A sense of nostalgia sets in when thinking of Pelé, arguably the best footballer of all times, and the one that gave “Futebol bonito” to Brazil and to the rest of the world. Pelé’s memorable moments include the bicycle kick, winning three world cups for Brazil out of their total of five, and being one of the best ambassadors football could ever want and need. Nostalgia is only present because we can no longer see Pelé play football, now at 71 years of age.

“When football stars disappear, so do the teams, and that is a very curious phenomenon. It is like in the theatre, in a play, where there is a great star. If the star is not well, the whole cast suffers.” – Pelé

Pelé paved the way for other world greats, inspiring the football played by John Cruyff and his Dutch national team, Ronaldo and the great Brazil team he led to victory in 2002, and an endless list of attacking footballers that combined a touch of power, with a whole lot of finesse, unquestionable talent, and desire to become the best.

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pelé

Pelé’s career started on the streets of São Paulo in poverty, where at a young age, Pelé could not afford a football but used socks stuffed with newspapers or grapefruits as replacement. Now the biggest name in the history of football, Pelé began with a promise to his father, at only 9 years of age, that he will win a World Cup for Brazil one day. The influence of street football and futsal are very clear in Pelé’s playing style and what made him different from other footballers. He describes his career as a hard working career, that he wasn’t born the best, that he worked his way into becoming the best.

“I don’t believe there is such a thing as a ‘born’ football player. Perhaps you are born with certain skills and talents, but quite frankly it seems impossible to me that one is actually born to be an ace football player.” – Pelé

When hearing Pelé talk about his career, one thing is clear above all – he’s grateful for everything football has given him. Often “O Rei” describes football as the source of everything he has and that as he gets older, the desire to give back to the game becomes stronger and stronger.

The Art of Pelé

My life has been covered in books, magazines, newspapers and television more times than I can remember but this is the first time that it has been captured through art.

Art is in my heart. As a sportsman I expressed it on the pitch through the beautiful game, and now with the Art of Pele, I have the opportunity to express myself on canvas.

Under the guidance of South African artist Athol Moult, Pelé has created a unique and colourful collection of 42 original art works. Bold and simple graphics capture the story of his extraordinary rise from selling peanuts on the streets to buy soccer boots, to scoring an incredible 1283 professional goals, 12 of them in World Cup final tournaments.

It’s a fascinating collection of snapshots documenting Pelé illustrious career – and you can see the making of the art below:

From each original piece there are Limited Edition Prints personally signed by Pelé, a highly valued item for the sport memorabilia collector or art enthusiast. There are also high quality prints of each original artwork.

To view the art collection, visit Art of Pelé.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

A brand new publication brought to the general public courtesy of Football Friends Media. This is a book full of football tales provided by real life fans who have a love for the game rather than seasoned journalists.

There is a refreshing level of raw talent throughout the publication, names of aspiring writers who will be seen in print a lot more in coming years.

With so many magazines and football books on the market it was important to be different, this has been achieved by the team at Football Friends Media (FFM) recruiting writers by word of mouth, directly from universities and most importantly giving their readers the chance to write for the publication.

When you go to your local newsagents, scan the titles, you will always see copies of 442, Match and Shoot and in many places, When Saturday Comes. All of which have an excellent following, something that TLF aims to win over so they become their readers.

Whilst Match and Shoot are generally aimed at young readers, the other two are set to be long-term competition for TLF. The book is over 100 pages long and full of stories and anecdotes, something that made the read so much more enjoyable was that there was no need to battle past pages of advertising as there was not a single advert in it.

There was a huge variety in pieces, ranging from a fantastic and emotional tale of one of the first black footballers whose career never reached he its’ full potential due to his skin colour. For those who can remember Ipswich’s fantastic UEFA Cup run in the last decade, there is a piece looking back at the adventure.

TLF is available via FootballFriendsOnline.com for £4.99 if you want a hard copy, and for those who would prefer to download it to their Ipad or Kindle, then the digital version is £0.99. There is even a ‘try before you buy’ option which allows you to read some examples of the work.

This is a fantastic publication, one that will hopefully become a regular one, it has the feel of a community project, where anybody can get involved if they want to.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The first impression you get while playing Football Manager 2012 is how it’s improved as an imitation of the real thing – a genuine simulation of what it means to be a football manager, inasmuch as you can simulate the experience digitally.

Granted, there are no fans screaming pedophile chants at you, the BBC isn’t running documentaries about your son and no one stopping you from managing Barcelona as your first job.

But when it comes to football, and specifically, the myriad of opportunities available to a person wanting the experience of managing a football club, Football Manager is miles ahead of what you can expect.

Miles has been talking about the new features for the last month or so, but instead of features I’ll be talking about what broad changes you can expect in your playing experience.

Delegate, Delegate, Delegate

Your assistants are now better at ‘assisting’ you. During training they will make recommendations on which areas a certain player needs a special focus in, or evaluate a player’s previous training levels and make recommendations accordingly. Leading up to a match you will get feedback on your match preparation and whether you need to change focus based on the next opposition’s strengths and weaknesses. You can also create ‘Shouts’ – a set of touchline instructions that players can automatically apply, as they would in the real world based on their training. In other words you can ask your team to tighten up and defend better instead of asking them to do 5 different individual things. You know, as you would in real life.

The 2012 edition of Football Manager makes you realise more than any previous edition the sheer amount of work that goes into running a football club (thankfully SI stick to the footballing aspects of the game), and that you can be as involved as Arsene Wenger, running the rule over every player’s training and customising it, or delegating to a strong team of coaches and trusting your team like Alex Ferguson.

Realism

Player / Coach negotiations are now more realistic, thanks to the subtleties of personality, tone of voice and the ability to lock certain aspects of your contract offers (for example if you have a wage ceiling but can afford higher bonuses).

There’s a bit of randomness in there – in one installation Berbatov’s agent happily accepted a reduced contract extension, in the other he wanted a pay raise – but overall you’re at a more realistic set of interactions between yourself and the football world – press, players, coaches and fellow managers.

And it would be remiss to talk about realism without mentioning the improved match engine – The 3D match engine looks more natural, and like I said about the last edition, Football Manager is that rare game where your football team is simulated the same way you end up playing on FIFA yourself.

And slightly unrelated, but despite the quality of Berbatov as a player, you can’t play him and Rooney in the same team. Just like in real life, I had to drop Berba for Hernandez because he just didn’t move fast enough.

Still a bit surprised at Anderson’s low ‘shooting’ rating though.

Tactics

The tactical / player instructions system has been upgraded and so have the coach recommendations on player roles. It all feeds into the overall philosophy of having your staff assist you in picking the right team and the right role for each player within that team. Phil Jones hasn’t had the # of games in my playing time to show if he marauds up the pitch as effectively, but watching Vidic snapping into tackles, Carrick plan interceptions to perfection and Chicharito breaking clear of the last man to race onto a through ball and bear down on the opposition goal – it’s all a combination of knowing what tactics to use and the match engine translating them accurately.

Some will say that this makes the game too easy. I would argue that SI’s purpose is two-fold – to open up the game to as wide a demographic of players as possible, and to keep improving Football Manager to make it more realistic. In the real world you have coaches and scouts telling you what position player is best suited to, whether he’s a good future prospect and what his training should focus on. It’s not an ‘easy’ setting in real life, it’s how things are. The better your support staff are, the better the information they give you. At the end of the day it’s up to you (as it’s up to any manager) how they use the resources available to them – in terms of support staff, players, transfer kitty, wages budget and expectations from the board.

And you’ll find that if you cannot motivate your players, then it doesn’t matter how good they are, they won’t play to their potential. Sound familiar?

Play The Game

I could go on for hours – the squad strength screen, scouting options, enhanced player details, improved board negotiations, better training options – a lot of small upgrades and innovations, all of which are designed to make the game more realistic to play. The 2012 edition of Football Manager can feel slightly overwhelming with the information overload but that feeling quickly gives way to excitement over how much control you have, and how good the game has become to allow you to manage your football club your way.

Football Manager 2012 is out on Friday, 21 October. You can pre-order it through Steam, or enter the Soccerlens competition to win a free copy of FM12.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

FIFA 2012, PES 2012, and Football Manager 2012 are all sure to keep football fanatics occupied for the next several months, much to the chagrin of wives, girlfriends, parents, employers, and teachers around the world.

However, if you’re looking for something much simpler but equally as fun and addicting, check out Stick Football, brought to you by Stick Sports (the company behind the cult classic Stick Cricket). The graphics won’t wow you like FIFA or PES will, and there’s not the overwhelming depth that you can find with FM, but it’s highly unlikely you’ll stop at one game.

What Is Stick Football?

Stick Football is a 2D, flash football game that brings back the nostalgia of simpler days, when the PS3 and Xbox 360 were only concepts and dreams.

Controls and gameplay appear to be simple enough on the surface, but if your fingers are faster than your brain, it could take quite some time to master Stick Football.

It also brings an element of realism, with tackles, fouls, cards, and set pieces. I’m still not certain whether or not there’s an offside rule, given how easy it can be to find holes in the defense, but as easy as it may be to find holes, it’s not nearly as easy to convert all of those potential chances into goals.

Playing Stick Football

Stick Football allows you to play the current round of fixtures for the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga, and Australia’s A-League. You’re able to take control of each side in any matchup, with an up-to-date, 16-team squad list, and six different formations to choose from: 4-4-2, 5-4-1, 4-5-1, 5-3-2, 3-5-2, and 4-3-3.

In the league modes, the object is not only to win, but to win as comprehensively as possible. The higher the margin of victory, the more points you can score for the team you’ve selected. At the end of each round of matches, the team with the most points in each match is the winner, and each match’s results is reflected in an updated table. And just like in the real Premier League, La Liga, and so on, at the end of the season, to the victor goes the spoils.

Along with the league options that are offered, there’s also the option to play friendlies with and against a number of international and club teams.

However, the most fun modes are the All-Star Strike and World Domination modes. In the All-Star Strike mode, you pick your desired club or international team to take on an All-Star team featuring the likes of Lev Yashin, Franz Beckenbauer, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Pele, and Diego Maradona. Meanwhile, in the World Domination mode, which is the deepest mode available, you take that same All-Star team and try to knock off 16 of the world’s top international teams. You start with Uruguay, and with each win, you unlock the next opponent, culminating in a final match against Brazil.

Why Try Stick Football?

Simply put, it’s a lot of fun. As easy as it might look, it’s a great challenge, and it’s well worth your time to try out each league and each mode that Stick Football offers.

With a mix of arcade-style fun, realism, the past, and the present, there’s a lot to like about Stick Football, and there‘s a lot to keep your attention and to keep you coming back at least every week, if not every day. Just don’t try it at work, unless you’re the boss, that is.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Outside of gloves, the gear market for goalkeepers is relatively sparse. The number of manufacturers that focus specifically on the position is even fewer and further between. Outside of Reusch and Uhlsport, not many manufacturers come to mind. Enter Storelli Sports, the new boy that aims to put goalkeepers first in their effort to make keeper shirts, shorts, and gloves more comfortable, more protective, and even sexier.

The Gear
For this review, Storelli shipped me a pair of goalkeeper shorts, a pair of slider shorts, and a goalkeeper shirt. For my writing and your reading purposes, I’ll group the two pairs of shorts and dedicate a section to the shirt. The shirt has a suggested retail price of $79.99 while the goalkeeper shorts come in at $64.99 and the sliders at $59.99. In other words, it’s not exactly cheap stuff. Read on to find out whether the benefits outweigh the costs.

The Tech

All of the products that Storelli offers focus on protection for goalkeepers. This usually means padding and lots of it. In my time between the posts, I’ve never worn a padded shirt, shorts, or pants. The feeling of hitting the ground on a diving stop is either the feeling of success after a brillant stop or the pain of failure as you turn to see the ball in the back of the net. Either way, I’m a firm believer in that feeling, no matter which it is, is a part of the game.

All of the products are based on compression fabric that hugs the body and wicks moisture away. This is good for a few reasons: one, most players wear some form of compression gear already, and two, because it goes under your shorts and jersey, the keeper doesn’t need multiple colors of the shirt and shorts to avoid a color clash with the other team.

The padding in the clothing is composed of an EVA foam (shorts) or PU foam (sliders and shirt) at varying thicknesses from 3 to 6 mm. The foam is manufactured by Poron XRD and is quite a fancy bit of tech on its own. The foam is soft and flexible enough to conform to the body but still dissipates most of the energy that comes to it on impact by absorbing more than 90% of it.

The Shorts and Sliders
The goalkeeper shorts offer quite a bit of padding on the sides of the legs. Tested over two days in two seperate shooting sessions by a number of forwards, they performed exceptionally. The final impact felt just like the first and my hips were no more sore at the end of the day than they were at the start. Playing on a turf field is rough from the start and turf burn is a very common result of a day on that surface. Because the shorts hugged the skin so well, there was no room for them to slide up and the leg to be cut up.

The sliders were an even better piece of equipment. The padding running down the legs is thinner and as a result you’ll feel the impact more but they are also much lighter than the goalkeeper shorts which helped keep me comfortable on a 90° day. The thinner padding was just enough to soften the blow of a diving stop and after the adenaline from the match kicked in, I wasn’t feeling a thing. The slider shorts would actually be quite brilliant for any field player as well. The fact that they weren’t at all bulky meant that the sliders didn’t impede movement. The padding actually made the feel of going to ground on a slide a somewhat pleasant one.

The Shirt
Much like the keeper shorts, the goalkeeper shirt is packed with strategically placed padding of varying thicknesses. The compression material is again extremely comfortable and allows for the body to breath in the mid afternoon sun. The back of the goalkeeper shirt is actually a compression mesh that allows sweat to be wicked away very easily. The choice to make the sleeves a 3/4 cut rather than full sleeve is one of the subtle things I quite liked. The sleeve length meant no wrestling with sleeves under/over the gloves or getting caught in the velcro of the strap.

The padding is strategically positioned and is extremely flexible do that it comfortably fits around the body’s countours without impeding movement. I personally like to roll my sleeves up just a little bit and the forearm/elbow padding conformed perfectly even though it was out of position.

One of the innovative design features on the shirt that I really came to love was a bit of padding right on the chest. Much like some of the most popular boots on the market like the Nike CTR 360 or Umbro Geometra, the Storelli Sports goalkeeper shirt uses padding to increase control by dampening the impact of the ball. The padding slows down the ball just enough where catching it becomes a thoughtless process.

The Verdict

If you hadn’t yet noticed, my review of the Storelli Sports goalkeeper shirt, short, and sliders has been nothing short of glowing. The equipment is brilliant and it is very easy to tell just how much thought has been put into the design and manufacturing of the product. Storelli have recognized a number of things that annoy keepers from the amateur to professional levels. This comes from the company focusing specifically on the goalkeeper market and putting personal experience into the final product.

The materials are comfortable, the pads are strategically placed so that they don’t get in the way, and the equipment is light so that the athlete isn’t weighed down or overly hot. Just a word of warning in that the equipment is not really made for beginners and the prices reflect that. That being said, the stuff is seriously good and performs as promised, if not better.

Storelli Sports are offering a 20% discount on their product line as part of their launch this month. Browse all the products in more detail on www.storelli.com and take advantage of this excellent offer.

Mark Yesilevskiy is a goalkeeper in Rochester, NY and also writes for Bolton Offside, Feel free to contact him on Twitter.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

We shared some FIFA 12 gameplay screenshots with you earlier this week and now it’s turn for the official FIFA 12 trailer. But first, a short note on what makes FIFA 12 better than previous incarnations and a list of key features:

FIFA 12 – Official Blurb

FIFA 12 brings to the pitch the game-changing new Player Impact Engine, a physics engine built to deliver real-world physicality in every interaction on the pitch. Revolutionary gameplay innovations inspired by the real-world of football make FIFA 12 deeper and more engaging. All-new Precision Dribbling delivers a higher fidelity of touch on the ball for attacking players, while Tactical Defending fundamentally changes the approach to defending by placing equal importance on positioning, intercepting passes and tackling. Plus, CPU players have been infused with Pro Player Intelligence, the next generation of player intelligence and performance.

Key Features

Player Impact Engine—Two years in development, the new physics engine is built to deliver real-world physicality in every interaction on the pitch. Experiencean infinite variety of natural and believable outcomes in every contact. Players feel more resilient on the ball, push and pull during the fight for possession, and recover from light challenges more easily, preserving their natural momentum.

Pro Player Intelligence—CPU players have been infused with self-awareness and aptitude, enabling them to make decisions based on their own skills as well as the strengths and attributes of their teammates.Players who possess exceptional vision, for example, will see opportunities for through balls that other players won’t. Real Madrid’s Kaká will be more likely—and quicker—to pick out a run from a teammate farther away than a player with poorer vision. Additionally, teams will vary their attack based on the strengths of their players on the pitch, and the weaknesses of opposing players, creating a more authentic experience and greater variety of matches.

Tactical Defending—Fundamentally changes the approach to defending by placingequal importance on positioning, interceptingpasses and tackling at the right moment. Tactics and timing are crucial.
Precision Dribbling—Enjoy new ways to take on opponents, more time on the ball to make decisions, and complete control of the pace of the game. Utilize close dribble touches in tight spaces, onthe wings, and even while fending off an opponent.

True Injuries—The Player Impact Engine monitors contact between players in real-time, analyzing the force of the collision and impact on the body to detect real injuries, creating a deeper more challenging Career Mode. Manage new types of injuries and the risk of sending a player onto the pitch who isn’t fully healed.

New Presentation—Matches now have a real-world broadcast look and feel. Dramatically improved lighting, more authentic crowds, and a new default camera make every game feel special.

Easier Navigation—Redesigned menu system for fast and easy navigation, featuring customizable Main Menu based on arena player, Virtual Pro and favorite club.

Complete Authenticity—Over 500 officially licensed clubs and more than 15,000 players.

FIFA 12 Trailer

Also See: FIFA 12 Hands-On Preview.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Soccerlens was invited to an exclusive press preview of FIFA 12 last week and we were some of the lucky few to have a hands on experience of playing the game before its official release.

Well I must say that the new FIFA 12 is pretty cool, they have really gone all out on this one, it has some amazing game features that make the game play very realistic, including a number of key features such as ‘precision dribbling’, ‘tactical defending’ and ‘ Player Impact Engine’.

Personally my favorite feature is the precision dribbling and the Player Impact Engine; the precision dribbling allows you to dribble whilst holding a player off the ball to make space for passes and the player impact engine actually gives the players a realistic impact from tackles and challenges during the game. Can’t wait to play Real Madrid v Barcelona that should be interesting!

I also got to meet with one of the men with the best jobs in football, no not Sepp Blatter but EA Sports FIFA producer David Rutter.

Here are a couple of Q&A’s from our chat:

Soccerlens – What’s your favourite feature on FIFA 12?

David Rutter – The little flying birds in the stadium during matches

SL – Really?

DR – it is one of my favourites but on a game playing note the tactical defending and precision dribbling

SL – How good are you on FIFA ?

DR – I am not bad but have played against a few really good people in FIFA World Cup tournaments, the Mexicans seem to produce some of the best players, French as well. I also find during the tournaments that English and Spanish players are very quite and focused when they play FIFA

SL – how many people work on the team to produce the ideas behind FIFA 12 ?

DR – We have 18 different nationalities in the team that research football around the world to come up with ideas for the new game and it takes 12 months of planning to launch the game

I also found out that David is a Leicester City fan and his football hero is Gary Lineker!

Looking forward to the relase of FIFA 12 (out in Fall).

FIFA 12 Screenshots

Image 1 of 5

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

If you love football, then you will love Spotflick – the addictive penalty shootout game, designed to give you the opportunity to pit yourself against the world’s best goalkeepers. Play as your favourite country, use your favourite player, and attempt to conquer the world in this simple ‘flick to kick’ game.

With over 90 countries to choose from, you have the choice to pit your wits against a range of nations from all over the world. Simply use your finger to flick the ball past the legendary keepers on offer from the spot, and enjoy the most talked about football app of the present day.

The game offers three different modes to choose from – arcade, practice and the Spotflick Cup challenge!

Arcade: The aim is to score five penalties in order to progress to the next stage. Failure to do so however, and it’s game over. The intentions of the player are to hit the back of the net as regularly as possible, which boosts your score and unlocks new goalkeeping challenges. Players can compare their high scores on www.spotflick.com, and see how they compare to the many others playing around the world. Can you unlock the ultimate challenge?

Want to become the ultimate Spotflick champion? Unlock and then defeat the secret goalkeeper – the greatest of all time!

Practice: Not yet ready to test yourself at the World Cup level? Spend some time in the practice arena, fine tuning your skills in preparation for the big tournament. Aim to hit the moving targets in the goal, and in doing so you will unlock extra bonuses in the arcade mode!

Spotflick Cup challenge: Here is your chance to become your country’s hero, by leading them to glory. Battle your way through the vigorous rounds of a knockout penalty shoot-out competition, and see if you have what it takes to hold your nerve to win the trophy!

Spotflick’s key two features are undoubtedly its graphics and game play. Cartoon figures of the world’s best goalkeepers, along with a realistic scoreboard and crowd vocals, all add to the atmosphere. Additionally, the game itself is a quick and easy one to play, and can last for as little as a minute, or for as long as a few hours, depending on your schedule.

And, in order to enhance your experience, Spotflick has also produced a series of exclusive beer mats that can be worn whilst playing the game, so you have the chance to play as your favourite player as well! Click here to go to the website and download your exclusive spotflicker now!

Final Verdict:

If you are a football lover, then there is no reason why you wouldn’t love this game. Where else can you test yourself against some of the all-time great goalkeepers? From the Scorpion kicking Columbian keeper, to the jelly legged Polish stopper, even through to the stern faced German. Do you have what it takes? With three different game modes and so many different teams to choose from, hours and hours of enjoyment await.

Visit the Spotflick website for downloading the complete game for only 59p and more information, including an exclusive Iker Casillas signed shirt giveaway.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

“Take on the role of Footballer, Manager or Journalist in a world where teamwork, strategy and people matters!”

Footballidentity is an online football game in which the entire ‘world’ consists entirely of human controlled characters, and human controlled characters alone – you’ll find no AI bots here.

Depending on individual preference, players can choose to become footballers or managers, even journalists – with every other character in the game being controlled by another registered user, thereby placing great stock in your ability to successfully communicate and interact with other Footballidentity members via the live chat streams and official forums.

Getting started…

Registering is as easy as filling in a form then clicking an ‘account activation’ link in the automatically generated email that is rushed to you once all the T&Cs have been accepted…

Once the all the necessary information has been filed, you will be spirited to your Footballidentity member hub which contains direct links to your inbox, friends list and various other options…

With your account up and running, the next step is to create a character by following the link from your homepage. You will then be presented with three options…

Like any right-minded football fanatic, I elected to choose the righteous path of the superstar footballer, with one eye firmly set on becoming the next Lionel Messi – though you can also purchase extra characters if you also fancy having a crack at becoming the next great manager and/or journo as well.

Anyway, before Barcelona come calling and the million-dollar contracts begin to roll in, players must agree to several ‘character expectations’ which are duly pointed out to you in your job description – i.e, you must train with your side once a week, attend tactical briefings and play at least one game a week to avoid having your ‘contract’ (read: your Footballidentity account) ripped up and thrown in the waste paper basket.

Finding a club…

With a character created and a position (attacking midfielder) assigned, it’s time to advertise your services on the Footballidentity forum…

Leave a ‘wanted ad’ with all your details (see the various sticky threads to find out which details you need to include) on the forum and sooner or later a manager will come sniffing around, keen to add you to his burgeoning squad.

Taking to the field…

The matches are broken down into turns in which you, your team-mates and your opponents all decide upon their actions simultaneously during each turn whilst the two manager look on from the ‘sidelines’.

Each turn is then broken down further into phases (4 phases if somebody is in possession at the start of the turn, and 3 phases if not) with each phase allowing the player to perform different tasks such as high and low passing, tackling, pressing and hard or measured shooting.

It may sound a little complicated, but Footballidentity’s user interface is perfectly intuitive once you’re sat in front of it (it’s actually fairly reminiscent of the old 2D match engine that the old Football Manager games used to utilise) and a quick leaf through the extensive ‘help’ section should iron out any kinks that you happen to experience.

Moving into management…

The management arm of Footballidentity is arguably the most demanding and important role in so much as the game intrinsically revolves around them and, while the playing staff can be relatively fleeting and lightweight in their approach, it is the manager’s dedication to the cause that can really pull a great side together – a true test of your leadership and motivational skills.

You have to assemble a squad, train them up then pick your way through your tactics for the next match all this whilst delicately fluffing the ego of your prodigious young striker or nursing the dwindling confidence of a ‘keeper who has let one too many shots squirm through his grasp.

One question: do you have what it takes?

Summary…

It’s perhaps worth mentioning that, with any new MMO game, there seem to be a few isolated teething problems regarding online lag – though the team of developers are constantly beavering away to alleviate such bugs (after all, Footballidentity is still in it’s beta stage), with constant ‘system update’ bulletins being posted on the live news feed.

The matches in Foolballidenlity will really put your tactical skills to the test as, due to the fact that all your teammates are being controlled by other users, you will have to make sure that your team is all pulling in the same direction if you want to become a well-oiled,  league-conquering machine.

Individual ego problems and collective tactical weakness are both surefire ways of ensuring that you (or any of your teammates) will never get to rub shoulders with Senor Messi, or Senhor Mourinho, at the top of the tree!

Try out FootballIdentity today and tell us what you think!

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

“SCOREBOARD is a football predictions game and show on Facebook. It’s unique selling points are:

• Play against the pro pundits

• First interactive football show on Facebook

• First time a predictions game has been combined with a show

There’s a winner for each week and for the entire season.”

So there we have it.

Essentially, Scoreboard is a simple, Facebook-hosted, Barclay’s Premier League-affiliated results prediction game though the devil, naturally, is in the detail.

You simply log into Scoreboard using your Facebook account details...

Users merely long-in, choose their Premier League team of preference then predict both the results and the goalscorers for the forthcoming round of top flight games.

Points are then rewarded based on the eventual accuracy of the player’s predictions, which will hopefully see their name rise into the upper echelons of the Scoreboard league table before too long.

Players can pick their favourite Premier League side upon logging in...

Such is the community-centric nature of Scoreboard’s Facebook tie-in, players can also invite their friends to play alongside them, comparing
their performances against one another (by way of the in-game leaderboard) as the season rolls on.

"Wolves to nick it in the last-minute!"

Players can also back their predictions with a ‘shout’, i.e. an additional comment to either rile rival supporters or to explain why they believe West Ham are capable of thrashing eight unanswered goals past Manchester United at the weekend!

The more predictions you get right, the more credit you’re awarded with and the more features are duly unlocked.

For example, ‘levelling up” allows you to also enter predictions for ‘correct result’, ‘spot on score’ and eventually for ‘first-goalscorer’ – with every level of prediction earning you more and more points.

Players can purchase 'cash' via Paypal or earn it by watching selected ads...

Scoreboard users can also buy ‘game cash’ via Paypal to spend in-game on additional bonuses – e.g, adding a ‘boost’ to your score prediction will ensure a bigger ‘game cash’ windfall  and gain you more points if it’s turns out to be correct.

Scoreboard TV:

Scoreboard TV launches next Friday (4 March) as the the first interactive Facebook show based around predicting Premier League scores.

Scoreboard will be hosted by Douglas Anderson (of BBC Radio 5 Live fame) along with co-hosts Scott Minto and Jason Cundy. Fans from all over the world can participate directly in the show via Facebook, by pitting their wits against the pundits and playing the accompanying online Scoreboard game.

Scoreboard pundits Scott Minto and Jason Cundy will be familiar to football fans: Scott played 350+ league games in a career that included West Ham, Chelsea and Benfica before becoming a regular face on Sky Sports News – while Jason spent over 10 years in the English game playing for the likes of Spurs, Chelsea and Ipswich before retiring in 2000 to become a presenter on talkSPORT.

Fans will be able to watch the show – in full and match by match preview clips – directly from Facebook.

It would be easy to dismiss Scoreboard as just another prediction application, cut adrift on an ocean of prediction apps – however, it’s myriad of in-built quirks, it’s ‘TV show’ tie-in and the game’s vast community scope quite comfortably serve to mark it out amongst the thronging crowd of lesser lights.

Scoreboard Trailer

Try out Scoreboard this weekend with Soccerlens and tell us what you think!

From Soccerlens.com - Football News