Revisiting the philosophy

In the wake of Arsenal's 1-0 victory home against Stoke (cue the "One nil, to the Arsenal" chants), one of my favorite Arsenal blogs wrote up a piece on why Stoke suck the differences between Arsenal's and Stoke's philosophies.

That prompted me to think about and revisit my desired soccer philosophy, especially in the context of coaching young players. I emphasize speed in play, including quick passes, quick touches, free flow to encourage lots of movement. The problem with that is that our team isn't great at making passes, and we have players who don't have the legs for the amount of movement the system requires.

The system I encourage is similar to Arsenal's style, which is no coincidence because they are my favorite team. Stoke, by contrast, are known for what I call "Operation Long Ball." They play lots of defense, and an ideal goal for them is stealing the ball in their own third, sending it up to their target striker, and having him fire at the goal two touches later.

That style of play would probably work well with my team, and we'd likely score lots of goals. We have a couple kids with big legs, and a couple kids with speed. We could probably pull Stoke's style off with some good success. On offense at least. And quite frankly, with how many games we lose close, it would be nice to get some extra goals from time to time.

The problem with that--and I tell parents this all the time-- is that kids who are fastest this year might not be next year. Eventually the kids will catch up to the kids who have big legs now. At that point, it's important that the players are well-rounded. That's why I encourage my players to play soccer, and make it look like soccer, even if that means we lose to teams beating us with Operation Long Ball.

In my opinion, my role as a youth coach is two-fold. First, I have to improve the kids' soccer ability. It would be a real waste of time if the kids came out to practice, participated in the camps, and games, and didn't get any better during the season. I am supposed to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and help the player improve in all aspects of his game.

The second thing I have to do is to get the kids to fall in love with soccer. To some extent, this is easy to do because the kids like me, and I make practice fun. However, losing games isn't fun. If you keep losing games, it's easy, in my opinion, to get down on yourself and seek a new sport to participate in.

When our style of play isn't getting us wins, perhaps the kids are improving, but are falling out of love with the sport. Obviously the solution isn't to just do the opposite so we can get the wins, but then what is the solution? Just be patient and hope that with more training, we'll be able to play attractive soccer and get the results?

Seeing as that's what I'm doing, let's hope that's what happens.

Overdue updates

Wow...I've completely forgotten to update this blog! But that's not because nothing has been happening in my coaching career. On the contrary, things are pretty exciting lately.

After getting my E license, I began to implement the US Soccer curriculum more strictly in my own practices. I saw a lot of improvement with my team, but then winter happened.

For those of you who aren't aware, winter in Michigan sucks. We have struggled to find consistent indoor training facilities, and have only been able to practice sporadically. That has stunted our growth and development a bit, but we're still improving.

We finished our first Winter session in third place in our division. We dropped several points by settling for ties when we could have gotten wins, but I'm proud of the results given the fact that we don't have many subs. Most games I only have two or three subs to work with, and there's only so much you can ask of a 9 year-old's tired legs.

So far in 2013, exciting things are happening. I just finished coaching at a Michigan Olympic Development Program (ODP) training session where I networked with several of the area's top coaches. Since then, I was offered (and I accepted) a staff position with Michigan ODP. I'll be involved in ODP 101, which is geared towards the younger players-- 9 and 10 year-olds-- and is meant to provide additional technical instruction to the state's top young players.

Between my Lyon FC team and ODP, I am gaining a lot of coaching experience and making great connections. We'll see where this takes me moving forward, but it's an exciting time in my coaching career right now.

I'll be sure to update the blog more regularly, especially to recap practices and discuss my thoughts on how to improve the team and myself.

Congrats Hoosiers

So I don't normally post about college soccer, choosing instead to post about the professional teams in Europe and national teams, but I have a soft spot for Indiana University and wanted to congratulate the soccer team on their eighth national championship in soccer today.

What makes their 1-0 victory over Georgetown even more impressive, to me, is their coach. The Yeagley family is iconic in American soccer. Jerry Yeagley is easily the best college soccer coach to have lived in the US. He built the IU soccer program into what it is today, and led them to six national championships.

Now his son, Todd, is the head man in Bloomington, and I'm sure it's very special for him to be able to bring another national championship to the program his father built. Todd took the Hoosiers through a tough Big Ten slate to a 16 seed in the College Cup. Most experts expected Maryland to win this year's NC pretty easily, but the Terps were knocked out by national runners-up Georgetown. Meanwhile, Indiana beat Creighton in a comfortable effort, even showing off some of their future stars. Today's win shows how great of a coaching mind Todd Yeagley is, guiding a 16 seed to a title is no easy task, and to do so by going through top-seeded Notre Dame, a storied program like North Carolina, and then taking down the Hoyas shows just how promising Yeagley Jr.'s Hoosiers will be for years to come.

While Indiana still trails St. Louis for most national championships overall (shout out to hometown hero, Brian McBride), to me there is no question that today's premier program wears Crimson and Cream.

From my couch in Ann Arbor, I'd like to congratulate the 2012 Indiana soccer team on their accomplishment, and a special congratulations to Todd Yeagley and the Yeagley family. Well-deserved!

E License--check

Well, it's been a while since my last post, but that's because it's been a very busy time in my life. I'm getting married in 29 days, recently started a job that I love, and am finishing up my last year of school. Needless to say, it's been hectic around here.

I just found out this morning that I passed my E license course, so that's really exciting. I was not required to obtain this license, but I thought it would be beneficial because I am so young and have been away from competitive soccer for a few years now. I learned some important tips, especially with how to structure practices to maximize our limited time, and met some great people. I can take the next coaching course, the D license, six months from now. That will be right around the time that I'll be preparing for the bar exam, so we'll have to see about that. I'll probably push it back a little bit.

As for our fall season--it was a disappointment and a success at the same time. Our boys showed a lot of improvement during the season, but we had a backloaded schedule, so the progress didn't show up in the win column often. We finished our league in 4th place, but I thought we could have finished second. We were, however, the only team in our league to hold any opponent to a shut out, so that was nice.

We are now playing our first indoor season, but I've already told the kids to have fun with this first session and not worry about wins and losses. Indoor soccer is so different from its outdoor counterpart that a lot of the strategies I'm teaching them are almost inapplicable on turf. The good thing about playing indoor, though, is that the ball and game move so much faster. I try to emphasize speed with my team, so playing indoor forces them to play faster.

Now that we can defend pretty well and turn defense into offense pretty quickly, the next big theme we're going to tackle is teamwork--passing and moving. Thankfully at the coaching course I recently completed, I came away with a lot of drills that will be great for learning that.

First win(s)

Well, it came later than I hoped, but we finally got our first win yesterday and coupled it with another one today. Our team is starting to understand the system and my expectations for each position.

Yesterday we won a cold and rainy game. I told the kids that with the field being so wet, they shouldn't be shy about shooting from distance. It was imperative, as it always is, to make sure the shots hit the target. "Force the goalie to make a save." We went into the halftime break down 2-1. After some second half adjustments and reminding the kids to win the 50-50 balls and to shoot and clean up rebounds, we came out explosive in the second half, scoring six goals on our way to a 7-3 win. There was a stretch where we won about either or nine 50-50 balls in a row--and that made me happy. We also got some goals from a new player. Until that game, we had only gotten goals from two different players. Well yesterday, a new player emerged as a scoring threat and he announced his presence loudly, scoring four goals! It was a good way to get the first win, and it felt great (despite the horrible weather).

This morning, we played a team that I knew was going to challenge us. The field was still a bit wet from all the rain yesterday, but the sun was out. It was still cold, with a game time temperature of about 45 degrees. Our boys went out strong, holding possession and dominating play in the early minutes. We finally had our breakthrough and got a goal from our leading goalscorer. He took a shot from distance but followed his shot, looking for a rebound. His pressure forced the goalkeeper to clear it before he was ready, and we won a throw-in deep in their half. We got our goal off the ensuing throw-in from the guy who started it all.

The second goal came off of a rebound. I have begun teaching the boys to shoot far post if they are coming in at an angle. Today, we generated an attack from our left flank, and the stopper/midfielder took a shot to the far post. The goalkeeper tipped the shot away, but our striker was there to put the shot away. 2-0. Our third goal came off of a corner kick. The defense failed to clear the ball well, and our "garbage man" who sits at the 18 on corner kicks found the ball at his feet and took a shot from about 16 yards out. He found the side netting of the far post--beautiful goal.

We came into halftime with the score of 3-0. I asked my team to keep up the intensity, but to focus more on defense. I liked that we hadn't conceded a goal, and wanted to keep it that way. While their offense made several pushes, we did a decent job defensively of not giving them any clean looks at goal. The one clear shot they had, the striker missed it wide (something my players know they can't do). We also had about four opportunities of our own, but three of them were players who don't play much offense and seemed a bit flustered in front of the goal. We could have scored 7 goals easily in this game, but more importantly, we could have given up 4 but didn't. The game ended 3-0, and shut outs are my favorite types of wins.

Five games into the season, we have a record of 2-2-1. Hopefully we can keep our winning ways moving forward.

Us 2 - 2 Them

This game was great up until the final two minutes. I was really proud of the boys for how they responded to our tournament and came out strong in this game. We stuck with our 1-2-1-1 and it seems like the boys are getting comfortable with this formation.

We started the game doing a pretty poor job of keeping the ball, but played great defense. We did a good job of holding our shape and marking up. There were a few times when our defenders would pinch to the middle too much when their was no attacker on their side, but we corrected that pretty early.

We came out with the first goal, but unfortunately the referee called it back. We turned a defensive stop into a counter-attack by passing out of the back. Our stopper/midfielder accepted the pass near the right sideline and sent a through ball to the striker who ran onto it and took it down the right flank. The midfielder who sent the pass then made a run to the middle of the field and made a run to basically the penalty spot. The striker played him a cross and the midfielder scored on a one-touch shot. It was a great goal following great build-up, but the ref said that the striker took the ball past the touchline before sending in the cross. The ref was near the middle of the field, and both teams' players reacted as if we had scored--our boys celebrated, the other team threw the ball to the middle of the field and the goalie seemed down after conceding a goal. However, the ref. said it was a goal kick, so we had to quickly readjust.

Our opponents responded by scoring a goal after keeping the ball pretty well. My team definitely needs to work on possession and making better passes. Sometimes they forget to see the pass before making it. With a minute left in the half, we turned defense into attack and scored a breakaway goal after two good passes. We had momentum going into the half, and I felt pretty good about being able to build on the lead.

We started the second half very strong, dominating possession, keeping the ball out of our half, and creating some chances. In the first ten minutes of the second half, we probably could have scored four different times if my boys either took a shot one touch earlier or took a shoot with their weak foot. One kid, who would later score, could have scored two with his left foot. We'll have to work on taking early chances and not being afraid to shoot with both feet. Finally after generating a great attack, My team took the lead on a beautiful shot that went far post and landed in the side netting. It really was a fantastic finish and I was so happy with how we had been playing.

We played really well until the last five minutes. We started to get sloppy defensively and couldn't get the ball out of our half. Our goalie made several fantastic saves to keep us in the lead, but our team struggled to maintain possession off of his punts. His punts were great, but we just kept getting beat to the ball. It finally bit us in the butt, and they turned an interception into a goal. When we took the kickoff, the ref blew his whistle to end the game.

I was disappointed that we tied for two reasons. First, and most importantly, I wanted this win so badly for the boys. They went through a tournament where they were way overmatched and unprepared to compete, and I thought we made a lot of progress. I've thrown a lot at them and they've learned so much in just a short amount of time. We outplayed our opponents for most of the game, and I thought the boys really deserved to get the satisfaction of earning the win. The second reason I was disappointed was because the way we let in the second goal was because we lost our shape. We did a good job of staying in good position for most of the game, but once we left what we learned and went back to old habits, we paid the price.

The kids were pretty pleased with the tie, as well they should be. However, I want them to expect to win. I want the kids to feel like a game like this slipped away from them and that they truly earned the win. I think we'll get there once we establish some winning ways, and I love that these boys always have a good attitude.

We have two games next weekend--a home and away with the same team on Saturday (away) and Sunday (home). I don't know much about the other team (or any teams in our league for that matter) but I would like for us to get our first win this weekend. Hopefully we can do just that.

Tournament Reflections

Well, this weekend did not go as planned at all. In order to avoid reliving the torment, I'll avoid posting scores, but suffice it to say that I was blindsided by what happened over the last three days.

I had no idea how my team would perform against another team or where my players were technically in relation to other U9 players. I put us in the top division of the tournament to see how we measured up against the top teams in the area--I found out the hard way.

The first game came at us quickly. We struggled to hold the ball, and the other team's players were more advanced technically than mine. For example, while my players have trouble making clean 5-yard passes, the players on this team were capable of 30-yard passes easily. We showed flashes of good play and created some pressure at the end of the game. In fact, we hung with them well in the second half.

Throughout the first game, we played a 2-1-2 formation, as was suggested by several coaches at the club. We continued with this formation during the second game, but it was really a struggle. I don't think the players have learned positioning, so we often left opposing attackers unmarked. As I explained to my players, a team doesn't even have to be better than us to score on us--we leave them open. Anyone can score if they are left wide open.

During the pre-game warmups until this point, I had the boys work on attacking by forming two lines, essentially a left and right forward, and had them string passes together before taking a shot. I changed this drill during the third game this morning.

I changed our formation from a 2-1-2, to a 1-2-1-1/diamond defense. I basically had a sweeper, left and right back, and a stopper/midfielder. I then maintained a single striker. It was important for our team to learn to keep their shape and mark opposing players. So, during the pre-game warmup I had them line up in this formation and just pass to each other. I showed them that they could maintain possession even by hardly moving from this shape. I thought they looked good in the warmups.

It showed instantly in the third game--we scored the first goal and allowed the other team to touch the ball only twice before we scored. Even after the goal, we maintained possession pretty well. We soon fell apart, however, and went back to some old habits: leaving players open, losing the ball in the middle of the field, not coming back on defense after pushing up, not looking before we pass, not playing aggressive and contesting 50-50 balls. It was frustrating for me because I could tell that the boys knew what I wanted to do at times, but couldn't maintain it. Some things, however, we have just not worked on enough--positioning, defending, communication--and so those errors, as well as many others, are clearly on me.

Moving forward, there is a lot we need to work on; however, the weekend was not a total loss. I now know what is realistic for these kids. I've seen U9 players that can make 30-yard passes, shoot from the 18, and make composes passes under pressure. I see no reason why my guys can't do the same things. While I thought I was going to be a more tactical coach, I now see that I also have to be a technical coach as well. This will probably be good for the kids, as I'll be able to focus on the fundamentals with them and improve their mechanics. It will also be good for me, as I'll be able to teach the kids how I want them to play.