This is a nicely done short film.
And when viewed through the lens of player development … well you figure it out.
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What a great video. Shows how much of the onus is on the kids themselves to just get on the ball and play as much as possible. Without any coaching at all these kids kicked butt and took names purely from playing pickup (developing technical skill) and watching games on tv (developing tactical awareness). This is an excellent example of player development.
On a side note, did you see the US U20’s get knocked out tonight by Guatemala? It wasn’t the loss that bothered me like it seemed to bother most people, losing 2-1 to the hosts of the tournament isn’t the end of the world. However, the complete inability to connect even 3 consecutive passes, much less having the quality to break the other team down on top of the incredibly poor soccer 101 positional mistakes such as pressure and cover are very troubling. A guy like Rowe wearing the ten shirt when we have Lletget on there, and shockingly Orozco on the bench who showed some flashes of true quality in the few minutes he got in qualifying is a disgrace. And guys like Hernandez and Agbosumonde just to me represent everything that is still wrong with American soccer. We have some guys that look like they could be good like Kitchen, Lletget, Gyau and maybe Orozco, but we still don’t have anybody that strikes me as truly having world class potential. Some of our players are nice, solid players, but you look at some of the other teenagers around the world like Wilshire, Neymar, Thiago of Barcelona and it is still very obvious that we are wayyy behind still. We can produce good players, and good teams, but when are we ever going to produce great players, and great teams?
I don’t know about street soccer as the only answer. If you go on inside soccer you see video of the Santos academy as well as some Argentine teams’ academies. Those are very structured at a young age-and those kids are sharp. I assume those kids are playing for hours outside as well-but Santos seems to think they benefit from some quite technical coaching when they are 6-8.
I think we’d be pretty happy in the U.S. if we were producing the prospects as a country that equal what Santos’ produces as just one club.
Yep.
The most fundamental requirement: A player must have passion, live with the ball at his feet and the game on TV.
Failure to comply with this requirement is a guaranteed ticket to mediocrity or less.
As for the U20’s Kevin, I am yet to watch the Guatemala game. But what I can tell you is that this age group is the one I know incredibly well – I have followed it for 5 years! And I can assure you that it is easily the most talented group we’ve fielded. Barring a few exceptions, Rongen made solid selections.
I think it’s totally fair to say his era should come to an end.
After I watch the match, I’m sure I’ll write something up.
Oh and don’t believe all those ridiculous statements about how not qualifying for youth WCs is inconsequential.
Futsal is a big part of soccer development in South America, and especially in Brazil. Players often don’t play 11 on 11 until they’re into their teens, instead playing with the heavier ball and smaller spaces, which forces them to develop close in ball control. In Brazil, players are often coached from a very young age, but the difference is that the players with elite potential are being coached by professionals, and not some accountant who’s the father of one of the players, and who may not have any clue whatsoever about how the game should be played.
If I had the power to institute one change in American soccer, it would be to ban any player younger than 14 from playing any form of 11 on 11 soccer. It would be all futsal up until then. As it turns out, it’s really easy to adapt futsal players to the outdoor game, but it’s really difficult to pick up fine ball control after you’re in your teens if you haven’t developed it yet.
I’m with you on being coached by professionals and not “daddy’s”!
I think you’re going a bit far with not playing 11 v 11 until the U15 age group – having only futsal until then. I don’t know of any top level country doing such a thing.
Why can’t we produce more players like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foAEMz0fid0
He has a short american body but good skill yet we can’t mold other crafty short players in his likeness. Does it just come down to fate that he has more foot grace than other good american finesse players or is it improper training of the others?
Gary,
Seems like this might be a good opportunity for a discussion of small-sided play at the youth level. Futsal provides another non-traditional development route that we under-value. The number of states implementing small-sided up to U-13 remains depressingly small. Our state (NM) is numbered among those that do, but we are surrounded by those who don’t, and being a smaller state there exists lots of pressure to play full sided at a young age. In the West, all the big states play full-sided at U-11 for the most part. Why? I cannot understand the reasoning other than tradition; perhaps you can provide the explanation.
At the last Club meeting I attended, a discussion of this broke out while discussing pre-season tournament play. One coach who had taken his U-13 girls out of state for a high-level tournament expressed the need to play high-level competition early (U-11) even though it was full-sided, and all the big states around us do full-sided at U-11. Our resident German expressed frustration about how bad this is for development.
After the last World Cup, a great deal of focus was given on the unexpected power of Germany driven by their emphasis on youth development. Germans don’t play full-sided till U-13, unlike England (and most of the USA). The inability for the USA to adopt small-sided play completely seems another persistent problem where tradition, money and ignorance stand in the way of progress.
Bill,
I just now wrote a draft on this.
Coincidentally, my brother is wrapping up his two week stay in Barcelona where his U-10s competed against several professional academies, including Barca’s.
He’s had full access to La Masia, so I want to hold off on publishing my thoughts until he shares every little detail to see if there are nuggets that can enhance what I’ve written.
Sounds fantastic, failure to embrace small-sided it is another thing that has always baffled me. I think, I know why, but it still makes it wrong.
I’ll be waiting (sort of) patiently for the report on the La Masia.
Speaking of different ideas did you catch the article on the BBC about mind-focused training in Europe? It was an interesting perspective on how to focus training on the mind instead of the body in developing players.
The basic gist:
Small-sided is critical, but the idea of having it completely supplant the traditional outdoor 8v8, 11v11 game I think is a mistake.
Haven’t seen the BBC article. Link?
Seems to work for Brazil. Full size soccer fields are hard to find in Brazil, but futsal courts are everywhere. If you look into the backgrounds of the top Brazilian players, most didn’t play 11 on 11 until around 12 – 14 years old. All of their early play was exclusively futsal. There’s some adjustment, of course, but most have no real problems and the superior ball skills developed by futsal pay off even more with the extra space available on the full size fields.
I’m not familiar with the hard data.
Sure I’ve read about the Brazilians and listened to interviews over the years, but I haven’t heard of most of them not playing the outdoor game until a teenager.
I think, and again I haven’t examined the data, that most of the Brazilian players were still trained and polished within a pro club where they certainly are competing in the outdoor environment.
They’re training in a pro club, but at the early ages it’s in their futsal teams, which every club has.
As for players, just off the top of my head, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and Julio Cesar all played futsal until they were between 12-14 and then switched to the outdoor game. Julio Cesar in particular has talked about his fears about having to protect the much larger goal and how he had to develop his positioning skills when making the transition.
Cracking Coaching’s Final Frontier
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/9421702.stm
Bill, My martial arts instructor is like this guy, its what seems like millions of complex drills and combinations that all demand you think and react and almost never repeat. It really does exhaust the brain as much as the body when you train that way. Its also really demanding on the instructor becuase they have to constantly adjust the training session, no just telling people a few drills and walking away.
I completely agree with the thesis!
Soccer IQ is a huge component in success at the higher levels. And like the article asserts, a primary reason for England’s failure. Let’s not even mention the US.
I can’t speak for the training methods mentioned as there are no details. But I do agree with this:
“Bruyninckx emphasises teamwork ahead of individualism”
Lot’s of people state that US Soccer is failing because we focus on the team instead of the individual.
That only begins to addresses technical development. The building and polishing of Soccer IQ needs the context of the team. And this is where coaching has the greatest impact.
Now as far as this:
“He also believes that if you want to produce technical footballers then forget the idea of competition.”
We need to be careful as I believe this is missing context. Notice it says “technical” specifically. It does NOT say a “complete footballer”.
Finally:
“”But the brain – it is the most important thing; it is everything.”
Yep! Especially at the highest levels. That is why Altidore and Adu, among many others, can’t hack it.
Thanks for sharing Bill!