Movement Off The Ball

Liverpool V. Oldham Athletic (FA Cup)

Liverpool lost stunningly, giving up goals in added time before the halftime break, and within a couple minutes of re-taking the field after the half.  The 3-2 final score was remarkable, and Reds supporters can take some solace in the fact that Sturridge was fouled just before the second OA goal, and had Gerrard (on as a substitute) hit a millimeter lower on the crossbar, he'd have been a hero and Brendan Rodgers called a genius for saving the game.  Ah, well...

Anyway, buck up Reds fans.  Your team does some things very, very well, as we can see in the following 5 pictures of a counterattack resulting in a (tame) shot by Sturridge:




With a takeaway at midfield, the ball is passed (dashed red line) to Suarez.  In this shot, the ball is just about to hit his foot; note the time in the yellow circle.  Sturridge and Borini are just getting ready to take off...

Book Review

Eduardo Galeano 

"Soccer In Sun And Shadow"

Available at the Ludington Public Library in Bryn Mawr, 

and here via Amazon.

Picked this up on a rainy day with Sam at the library...a pending getaway to NOLA with the bride led me to the travel books section (hardly necessary- Beignets/Booze/Blues, right?)  The soccer books just happen to be within sight of the travel books!

Anyway, I won't do the full-on book report here, but it's a charming read for fans of the game.  It's also a good motivator for a player.  I doubt that anyone will describe any of the things I did as a player so eloquently as Galeano does the likes of Garrincha, di Stefano, Yashin, and Maradona, among many other greats:  

(of Domingos da Guia, a defender) 

A man of imperturbable style, he was always whistling and looking the other way.  He scorned speed.  He would play in slow motion, master of suspense, lover of leisure: the art of bringing the ball out of the box slowly, calmly, was baptized domingada.  When he finally let the ball go, he did so without ever running and without wanting to, because it saddened him to be left without her.

151 essays span a mere 210 pages, and each a joyful account of the very human nature on display in every aspect of the game from the use of black magic to ensure victory, to the pants-off goal that sank Italy in an early World Cup.  Even the sad tales are celebrations of the tragic, each of us can identify with the lowest moments of teams, players, managers and fans.  Of Maradona, Galeano adroitly says, "He played, he won, he peed, he lost."  Part poetry, part satire, humanitarian work and political commentary, the book is a love letter to the game, to the essence of what makes the game a joy to a kid with a ball.  Running throughout is a common thread of the joy of playing, of seeing the impossible accomplished (L'pool V. Oldham this past weekend, for one!) and the happiness the game can deliver on and off the park.

I'll credit Galeano with my favorite soccer quote ("Tell me how you play, and I'll tell you who you are), though it's more likely an ancient proverb with origins long since lost.  Galeano, like the best historians, provides such gems a life raft on which to float for eternity; Homer's name lives on, but only by the good grace of the stories he likewise kept alive for posterity.  I may have learned more from this volume about the game than from any other experience I've had with the game.  Who else has brought Camus' connection to the game into the daylight?  Not my professors of Philosophy at Kenyon!  (For fun, check it out here!)

Now, friends, read up and tell me how you play...

Cox V. Clegg

Free Flowing, Yes.  Random, No.
Stats, Video, Logic

Along with Paul Gardner, Jonathan Clegg is one of the writers I love to read because I am almost certain we'll disagree (mostly because he covers the NY Giants and I'm a Pats fan).  Not that Clegg writes a whole lot about soccer.  Go to the Wall Street Journal's homepage and search for Clegg.  62 hits, mostly NFL, a handful of NBA and a random horse racing story.  But he wrote this during the EURO 2012 competition, essentially claiming that soccer is chaos, a pig in tactical lipstick done up by managers justifying their enormous salaries.

His argument is sound enough, and he even gets a few soccer cognoscenti to weigh in on his points.  But after we did a simple technical exercise at training a week or so ago focused on heading, I found this interesting analysis by Michael Cox (a writer I nearly always agree with) discussing the Swedish soon-to-be-lawyer cum center back for West Brom, Jonas Olsson.  This guy is a hatchet.  While Cox shows that he's relatively quiet for a center back, he's pretty terrifying, because, like guys like Vidic (Man U), Ivanovic (Chelsea) and Huth (Stoke City) you just can't be sure when he's going to haul someone down, hit them late, or otherwise terrorize the opponent.  But he has weaknesses, mainly heading (odd for a central defender) and this screen grab of Cox's screen grab shows a wonderful highlight (enlarge and read Cox's text, too):

Outside Backs

Lahm, Alves, Baines...Davies & Shaw?

Youth Talents Emerging At Outside Back; 

Davies' Movement And Goal In Pictures

In the previous post, Luke Shaw (Southampton) got some love as an emerging back to watch.  Another young man to keep an eye on is 17 year old Ben Davies of Swansea City.  The same weekend Shaw got attention here for his performance against Everton (and the even-more-remarkable Leighton Baines) Davies scored for Swansea against Stoke City to open the game (an eventual 3-1 win for the Swans).

A couple notes: Shaw played well against Everton, but his youth is still noticeable.  He wasn't able to crack 70% in his passing completion percentage, a startlingly low number for a defender.  However, he was 10 of 13 attempts in the final third, though none of those passes actually entered the penalty area.  By comparison, the much more experienced Baines put connected 10 of 12 in the final third, with three entering the penalty area.  Doesn't sound like a huge difference, but that's three more dangerous situations created, and in the EPL any ball into the penalty area is a massive problem for a team.

LMSC Futures

Next Steps

What Might The Quick Boys and Springboks Look Like In 2012-13?

In speaking with the various families who made the time to sit down with me over the past few weeks at LMSC, a couple themes have proven consistent.  Firstly, because it's fun, and because it directly answers areas of a couple of the players' interest, I wanted to show a quick example of how I would envision the two wing backs in a 4-3-3 to play.  This may also provide some further insight into why tactical instruction is limited in its effectiveness at the younger age groups, particularly when playing small-sided matches.

To keep it brief:

Chelsea's staring lineup against Southampton (a 4-2-3-1 if we want to split hairs...but couldn't that just be a 4-3-3 in another form?)

From The Archives

Tottenham v. Stevenage

FA Cup 5th Round (2011-12)

Originally published on the 192squarefeet site; republished as a supplement to 

The play under discussion.

A quick pic and comment:

In the FA Cup tie between Spurs and Stevenage, as Tottenham were able to attack confidently based on the edge in talent and skill, as well as athleticism, there was a play in which the left back, Danny Rose, served a ball from near to the goal line.  His target?  The right back, Kyle Walker.

LMSC Thoughts

State Cup Post-Mortem

Having romped our way through the PA East State Cup (Indoor), it's worth examining some of the factors that led to the success enjoyed on the day.  Mainly because a confession and quest for absolution feels necessary.

To a significant extent, playing in the "B" division gave the LMSC side a leg up; our club is so large, and we have so many players in a given age group (over 40 at the U12B stage) that we enjoy a built-in advantage.  Following a fall DELCO season in which the Quick Boys played well but lost more than they won, competing with the top tier in a one-day EPYSA state level tournament seemed a stretch.  Ironically, concerned that the team ought to enjoy success as a part of supporting their development, I willfully shelved many of my principles for the day.  In retrospect, we might have fared alright in the "A" division, and a part of me feels regretful that we didn't try that level; as it was, the boys had a good time and enjoyed top-dog status deservedly and there is substantial benefit to that experience for young players.

What may be of real interest as the discussion of what is best for a given player, an organization, the sport itself continues, is the manner in which the team was asked to play.  Unlike the outdoor season, and the YSC league we're currently competing in, the team was told to take advantage of the fact that EPYSA plays the state cup on a field with boards surrounding the entire field, even to a couple feet above the crossbar on the goals.  This set-up ensures a couple things: first, the defense is constantly numbers-down, as the attacker may use the boards to create a 1-2 for himself; second, the attack needn't play a ball forward with any real accuracy- it virtually can't go out of bounds so as long as the front players are willing to chase things down (and that's easy enough on a small field) any ball forward is a good one.  Then, shooting from every spot on the field is a safe bet (the goals at Body Zone had crossbars that not one of the GKs I saw could reach with a ladder!) as the net is entirely surrounded by boards.  Any miss will remain in play, and the defense will always be facing the wrong way when it rebounds.

The goalkeeper and all defenders were specifically told to ensure that should any ball they play be at risk of being turned over to the opposition, they opt instead to lump the ball as deep into the opponent's half as possible.  It is a credit to the boys that they executed this instruction very close to perfectly.  Over the five games (120 minutes of soccer) I struggle to recall more than a handful of giveaways in our half.  I rolled my eyes at myself when, in the final, HMMS had their GK rolling the ball out to their backs...what a hypocrite I am!  But the grey areas are what make these processes so challenging (and therefore fun to be a part of) and while I can accept a certain amount of criticism for turning my back on my principles, training Monday night was all about keeping the ball, connecting the team, and using skill rather than brute force to succeed.  So I'm not a total thug.

So what's the takeaway?  The boys had fun.  Scored lots of goals.  Got some prizes and played the final in front of the Rats in a raucous atmosphere.  (Congrats to the Rats on winning the "A" cup!) That's great for a group of kids to experience.  They also defended like madmen, something we work on all the time, and so hopefully the value of that work was underscored.  They showed tactical flexibility in playing direct, dump and press football rather than building out of the back, and that's something I think every college coach would love to have more of; kids who can alter the way they play on the fly.  And, hopefully, the day shows that playing for wins exclusively negates any real need to teach players to play the game in it's most skillful iteration.

I'm not writing that previous sentence with much judgement...it's just that, for me, I'd rather learn to do something in it's most creative and challenging form.  I'm snobby this way, maybe.  Most folks are like that when it's something they're passionate about, I suppose.