Back 4

Back 4 Too Deep, Too Static

Here's a quick clip of the Colgate back 4.  As the ball is played into the Hartwick striker, the Wade Martin holds him up and forces him backward well enough.  However, from that point onward, the back line (which is too deep to start with) never regains the ground given up as the ball is dropped, turned toward the far sideline, and played 60 plus yards across the field.  It's only one clip...but there are plenty more if anyone feels this isn't symptomatic of how our back 4 move (or not) in games.

The striker takes 4 touches, drops it to the mid who takes one or two touches while retreating nearly 10 yards, and then hits a pass 30 or more yards sideways...the Colgate back four don't gain yardage, but lose it, to the tune of 5 or 10 yards by the time the wide player takes a touch.  At least two players could have been put in offside positions- or if that's too close to pulling a trap- forced to check back to the winger with much less space to work between the holding mids and the back line.

Holding Mids

"Holding" Means Not Charging Forward

A little tongue-in-cheek with the title, but the point is that if a player is a holding midfielder, he ought to hold things first, and get forward second.

Some video to show that of which we speak:

MLS Stats

Goal Scoring:

Like Real Estate- Location, Location, Location

Some thoughts on goal scoring, and how it may correlate to successful team's performances.  Granted, there is a long way to go from a single player's goal scoring and a team's record, but they are related, and good teams tend to have players who finish well- however that is defined.



In the first grab, we see this week's MLS conference standings...

In the second one we see the teams who finish best inside the 18.  Hit 'em all you like from outside, if you fancy a 4 to 5 percent chance of scoring.  If you're a real goal scorer, you get inside the 18, and finish in the middle teens- about three times more likely than that long-range effort.  Granted, it takes a team to get the ball into the 18 (usually) so thank your buddies for getting you there.

Now, if you're sharp, you'll say, hey, four of the top seven teams in shot efficiency are in the bottom half of their conference!  What gives?  Well, as noted at the very top of the post there is a lot more than just shooting efficiency that dictates a team's record...what we ought to do is check back on these numbers in a few weeks.  Presumably LA, Portland and Chicago will move up the table as they settle in and get better at getting the ball forward; once they get more chances, if the finishing rate keeps up, they should win more.  Generally, a six or seven game sample size is pretty hairy to draw conclusions.

For players, the bottom line is, if you get 9 shots in a game inside the 18 (that's a LOT) you should have 2 goals to your name. And if you practice shooting, do so under pressure, inside 18 yards.  So...if I'm a forward, I'm trying to stay inside the 18 as much as possible (let those silly midfielders do all the heavy lifting!) and make the most of the chances I get.  (See Gomez for Bayern against Real Madrid on April 17th for a great example.  Took him 90 minutes, but the law of averages won out for him!)

Colgate Men's Home Games In April

Division I & Division III Teams To Attend

I encourage any player thinking of playing in college to make time to attend these weekends to see excellent college teams from both Division I & III in action.
Saturday, April 28
Colgate vs. Albany: 11:00 AM
Swarthmore vs. Albany: 12:30 PM
Colgate vs. Swarthmore: 1:45 PM

Recent results:

Sunday, April 15

Colgate vs. Hartwick: 12:00 PM
2-0 Colgate, Goals : Reidy/Messing Assist: Arpey

Hartwick vs. Hobart: 1:30 PM 1-0 Hobart

Colgate vs. Hobart: 2:45 PM
2-0 Colgate, Goals : Messing/Arpey

Colgate/Akron U14 Homework Part II

Akron Attack Using Wide Players

Barca Video, Too!

Here's a wing attack from Akron...same assignment as Homework Part I.

Here's a pic to help clarify the players involved:

The back 4 are circled, holding mid is the rectangle
(other two mids are unmarked) and the three
front-runners are in triangles.

Here's the video clip...map the ball movement player by player and try to figure out the defense's movements (what player tracked which Akron attacker).  The move starts at the bottom of the screen, with a throw-in for Akron.

Two crucial questions:

• What should the Colgate defense have done instead?  
• How did Akron create this dilemma for Colgate? (think technically, rather than tactically...)

A little something from Barca...along the same lines as Akron's movements, but with a twist.  The video pretty well spells out how it works, so no questions here; just watch closely a few times through, and note the timing, and where guys are looking as Alexis Sanchez roams around the front of the team. 

For the midfielders and backs who support the forwards, here's Busquets in a video that isolates some of the things playmakers must be able to do:

Champions League

Chelsea V Barcelona

Tuesday, 2.45pm @ Stamford Bridge

Read a good, brief analysis of some of the defensive changes at Chelsea since AVB was sacked and Di Matteo took over at Zonal Marking.  For the match with Barca Tuesday, I thought it would be a good addition to ZM's comments to add these pictures for anyone thinking of watching.  The big questions left unanswered at this time are how high a line Chelsea will dare to hold (presuming ZM is right about the arrangement of the team) and what they'll do about keeping Messi from getting the ball.  Or, more accurately, where they'll "live" with him getting the ball- he's going to get it, the hope will be to control where he gets it.
*additional preview by Michael Cox here (added Tuesday, 11.15AM)

Here's Chelsea's new-ish formation, a more conventional (and pragmatic...indicating a sluggish first leg, perhaps?) defense with two lines of four defending.  The trick is to limit the space between the center backs and the holding mids  (yellow box).











If the two holding mids drop toward the center backs, Messi will find little room to get the ball in front of the back four, and so he'll have to come quite deep into his own midfield to find the ball.  Which should work OK for managing his touches from Chelsea's perspective.  The two problems this brings up are the three midfielders will have lots of room and time to both just hang on to the ball and pick the back line apart, and, 2, the flanks will be a 2v2 situation and someone like Alves or Tello, Keita  (and on and on...) could get into very dangerous situations from wide areas.  The wing backs for Chelsea will have to be very sharp.



If Messi comes deep, there will be a block of four central defenders between him and the goal.  But if the attack can expose the flanks, he's awfully good at making runs in the box for balls in from wide areas.

The misery of dealing with hugely talented, and well-organized sides.

Good luck, Chelsea!

End Of An Era

Salute To A Mentor

Peter Gardner of Brunswick, Maine Retired Last Week

Career HS Record 463-128-49; 6 State Class A Championships/4 Runners-up

It's a funny thing, how a bunch of folks (mainly in Central NY) will read this about a person they've never met, never even heard of, from Maine.  But those who support this blog I hope to have influenced in some positive way by my efforts as a coach, and today I have the gently bittersweet opportunity to note the retirement of a fellow I have admired for a long while from coaching.

Peter Gardner lives in Richmond, Maine, and drives probably 30 or more minutes to get to work at Brunswick High School where he has served as a math teacher, assistant principal and for 39 seasons, the boys varsity soccer coach.  My connection to Coach Gardner is simple; I played against his teams for three years (he creamed us, most times...though we lost a one-goal match at their place one time when my buddy Matt broke a  tied score by clearing a ball out of our six yard box, into our teammate's face, and into our own goal...) and went to Europe twice with an organization he worked with leading soccer tours of Italy, France and England.  We got creamed there too...

Summers in college I played on a team Peter's sons had pulled together in a summer men's league.  It was a hard-drinking and hard-working group of 20-somethings, with the odd older guy with kids, and a couple of college guys like myself.  All blue collar fellows, working in the shipyard in my hometown of Bath, construction and the like.  In some ways, it may be the best team I ever played for.  Peter coached that group of miscreants, and we did very well each year.  Looking back, I have to marvel at his patience with us, and that he'd put in even more hours in the summer coaching adults (sometimes only technically) who really didn't need a coach.  But I learned a lot from him those summers, and much of my management style is based on his easy-going and blunt, yet friendly, rapport with the players.

When I left my first job post-college in Iowa, I returned home to crash for a couple months while my position at Clarkson here in NY got sorted out, and to keep out of trouble I did some substitute teaching around my hometown.  I worked at Brunswick High a couple times, and caught up with Coach Gardner, and in doing so, got to know him a little better.  What was most remarkable was that he recalled not just that I had played for Brunswick's general rival, Morse High, but that he had specifics in mind when we were talking.  Incredible powers of recall, and sincerity to boot.

Anyway, this is a guy who was a class act in all circumstances, was widely admired by everyone who came into contact with him...and as folks who conduct themselves in this way tend to do, he was a winner on the field.  Happily for me, I have had the good fortune to know, even slightly, and play for and against a guy who will be remembered for who he was, not just that he won a few games in his career.  The game is diminished for losing him, but I hope I am not the only person reflecting today on my efforts, and my approach to coaching, and that those of us who are taking note of Coach Gardner's retirement will ultimately continue his legacy (even way out here in CNY!) and even, if we're lucky, improve upon it.