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TORONTO - Soccer was not kind to Rob Friend the last few months but the Canadian international striker leaves the sport with plenty of fond memories and good friends. Balenciaga Outlet .Friend announced his retirement earlier this month after a championship season with the Los Angeles Galaxy cut short by concussion-related problems. The 33-year-old native of Kelowna, B.C., missed more than five months of action in 2014.Its a bit bittersweet going out as champions here in the MLS, to be honest with you, he said in a recent interview. But obviously Ive struggled a lot with this injury, had a lot of bad symptoms — headaches, what not.Its bittersweet but at least I was fortunate enough to have played the places Ive played, that I can go out with my head held high and be proud of what Ive done. And move on to the next chapter.Friend, a formidable figure at six foot five, was originally drafted by the Chicago Fire in 2003 but opted to sign with Moss FK and then Molde FK in Norway. He spent a year with SC Heerenveen in the Netherlands before embarking on a successful stretch in Germany.Friend signed with Borussia Moenchengladbach for the 2007 season, scoring 18 goals to help the team earn promotion to Germanys top flight. He scored 28 goals in his three seasons with the storied club — the pinnacle of his career — before moving on to Hertha BSC, Eintracht Frankfurt and TSV 1860 Munchen.He joined the Galaxy in January, seeing action in 10 games.Its been an amazing journey ... its been unbelievable, Friend said. Ive met a lot of amazing people, played for some amazing organizations and clubs. At Heerenveen alone, he played with Toronto FC star Michael Bradley, fellow Canadian and Portland Timbers captain Will Johnson and Galaxy teammate Robbie Rogers. Friend, who made his debut for Canada in 2003, won more than 30 caps for his country.Unfortunately, Friend still is not completely over his health issues.Its a very funny animal, the brain. You go through waves of a lot of headache-like symptoms and fogginess, just kind of not feeling 100 per cent. Ive definitely passed that stage of struggling every day. The only issue I have at the moment now is when I do an intense workout I feel the headache coming on again.Ive been able to manage it. Now Im just going to take a little bit of time to really take care of the symptoms so hopefully they dont bother me long term.Friend was hurt in a freak training-ground practice. He was running and a hard-hit ball caught him in the temple, really unexpectedly, caught me totally off guard and knocked me to the ground.For two days, he felt foggy and out of it.Then probably by Day 3 it just went into a straight headache that I couldnt kick for about two months.The injury, along with numerous past knocks, forced him to evaluate his soccer future.Friend was always a target man, physical and good in the air. His head was as important as his boot and he absorbed plenty of abuse going for goal.Ive taken a lot of hits to my head over the years and its serious issue now, the concussions, he said. Theres a lot of former athletes that are struggling long-term. I dont want that. I have to be a good husband and a good father to three kids and take care of my family so I kind of made that decision that it wasnt worth trying to push it another couple of years.Friend says he absolutely had prior concussions.Diagnosed, Ive probably had a few. Undiagnosed Ive definitely had my fair share as well. Ive been to a lot of experts round North America, talked to a lot of different doctors ... They all say accumulation of hits to your head — whether thats constant heading, hard knocks to your head — all take its toll. So I think thats got a lot to do with why my symptom is lasting as long as it is.The symptoms had not been as severe in the past. But Friend says over the last few years, he noticed he felt a little bit out of it for 24 hours or so if he took a harder blow to the head or had done a lot of headers in practice.It left him with a lingering headache for a day or two.Then it would go away. I never thought much about it. I just chalked it up as I just got kind of my bell rung a little but and itll go away. Then as the years went on, I started noticing the symptoms more and more and just didnt think much of it. Then it was just this one kind of freaky hit to the side of my head unexpectedly that really brought the long-terms symptoms on.Concussion aside, Friend has fond memories of his year in Los Angeles and MLS.Its an exciting league and I wanted to be part of it, he said. To be part of the best organization like the Galaxy, thats something Im proud of.It was also a homecoming of sorts.Friend played two years of college soccer at UC Santa Barbara where he met wife Mari, a Los Angeles native who was the setter on the volleyball team. The family — which includes a five-year-old boy and one- and three-year-old girls — plans to move to Vancouver where he hopes to stay involved in soccer.Having endured the hardships of a Canadian playing abroad, he remains a big booster of Canadian soccer.Canada is on the right track, he said, predicting more talent will flourish overseas. Follow @NeilMDavidson on Twitter Air Max 95 China Wholesale . Heather, the first Gaiter to win the award, set a Canadian Inter-university Sport record with 3,132 passing yards in eight league games, an average of 391.5 yards per game. That beat the mark of 3,047 set only one week earlier by Westerns Will Finch, a Hec Crighton finalist. Air Force 1 Wholesale China .com) - Stanley Johnson had 18 points and No. http://www.outletsneakersclearance.com/fake-air-vapormax.html . Every. Single. Game. Thats 1,230 in total to cover the regular season. The man is Corey Sznajder, a soft-spoken 23-year-old Salisbury University grad who lives in Annapolis, Maryland and has been charting zone entries and zone exits throughout the NHL. I love big projects, he said. No kidding. At the 2013 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, I met Eric Tulsky, who presented research on the value of controlled zone entries (short answer: about twice as valuable to enter with control of the puck rather than dumping it in) and Sznajder had charted a couple hundred games that were included in that study. NASHVILLE -- Beating a team that played in the NFC championship game is nice in the preseason. Winning when both the Titans and Atlanta Falcons played their starters into the second half makes it even better. Jake Locker threw for 133 yards and a touchdown, and Tennessee sacked Matt Ryan five times Saturday night as the Titans beat the Falcons 27-16. Locker got both his first TD with a 11-yarder to Nate Washington and the first turnover this preseason for the Titans. The third-year quarterback also posted his best game yet as he completed 11 of 13 passes and finished with a 134.9 passer rating before leaving after a series in the third quarter. "Preseason or not, at least we won one that the guys played into the third quarter on both sides, so you kind of got a real feel of where were at," coach Mike Munchak said of the Titans first preseason win. "Still a lot different than the regular season. We know that. But again, you want to be ready to go out and play." Ryan had Tony Gonzalez back after the veteran tight end reported to the Falcons this week. But a Tennessee defence without four starters got to Ryan repeatedly, including three times on third downs. Julio Jones was thrown at eight times with Roddy White resting an injured ankle, and dropped a couple while also drawing an offensive pass interference penalty. Atlanta wound up settling for four field goal attempts by Jeremy Shelley, and he missed a 46-yarder wide right. The Falcons, who lost to San Francisco in the NFC championship game in January, averaged 26.2 points per season in 2012. But they trailed 20-6 when Ryan left after one series in the third period, settling for field goals despite driving to the Tennessee 6 and 13 early. The Falcons didnt get that close again with the first-team offence. Coach Mike Smith said his Falcons didnt play up to their standards, but he trusts his players to be ready for the season opener Sept. 8 at New Orleans. "We have a whole lot of work to do over the next 14 days," Smith said. "Many of the mistakes that we made are correctable." Tennessee had been shredded on the ground the first two games, including giving up 193 yards rushing last week at Cincinnati. That didnt bode well for a defence that allowed a franchise-worst 471 points last season, and the Titans scratched end Ropati Pitoitua, tackle Sammie Hill andd linebackers Akeem Ayers and Zach Brown for injuries. Wholesale Jordan Free Shipping. It didnt matter because the Titans got to Ryan repeatedly, and only a call from the officials helped bail him out of a would-be turnover. Ryan was ruled in the grasp before the ball came out with defensive tackle Jurrell Casey recovering in the second quarter. "A couple things stick out to me," Ryan said. "Production in the red zone weve got to do better and improve on in the next two weeks. And overall execution needs to be better across the board. We just need to play better than we did tonight." The Titans finished with six sacks. "That was one of our goals this whole season is to get to the quarterback and take pressure off of our DBs, and I felt up front we had a great game today being able to do that," Casey said. Lockers turnover came when Atlanta blitzed on third down. He got away from Thomas DeCoud and scrambled to the first down marker only to be stripped by Joplo Bartu, with DeCoud recovering the ball. But the defence held, forcing a field goal. "You cant have turnovers like that," Locker said. "It was nice to respond and find ways to put points on the board." Atlanta cornerback Asante Samuel hurt his thigh in the first quarter and didnt return. Rookie Robert Alford replaced him, with rookie Desmond Trufant on the other side, and Locker started going downfield more. Chris Johnson ran 11 times for 65 yards. Backup Shonn Greene hurt an ankle in the first half and didnt finish the game. Ryan Fitzpatrick, signed to back up Locker, made sure the Titans finally finished a game with a win. Dominique Davis rallied the Falcons within 20-16 with a TD pass to Darius Johnson, but Fitzpatrick found Michael Preston on a 6-yarder to seal it. Notes: Titans rookie LB Jonathan "Tig" Willard, who helped rescue a woman and her three children from a burning car on his way to training camp, intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter. ... Falcons DT Peria Jerry hurt his jaw. He didnt return after being cleared by doctors because the second-team already was in. ... Ed Hochuli worked the first half as referee, with Wayne Mackie handling the second. ... Washington didnt finish with an injured right foot that he said after the game wasnt serious. RB Shonn Greene also didnt play in the second half with an injured ankle. ' ' ' |
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