Nike Portugal Away Jersey-football white/pine green

The authentic 2008 Portugal Players Jersey

Card manufacturers were producing trading cards long before the Dallas Cowboys joined the NFL in 1960. In the 1950's Topps began packaging their signature product, bubblegum, with baseball and football cards. From there, as football grew in popularity, players could find their likeness on items such as milk cartons, soft drink caps, cereal boxes and plastic cups. The emergence of the AFL in 1960 allowed Topps competitors, beginning with Fleer, to make inroads in the business. The 1961 Fleer set featured both leagues, and then they focused on the AFL alone. Philadelphia Gum secured the NFL rights for 1964, forcing Topps to go for the AFL which left Fleer with no product in either baseball or football. Philadelphia Gum produced football card sets featuring Cowboys from 1964 through 1967. In 1982 Topps was licensed by NFL Properties for the first time. Previously, team logos on helmets were removed by airbrush. In the 70's Fleer rejoined the ranks by producing sets of cards called Fleer Team Action and FTA Stickers. They focused on NFL teams not individual players and were able to use team logos. The "card explosion" started around 1989 with new companies joining the fold like Pro Set and Score. By 1992 there were more than 30 brands of football cards. It was a new era for the hobby. You could all but forget about collecting all the cards of your favorite team, but now focus on a favorite player or two. Just to put it all in perspective - with all the parallel, inserts, and variations - in 1995 there were over 250 different cards produced of Troy Aikman.

The Cowboys were an expansion team in 1960. Their first roster was created by choosing 36 players from the 12 existing franchises (three per team). In the first set of cards featuring Dallas Cowboys players, 1960 Topps, all the players were pictured in the uniforms of the teams they departed. The next year they took part in the NFL draft and acquired Bob Lilly with their first ever draft pick. There have been many outstanding players through the years that have donned the blue star on their helmet, several of which are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Only one man held the position of head coach for the first 29 years of the organization - Tom Landry. Coach Landry led the Cowboys to two Super Bowl titles, five NFC Championships, 13 NFC East titles, 18 trips to the playoffs and 20 winning seasons.

There were no plastic holders or sleeves to keep your cards from harms way in the early years. They were rubber banded together and tossed in shoe boxes and the stickers were stuck onto school notebooks or bike fenders. Cards were flipped and traded with your buddies and even thumb tacked or taped on bulletin boards. All these things lend to the value of the cards today. If you were lucky enough to have kept very good care of your cards when you were younger, and your mother didn't toss that shoebox in the attic out with the trash, you could already have a good start to your collection. Now with all the top-loaders, sorting boxes, screw downs and nine-slot binder pages available to the collector, it's much easier to take care of those gems. That is why I consider 1960 - 1990 the vintage years. Those older cards can sometimes be very difficult to find in great condition. That is not to say that the cards manufactured after 1990 have no value or collectible appeal. They just won't be as scarce or hard to find in great condition twenty or even fifty years from now. I encourage you to collect beyond 1990 and on. It's a whole new hobby now with more resources to fill your checklists like the internet and card shows.

The Dallas Cowboys Complete Football Card Guide - Vol 3

A beautifully illustrated 226 page, full-color guide, provides the Dallas Cowboy collector with information on over 6000 different sets from 1960 to 2006.

http://www.thecowboysguide.com/

Italy EURO 2008 Scarf

Country: Italy #622434.RO The Azzurri needs YOU for the EURO 2008

Practice is the key to success in soccer and if you look at most of the top players in todays game, theyre people who work hard for the skills they show on the pitch, often taking training to levels beyond the teams sessions.

David Beckham said that he spent (and probably still spends) several hours per week beyond training, practicing his brilliant free kicks. Juninho Pernambucano, one of todays best long range snipers practices shots after hours, from various ranges. And dont think that Ronaldinho or Cristiano Ronaldos superb dribbling skills were all obtained during team practice, theyre also the result of long hours spent with the ball outside of the normal program.

So if youre striving to better yourself and become a quality soccer player, its mandatory that you practice using soccer drills, either individually, pairing up with a teammate, or with a group of friends or teammates. Ive prepared 3 fun soccer practice drills for each of these setups, hopefully youll find them useful in your training plan.

1. Soccer Drill for Individual Practice Juggling

Juggling the ball may not have any accurate use in a match, because youll rarely (if ever) find yourself the space, time and need to juggle a ball more than twice during a game. However, soccer juggling affects a lot of other base soccer skills and its also one of the easiest and fun soccer practice drills to try out individually.

Soccer juggling affects your ball control ability, since by constantly keeping the ball in the air, you get to naturally understand how hard or soft the ball needs to be hit in order to control it. In-game, this affects your ability to stop and receive balls, as well as your dribbling skills, which often rely on how well you judge the strength and timing of your touch.

Other skills that soccer juggling has a positive effect on include balance, concentration and the ability to control the ball with both feet. Of all soccer drills for individual practice, juggling has the most benefic effects, so its well worth saving up a few minutes every day to juggle, either after practice, or even in your back yard.

2. Soccer Practice Drills for Pairs One on One Dribbling

One on one dribbles work especially well when practiced in a pair. During a match, there will be countless occasions where youll need to take on an opponent one by one and the only way to practice this is with the help of a friend or a teammate.

Its best if your training pair plays on a complementary position, as in someone that you would usually have to dribble against in a match. If youre an attacker or offensive midfielder, youll want to practice one on ones with a defender, or defensive midfielder. Same concept goes the other way around.

It could also be a good idea to switch sides every now and then. After you play the attacker and try to get the ball past your pair, switch positions so that youre the defender and he has the ball. This allows you to develop your attacking and defensive skills as you practice.

Also, in order to make this soccer practice drills more fun, you could keep a score. Whenever the attacker passes the ball past the defender, he gets a point. If the defender takes the ball away or stops the attack, he gets a point. Whoever reaches 10 points wins and you get to switch sides and start over.

3. Soccer Practice Drills for Groups One Touch Passing

If you can find 3 or more teammates to get this soccer practice drill going, it will soon work out wonders to your passing, ball control and agility skills during matches. Heres how it works (Ill assume you have 5 more teammates to work with):

Split yourselves into 2 groups of 3, aligned face to face at a distance of a few yards. Group A starts, with the first player in the line passing the ball to the first player in Group B. After delivering the pass, the first player in Group A moves to the back of the line. The player in Group B receives the ball and one-touches it back to what should now be the second player in Group A and then moves to the back of his own line.

Do this as fast as possible and as accurate as possible, without needing more than one touch. You can play with different distances between the groups and once you get accustomed to the system, you can try passing the ball in mid-air, without allowing it to touch the ball and without the need for a stop. This is harder, as the passes need to be more accurate in order for the soccer practice drill to work.

Niv Orlian is the author and the owner of a Soccer Fans website that provides information on various topics related to soccer.

Did you find this article interesting, useful and well written? Try out 100s of animated soccer drills here.