UNDERSTANDING THE UFEA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
A Better Understanding Leads to More Learning and More Fun!
By Daniel Anguiano, Angel Renteria Hernandez and Yael Tinoco
What is your favorite sport? Many people around the world believe that soccer has that crown for favorite sport. “Futbol”, the Spanish term for soccer, is a worldwide sport that brings together millions and millions of people. One of the reasons for these gatherings of people is UEFA Champions League, this league is a worldwide known soccer league. An analysis conducted here at East Career and Technical Academy shows who knows about the league and how much they know. This study was taken after 12 students picked randomly from the halls here at ECTA were surveyed based on their knowledge of this league. Before we begin here are some rules and regulations pertaining to this European League.
The top 4 teams of some european leagues, or the best teams in europe will compete against each other for the meaningful title.
There will be a raffle for the teams randomly to construct different groups built of teams.
There will be 4 teams all from different European leagues competing for the top two spots of the group, this is called the group stage where all of the teams go against each other among the group and the top two teams of each group move onto the quarter finals.
For the group stages and all of these quarter finals and semifinals there will be two games, the teams will go against each other twice, the winner is decided based on the amount of goals scored.
The only single game will be the finals where if tied after the 90 minutes they will go on to extra time for 2 halves of 15 minutes, if there is no winner by this time there will be penalties.
In our study of the UEFA Champions League, we asked many questions to test the knowledge of others based on this league. Some of the questions that we asked were:
Are you aware of the UEFA Champions League, do you know what happens in it? Yes:3 No:9
Are you interested in learning more about this fascinating soccer league? Yes:6 No:6
Are you a fan of the UEFA Champions League?- YES: 3, NO: 9
Have you ever watched a soccer game of the UEFA Champions League?- YES: 3,
NO: 9
Have you heard of or are aware of this worldwide known soccer league?- YES: 3, NO: 9
For those who did or knew a bit about the Champions League we asked, Who is your favorite player in this league? 7 Chose Lionel Messi and 5 Chose Cristiano Ronaldo
For those who did not know about this league we asked what sports do you like to watch? Football and Basketball had the most votes for those who did not watch the Champions League
When these questions were asked, many students said, “I know who Messi, Ronaldo, and Neymar are.'' These players are amongst the most popular players currently still playing. Many things including social media are a big part of how people know these famous soccer players due to their big following. For example, Messi has 276 million followers and Cristiano Ronaldo has 358 million followers. Also, although some people didn’t recognize the UEFA Champions League, other people have said that they “know what the MLS and the Premier League are”. These leagues are well recognized because the MLS is where most North American players start their careers and the Premier League is considered the highest level of soccer. Lastly, many people knew about the news that “Messi recently left Barcelona for PSG”. This shows that soccer news is a huge deal in the media and is popularized throughout the world.
Most people are not aware of the UEFA Champions League. In fact, out of 12 people only three were aware of the Champions League. That's 25% of the people. But out of all three people, only two watched it, but only one of them was a fanatic that constantly watches it and also keeps up with it. But what do they even know about the sport in general? They just know the sport but aren’t really interested. What they do know is that the sport is played with their feet and the point is to get the ball in the opponent’s net. For those who were not aware of this sport, volleyball, basketball, football, and baseball were preferred more than soccer.
Based on the results that we gathered, less than half of the people we interviewed actually knew about the league and what happened inside of it. From this we can see that we can get many more people to support this league. By only looking at one match and following a team that is liked, many people can get attached to this league, many feelings like intensity and excitement can be felt just by watching this league. Joy and happiness can be taken away from just a single match, from a last minute goal winner to a Champions League Final. Soccer alone helps many people manage stress and other problems they deal with on a daily basis. When playing soccer or watching it you can let go of what you are feeling and enjoy the beautiful game. Therefore, you should take some time and experience all that the UEFA Champions League has to offer. Thank you!
WANT TO BECOME A GENUIS? LEARN TO PLAY CHESS
By Misael Hernandez
Chess is a popular game that everybody knows, but some people don’t know how to play it. They think that moving pieces is the main theme of the game, but no, there’s more to the game than people are led to believe. Strategizing, predicting, outsmarting, etc, all of these contribute to the game’s main objective. Did you know that mastering all of these skills can
make you a genius?
Did you know that Albert Einstein used to play this game?
PERCEPTIONS ABOUT CHESS
Approximately 7% of the students that I interviewed know about the Steinitz Principle. Now in interviewing everybody, there was hardly anyone that didn’t know what the the game was about, and its prime functions. Which is the movement of pawns, and the rest - movement.
STEPS TO WINNING A CHESS GAME
Do you know about the Steinitz's Principle? This principle is the one that describes you in the game, this is the way that you start the game. This principle helps you develop your knights and bishops. When you move your middle pawns two steps forward during your opening play, you create an advantage in your game since what you want is to move your pieces to the most effective position.
To play chess you need to know your position and your status after doing a move. So, before you do a move ask yourself, “How would this affect me”, “Will this be for my advantage
or for my opponent's?” Questions like that help you stay of your surroundings since losing this awareness can cause your defeat -especially from the back- it happens a lot.
CONCLUSION
The consistent practice of these simple ideas can make you into a genius. Do you know that the average human being uses less than 10% of their brain? It has been said that Albert Einstein, the genius, used up to only 14% of his brain. Now imagine how smart you will be if you decided to improve your brain by only playing a mere game.
SPORTS MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
By Jocelyn Torres Lopez
Many students are in extracurricular clubs and after school activities but a big
percentage actually play sports. Either for a club or a high school team. The most common problem when it comes to high school sports are that kids who attend a magnet school cannot play for
their magnet school because they don’t have a team to play for. Instead they have to play for their zoned
school and they might not want to do that. According to some students at East Career and Technical Academy they feel as though they cannot get the full high school experience when it
comes to sports. Many of those students also agreed that school sports have a lot to do with school spirit and how excited they would be to go to Friday nights football games and during
the week have fun spirit days.
There was a poll made on how many students think East Career And Technical Academy should have sports since we are obviously a big school. It would make it so much
easier for those students to just play for the school they go to instead of having to go through all the paperwork of not going to the school you play for. Most students who go to ECTA play for either Eldorado or Las Vegas High School. I asked those students the same question, “If ECTA had sports do you think it would motivate you more to show up and have more school spirit than you guys do already? and why?” All the answers summed up
to this, “Yes, I think kids would be more optimistic about assemblies and other spirit week activities that are made by student council, especially since we only have cheerleaders, we need a team to be hyped about.” Now that we got students' opinions; what's yours?