More crosses creating more goals. Winning penalties with “total genius” like Cristiano Ronaldo. Pressing opponents to quickly win back the ball. FIFA’s expert analysts picked their World Cup trends Saturday from the first 16 games after each team played once. What the Technical Study Group saw was more and better crosses bearing fruit with a big increase in the number of goals — 14 instead of three — coming from wide areas compared to the 2018 tournament at the same stage. The nine penalty kicks awarded in the first 16 games put this World Cup on track for a record 36 in the entire 64-game tournament. There were 29 given by referees in 2018 when they first had video reviews. Clever players should get as much credit as new technology, according to Sunday Oliseh, a midfielder who played at two World Cups for Nigeria and is studying games in Qatar for FIFA. Read: Poland beat Saudis 2-0 at World Cup “Maybe the strikers are getting smarter? If you look at the penalty that Ronaldo got,” he said about the Portugal star seeming to tempt a Ghana defender into a tackle that was judged a foul. “People can say what they want about this man, but the smartness and the ingenious thought to just being patient and wait for that split second to touch the ball first before you,” Oliseh said, “and continue my leg so that your contact will hit my leg.” “That is total genius,” he added. Ghana coach Otto Addo might disagree. He described the penalty as “ a special gift from the referee.” Ronaldo got off the turf to open the scoring in Portugal’s 3-2 win, one of the seven penalties converted among the 41 total goals in 16 games through Thursday. That’s a solid average at a World Cup — a rate of 2.56 per game compared to the record of 2.67 at a full, 64-game tournament. Helping make up for the four scoreless draws, the FIFA analysts highlighted, was the impressive delivery from wide areas. The 14 goals stemming from crosses resulted from a better supply in Qatar where 56 crosses have led to goal attempts compared to just 35 in Russia four years ago, FIFA’s analysis said. Read: Japan eye World Cup knockout stage with win against Costa Rica Four games without goals — when the first 36 games in 2018 failed to produce a 0-0 draw — can be explained by teams’ caution to avoid losing their first game. Oliseh said the Portugal-Ghana game was drab until Ronaldo’s penalty “then it became a funfair” with a rush of second-half goals. “As the tournament progresses we will see teams becoming a bit braver,” said Alberto Zaccheroni, the Italian coach who led Japan at the 2014 World Cup. Teams that committed to pressing opponents deep in their own half were rewarded with regaining possession in dangerous areas and avoided chasing back toward their own goal, Zaccheroni said. FIFA data showed England, Spain, Germany and Argentina were most effective at “counter-pressing” tactics many players routinely use at their clubs. Coaches now having five substitutes meant their teams could keep “physically very taxing” energy levels high for the full game, Zaccheroni said.

African officials outlined their priorities for the upcoming U.N. climate summit, including a push to make heavily polluting rich nations compensate poor countries for the environmental damage done to them. The continent will also focus on how countries can adapt to global warming and how the continent can best halt further climate-related disasters. Africa has seen debilitating droughts in the east and Horn of Africa and deadly cyclones in the south. Other key areas for discussion include moving from high-carbon energy sources like oil and gas to renewables, and “carbon credit” schemes, where foreign governments and companies pay for tree planting in exchange for producing greenhouse gases. The U.N. climate conference, known as COP27, will be held in Egypt in November. How much funding Africa gets is the biggest factor for how prepared it will be for a hotter future, said Harsen Nyambe, the director of sustainable environment at the African Union Commission. Read: Mideast nations wake up to damage from climate change “We recall the $100 billion that was promised has never been fulfilled and current assessments show that even that amount is not enough,” Nyambe said, referring to a 12-year-old pledge by rich nations to provide climate funding for poorer nations. “Africa must be given adequate time to transition and transform its energy infrastructure. We cannot transform abruptly. We need resources, capacity, technology transfer and finance to power our development,” he added. A commitment made in the previous international summit in Glasgow to spend half of climate funds on helping developing nations adapt to the effects of a warming world by having infrastructure and agriculture that's resilient to more volatile weather systems, must be followed through, said Jean-Paul Adam, director of climate change for the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Africa. He added the continent only received about 7.5% of its promised $70 billion in climate funding between 2014 and 2018. Africa needs around $3 trillion to fulfill its self-determined emissions targets, known as nationally determined contributions, that each country is required to submit as part of the 2015 Paris agreement on climate, according to U.N. and Africa Development Bank estimates. More meetings between the continent's climate leaders are set to follow ahead of COP27.

The age that society refers to as midlife is over the age of forty-five. People go through a significant life change during this stage, such as family issues, changes in careers, etc. Even if middle-aged people may have had successful career paths, good families, or relationships, it is common to feel that not all the things are turning out the way they had hoped. Setting personal goals in mifddle-age can give people new hopes for living the rest of their lives in peaceful ways. Let's discuss how to set goals in midlife? Why Midlife Is Not Too Late to Set Goals If you are a middle-aged person who has started to sense that something is missing. There is a possibility that the confidence and desire that previously propelled you through life no longer exists. Do not fret! This is a common experience that many individuals have. You may consider it an ideal opportunity to set realistic goals and design the kind of life you truly desire. Usually, an individual gets motivated to keep moving forward in life if she or he has goals. People can accomplish new things in midlife by defining new objectives for themselves. Setting objectives so late in life may seem counterintuitive, yet in the present era, individuals are living much longer. Midlife is a good time for any person to find fresh meaning.  Read Why Do You Need a Purpose In Life? According to research published in the Psychological Science journal, finding a life purpose "lowers the chance of mortality." These results appeared to hold true throughout one's lifespan, including middle age.  Therefore, happiness may exist and increase at or beyond middle age. In real life, people's levels of happiness after their 20s reach their highest point at 69. Even more energizing, people frequently experience their greatest levels of happiness in their 80s and even into their 90s. People who create (and achieve) goals get psychological advantages in addition to living longer. Wth some definitie goals, the middle-aged people may become more driven, accountable, and successful, which can inspire them to interact with other people in novel ways. Read Sunk Cost Fallacy: Why It's Better to Forget the Past Even after reaching midlife, the goal-oriented people get to know themselves better; because, in the process of going for their goals, they grow to understand who they are. Desire and necessity propel them to behave, and this ultimately shapes their sense of who they are in the world. How to Set Goals in Midlife to Live a Great Life Hobbies One's sense of purpose can get a significant boost by trying out a new activity, such as painting or writing, for example. If you feel that your job is getting in the way of your hobbies, you can find ways that make them a higher priority. For instance, if you have decided to start a garden, you may set aside some time each week to work on sowing, tending, and expanding your interest in gardening. Read Spending Money for Happiness: 10 Effective Ways If you can find the time in your hectic schedule for your favorite hobby, you may discover that you are happier and more fulfilled as a result of this change. Health At a younger age, people are constantly working toward improving their physical well-being and setting new goals. A daily trip to the gym lasts one hour, with weight training taking up thirty minutes and cardiovascular exercise accounting for the remaining forty-five minutes. On the other hand, as the years go by, people’s commitment to maintaining their physical health and adhering to a rigorous workout routine may weaken. Read Goldilock Rule: How to stay motivated, take challenges in life, career, business However, reaching midlife you shouldn't stress about getting back on the horse right away; instead, you should take things one step at a time. You may look for a weekly program that is beneficial for both your health and your busy life, and try to stick to it. A daily stroll or even just twenty minutes can help lower a person's chance of developing heart disease. Retirement When people are getting closer to the age at which they can retire, their thoughts often turn to the amount of money they have put away in their savings accounts. In middle-age, you can start planning to ensure that you will be able to maintain your current standard of living after retirement. Create concrete objectives that state how much money you want to amass before you retire so that you may live the life you've always imagined for yourself once you've finished working. Read Post Retirement Career Planning: How to pick your dream job? It may seem difficult to estimate how much the later portion of your life will cost. Still making an estimate may provide you with a better knowledge of how much you need and how you can shape your objectives in order to attain the outcomes you want. Relationships and Children Midlife brings numerous difficulties, particularly those pertaining to relationships, to the forefront for many individuals.  Someone who has never been committed to a relationship and has chosen to remain single may have concerns about the future. Do they prefer to spend all of their time by themselves? This is a fairly loaded way of framing the issue, of course, and many people will disagree, stating that they are perfectly fine living alone and that they can't think of anything that would be worse than sharing their flat with another person. The single middle-aged person can make plans accordingly. Read Self-Accountability: How to Develop Personal Accountability in Life The issue of children should also be taken into consideration. Those who have not become parents yet should be concerned about the ticking of their biological clock. When they glance at their family, friends, and neighbors, they worry that they will be left behind. They are most concerned about the issue of who will care for them when they are elderly. Be very certain that you are figuring out what it is that you want before you establish such objectives and not what you believe you ought to desire or what the expectations of society are. However, middle-aged people with children have tensions too. What if all the children have planned to settle abroad or in other cities. Some people start to freak out approaching their 40s. They begin to worry about their deteriorating health and loneliness. Not every parent is ready to spend the last years of their lives alone with nurses or paid caregivers. They may also worry that relatives may consider them a "burden." So, at midlife, people should make plans to keep themselves happy without the presence of children. Read 9 Best Countries to Retire Abroad Conclusion Congratulating oneself on a job well done can go a long way toward boosting one's self-confidence and making it simpler to establish and achieve subsequent objectives. Therefore, reaching midlife, spend some time appreciating what you've accomplished in life so far. Do the same, once you've accomplished a goal.  In addition to that, make sure to examine all of your other plans. How have they evolved over time? Where do you stand with the new priorities? What new knowledge did you obtain? If you establish a strategy and stick to it, you can accomplish any goal in a shorter amount of time. When you reach your midlife, it's a good idea to track down where you are in life and where you want to go. So far, we have discussed ways to set goals in middle age to live happily for the rest of your life. Hope it helps! Read Investing in Yourself: 10 Best Ways of Investment for Self-Betterment