the real football

Nothing like a cup match for excitement at the stadium. Atletico were down 0-3 after the first leg, so they needed to score goals, as well as keep Recreativo out of the scoring. Well, Atletico got their three goals, and then were gifted an own goal to make it 4-0, and it looked like they were through. The crowd were celebrating, all was well in the south of Madrid. Then Recreativo scored. The away goal meant that Atletico now needed to score a FIFTH goal, or be eliminated from the Copa del Rey. They had 20 minutes to do it. Moments later, their DM, Asunscao, is sent off. Despondent is not a strong enough word to describe the feelings of the locals, who came out for a 10:00 pm kickoff to will their team toward survival in the cup. Now they need a goal, and must do it with ten men. Atletico have the will, and go on the attack. A few minutes later, a ball is played in to Aguero, who is ruthlessly kicked from behind as he receives the ball. He survives the challenge, with the ball, and moves to take on the defender between him and the goal. Atletico’s best striker (apologies to Diego Forlan, but I think Kun is better) is 1v1 to goal, looking for the winner. Wait, the whistle blows! The referee has called the foul, and not given the advantage. Kun screams at the referee, and the fans are horrified, because they clearly believed that their striker had a good chance to beat his defender and secure the team’s passage to the next round. After much “discussion” with the official, Reyes, Forlan, and Simao gather near the ball. Forlan moves away. Well, the rest you can see in the video that my older son shot. (We were pretty pleased with our seats for this one, too, btw!) Nothing like a cup match for excitement at the stadium. Atletico were down 0-3 after the first leg, so they needed to score goals, as well as keep Recreativo out of the scoring. Well, Atletico got their three goals, and then were gifted an own goal to make it 4-0, and it looked like they were through. The crowd were celebrating, all was well in the south of Madrid. Then Recreativo scored. The away goal meant that Atletico now needed to score a FIFTH goal, or be eliminated from the Copa del Rey. They had 20 minutes to do it. Moments later, their DM, Asunscao, is sent off. Despondent is not a strong enough word to describe the feelings of the locals, who came out for a 10:00 pm kickoff to will their team toward survival in the cup. Now they need a goal, and must do it with ten men. Atletico have the will, and go on the attack. A few minutes later, a ball is played in to Aguero, who is ruthlessly kicked from behind as he receives the ball. He survives the challenge, with the ball, and moves to take on the defender between him and the goal. Atletico’s best striker (apologies to Diego Forlan, but I think Kun is better) is 1v1 to goal, looking for the winner. Wait, the whistle blows! The referee has called the foul, and not given the advantage. Kun screams at the referee, and the fans are horrified, because they clearly believed that their striker had a good chance to beat his defender and secure the team’s passage to the next round. After much “discussion” with the official, Reyes, Forlan, and Simao gather near the ball. Forlan moves away. Well, the rest you can see in the video that my older son shot. (We were pretty pleased with our seats for this one, too, btw!)

There are many very good videos out there that show skills and tricks on the soccer field. I thought I would share one that I came across on youtube – it shows many of today’s stars and how they apply their cute touches on the ball in a game. Even a couple of good fouls, just to remind you of what defenders might try when you become good at these tricks on the ball!

Of course, do not let that discourage you; just work hard to become skillful, and be smart enough to remain aware of what some will try to do to take the beautiful out of the game!

Here is an interesting occurrence from a game in Europe not long ago. Costin Lazar, a player from Rapid Bucharest, was tackled in his opponents penalty area. The referee determined that it was an unfair challenged, called the foul, and awarded Rapid a penalty kick. Have a look at the video and judge for yourself.

Fair play is definitely encouraged, at least by word, in the game of soccer (calcio, futbol, futebol, fussball, voetbal, etc…) but did the player here take it too far? Isn’t this, in fact, dissent? At what point is dissenting the referees decision OK?

There are many other questions about this that come to mind, and I am just not sure where I stand. I applaud the display of sportsmanship by Lazar, but wonder what the impact to the game would be if players started doing this with situations in which they deem the referee to be in clear error in their favor, all over the pitch. We already see players lobby and try to fool the referee; would they then try hard to lobby each other to overturn the referee’s decision, rather than having a go at the referee? Would that be any more sporting than dissenting the referee’s decision?

Ach, nothing to really worry about, I believe; rather, just an exercise in thought. The likelihood of players consistently doing this to their opponents advantage is almost nil, especially in a game in which their team needs a goal. That brings up one last question.

Would Lazar have done the same thing if his team had been down a goal in this game, rather than having the game in hand?

Certainly the goal that the US scored in stoppage time to tie Costa Rica last night was big for US Soccer, but check out the video/audio below to learn of the excitement created for the country of Honduras! This is not able to be embedded, so just copy and paste the link below to check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tL-Wfs1ZjU

Well, this is predominantly a soccer site, so I guess I should get back to a little bit of soccer.

This weekend, my U18 team had the chance to play our local pro team, the Minnesota Thunder. The Thunder play in USL division 1, while the U18s play in the US Youth Soccer Midwest Regional League, Premier Division.

Thanks to Per Edwards for filming this for us!

There were interesting moments in this game, and you can see some in the first half highlights video above. It was a bit lethargic from the pros at times, but you could see them spring to life a bit after the kids got a goal to tie the game.

Unfortunately, I will only have a few second half highlights, from very late in the game, available. I will try to get those up soon. There was some very good play, including a nice goal for the young guys, while the pros got the winner about 15 minutes from time, making it a 3-2 final score.

Meanwhile, I am going to bore you with a little possession charting. I took a look at the video from the first half, to check on a few things. Below you will find the raw numbers, but here are a few key points from the first half:

• Halftime Score: 2-1 pro team
• Final Score: 3-2 pro team
• Pro – 247 completed passes
• U18 – 151 completed passes
• Pro – 36 possessions of 3 or more passes
• U18 – 22 possessions of 3 or more passes
• Pro – 1 corner, scored
• U18 – 0 corners
• Pro – 15 shots, 3 from penalty area, including both goals.  Three shots from 40+, several other weak shots from outside box
• U18 – one shot, one goal
• both keepers cut out a handful of serves and through balls, only a couple for each looked dangerous
• Pro – 48 possessions of 0 passes
• U18 – 56 possessions of 0 passes
• Goal1 – poor clearance gave away unecessary corner kick to pro team.  Poor organization by U18s – weakest player in zone put in back post area.  Good identification and execution by pros – ball served to back post, knocked down in front, only marginally challenged on goal.  1-0 Thunder pro
• Goal 2 – three consecutive zero possessions by pros, U18s connect 1, then 2, then 3 passes, final ball well timed and weighted onto a good run, clean finish, tie game
• Goal 3 – U18s a little frazzled, many zero possessions, pros put together 9 pass movement, untracked player runs from midfield, nice finish just inside box

I added a number of notes on the possessions, maybe should have added more.  An alarming trend came in the U18 inability to garner clean possession after getting themselves a goal.  Surely the pros were a bit more lively after giving away a good goal, but there were many opportunities to just get the ball and keep it for the U18s, and they were unable.  Very good movement on which the pros restored their lead before the half.

The most alarming trend, however, was the difference in how each team cleaned up loose and 50/50 balls.  My recollection was that the pros were significantly better at this.  However, while the numbers showed that they did outperform the U18s in number of zero possessions, it was not as drastic as I recalled.  I would imagine neither group is particularly pleased with this part of the game – I can tell you that my side is not.

(It should be noted that I was rather harsh on the zero possession evaluation.  If a player had a legitimate play on the ball, and did not connect with a teammate, it is a zero.  This means clearances, 50/50 balls for the player who got the ball, everything.  The judgment was harsh because, for both of these teams, the standards that their opponents will present will also be harsh.)

All in all, a good experience for the U18s, and hopefully a good training game for the pros.  For the U18s, it was our first time outside for the year, and our third friendly of the season.  For the pros, they have been in camp for a couple of weeks, and played a handful of friendlies against MLS, college, and other youth teams.  Good luck to the Thunder, and get out to see them play if you get a chance!

here are the stats, for those who are truly bored!

Here is a video of Abbas Farid (he was in the freestyle video that I posted before, with Touzani and Ronaldinho) doing an exhibition for Nike in Hong Kong. This guy truly is amazingly comfortable with the ball. Enjoy!

Here is a fun link to a video that shows a few of the best “freestyle” soccer artists in the world.

While there are techniques seen here that would never likely be used in a real game, the fact is that these guys have mastered the soccer ball like few others.  Remember what I said about the mastery of the ball and its relationship to the enjoyment someone gets from the game?  You think these guys are having a good time?