Brand new to wordpress, advice needed

I have never been interested in wordpress before but I am now going to make an attempt at one. I have installed the latest 2.8 version and so far so good.

So I am just looking for some pointers from people here.

I am looking for a unique design to be made for a football one (soccer). I am also wondering what are the best plugins to have as there seem to be thousands of them!

I want my site to have links, a youtube video player and a few pictures as well as some auto news feeds. Ive no idea at all how to go about these so I would appreciate the help.

 

Well, I'll start you out by suggesting 2 of my favorite sports themes Tauren, and WSPN

 

Please go through this.

http://abhisays.com/internet/how-i-did-seo-for-abhisayscom.html

 

Before using any plugins or anything else, set your permalinks right for SEO purposes.

 

i use these plugins in my blog:

1. xml sitemaps
2. all in one SEO
3. Tweetmeme button

They are very useful...