From Robert Ziegler of Top Drawer Soccer:
Doing it in Style
September 20th, 2007
I read with interest comments on fifa.com from U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Greg Ryan, currently guiding his team through the FIFA World Cup in China, about how trying to play an attractive passing style would not be particularly effective in the modern women’s game.
While I think the article most likely didn’t print everything Ryan had to say on the topic, I have to say I hate to see any notion that as a nation we would abandon the idea of playing attractively.
“Attractive†in a soccer context generally means teams who combine short passing, fluid movement off the ball, and players who can take on defenders 1v1. When you find teams who are adept at all of these things, it is indeed a thing of beauty. It is also exceedingly hard to defend.
The alternative to this style, something of a field expedient method at many levels of American soccer, is utilizing size and speed and hitting long balls either up field for forwards to run onto, or directly at a target player who can win it in the area in front of goal. Both of these methods are perfectly legitimate means of attacking, but when employed exclusively, as they so often are in our domestic game, they detract from developing those finer aspects of the game needed to attack with style.
“Screw the beautiful game†I was once told by a proponent of the long ball approach, who also happens to think that high school soccer is the most important part of youth development. “Why bother with that stuff when the idea is to win,†he concluded. A national-championship winning coach at a prominent youth club once told me that playing attractively “is overrated†explaining that other teams don’t let you do it anyway.
I’ve no doubt that attempting to play that way is made difficult by cynical tactics from the opposition. After a recent college game where a talented midfielder put on a bit of a clinic in possession and passing soccer, the opposition coach bemoaned the fact that her team didn’t do more to “knock her on her ass.†Regrettably, the inconsistent standard of refereeing that exists in this country makes such a tactic all too plausible. But I also know teaching the beautiful game is even more difficult when clubs and teams are not set up to teach young players how to control the ball, how to pass it, how to take players on, how to move without the ball and to combine in numbers to attack. If a predominant section of our coaching cadre has at its primarly formative influence a severe form of kick and rush soccer, the likelihood of it passing more of the same on to our youth is pretty great.
So I continue to look for those shining examples of coaches doing it differently and hope to see their numbers increase. In a soccer subculture where winning at the youth and college level is collectively more important than what our national teams and professional league have going on, it’s an uphill battle to teach this. With greater professional and national-level involvement in player development comes hope for something better, but there will be some serious upstream swimming before this changes.
Posted by Robert Ziegler |
Doing it in Style
September 20th, 2007
I read with interest comments on fifa.com from U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Greg Ryan, currently guiding his team through the FIFA World Cup in China, about how trying to play an attractive passing style would not be particularly effective in the modern women’s game.
While I think the article most likely didn’t print everything Ryan had to say on the topic, I have to say I hate to see any notion that as a nation we would abandon the idea of playing attractively.
“Attractive†in a soccer context generally means teams who combine short passing, fluid movement off the ball, and players who can take on defenders 1v1. When you find teams who are adept at all of these things, it is indeed a thing of beauty. It is also exceedingly hard to defend.
The alternative to this style, something of a field expedient method at many levels of American soccer, is utilizing size and speed and hitting long balls either up field for forwards to run onto, or directly at a target player who can win it in the area in front of goal. Both of these methods are perfectly legitimate means of attacking, but when employed exclusively, as they so often are in our domestic game, they detract from developing those finer aspects of the game needed to attack with style.
“Screw the beautiful game†I was once told by a proponent of the long ball approach, who also happens to think that high school soccer is the most important part of youth development. “Why bother with that stuff when the idea is to win,†he concluded. A national-championship winning coach at a prominent youth club once told me that playing attractively “is overrated†explaining that other teams don’t let you do it anyway.
I’ve no doubt that attempting to play that way is made difficult by cynical tactics from the opposition. After a recent college game where a talented midfielder put on a bit of a clinic in possession and passing soccer, the opposition coach bemoaned the fact that her team didn’t do more to “knock her on her ass.†Regrettably, the inconsistent standard of refereeing that exists in this country makes such a tactic all too plausible. But I also know teaching the beautiful game is even more difficult when clubs and teams are not set up to teach young players how to control the ball, how to pass it, how to take players on, how to move without the ball and to combine in numbers to attack. If a predominant section of our coaching cadre has at its primarly formative influence a severe form of kick and rush soccer, the likelihood of it passing more of the same on to our youth is pretty great.
So I continue to look for those shining examples of coaches doing it differently and hope to see their numbers increase. In a soccer subculture where winning at the youth and college level is collectively more important than what our national teams and professional league have going on, it’s an uphill battle to teach this. With greater professional and national-level involvement in player development comes hope for something better, but there will be some serious upstream swimming before this changes.
Posted by Robert Ziegler |
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