Stephen Hart Era of Canadian Soccer Begins Sunday

The official Stephen Hart era begins tomorrow for Canada's national men's soccer team. Hart, who was named the team's full time coach last month, leads the team against CONCACAF rival Jamaica in a friendly at Jamaican National Stadium in Kingston. The match kicks off the 2010 season for Canada's men's team, a season in which the coaching staff will be looking to schedule a number of matches as it builds toward 2012, when the two-year qualifying process for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil begins for Canada.

Kieran Gibbs's hopes of playing for England at the World Cup have been dashed, as it was revealed Thursday that the Arsenal defender has been ruled out for the remainder of the Premiership season because of a foot injury.

Canadian women win opener at under-20 championship

Canada got off on the right foot with a 1-0 victory in the opening match of the 2010 CONCACAF women’s under-20 championship on Wednesday.

Adriana Leon scored the lone goal at Estadio Cementos Progreso, capitalizing when the ball landed at her feet in the six-yard box in the 29th minute.

“It was a little bit of a relief when I scored the goal,” Leon said in a statement after Canada won its sixth straight game in competition. “I had a few chances before but didn’t execute. When I scored that goal, it felt great to put Canada up 1-0.”

Leon’s goal came in her first international youth match.

Several minutes earlier, Canada’s Taylor Patterson headed the ball just wide of the right post.

Canada goalkeeper Cynthia Leblanc had to work to keep the slate clean, including a pair of diving saves in the opening half. In the 77th minute, Costa Rica had a dangerous free kick that Leblanc pushed over the crossbar.

“Our Canadian defenders handled the match extremely well,” said Leblanc. “We were able to stay calm while playing the ball often to capitalize on Costa Rica’s weaknesses.”

Canada next sees action in the eight-team tournament Friday versus Cuba.

Eating habits of female soccer players and consequences for sporting activity

With her PhD theses Ms Leyre Gravina wished to show that to be a good sportsperson, apart from having talent and being fit and in training, eating habits were also important. To this end she ventured into the dressing rooms of the top two female teams of the Athletic (Bilbao) football* club and observed what and how much they ate. She concluded that, just by changing one or two bad habits, the sportswomen could achieve a body that suffers less during matches, thus increasing the possibility of enhancing sporting performance.

Ms Gravina evaluated players from the first two Athletic teams (Superleague and National League), in order to observe their eating habits and where they could improve. The evaluation lasted a week and the studies were carried out on the days prior to the match, on the same day of the game and after the match.

Using this data she wrote her PhD thesis: Estudio nutricional en mujeres futbolistas de élite y su relación con los cambios hematológicos, de estrés oxidativo y daño muscular tras jugar un partido de fútbol (Nutritional study of top-class women footballers and the relation with changes in haematology, oxidative stress and muscular damage after playing a football match).

Playing football game triggers a whole series of reactions in the human body. With the leucocytes or white blood cells, for example, Ms Gravina was able to observe that, due to the physical exertion involved, those of the neutrophyle type increased in number while the lymphocytes diminished. Moreover, the resulting lack of lymphocytes facilitates infections. Also notable was the muscular and cell damage involved and the alterations in electrolytes and hormones.

At the same time, Superleague players have greater antioxidative capacity than those of the second team, meaning more effective muscular contraction, less risk of inflammation and greater capacity of organisms to combat the toxicity of free radicals. Nevertheless, it has to be taken account that the body receives greater punishment at matches than in the second team fixtures -- suffering greater cell damage, rupture of red blood cells, tiredness and dehydration.

Those in the Superleague, somewhat better

In order to carry out physical activity correctly it is essential to have the required nutrients for the body. According to Ms Gravina, this depends on eating habits and nutrition.

According to the researcher, the eating habits of the Superleague players are better than those of the second team. They ingest less protein and fat and more fibre. Moreover, the percentage majority of energy consumed due to physical exertion comes from carbohydrates and not fat. In any case, neither of the teams eat correctly. To start with, they do not ingest sufficient carbohydrate. Moreover, their hydration is insufficient and this causes an increase in heartbeat. The percentages of electrolytes are also inappropriate, as they ingest too little potassium and too much (double the required amount) of sodium and chloride. As Ms Gravina pointed out, potassium is fundamental to guarantee electrolytic equilibrium, essential for correct neuronal transmission and for the mechanisms in active transport.

Moreover, Ms Gravina also observed deficiencies in those substances that make metabolism possible. Players from both teams lacked folic acid, vitamin D, calcium, iodine and fluoride; moreover, those in the second team did not have sufficient magnesium. The researcher wished to underpin that these nutrients are highly important for sportspeople: vitamin D, calcium and fluoride for the bones, iodine for the metabolic process in general and magnesium for the various functions that affect muscular functions.

Enhancing performance by changing eating habits

Given all this, in the view of Ms Gravina, effective measures can be taken that affect nutrition and enhance sporting performance, and she makes a number of proposals to this end. For example, the number of red blood cells increases with greater ingestion of proteins, folic acid and vitamin C. To counteract the inflammation caused by physical activity, she points to vitamins, carotenoids and certain vegetable-source substances. In order to combat oxidation, on the other hand, she mentions carbohydrates and fibre and certain vitamins and vegetable-source substances. As regards reducing cell damage, she proposes, amongst other things, ingesting fibre and carotenes. With these and other examples, Ms. Gravina has tried to demonstrate that, through developing new eating strategies, body changes caused by sport activity can be reduced, thus enhancing performance.

Long-Term Injury Study Among College Athletes Concludes Fewer Injuries on Fieldturf Vs. Natural Grass

The research was led by Michael C. Meyers, PhD, FACSM, presently a professor within the Department of Health and Human Development at Montana State University. The official study is entitled: “Incidence, Mechanisms, and Severity of Game-Related College Football Injuries on FieldTurf Versus Natural Grass: A Three-Year Prospective Study”.

The peer-reviewed study is published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine

"Over the past decades, numerous studies attributed a greater risk and incidence of articular and concussive trauma to playing on an artificial surface when compared to natural grass," said Meyers. "To that end, though balanced by a view that the synthetic turf product had seen technology advancements in the years thereafter, we hypothesized that FieldTurf would deliver a similar safety profile as natural grass relative to injury incidence, mechanism and severity. Although similarities did exist between FieldTurf and natural grass over a three-year period of competitive play, the findings showed significant differences in injury incidence, severity of injury, injury time loss, injury situation, grade of injury, injuries under various field conditions, and temperature between playing surfaces – with FieldTurf markedly the safer playing surface.”

The study evaluated play under natural game conditions and across 24 NCAA Division 1-A FBS universities. A total of 465 games were tracked – 230 games on FieldTurf, and 235 games on natural grass. A "reportable injury" was defined as any game-related football trauma that resulted in an athlete missing all or part of a game, time away from competition, any injury reported or treated by an ATC or physician and all cranial/cervical trauma reported. "Injury time loss" was categorized as minor if time lost was 0-6 days; substantial at 7-21 days resulting in the athlete unable to return to play at the same high competitive level; and severe if the trauma required 22 or more days of time loss.

“Injury incidence and severity is a topic of much discussion right now, not only within the halls of the NFL and relative to head trauma, but at colleges/universities and high schools across the country,” said FieldTurf President Eric Daliere. “We are pleased that this first-of-its-kind college football research is consistent with similar earlier findings at the high school level. These long-term studies will serve to set the record straight about athlete safety and FieldTurf.”

Findings suggested FieldTurf fields were safer than natural grass fields to the following degrees:

In regards to incidence of injury
7% Fewer total injuries
3% Fewer minor injuries
19% Fewer substantial injuries
22% Fewer severe injuries

In regards to head, knee, and shoulder trauma
12% Fewer concussions
42% Lower anterior cruciate ligament trauma
16 % Lower ACL and associated tissue trauma
10% Fewer AC separations
64% Fewer rotator cuff tears
46% Lower incidence of shoulder lesions (SLAP, Hill-Sachs, Bankart)

In regards to injury category
8% Less injury from player-to-player collisions
10% Less injury from shoe surface interaction during contact
8% Less injury from shoe surface interaction during non-contact

In regards to primary type of injury
8% Fewer ligament sprains
32% Fewer ligament tears
8% Fewer muscle strains and spasms
74% Fewer muscle tears
8% Less tendon strains

In regards to grade of injury
24% Lower incidence of second degree trauma
24% Lower incidence of third degree trauma

In regards to type of tissue injured

6% Lower incidence of joint trauma
6% Lower incidence of muscle trauma
6% Lower incidence of neural trauma

In regards to environmental conditions
10% Less injury during inclement weather (rain, snow, sleet)
42% Less injury during no precipitation, wet field conditions
24% Lower incidence of injury during games played under hot weather conditions

More than 60 top NCAA universities currently play their home games on FieldTurf including Nebraska, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, West Virginia, Washington, Oregon, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas State, Boston College, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas Tech, Rutgers, Syracuse, Cincinnati and Louisville. Twenty-one of the NFL's 32 teams presently utilize FieldTurf in their stadiums and/or practice facilities. In addition, MLB's Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays have FieldTurf at their respective stadiums.

The NFL Players Association released their bi-annual ranking of NFL stadium fields during a January 2009 press conference in Tampa prior to the Super Bowl. Once again, the results tabbed FieldTurf as the runaway leader among all artificial turf brands. In data gathered from polling/voting of over 1500 NFL players, 40% of the league's Top Ten surfaces were FieldTurf fields. In addition, four of the top five and eight of the top ten artificial turf fields in the league are FieldTurf, according to that NFLPA data.

Welcome to the Blog of Toronto Rush FC

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