3 FOUR 3 — Passionate students of the beautiful game

Possession Soccer: What does it take?

January 29, 2010

This post is my response to an observation made by one of our readers, CarlosT from the Sounder At Heart blog. In his comment to our possession article, he shared the video below and stated:

“It seems to me that while this style of play is associated with hugely talented teams like Argentina and Brazil, the technical [...]

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US vs Honduras: Excuses and Another Bob Bradley Indictment

January 24, 2010

While it certainly would have been different with the 1st team, I view this performance (a 1-3 loss) as a further indictment of Bradley:

He doesn’t know what a “true quality” player is.
He simply has no tactical understanding.

On the first point, does he mean to tell me these “second string” players are the best we [...]

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Funes Mori: Example of US Soccer Failure

January 23, 2010

The problem with US Soccer is not that we lack extremely talented players; we have them! There are loads of players with world class potential here. I see it every week at the youth level, and sometimes college.
The problem is we have ignorance and incompetence occupying the coaching and management positions at the higher levels.
The [...]

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Fundamental Guide to Soccer IQ

January 20, 2010

I think we can all agree that Soccer IQ is about decision making.
- When to dribble.
- When to pass.
- When to shoot.
- When to send a cross.
- When to go forward or backward.
- etc.
Disagreements arise on what is the correct thing to do – the reason for the different styles of play.
While the correct decisions [...]

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Breaking Bad Habits

January 17, 2010

Most of us have seen that TV show or movie where the cowboy jumps on a horse’s back with the aim of domestication. The wild animal violently resists being ridden and will buck, jump, twist, whatever it takes to knock the cowboy on his ass! After all, the horse is wild and doesn’t want to [...]

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MLS Draft Prospects

January 12, 2010

I’ve been holding this in for a while now – ever since coverage and speculation over this year’s MLS Draft started. With the Draft this Thursday, I just have to say my piece.
I’m disgusted by what most “reporters/analysts” are writing. And these are considered good sources of soccer information in America. These guys have large [...]

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Danny Mwanga – Our Story

January 8, 2010

It all started in 2007 at the Nomads Tournament in San Diego. Our silver elite U-16 club team was slated to open group play against the Oregon State Champions, WSM Internationals. It was a beautiful day – perfect for soccer.
1st Encounter
Little did we know a nightmare was around the corner. My brother and I started [...]

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Who Is This Soccer Player?

January 7, 2010

Look at the image closely …
That’s right, you have no idea! Well, I’ll tell you.

He is the guy who has the same dream you do!
He is the player that wants to get that professional contract instead of you!
He might be the player who will get that starting spot, instead of you!
Or he might be the [...]

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Report: U-18 National Team Camp

January 2, 2010

I was at the Home Depot Center Friday night were the participants of the U-18 camp played against a couple of PDL teams comprised of college players.
I arrived 20 minutes from the end of the first game where they lost to Ventura County Fusion. I was told 4-1. All I can say from watching the [...]

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US Soccer 2009 (Part IV: Nothing’s Changed)

December 30, 2009

It’s easy for the blind faithful to spout off the following as evidence we have “arrived”:

Qualified 1st to the Wolrd Cup out of CONCACAF
Got to the final in the Confederations Cup by knocking out #1 ranked Spain
Got to the final of the Gold Cup

But like I said in the last post, we need to inspect [...]

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