1.
Venlo
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Venlo is a municipality and a city in the southeastern Netherlands, near the German border. It is situated in the province of Limburg, blerick, on the west bank, was known as Blariacum. Because of its importance, the city of Venlo was besieged several times. The most significant siege was that of 1702, carried on by Menno van Coehoorn, consequently, Venlo was incorporated into the Generaliteitslanden of the United Provinces at the Treaty of 1713. After the Napoleonic Wars it became part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, on 9 November 1939, two British Intelligence Service agents were kidnapped by the Sicherheitsdienst in what became known as the Venlo Incident. Venlo had both a road and a bridge over the Maas. The city was damaged by bombing raids on the bridges at the end of the war. Allied forces made 13 attempts to destroy the bridges to cut the German supply lines and these failed, and it was the retreating German troops who in the end blew up the bridges in an attempt to stop the allied advance. Allied forces liberated Venlo from the east, from inside Germany itself, about 300 people were killed due to those raids. The raids also cost Venlo a major part of its historical buildings, however, some old buildings, such as the city hall and the Römer house, survived the war relatively unscathed. Before the war, Venlo had an active Jewish community, most of the Jews were murdered in The Holocaust. By the late 1990s, drug-related nuisance had become a problem in the centre of Venlo, in 2001, the municipalities of Belfeld and Tegelen were merged into the municipality of Venlo. Tegelen was originally part of the Duchy of Jülich centuries ago, on 1 January 2010, the municipality of Arcen en Velden, was merged into the municipality of Venlo. In 2003 Venlo was awarded the title Greenest city of Europe, Venlo was the host of Floriade 2012, the worlds largest horticultural exhibition. In 2013, Venlo has won the prestigious Best City Centre of the Netherlands award. It amazed the jury by all the investments which have made in the last couple of years in the Maas Boulevard, the railway station, the tunnel in the centre. Summer park festivities called Zomerparkfeest in August held in and around the park of Venlo. Venlo, being a city with a 100, 000+ population, is served by a number of schools both at primary and secondary education levels
2.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
3.
Midfielder
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A midfielder is an association football position. Midfielders are generally positioned on the field between their teams defenders and forwards, some midfielders play a disciplined defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are otherwise known as defensive midfielders. Others blur the boundaries, being mobile and efficient in passing, they are commonly referred to as deep-lying midfielders, play-makers, box-to-box. The number of midfielders on a team and their assigned roles depends on the teams formation, most managers assign at least one midfielder to disrupt the opposing teams attacks, while others may be tasked with creating goals, or have equal responsibilities between attack and defence. Midfielders are the players who typically travel the greatest distance during a match, central or centre midfielders are players whose role is divided roughly equally between attack and defence. When the opposing team has the ball, a midfielder may drop back to protect the goal or move forward. The 4–3–3 and 4–5–1 formations each use three central midfielders, the 4−4−2 formation may use two central midfielders, and in the 4–2–3–1 formation one of the two deeper midfielders may be a central midfielder. The term box-to-box midfielder refers to central midfielders who have abilities and are skilled at both defending and attacking. These players can track back to their own box to make tackles and block shots. A good box-to-box midfielder needs good passing, vision, control, stamina, tackling and marking in defence, left and right midfielders have a role balanced between attack and defence, similar to that of central midfielders, but they are positioned closer to the touchlines of the pitch. They may be asked to cross the ball into the penalty area to make scoring chances for their teammates. Common modern formations that include left and right midfielders are the 4−4−2, the 4−4−1−1, the 4–2–3–1, a notable example of a right midfielder is David Beckham. Defensive midfielders are players who focus on protecting their teams goal. These players may defend a zone in front of their teams defence, defensive midfielders may also move to the full-back or centre-back positions if those players move forward to join in an attack. Sergio Busquets described his attitude, The coach knows that I am an obedient player who likes to help out and if I have to run to the wing to cover someones position, great. A good defensive midfielder needs good positional awareness, anticipation of play, marking, tackling, interceptions, passing and great stamina. A holding or deep-lying midfielder stays close to their teams defence, a player in this role will try to protect their goal by disrupting the opponents attacking moves and stopping long shots on the goal. The holding midfielder may also have responsibilities when their team has the ball and this player will make mostly short and simple passes to more attacking members of their team but may try some more difficult passes depending on the teams strategy
4.
Sheffield Wednesday F.C.
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Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, England. The team competes in the Championship, the tier of the English football league system. Formed as an offshoot of The Wednesday Cricket Club in 1867, in 1868 they won the Cromwell Cup, only the second tournament of its kind, and in 1877 they won the inaugural Sheffield Challenge Cup, the oldest county cup in England. They were founding members and inaugural champions of the Football Alliance in 1889, in 1992 they became founder members of the Premier League. The club has spent most of its history in English footballs top flight. The Owls, as they are nicknamed, have won four league titles, Wednesday have also competed in UEFA cup competitions on four occasions, reaching the quarter-finals of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1963. Since 1899 the club has played its matches at Hillsborough stadium. Although no contemporary evidence has found to support the claim. Nevertheless, an 1842 article in Bells Life magazine states the club was founded as far back as 1816, the club was so named because it was on Wednesdays that the founding members had their day off work. They were initially based at the New Ground in Darnall, and often went by the name of Darnall Wednesday, in 1855 they were one of six clubs that helped build Bramall Lane, and held a wicket there for many years. The proposal proved very popular, with over 60 members signing up for the new team on the first night and they played their first match against The Mechanics on 19 October the same year, winning by three goals and four rouges to nil. On 1 February 1868, Wednesday played their first competitive match as they entered the Cromwell Cup. A week after their semi-final, they went on to win the cup, beating the Garrick club in the final after extra time, a key figure during the formative years of the football club was Charles Clegg, who joined the Wednesday in 1867. His relationship with the club lasted for the rest of his life and he also became president and chairman of the Football Association, and was known as the Napoleon of Football. In 1876 Wednesday acquired Scot James Lang, although he was not employed by the club, he was given a job by a member of the Sheffield Wednesday board that had no formal duties. He is now acknowledged as the first professional player in England. With Lang in their team the club became one of the strongest in the region. In 1880 the club entered the FA Cup for the first time, but although they had had Lang on their books a decade earlier, the club officially remained staunchly amateur, and this stance almost cost the club its very existence
5.
Hertha BSC
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Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V. commonly known as Hertha BSC, Hertha Berlin or simply Hertha, is a German association football club based in the Charlottenburg locality of Berlin. Hertha BSC play in the Bundesliga, the division of German football. Bundesliga table at the end of the 2012–13 season, Hertha BSC was founded in 1892, and was a founding member of the German Football Association in Leipzig in 1900. The team won the German championship in 1930 and 1931, since 1963, Herthas stadium has been the Olympiastadion. The club is known as Die Alte Dame in German, which translates to The Old Lady, in 2002, the sports activities of the professional, amateur, and under-19 teams were separated into Hertha BSC GmbH & Co. The name Hertha is a variation on Nerthus referring to fertility goddess from Germanic mythology, Hertha performed consistently well on the field, including a win in the first Berlin championship final in 1905. In May 1910, Hertha won a match against Southend United. However, their success was not matched financially and in 1920 the staunchly working-class Hertha merged with the well-heeled club Berliner Sport-Club to form Hertha Berliner Sport-Club. The new team continued to enjoy success in the Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg. Notwithstanding, Hertha emerged as the Germanys second most successful team during the inter-war years, German football was re-organized under the Third Reich in 1933 into 16 top-flight divisions, which saw Hertha playing in the Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg. The club continued to enjoy success within their division, regularly finishing in the half of the table. It faded from prominence, however, unable to advance out of the rounds of the national championship rounds. Politically, the club was overhauled under Hitler, with Hans Pfeifer, after World War II, occupying Allied authorities banned most organizations in Germany, including sports and football clubs. Hertha was re-formed late in 1945 as SG Gesundbrunnen and resumed play in the Oberliga Berlin – Gruppe C, by the end of 1949, it had re-claimed their identity as Hertha BSC and earned a return to the top-flight. Tensions between the western Allies and the Soviets occupying various sectors of the city, and the developing Cold War, led to chaotic conditions for football in the capital. Hertha was banned from playing against East German teams in the 1949–50 season after taking on several players, a number of sides from the eastern half of the city were forced from the Oberliga Berlin to the newly established DDR-Liga beginning with the 1950–51 season. Through the 1950s, a rivalry developed with Tennis Borussia Berlin. A proposal for a merger between the two clubs in 1958 was resoundingly rejected, with three of the 266 members voting in favour
6.
VfB Stuttgart
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Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. commonly known as VfB Stuttgart, is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club is best known for its team which is part of Germanys second division 2. VfB Stuttgart has won the championship five times, most recently in 2006–07. The football team plays its games at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Second team side VfB Stuttgart II currently plays in the Regionalliga Südwest, the clubs junior teams have won the national U19 championships a record ten times and the Under 17 Bundesliga six times. A membership-based club with over 50,0000 members, VfB is the largest sports club in Baden-Württemberg and it has departments for fistball, hockey, track and field, table-tennis and football referees, all of which compete only at the amateur level. The club also maintains a department, the VfB-Garde. Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart was formed through 2 April 1912 merger of predecessor sides Stuttgarter FV, Stuttgarter Fußballverein was founded at the Zum Becher hotel in Stuttgart on 9 September 1893. FV were initially a rugby club, playing games at Stöckach-Eisbahn before moving to Cannstatter Wasen in 1894, the rugby club established a football section in 1908. Rugby was soon replaced by football within the club, as found the game too complicated to follow. In 1909, FV joined the Süddeutschen Fußballverband, playing in the second tier B-Klasse and they eventually advanced to the senior Südkreis-Liga in 1912. Cannstatter Fußballklub was formed as a club in 1890 and also quickly established a football team. This club was dissolved after just a few years of play, the new team joined the Süddeutschen Fußballverband as a second division club and won promotion in 1904. Krone possessed their own ground, which exists today as the home of TSV Münster. The club also made appearances in the final rounds of the SFV in the late 1920s. In 1933, VfB moved to Neckar Stadium, the site of its current ground, German football was re-organized that same year under the Third Reich into sixteen top-flight divisions called Gauligen. The club had a rivalry with Stuttgarter Kickers throughout this period. After a third-place result at the level in 1937, Stuttgart was not able to advance out of the preliminary rounds in subsequent appearances
7.
Association football
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Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies making it the worlds most popular sport, the game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by getting the ball into the opposing goal, players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms while it is in play, unless they are goalkeepers. Other players mainly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, the team that scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is level at the end of the game, the Laws of the Game were originally codified in England by The Football Association in 1863. Association football is governed internationally by the International Federation of Association Football, the first written reference to the inflated ball used in the game was in the mid-14th century, Þe heued fro þe body went, Als it were a foteballe. The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the word soccer was split off in 1863, according to Partha Mazumdar, the term soccer originated in England, first appearing in the 1880s as an Oxford -er abbreviation of the word association. Within the English-speaking world, association football is now usually called football in the United Kingdom and mainly soccer in Canada and the United States. People in Australia, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand use either or both terms, although national associations in Australia and New Zealand now primarily use football for the formal name. According to FIFA, the Chinese competitive game cuju is the earliest form of football for which there is scientific evidence, cuju players could use any part of the body apart from hands and the intent was kicking a ball through an opening into a net. It was remarkably similar to football, though similarities to rugby occurred. During the Han Dynasty, cuju games were standardised and rules were established, phaininda and episkyros were Greek ball games. An image of an episkyros player depicted in low relief on a vase at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens appears on the UEFA European Championship Cup, athenaeus, writing in 228 AD, referenced the Roman ball game harpastum. Phaininda, episkyros and harpastum were played involving hands and violence and they all appear to have resembled rugby football, wrestling and volleyball more than what is recognizable as modern football. As with pre-codified mob football, the antecedent of all football codes. Non-competitive games included kemari in Japan, chuk-guk in Korea and woggabaliri in Australia, Association football in itself does not have a classical history. Notwithstanding any similarities to other games played around the world FIFA have recognised that no historical connection exists with any game played in antiquity outside Europe. The modern rules of football are based on the mid-19th century efforts to standardise the widely varying forms of football played in the public schools of England
8.
Bundesliga
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The Bundesliga, is a professional association football league in Germany and the football league with the highest average stadium attendance worldwide. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germanys primary football competition, the Bundesliga is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Seasons run from August to May, most games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, with a few games played on weekdays. All of the Bundesliga clubs qualify for the DFB-Pokal, the winner of the Bundesliga qualifies for the DFL-Supercup. A total of 54 clubs have competed in the Bundesliga since its founding, FC Bayern Munich has won the Bundesliga the most, winning the title 25 times. However, the Bundesliga has seen other champions with Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, the Bundesliga is broadcast on television in over 200 countries. The Bundesliga was founded in 1962 in Dortmund and the first season started in 1963, the structure and organisation of the Bundesliga along with Germanys other football leagues have undergone frequent changes right up to the present day. The Bundesliga was founded by the Deutscher Fußball-Bund, but is now operated by the Deutsche Fußball Liga, the Bundesliga is composed of two divisions, the 1. Bundesliga, and, below that, the 2, Bundesliga, which has been the second tier of German football since 1974. Below the level of the 3, Liga, leagues are generally subdivided on a regional basis. For example, the Regionalligen are currently made up of Nord, Nordost, Süd, below this are thirteen parallel divisions, most of which are called Oberligen which represent federal states or large urban and geographical areas. The levels below the Oberligen differ between the local areas, the league structure has changed frequently and typically reflects the degree of participation in the sport in various parts of the country. In the early 1990s, changes were driven by the reunification of Germany, every team in the two Bundesligen must have a licence to play in the league, or else they are relegated into the regional leagues. To obtain a licence, teams must be healthy and meet certain standards of conduct as organisations. As in other leagues, there are significant benefits to being in the top division. Bundesliga teams draw significantly greater levels of fan support, average attendance in the first league is 42,673 per game — more than twice the average of the 2. Greater exposure through television and higher attendance levels helps 1, Bundesliga teams attract the most lucrative sponsorships. Bundesliga teams develop substantial financial muscle through the combination of television and gate revenues, sponsorships and this allows them to attract and retain skilled players from domestic and international sources and to construct first-class stadium facilities
9.
FC Augsburg
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Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V. commonly known as FC Augsburg or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system, the team was founded as Fußball-Klub Alemania Augsburg in 1907 and played as BC Augsburg from 1921 to 1969. With over 12,200 members, it is the largest football club in Swabian Bavaria, FC Augsburg, which has long fluctuated between the second and third division, experienced a difficult time in the early 2000s, suffering relegation to the fourth division for two seasons. FCA recovered from this, returning to football in 2006. At the end of the 2010–11 season, Augsburg were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time, since 2009, FC Augsburgs stadium has been the WWK ARENA. A first serious meeting between the two sides was held in 1964, both clubs having dropped out of football by then. The leadership of the multi-sports club Schwaben was completely behind a merger but the football department was not. In 1968, with BCA struggling in the division after relegation from professional football the year before and Schwaben soon to follow. In April 1969, a meeting between the two club bosses brought the decision to merge the clubs and name the new side FC Augsburg. FCA was to be a football only with no other sports department. The then-mayor of Augsburg, Hans Breuer, was one of the forces behind the move. In June,256 of 265 of BCAs members present voted for the merger while, shortly after,75 percent of Schwabens members approved the motion, too. Schwaben, however, opted for the small club was to remain independent with only its football department merging into the new club. But even this move was not universally popular within the club, with former members forming a new football club, Eintracht Augsburg. For this reason, FCA is generally not considered to carry on the traditions of TSV Schwaben, a year later, the footballers of Eintracht rejoined Schwaben but, since then, have always remained an amateur club. It took the new department until 1981 to regain its third-division status. The new FCA played its first game on 30 July 1969, FC Nürnberg in Augsburg in front of 13,000, losing 0–3 in extra time. After the formation of the club in 1969, the side was to spend most of its time in tier-two, the new side, despite now concentrating Augsburgs football forces, was no instant success
