Soccer? What will he blog about next? I had an interesting conversation with one of my U15 players last night. I asked him what he thinks we need to work on as a team. His response? Talking to one another. Deep. I wanted my team to see that it makes no difference how old or good you get — the basics of teamwork are critical!

Germany midfielder Sami Khedira believes his congenial partnership with Bastian Schweinsteiger is in better health than ever.

It is easy forget that this is a combination which perhaps would never have been formed had Michael Ballack not been ruled out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup through injury. Coach Joachim Löw was forced into a rethink in the absence of the venerable Ballack and opted to pair Schweinsteiger and Khedira.

It was a hit from the off, helping Germany to the semi-finals in South Africa, and has flourished ever since. “In 2010, we played only one game together before the World Cup,” said Khedira. “Since then, two years have gone by and we have played many matches together.”

Khedira began the relationship as the undoubted junior partner but, having moved to Real Madrid CF two summers ago, has matured into an integral figure under the stewardship of José Mourinho. For the national team, he and Schweinsteiger complement each other perfectly.

“We know our respective virtues and to enable the other to capitalise on theirs you yourself take a step back,” added Khedira, 25. “I believe our balance between defending and attacking has become even better and that has probably made us stronger as well.”

It is also worth remembering that Khedira’s Madrid club-mate Mesut Özil is the other member of Germany’s midfield triumvirate. “Mesut has taken another step in the past one or two years,” said Khedira. “We players value him, he works a lot for the team. Now he knows how to create space by running.”

Löw expressed his belief that there would be “an explosion in Özil’s form in the knockout stages” and Khedira concurs: “His genius moments will come, simply because he has the quality for that to happen.” Friday’s quarter-final against Greece might be a good time for Özil to turn it on.” via Khedira backs German midfield to unlock Greece – UEFA.com.

Go Germany! :-D

New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land.

By 1786, defects in the post-Revolutionary War Articles of Confederation were apparent, such as the lack of central authority over foreign and domestic commerce. Congress endorsed a plan to draft a new constitution, and on May 25, 1787, the Constitutional Convention convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. On September 17, 1787, after three months of debate moderated by convention president George Washington, the new U.S. constitution, which created a strong federal government with an intricate system of checks and balances, was signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the convention. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states.

Beginning on December 7, five states–Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut–ratified it in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document, as it failed to reserve undelegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. In February 1788, a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. In June, Virginia ratified the Constitution, followed by New York in July.

On September 25, 1789, the first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution–the Bill of Rights–and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments were ratified in 1791. In November 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Rhode Island, which opposed federal control of currency and was critical of compromise on the issue of slavery, resisted ratifying the Constitution until the U.S. government threatened to sever commercial relations with the state. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island voted by two votes to ratify the document, and the last of the original 13 colonies joined the United States. Today the U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution in operation in the world.” via U.S. Constitution ratified — History.com This Day in History — 6/21/1788.