The Back 3

Napoli's Back 3:

Invite, Exploit, Opponent's Possession

They might use a back three, but Chelsea is outnumbered 8 to 5 in this attack.
Result- goal kick for Napoli.

 Jonathon Wilson discussed the use of the back 3 in Italian soccer (he claims 11 of 20 Serie A clubs use a back 3 regularly) and offers a great analysis of how Napoli can play with three in the back, yet not seek to dominate possession.  In 2012, with the loss of Dzeko & Lavezzi, it will be interesting to see if Napoli go the same route...(ED. Note, 6/30/13: they did.)

Valeriy Lobanovsky

Further Shame Of The Iron Curtain
Lobanovsky's "Peculiarity" Obscured

The collective, Comrade, is the secret...
Valeriy Lobanovsky

The horrors of Eastern European Post-Revolution history are legion.  But as a far-off disaster like the Tsunami of 2010 causes us relatively little pause, whereas the unexpected break-up of a romantic relationship causes weeks and months of disrupted behavior, small things give us reason to consider further the costs of the Communist experiment.

Valeriy Lobanovsky, along with Victor Maslov, revolutionized football in the Ukraine and is credited in some circles (most notably by Jonathon Wilson of The Guardian Newspaper; read his Inverting the Pyramid for a comprehensive history of the tactical evolution of the game....not nearly as dry as that sentence makes it sound) with establishing some of the very earliest statistic and scientific approaches to the game.

Football became for him a system of 22 elements – two sub-systems of 11 elements – moving within a defined area (the pitch) and subject to a series of restrictions (the laws of the game). If the two sub-systems were equal, the outcome would be a draw. If one were stronger, they would win. The aspect that Lobanovskyi found most fascinating was that the sub-systems were subject to a peculiarity: the efficiency of the sub-system was greater than the sum of the efficiencies of the elements that comprise it. That, as Lobanovskyi saw it, meant football was ripe for the application of the cybernetic techniques being taught at the Polytechnic Institute. Football, he concluded, was less about individuals than about coalitions and the connections between them. 

(Emphasis added, quote taken from Jonathon Wilson via The Guardian Newspaper)

Common GK Question

Manuel Neuer's Terrible Hands

A great question the other day from a dad of an LMSC GK after training.  After watching this video, he noted that Neuer didn't catch too many of the balls launched at his goal:

So are we to conclude Neuer is somehow technically deficient?  

USA Top The Hex

Odds 'N' Ends

Lots to cover, so bullet points it is!

1. USA tops the Hexagonal after 5 games.  Had the PK been given, or Beasley and Dempsey's woodwork efforts gone in, or Bradley not hit Dempsey, the US would have been the only team thus far through some 15 games or so to score 3 goals in a match.  Close but not quite, but at least we aren't drawing Costa Rica at home 0-0, in one of the most intimidating venues in football (yeah, Mexico, I'm looking at you - Azteca?  More like snooze-teca)
2. Some good points on the USA's win from MLSSOCCER.com.  Besler and Gonzalez appear to be firming up their partnership; losing Beasley for next week's Honduras match in Rio Tinto will make the back four shuffle somewhat.  The mothership's WCQ page pretty much tells the whole story.
3. Jozy Altidore: 90 professional goals for club and country (23 years old) with more than thirty of those goals coming in the past 10 months.  Uh-oh...someone's heating up?  Now if only Landon will get off his tush and join the fun.
4. 30 seconds of genius by Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands against China:
5. Less brilliant by Javier Mascherano, kicking a medical staffer as he's carted off the field:
Mascherano expulsado by hoyno255
6. Here's one way to stop Messi...put him in jail.
7. The game says goodbye to a big name, perhaps made large for the wrong reasons as Michael Cox points out via ESPNFC.
8. The World Cup in Qatar (2022) might be the most ludicrous sporting even plan ever...or the coolest, if they really can pull off stuff like this.
9. An amazing 2-second, 3-pass goal by Benfica of Portugal:

Wingers & Decision-Making

Connecting Talent To Team

Wide players tend to carry the load of 1v1 attacking.  Suarez, Ribery, Bale, Ronaldo, Di Maria and Nani all come to mind, and are all clearly dangerous players with the ball at their feet.  However, a recent post on Whoscored.com shows us who is actually effective at dribbling (Ribery) and who is perhaps less circumspect in their application of the skill (Suarez).  Read the article here.

Holding Midfield Par Exellence

U! S! A!

Good Win Over Jamaica & Bradley's Decision-Making

Michael Bradley turned in a terrific performance for the US MNT against Jamaica in the US's crucial and dramatic win.  While hipster football "fans" will continue to degrade the US (it's only Jamaica, they'll say, or, Germany were badly shorthanded...) and wear Spain jerseys in public, real Americans will take heart from a gritty performance, and admire the job done by Bradley.  90% of his passes were completed, and the only time he lost the ball he did so seeking to play the team forward, on long attacking passes.  Holding midfielders take note.  And wide defenders, recall that the right back, Evans, scored the game winner on a play from the left side of the field.

Here are the 61 complete passes he played:

...And here are the 7 incomplete passes- all lost in the Jamaica half, all forward passes:

Big Things Come In Small Packages

Here's a 5' 1" dynamo that proves it's the willingness to just try something that makes all the difference.  Spontaneous, optimistic and beautifully executed, this is a goal young women should all hope to emulate:

Lisa De Vanna

Soccer player

Lisa Marie De Vanna is an Australian football forward. She is currently playing for Sky Blue FC in the National Women's Soccer League and is a member of the Australian National Team. Wikipedia

Born: November 14, 1984 (age 28), Perth, Australia Height: 5' 1" (1.56 m)

This Is Not Innate

The LMSC GK Corps has spent substantial parts of the past couple training sessions working on physical courage.  Contrary to the conventional wisdom, we are not born with courage; we learn it.  Are there genetic traits that make it easier for some to stand tall and take a hit?  Of course.  But any determined person can find the grit within themselves to make a tough play. 

Roman Weidenfeller of Borussia Dortmund shows the results of being trained to be brave in the image below.  Some find this funny.  Some think it's nuts.  GKs watch and think, good boy, you closed down the shooter and got close, your hands are below your knees as the ball is about to be struck, weight is on the front half of your feet, movement is forward, but controlled, and you didn't flinch until after the ball hit you.  And he stays on his feet; he knows that ball won't go far, and he's going to need to make a second play.  

How did Weidenfeller get here?  Thousands of repetitions of close-in saves.  Being put in situations very much like this in training over and over and over.  If you threw a rock at him from this distance, he'd duck like any normal person; through training he's learned that on the pitch, the ball is not to be feared (though this certainly stung a little) and his job is to cowboy up and take the hit.  The context, the training, and the faith in his skills and technique let him make this save...in any other environment, his "instincts" will be just like yours and mine.