Quick Boys

Post-Thanksgiving Classic Thoughts

A balmy weekend saw some really good performances from the team, and a solid 2-2 record.  Probably the most gratifying of the games was a solid 2-0 win over our old nemeses "Santos" (with great admiration from all for Evan's willingness to spell Henry "Popsicle" Cooke for a few minutes, during which small window of time his teammates evidently thought it would be hilarious to concede a PK for Evan to handle.  While the Santos shooter missed, I must point out that Evan went the right way, and positioned himself to save even if the ball had been on target.

Another point worth reflecting on was how easily the team transitioned from the past few weeks of training inside with a futsal ball to playing 11-a-side on grass.  That's really not easy- we go to great lengths at the college level to ensure that we train on the surface most like the matchday one.  The Quick Boys looked like they'd been on grass all month.  I was legitimately worried ahead of the 1776 game about this; it was probably the only thing that really worried me about the weekend.

ACC Semis

Terps Take What They're Given

Byline Service Wins ACC Semi-Final

Clemson lost a narrow semi-final to Maryland on a goal that was so very close to prevented.  A tough goal to defend, for sure, but a little more composure might have generated a save that defines a season. Interestingly, Maryland turned around 48 hours later and scored on a byline service against UVA to win the ACC tournament title.  Interesting pattern.

Here's the breakdown in still images, the pass arriving to the shooter (yellow arrow below) by a byline cross from the shooter's right and a knockdown by a defender at the top of the 6 :

ACC Championship Goal

Byline Service Rears Its Head; 

UVA Heartbroken In ACC Final

Calle Brown, the 6' 5" GK for the University of Virginia, played small with 90 seconds to play in the ACC final against University of Maryland, and paid a steep price.  The trouble with the details that prove so often to be a team's downfall is that they require great attention, often being downright counter-intuitive actions.  It's not enough to simply intellectually understand the detail...that minute point has to be so thoroughly trained that it's a thought-less action, an instinct.  In the pressure of the moment, it would appear Brown suffered some degree of paralysis by analysis and got himself stuck in an untenable situation.  That the play resulted in an own-goal only makes the breakdown that much harder to watch:

Aron Johannsson

MNT Newbie Johannsson Galvanizes 

USA's Brazil Dream

So far this season, Johannsson has played in 11 games, scored 9 and picked up 2 assists.  Whoa.

Follow this link (courtesy of ESPNFC) to see some clips of the 23 year old AZ Alkmar scoring sensation, and see what lethal penalty area movement looks like:

http://espnfc.com/video/espnfc/video/_/id/1614713/league/latest?cc=5901

Here's the standard YouTube glorification video from last season:

Talent Evaluation - Reprint

How Good Is Your Kid, Really?
Depends On Who's Watching...

Since Jeremy Lin (whose brother plays hoops at Hamilton College) hit the big time with the Knicks, lots has been discussed about talent, and the identification of said characteristic.  My favorite article is not (another) saccarine rags-to-riches tale of woe and hard work, rewarded and happily ever after, etc. Rather, it was this article (thanks to my big sis for passing it on) from Wired.  Yup, Wired magazine.

Lehrer raises a great point about talent identification, and how Lin is a resounding example (though hardly the only one) of how absolutely lousy front office guys are at drafting players and building teams.  Then Lehrer shows a result from a Yale paper indicating NFL draft decisions are "right" 52% of the time (so for all the combine results, scouting and hyperbole, guys pan out at the rate one would expect from a coin flip.  Not a great validation of NFL front office track records.) Watch the Sloan School of Business (MIT) video to the same effect here from their wonderful annual sports analytics conference.  Or Bloomberg's shorter version here.  Seriously, for all the evaluating the pro clubs do, they really ought to do better, oughtn't they?

Far more disturbingly, especially as you read below about the French National Team, is the notion of youth coaches (who know far, far, far less than GMs/coaches at the top levels) picking teams!  Barcelona are

Some Good News

Out And About In PA

Some cool soccer-related stuff from our own backyard as of late.  Good to see some sincere and truly sporting behavior on the fields.

Senior day at Haverford College for the women's program saw a nice gesture.  Ursinus cooperated in allowing a GK who had ended her career through injury to step into the net at the opening kickoff with her fellow seniors, make a "save" and play the ball back for Ursinus to put into touch, thereby allowing the healthy current starter to step onto the field and replace her.  One last touch for a player whose career had ended too soon.  Classy stuff.

The Special Olympics visited Villanova on November 1-2-3, and what a show they put on!  I caught some soccer (of course) peeked in at the volleyball games, wandered through the Olympic Village and watched the young athletes (kids under 9, I believe; too young for the formal teams/competitions) doing activities at the 'Nova "Oreo" sculpture.  Sam and Heather and I were impressed with the energy and effort, the quality of the overall organization (it must have felt great to be a participant, everything looked like a big-deal event) and the athletes themselves.  Everyone was having a great time.  I shot a little video of the soccer:

Concussions

Ask The Question No One Wants To Ask

Over the weekend, Tottenham GK Hugo Lloris was unlucky in a fairly common play involving Romelu Lukaku of Everton:

Lloris was knocked out cold, and it took some minutes for his muddled brain to clear enough for him to get back on the field.  ESPNFC.com had a good article on it, as Tottenham and AVB in particular took some heat over the incident.

As the nephew of a woman who suffered a severe head injury in the aftermath of a car accident (once safely in the ICU, the power was lost to her respirator, emergency generators failed to come on and staff didn't/couldn't provide timely enough help) I don't see any good news in the world of concussion research.  Not that the causes are the same (though it's a bit tough to separate the accident trauma from the respirator failure...) but the end result sure is.  Brain injury is a life-altering event for everyone around the injured person.  Taylor Twellman is quoted in the SI piece as saying that this is the one common injury that can take away your life...and he's right.  My grandparents spent the last 25 years of their lives caring for her 24/7.  My parents and sister and I spent every holiday at home because my aunt was all but incapable of travel, and even now my parents don't spend holidays away despite their grandkids living in Boston and Philly.  Not to ask for pity, it simply is what it is, but that injury has had a ripple effect unlike any torn ACL or broken bone through four generations of a family.  Brain injury is terrifying.

This article on SI.com's planet futbol describes the scene around Lloris that day, and offers some comparative examples from recent EPL action.  It editorializes that the EPL is playing ostrich, and taking risks with player's livelihoods and lives. 

Two dads who actually had their kids' best interests in mind show that success can be had without overdoing things...see if you recognize these names: Tom Brady, Sr. & Archie Manning.  Not only did these guys not rush their rather successful sons into early-stage competitive situations, they actually put the physical well-being of the kid first.  Read a nice blurb on how to be a good dad here.  Here's some concussion information that might reinforce what these two guys just intuitively sorted out 30 years ago (click here) - thanks to John Ulrich for passing that article on.

What we don't know about TBI, concussions, repetitive injury and the healing process is staggering.  The past few years have shown us that we know little, like shining a small flashlight in a giant cavern- we know the field goes well beyond our best attempt to bring light to it.  I don't know where this will all end up...the news that no helmet offers any real help in preventing concussions is discouraging enough.  But I'd offer this; nothing nothing nothing is worth risking damage to a person's brain.