the real football

In the last post about dribbling in soccer, I shared some links to a few videos that showed some classic dribbling runs from a few of the top soccer players in the world.  If you haven’t taken a look at those, I would encourage you to do so.  Dribbling runs are some of the most exciting plays in the game!

It is interesting to note, though, that while we find dribbling runs in the professional game to often be exciting, when it comes to youth soccer, there is often a stigma attached to “dribbling”.  You think it took great determination on Giggs’ part to work his way through the Arsenal defense for his famous FA Cup semi final goal?  That’s nothing compared to the strength of mind needed to take on defenders when Billy’s mom has been calling you a ball hog all season long.  Even tougher, she has convinced all of the parents (even yours) to begin a pavlovian chant of, “Pass it! Pass it!” the moment you touch the ball.

So, is Billy’s mom right?  Are those fantastic dribbling runs that we occasionally see in the professional game best left to the pros?  I don’t think so, and I hope to discuss this from a few different angles over time.

Let’s start with the most important part, in my opinion.  The game is more enjoyable when the player has mastered the ball! Kids play sports, at least in the beginning, to have fun, right?  Then shouldn’t coaches help them figure out how to have fun? When the ball arrives at their feet, and the player is comfortable with the ball, the KID is more likely to enjoy themselves.  If the kid is enjoying himself, then it is much more probable that he will enjoy the teamwork part of the game, also.

How valuable is a player to his or her team if that player can beat an opponent on the dribble with some regularity?  Is that player more or less valuable than the player who cannot?  If you are not a soccer player, think of it this way – while your point guard is primarily a passing player, do you really want one who can never penetrate on the dribble running your team on the floor?

Players who are not so good at beating an opponent 1v1 are not as valuable as those who can.  They are easier to defend, and less dangerous to the opponent.  Certainly, players must learn to choose wisely when to dribble, how to set up their dribbling runs, and how to have a purpose at the end of their runs.  Players who never develop the basic skill, though, of taking on opponents will be left behind at some point in their playing career.

In future installments, we will take a look at how things are different at different stages of development for young players, and how to use players’ stage of development to the best advantage in their soccer training.

That soccer coaches forum over at www.and-again.com really does have some gems to offer.  At times, you might have to weed through some crap, but there is always good stuff there.  If you are a soccer coach, I highly suggest you stop by and take a look.

Here is another offering by my coaching friend in Hong Kong.  This is guidance that coaches at all levels should consider.

All coaches need to use conditions (rules that we put into training games, i.e. two touch or less) , as you say Jim, the skill I think is judging what you are potentially gaining and developing from the specific conditions, how long to deploy them and where and how you go from where they have taken you.

Coaches should read this weekly, or maybe before every session they go to.

We had a local coach come out to our club to do a demo session for our club’s coaches.  Team is the top U14B team in the state.  His topic was meant to be possession and speed of play.  He is really pretty good, and I do not mean this to knock his overall abilities.  Hoever, he had a bit of a tough night.

Why?  Too many of the conditions he was putting on the game gave him more and less than he was looking for.  He played a possession game to targets (something like 5v5 in the middle, played in a roughly square space, two targets for blue on the north and two on the south side, two whites on the east and two on the west), with the rule that when you play to the target, the target rotates in and you go out to take the target’s spot.  I like it; I use similar conditions regularly.

It started OK, but the clinician was not content with the pace at which the ball was being played.  He wanted the ball to be pinged around a little better, and I agree with him that it was something that could be improved.  However, here is when we part ways.

He stopped play, and told the targets that they had to wait until the ball crossed the line they were standing just outside before coming to get it.  Makes sense, right?  Well, it might on its face, but let’s think about what we have just encouraged our players to do.

Now, we had a possession game that was meant to encourage the central players to find the outside players, and play them into the game.  The player who played out would then be an outside player, remaking the team’s shape.  The player coming in from the outside was meant to find central teammates, and keep the ball circulating.  The ball was meant to begin moving rapidly from player to player, and one of the ideas is to find the best available player on the outside who can come into the game with energy.

Now, what did the condition do?  Well, first, it told the players on the outside to stand and wait for a ball that was underhit.  When players were close, they were tending to overhit the ball to the outside targets – I don’t know, maybe hoping that they could average out the underhit balls?!?!?

There were two results of this.  The targets became either very static in the demeanor, because they did have to wait for a number of underhit balls; or, the targets were sometimes played an overhit ball that they had to kill the pace off before coming onto the field, which actually slowed down their entry to the field.  These two things made the speed of play in the session slower rather than faster.

Of course, there was also a third problem.  Since the condition of the ball having to cross the line before targets could play the ball was put it, we no longer had those perfectly weighted balls – the pass that was played with enough pace, but also was just soft enough that it led the target onto the field a couple of steps, in the direction that the player playing the ball intended to play him.  No, the team is not so good that this was happening with a high degree of consistency, but they understand the idea (I know their coach and I have worked with the team many times in training and matches over the past year or so).

Once again, the clinician did identify something he wanted to be better, and I agree with him that sometimes balls were being underhit.  However, what he got all wrong, in my eyes, was what he chose to emphasize, how he chose to emphasize it (targets may not enter until ball crosses line), and when he chose to do this (the condition made a little sense when the targets were not entering the field when the ball was played to them, but instead were simply playing it back to a teammate).

The funny thing, this is a case when no condition was needed.  All that was necessary was to remind (players in this group understand why and when to ping a ball) the players of why it is important to weight their passes well, and how that often means to hit the ball with more pace than they had been.  I would have even demonstrated when to hit it hard, and when to play the more leading ball into the targets.  The message sent would have been the weight of the pass is important, and often sends a message to the receiver.

This is why I like so much the sentence above that was written by my friend from Hong Kong.  There is great skill in choosing wisely the conditions and rules one puts into training games.  An even greater skill, though, is recognizing and understanding what your conditions ask of your players.  Just as important as training good habits and ideas is to make sure that we are not training bad ones, either by design or not.

A recent thread at the great soccer coaching site that is hosted at And-Again, as well as a couple of sessions with my team recently, has brought this topic to mind. In the game of soccer, what is the best option, to pass the ball or to dribble.

Here is a post from a knowledgeable and experienced coach from Hong Kong:

Jim, this is really what Cruyff meant when he said that football is an easy game made difficult by the the players, coaches, blah blah, blah

The pass is faster so pass, AND, you can run faster than the guy in possession so give it and get on your way.

At the business end….that’s a different matter- risk and reward.
Incidentally, what new phases have we been privy to over the last,however many years?

Same game as it was always, I think?

and here is my reply to him:

Yeah, it is, and it isn’t.

Players are more technical, with better boots, playing on better fields, with a better ball, and explore options that were not so often explored many years ago. I would judge them to not always be making the “right” decision, but think of the players who have made a nice career on making “bad” decisions work out. I am thinking of the (old) Ronaldo types, who try things that most mere mortals would not and should not consider.

Think of the memorable Maradona goal, or if you would rather, the Giggs FA Cup goal vs Arsenal. If passing is the first “right” option, how many errors did he make in his famous run.

I would suggest that he made a good decision to take space initially (not kill it all, but move up the field on the dribble to allow his teammates to develop their runs) then used those runs (that unbalanced the defenders), and the slight lack of cover in the Arsenal defense to first beat a defender, then split the next two, and voila, history is made.

Don’t get me wrong – I am a fan of circulating the ball through the back and middle thirds, in order to move the opponents around, allow teammates ahead of the ball to get organized, while looking for the opportunity to get in. Even in the final third, ball movement and speed of play is an important ability for players and teams to cultivate. It certainly is a cornerstone of my training.

However, the question is, “When should a player dribble?”, not, “When should a player not dribble?” If the predominant answer is, essentially, “you should dribble when you cannot pass,” I think we miss the boat.

I believe it is important to help players find moments when dribbling an opponent is a suitable first option.

In today’s youth soccer world, there are many, many clinics, camps, and videos that deal with teaching players how to be technically good at dribbling the soccer ball.  I don’t know of a single soccer coach of any value who does not incorporate some sort of ball work in coaching young players.

I wonder, though, about the approach some coaches take to helping young players learn about why and when to dribble, when I read some of the things that I have in the thread mentioned above.  I think that the tendency is for us, as coaches, to feel more a part of something if it is (or looks like) and orchestrated movement of passes that leads our team to a chance at goal.  I know I very much enjoy teaching this part of the game to players and teams.

On the other hand, it might be a good thing if we remind ourselves that just as we help players learn how to do things like dribble, shoot, and pass, we need to also be concerned with helping them figure when and why to do these things as well.  More to follow… but here is a link to video of the inimitable Lionel Messi, and some of his fine dribbling displays for you to enjoy.

Well, ESPN Soccernet is reporting that Milan may be close to making a deal with LA Galaxy of MLS for David Beckham. The Galaxy have valued Beckham higher than Milan have been willing to part with to this point – will the Rossaneri improve their offer enough to seal the deal by sometime next week?

It is interesting that Milan have improved their offer, after Beckham’s mediocre performance in the weekend derby with Inter. While he has made a positive impact in most of the matches he has played for Milan, Beckham’s performance in the derby, and that he looked to pick up a slight knock in the match, left me wondering whether Milan would still want him in their side.

There is no doubt that David Beckham brings quality work and service from both set pieces and in the run of play. However, his abilities to defend at the level required in Serie A – especially since he is primarily on the field at the expense of Gennaro Gattuso – may not add up to a stonger unit on the field for AC Milan. It seems to me that with the likes of Kaka, Pato, Pirlo, Ronaldinho, et al, that the Rossaneri have good punch in the attack, and must be careful not to risk losing some of the grit that a player like Gattuso brings them.

With Maldini, at age 40, being the class of their center backs, and their commitment to allow Zambrotta and Jankulovski the freedom to attack, Milan need solid work out of at least a couple of their midfielders when the opponents have the ball. Certainly Ambrosini provides some of that, and Pirlo reads the game well enough to intercept his share of passes, I am not sure that there is the clear ball winner in their midfield that will allow them to take a serious run at Inter, or even at the UEFA Cup.

With a deal looking more certain, I guess we are likely to find out. I suspect that, if the deal is completed for Beckham to move permanently to Milan, that we might see Ronaldinho sacrificed at least at times to allow the insertion of Gattuso on a more regular basis.

Welcome to my world, one in which the “thinking man’s sport” is king. Call it what you will, Soccer, Football, Futebol, Futbol, Voetbal, Fussball, Calcio, etc… but it is the world’s greatest game for a reason – it truly is the best player’s sport in the world!

Sure, coaches get to name the team, decide on the system for the day, set the strategy or game plan.  After that, though, it is a game that is more left to the players than any other major team sport on the planet.  Not the right players on the field, coach?  Too bad, you only get to make three player changes, and you better be careful – no exceptions to this rule for injury.

Over time, I will regale/bore you with thoughts, stories, news, and opinions about the game of soccer in all of its forms.  I have been a lifelong fan of the game, played it from an early age, and have been fortunate enough to have the role of a coach at various levels of youth soccer over the past 20+ years.  Hopefully I will provide entertainment and maybe even a bit of useful knowledge for you here at the real football.