievements.

Yet the news of Clough's appointment in 1975 was not met with unanimous delight. To many he was the loud-mouthed upstart who, while rescuing the hated rivals Derby County from near oblivion, had stolen the heart of Johnny Carey's fine Forest side of the late 60s. Terry Hennessey and Alan Hinton were among those who swapped the red shirts for the white as Clough drove Derby to promotion from the Second Division and then to the League Championship.

Worst of all, during the 1971-72 season Clough staged a raid aimed at enticing Ian Storey-Moore, Forest's dashing left-winger and leading goalscorer, to the Baseball Ground. He paraded Storey-Moore at half-time during one of Derby's home games. But the contracts had not been signed, and such was the uproar at the other end of the A52 that Forest's directors were forced to withdraw and sell the prized player to Manchester United instead.

It took months and the arrival of Peter Taylor, his old Derby assistant, for Clough to win the wholehearted support of the City Ground. Now players began to flow the other way, although the early arrivals of John McGovern and John O'Hare from Derby via Leeds, followed by Archie Gemmill direct from the Baseball Ground, were greeted with initial suspicion.

It gradually became apparent that Clough was building a team of substance. Peter Shilton moved from Stoke to fill the goalmouth. At right-back the gangling Viv Anderson left the nearby Fairham Comprehensive to start a career that would make him England's first black player. Larry Lloyd, discarded by Liverpool then Coventry, formed a solid partnership in central defence with Kenny Burns, who was transformed from Birmingham's thuggish centre-forward into a sort of Franz Beckenbauer of the East Midlands. The veteran Frank Clark completed the rearguard, replacing the promising but ill-fated Colin Barrett, plucked respectively from Newcastle and Manchester City.

With McGovern as the water-carrier, the midfield creativity was supplied by the bustling Gemmill, the thoughtful Martin O'Neill and the Scottish left-winger John Robertson - who, along with Burns, was the finest example of Clough's ability to persuade a talent to express itself. The "little fat lad" who beat players through guile and wit would play a crucial role in both Forest's European Cup wins.

Up front were the sparkling Tony Woodcock and the powerful Peter Withe, the latter replaced by the unknown Garry Birtles one unforgettable European night against Liverpool. Later came Trevor Francis, whose fee fell a few coppers short of £1m because that was how Cloughie wanted it and who got on the end of Robertson's cross to win the first European final.

As Clough's eye for a deal began to take precedence over his eye for talent, the failures of Ian Wallace, Justin Fashanu, Peter Ward and others began to chip away at the facade. But the fans continued to enjoy teams packed with players as gifted as Des Walker, Johnny Metgod, Peter Davenport, Stuart Pearce, Franz Carr, Hans van Breukelen, Roy Keane, Chris Fairclough, Steve Hodge and Clough's son, Nigel.

Many of those will be queuing up today to express their gratitude for his influence. Perhaps they will be joined by the two young fans whose ears he boxed when they tried to invade the pitch during a League Cup match at the City Ground one night 15 years ago, earning himself a fine and touchline ban merely for treating them as if they were his own sons.

In the end he stayed too long and had to be eased out. But no manager has left a newly relegated club more wreathed in admiration and gratitude, and few will cast a longer shadow.

1968: Manchester United FC 4-1 SL Benfica

British rule extended into a second season in 1967/68, as Manchester United FC marked the tenth anniversary of the Munich air tragedy by lifting the European Champion Clubs' Cup against SL Benfica in London. United had picked up the gauntlet after holders Celtic FC lost to FC Dynamo Kyiv in the first round. They beat Hibernians FC, FK Sarajevo, KS Górnik Zabrze and Real Madrid CF on the road to Wembley, surviving a number of scares along the way.

Matt Busby's side failed to win a single away game, a statistic that almost cost them dear in the semi-finals. Three-one down in the return leg in Madrid, United were facing a fourth defeat at this stage of the competition until late strikes by David Sadler and Bill Foulkes carried them through, 4-3 on aggregate.

Benfica, meanwhile, had been the first team to win a tie on the new away goals' rule. This helped them past Glentoran FC in the first round, before further wins against AS Saint-Etienne, Vasas SC and Juventus FC, 3-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals. However, Portuguese luck ran out in the final at Wembley, just as it had two years earlier in Portugal¹s FIFA World Cup semi-final against England. Alex Stepney's late save from Eusébio sent the match into extra time after Jaime Graça had cancelled out Bobby Charlton's 54th-minute opener. And when Munich survivor Charlton struck for a second time, the result was beyond doubt, goals from George Best and Brian Kidd merely icing United's cake.

Barcelona - The Rijkaard Years

Frank Rijkaard is a world-renowned football player and coach known for his no-nonsense, aggressive style of play. His tenure as manager of FC Barcelona (familiarly known by its fans simply as Barça) was marked by successes and controversy.

The period in which Rijkaard was brought into FC Barcelona was one of turmoil for the club. The past few years had been very disappointing, accentuated by players and managers coming and going, including the betrayal of vice-captain Luis Figo, who left the team to join their rivals Real Madrid. Newly elected FC Barcelona's new president Joan Laporta desperately wanted to turn things around for the team and began by bringing in Dutchman Rijkaard as manager in 2003. Rijkaard's appointment came as a surprise to FC Barcelona's fans due to his inexperience and tarnished reputation.

Rijkaard had made a name for himself as a player for AC Milan years earlier. Although he had played for other teams before and after, it was during his tenure as a player for AC Milan that he was most known. Rijkaard was known for his aggressive style and hot-headed temperament, which brought him many victories and controversy, respectively.

By the time he sat in Barça's manager's chair, however, he had his temper under control. He had already done two years at the Netherlands national football team, leading them to the Euro 2000 semi-finals, and two years managing Sparta Rotterdam, where he did not fare so well. This so-so performance seemed to light a fire under the young manager, as he came into FC Barcelona with a new purpose. Rijkaard was now known simply as a no-nonsense manager with little flash. He let his and his players' actions speak for themselves on and off the field. They were just out to win the match in the most impressive manner possible.

Though he got off to a slow start (losing to archrivals Real Madrid in December 2003), Rijkaard soon turned the team around. FC Barcelona finished the 03-04 season as La Liga runners-up before Rijkaard brought in new players to round out the team. The addition of the new roster allowed the club to go to win La Liga for two consecutive years in 04-05 and 05-06.

Rijkaard was the first Barca coach to ever win twice at Santiago Barnebeu, their rival's stomping grounds. He was also nominated for UEFA's Team of the Year in 2005 and honored in 2006 for his contributions to the European Cup. He also managed the team to a victory in the 2005-06 Champions League, which made him only the fifth person ever to win the European Cup both as a manager and a player.

After these victories, however, came a drought. The following two years were not so great for the team, culminating in a loss to Manchester United in the Semi-Final of the '07-'08 UEFA Champions League. There was much speculation after this about Rijkaard leaving the club, due to them not winning a trophy for two years. Finally, on May 8, 2008, it was announced that Frank Rijkaard would be leaving the team at the end of the season.

Rijkaard has now been replaced with Barca B coach Josep Guardiola. Many players have left the team and have been replaced with good prospects. What this means for the future of the team has yet to be seen. With the fickle nature of football club presidents and fans, it remains to be seen how Guardiola will measure up to his predecessors.