Samir Handanovic, The Best Penalty Stopper in Serie A

In matchday 36 (May 8) of Italian Serie A football league, Udinese managed to defeat Lazio by 2-1 in one of the most important matches to decide the league's 4th place, the last position who will advance to next year European Champions League. Besides striker Antonio Di Natale who scored both goals for the Zebrette, goalkeeper Samir Handanovic also labeled as a hero, after his penalty saved from Mario Zarate when the match's score was still 2-0.

This was the 6th penalty saves from 8 opportunities by the Slovenian goalkeeper. Before Zarate, Samir Handanovic has stopped shots from Samuel Eto’o, Edgar Barreto, David Di Michele, Marek Hamsik dan Edinson Cavani. Only two experienced players, Francesco Totti and Hernan Crespo who're able to beat Handanovic from the spot kick.

What makes it interesting, Zarate was trying to copycat Totti's penalty style to beat Handanovic. He kicked the ball with a chip shot straight into the middle, but Handanovic won't be fooled twice by the same way. The 1.92 m goalie standing still in the center and easily caught Zarate's shot, and made the Argentinian looked silly.

This is the video of Zarate and Totti penalties against Handanovic:

Until this May 2011, Samir Handanovic has saved 11 from 26 spot kicks in Italian Serie A, which makes 42% penalty stop ratio. This is the best record in Italy, beat the stats of two retired goalkeepers, Luca Marchegiani from Lazio (17/42 or 40%) and Napoli's legend Pino "Batman" Taglialatela (11/27 or 41%).

He has his own tips of stopping penalty. "I prepare for games by studying my opponents in the week, but when it comes to the match you just have to watch the player, stay still for as long as possible and rely on your instinct."

It's probably too early to put Samir Handanovic as a sport legend, considering he's still 26-year-old, and he can either fix his record or even destroy it. Nevertheless, stopping penalty is not an easy task. Statistic show that the ratio of a goalkeeper to deny spot kick is only around 10%-20%, but Handanovic manages to double that number.

Check out this video of Handanovic penalty saves from this season:

The Real Maestro of Golf, Tiger Woods

As we promised before on our previous post, the Reasons Why Tiger Woods is Missed, so now we present the real maestro of Golf: Tiger Woods.

Just as we said, there are so many reasons which we believe we all knew, why he is put as a sport legend. Just like Muhammad Ali in boxing, Michael Jordan in basketball, and Maradona in soccer, Tiger Woods is popular for his achievements and magical shoots in golf.

Magical Shoot Maker

We don't know if he could do all that incredible shoots just because of his natural talent, hard practices or else. One thing that we're sure of, that he could do that because of good quality of his golf equipments. As one of the greatest and richest athlete on earth, Tiger Woods could get any golf equipments from all brands. He could buy those with his endorsement money, no matter how expensive they are. But we think that the point in this case is a good quality golf equipments and not an expensive golf equipments. So, what if you can get a good quality ones with a reasonable price? That would be nice, wouldn't it? That's what this Golf Shop, which is located in Germany, provides for their customers.

And for you who are looking for an exotic spot for playing golf, we recommend you to check in Hotel Chiemsee. It's a nice getaway place near a beautiful lake in Bavaria, completed with its amazing golf course.

1997, Augusta's Youngest Champ

Back to the legend's story. Born in 30 December 1975, Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods became a

professional golfer in August 1996 and named as Sports Illustrated's 1996 Sportsman of the Year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year for his two events won to qualify for the Tour Championship. It was three months after tying for 60th place, in his first round of professional golf at the Greater Milwaukee Open.

His endorsement contract in his early professional career, $40 million from Nike and $20 million from Titleist were the highest in golf history to that stage.

During his professional career, Tiger Woods has won 14 titles of professional major golf championships, the second all time records (under Jack Niclaus with 18 titles). Former world's no.1, Tiger Woods is the highest-paid professional athletes in the world with nearly $100 million earnings from winning prizes and endorsements in 2010.

Tiger Woods had to take four months break from golf (Dec 2009 - April 2010) due to his adultery scandal. Because of this, he lost his no.1 rank to Lee Westwood in October 2010. He's currently world's no.5 when this article was written.

So, good luck in chasing back your title. Tiger Woods is the real maestro of golf.

Ronaldo vs Messi on El Clásico, April 16 2011

It is always interesting to follow the competition between Barcelona and Real Madrid or what is commonly called El Clásico whether in the Spanish La Liga or in the UEFA Champions League.

It seems Barca is more dominant than Madrid this season, just take a look to the table, Barcelona leads the league by eight points over Madrid with seven matches left, besides that they have defeated Madrid in Nou Camp for 5-0 in November.

So who will win in the next El Clásico next saturday? I guess one of the answers is depends on these two incredible players, Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid and Lionel Messi from Barcelona. If you can guess who will on the top perform next saturday, then you can guess which one will win the game and that means the time for you to bet on sports.

You can see how these two top scorer of their club compete to be the best player in Spanish La Liga from their goals, so far Lionel Messi has collected 29 goals, one ahead of Ronaldo, and become the top scorer of the league. According to this video below, I think it is not easy to guess is Ronaldo or Messi who will bring their club win El Clásico on the next saturday (April 16, 2011).

So prepare yourself and think smart to place your bet by logic and not by emotion. Just visit this Soccer Betting Guide if you like bet on soccer games but find a difficulty to win, it might help.