U10 Weekly

Tough Week For OSSC's Youngest

A long road trip to Fulton was the precursor to an even longer match as the U10 side struggled to keep pace with an aggressive and evidently conscienceless opponent.



It's taken a couple days for the red haze to clear from my mind, but with the perspective of a few nights sleep, I've drawn a couple conclusions.  One, we played poorly.  There is no doubt that virtually every boy on our team has played much better often in the past, and so, to some extent, it was just one of those nights when the whole side was out of sorts.  Two, the long ride (too long by my reckoning...a future post on this topic to come) may have left the boys a little logy; I have never seen a team play better on the road than at home.  That's not to make excuses, but I'm willing to offer the 9 year old kids a break and treat it all as so much spilt milk.

The game did teach us some things, however, and so was not a total loss.

One, I thought it was a fine counter point to the coaches approach at OSSC; three coaches (evidently none of whom understand even the most basic points of the offside law) who stood with their toes on the line the whole game, coaching every movement of the ball, and who have so little experience (I'd love to accuse them of being totally soul-less, but that's not quite fair) as to lack any method of (or inclination to??)  controlling the score once the game was out of reach.  Now, I suppose the Fulton parents are fired up to have their kids playing for a go-for-the-jugular type, but it's a here-and-now proposition.  Long term, the boys on that team who turn out to be good players will be the boys who touch the ball.  The forwards, the ones with the most talent (however that is determined) who are on the field the whole match.  The other 12 kids are left for the wolves.

Two, it was very clear our boys did not do a good job of defending.  Many of our troubles began there, and Wednesday's training session, as well as tonight's will, included a heavy dose of possession games with a focus on how to pressure the ball carrier, and to defend in pairs.  We have done none of this work so far, and it is high time we did.  Had we attacked the other team when they had the ball, as opposed to reacting to their decisions, and worked at least in pairs if not as a larger group (easy to write and understand, much, much harder to organize across a whole team...) many of the goals we conceded would have not happened.

Three, every boy on the team showed that too often they underhit a pass.  Where we do not rely on sprinting with the ball, or kicking big long balls to advance into the opponent's half, passing the ball on the ground is the key.  Not surprisingly, the boys, being pretty small, and playing on long-ish grass, have a hard time hitting a 20 yard ball.  That's 60 feet...and a pretty long way to hit a pass, even with a size 4.  In time, each of the boys will realize the value of hitting passes very hard...between now and then, they'll have to pay a premium for choosing to play with a club that is going to judge how successful the boy, and the organization, is when the kids are 18.  Winning today means relatively little compared to helping the boys become competent, fundamentally sound, creative and skillful players as senior level players.

Four, I have learned an important lesson in the importance of coaching education/having a national approach to the game.  While many will gripe about the USSF, and I'm doing it too at times, the curriculum they have produced is a good one.  And it is flexible enough that they allow for coaches to be themselves, and build teams as they see fit.  It is not an oppressive document.  But what it is, or could be (should be?) is a way to get the coaches of youth teams on board with a couple key concepts:

1. Job one is making life-long, knowledgeable and passionate soccer people out of our players, &
2. We're not competing with each other; we're trying to make American players the best they can be, &
3. Technical skill acquisition trumps any other goal

The first three I have control over, and will continue to study the game, how best to teach young players, and progress them toward their goals over time.  The last one, I wonder how much control I may have over...but as I'm moving to a major metropolitan area, I wonder if I might not have the chance to spread the small ember of thoughtful soccer instruction to more folks, against the conventional, selfish and short-sighted methodologies in youth soccer, and begin a full-fledged fire to change the landscape of youth soccer.  It's a goal worth shooting for, anyway.

Lastly, running up scores does some harm to a player's enjoyment of the game, undermines another coach's effort to teach the game, regardless of his/her approach, and that's before you encounter the various ethical issues such game management raises.  So we took this one on the nose...we might have to take a couple more, but I firmly believe that while it stings now, OSSC players will get the last laugh.