8 a side soccer

If we say that the game is the best teacher, then in my opinion the 8 a side game in the best format to use to let the game teach the players.  During the spring we took a close look at the programs that we offered through Lower Island and embarked on a revitalisation plan. As part of that plan we produced a coaching syllabus for our BCSPL teams, but more importantly with the support of the University of Victoria’s School of Exercise Science we developed a document for the coaches within our district to use as an extra resource to help them with their teams.

As part of that document we offered up some different schemes to use when playing 8v8 soccer. Although this document is aimed at the coaches within our district the information is available to everyone via our website and here is a link to the document http://www.lowerislandsoccer.com/Coaches/CoachingTheCoachesLISA.pdf

In this blog I would like to go into more detail about my favourite scheme in 8v8 soccer which I used at Sheffield United as an academy coach before I moved to Canada: which was two in the back, four across the middle in a diamond and one player up top as a target, in layman’s terms 2-4-1.

The idea behind this particular formations is not to win games or to stop the other team playing, its set up to challenge the players and put them in situations in the game where they have to make decisions based on the situation in front of them. These ‘learning moments’ are few and far between in the game and I think this formation increases the learning moments and in turn helps develop the decision making of the players.

Two in the back constantly challenges the defenders. If we want to produce defenders then they need to be able to mark an opponent and be able to take responsibility for dealing with players in 1v1 situations. They must also be able to communicate with their defensive partner and know when to mark and when to release from their player to offer cover or support to their defensive partner. Winning games is not the driving factor so don’t worry about playing man for man , or even a man down, in the back at the younger ages.  In time your defenders will become better as they are faced with multiple learning moments. They will make mistakes along the way but that is how they learn. Two in the back will also challenge the keeper and give them opportunities to use their feet if they are encourage to play as defender when you have the ball.

Across the middle the four players offer width and depth in a diamond formation. The holding player links the defenders to the team and should be encouraged to drop into deeper positions to help out the two defenders when needed. In time they will figure out that its better to start a little deeper and move forward as opposed to starting higher up the field and having to run back and help out. The two wide players should be encouraged to move up and down the field and keep the diamond shape as often as possible.  They will encounter numerous learning moments, do they stay wide or come inside, should they take their opponent on or look for a pass. All key decisions that they need to start to make on their own.

The player at the top of the diamond is the linking player to the lone striker. They should be encouraged to offer support to the wide players when they are in possession and to get close to the striker when the ball is played forward. Four across the middle also introduces the players to playing in a group and working together. The chances are they will play in a four, whether in the back or in the midfield as they get older so why not introduce them to it as early as possible.

Up top, our lone striker must learn to play with their back to the opponent and look to play with a supporting player. Decisions for this player are many; can I get turned, can I go forward and create a scoring opportunity, should I connect with a supporting player. Multiple learning moments that will be difficult to replicate in a practice session.

In youth soccer the game should act as an extension of the week’s practices sessions, and far too often the game becomes the biggest factor during the week. The 8v8 format gives us an element of control that is lost as players move to the 11 a side game. The field is smaller so the players are, in theory less fatigued, and the smaller field can be more forgiving of individual errors as in the smaller space the players are closer together. The smaller space also encourages the player’s to pass the ball rather than just kick it away as there is less space to kick it into.

The key to the big game, 11v11, is controlling the space, make it big when you have the ball and make it small when they have it. You control the space through the shape and movement of your team. My experience has been that this formation provides more learning moments as it is challenging for the defenders and the single attacking player. It encourages the midfielders to drop down and help the defenders out and it demands that they move forward to support the striker. 

Once your players have a basic understanding of the shape you want them to make on the field then you can start enjoying watching them play and learn.

Remember, the important thing is challenging your players and putting them in situations where they have to make a decision.  Our players need to learn how to play the game and to read the game.

I hope that makes some sense.

To finish, the next Lower Island Soccer Coaches Association meeting will take place at the Lakehill Soccer Associations facility at Braefoot Park on Friday 26^th August from 6pm. Our guest presenter will be Matt Fisher from the Pacific Sports Institute for Sports Excellence. The session will cover warm and injury prevention techniques and I hope to see as many of you there as possible. As always don’t forget to bring your boots….

Mandating coach certification.....

When we wanted to teach our son Oliver to swim, we decided to take him along to our local recreation centre where a certified swimming instructor taught him to swim.  I can swim and so can my wife but we decided that it was best to let someone who has a little more knowledge in swimming instruction take the lead. I don’t think he is ever going to be the next Michael Phelps but we want him to enjoy swimming and I believe if you do something well you will do it more often.

Oliver also wanted to learn Kung Fu, now he will never be Bruce Lee and neither will his father, so it was a no brainer to sign him up for Kung Fu lessons from a certified martial arts instructor.

When we first moved to Canada our daughter Hope wanted to try gymnastics so we sent her along to the gymnastics centre in Kelowna where she was instructed by certified coaches.

Do you see where I am going with this… if it’s an acceptable practice in swimming, gymnastics and Kung Fu, then why is it not the same for soccer. Both Hope and Oliver have been involved in recreational soccer, and neither of them will ever play for Canada but their level of interest in soccer was the same as it was for the other activities.

Now, I have never coached my own children, soccer is my job and I have not had the time to be involved with their teams. Our experience with recreational soccer is no different to any other family in Canada; we rely on the luck of the draw when it comes to coaching.

Hope has been very lucky and has had some great coaches. Their technical knowledge has been of the standard expected and nothing more, but the experience has been a positive one because of how the information has been communicated to her. The coaches that she has played for have been great role models for her and I am sure at she will play soccer into her adult life. Oliver on the other hand has not been so lucky. His coaches ‘knowledge’ of the game has been no less than Hope’s coaches, the problem has been in the delivery. The outcome of this is that Oliver is still not sure about soccer as a sport that he is interested in and a as a sport we may lose a player. Maybe it’s not the end of the world for soccer and it certainly isn’t for Oliver, as a proud parent I hope he is destined for great things; it just won’t be in soccer.

Although it’s not the end of the world, its is a problem for me as I know that there are many similar stories in families across Canada

So what to do? For me it’s a simple answer to a simple question. Our number one priority has to be coach certification and, more importantly, continued coach education so that we can retain the good ones and work with the keeners who need help and support.

Coach education does many things;

It shows that the coach is interested in improving their skills

It shows that the club is committed to providing their players with a qualified instructor

It shows prospective new players and parents that the sport is serious about development

It provides opportunities for dialogue between coaches

It raises the bar, and in time will improve the level of play

It helps coach retention

It gives a club a measure of credibility

All of these are positives that our game needs right now. The impact of mandatory certification won’t be seen overnight and in the short term we may lose some coaches but in time it will become an acceptable part of the process, just like getting a criminal records check.

In my last blog I mentioned the thought of mandatory certification and I received more feedback on that topic than anything else. I agree that you don’t become a better coach just be attending courses, however it is a step in the process. The vast majority of clubs pay for their coaches to be certified so why wouldn’t you take a course.

In the Lower Island district we have certified over 350 coaches over the last three years which is just over  half of the 600 coaches in our area. I would like to think that we can have a fully certified district by 2015 but that is only half the battle. The real challenge is to then get a coach to stay involved after the first year and come back and take another course!

Having said all that there is still a nagging problem that exists.  It’s not just about the information that a coach provides, it’s the way that it is delivered that is the key. I once heard someone say, and I wish it was me as it is a great little phrase “people don’t care what you know, until they know you care” and it is so true.  Communicating our message to the players, and in turn, their parents must improve. For the vast majority of our players soccer is a recreational activity just as it is for my children.

Our challenge is to turn it from a recreational activity into a passion and we do that player by player, family by family and coach by coach. How many potential national team players do we lose each year before we ever get a chance to really work with them?  That thought is something that should keep us all up at night. Mandating coach certification increases our chances of providing a better experience for the players and in turn keeping them involved in the game for a longer period of time.

On a final note its soccer camp season and the great game of sharks and minnows has undergone a radical change on Mayne Island: it’s now called Deatheaters and Wizards, thanks to JK Rowling!

A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall.......

Bob Dylan once sang ‘A hard rains a-gonna fall’ and he was right. June was a long month of hard rain for Soccer in Canada with our teams crashing out of the Gold Cup, U17 Men’s World Cup and Women’s World Cup all at the group stages. The difference between winning and losing at that level is narrow, a goal against Rwanda and a bounce or two against Panama and we would have had two of our teams in the last 8 of both tournaments, but although the difference is narrow we may as well have missed by a million miles as we judge top level sport on results not performance.

Now we have lost who can we blame? Fans and millionaire chairmen across the world always look for scapegoats when there team doesn’t get the results they need or want. Coaches are fired and programs are ripped up for the promise of something new. We very rarely fire soccer coaches in Canada, which may be a blessing is disguise this time around. Coaches and their players don’t plan and prepare their teams to lose, they spend every waking minute of every day with the players thinking and re-thinking their plans and looking for any extra edge. At the end of the day, it’s up to the players on the pitch to decide the outcome of the game and as I have mentioned before our lack of success this past month comes back to our lack of technique, rather than our lack of effort or spirit. Before I go on, let me be clear: I’m not saying our players lack technique; I am saying that our technical ability is not at the level of our opponents. I believe we are going in the right direction, just not as quickly as we would like.

We struggle to keep the ball when we are pressured and we don’t have the cutting edge to create enough chances in a game. Our teams are organised and, in my opinion, regularly punch above their weight, but when the margins are so tight it is technical ability that wins the day. Technical excellence shouldn’t be our goal; our target should be technical perfection!

We can all look at the situation and try to apportion blame as there are plenty of targets, coaches, players, CSA, provinces, districts, clubs, lack of money, too many games, not enough games, the list is endless. However playing the blame game won’t help or change things in the short term or the long term.

As coaches and administrators we need to start asking ourselves a simple question. How can I make this situation better? I would like to say that I have all the answers, but I don’t. Having said that I do know where we won’t find the answers, not in board meetings, or conference calls, or executive meetings and certainly not on internet forums. The answer is to be found on the field working with players and teaching them correct technique and in time teaching them the finer points of our game.

The answer in short, is that we ALL need to do a better job with the players we work with.

I dislike the use of the word ’mandatory’ however I see no other way forward for us. Its time to make coach certification, and more importantly, continued education a mandatory requirement across the country. In order to do this we will of course need a grace period to allow clubs and coaches to comply but in a short space of time, say 2 years, we need to educate and support our coaches. When we show up at practice we ask our players to improve, why shouldn’t we ask that of our coaches?

I like to think that Lower Island Soccer Association is a supporter of coach certification and continued education, and over the past three years we have received tremendous support from Rob Csabai at BC Soccer. He has worked with us on changing the way we deliver the courses so that we are able make them ‘more user friendly’ and we have been able to certify a good number of coaches over the past few years. However there are still too many coaches out there without any level of certification at all coaching our players.  Coach certification doesn’t make you a soccer genius overnight, but it does show that you are committed to self improvement and are willing to spend some time to improve your skill set. A good coach has a combination of certification, experience and good communication skills. Getting certified is the easiest part so why the reluctance?

Mandatory coach education won’t be an easy sell but nothing easy is usually worth anything anyway.

In closing, thanks to everyone who attended the Lower Island Soccer Coaches Association meeting last week at Lakehill Soccer associations Braefoot field and special thank to Dominic Butcher who gave us an interesting insight to fundamental movement skills. Our next meeting will be in August

…going back to Bob Dylan, I am not a big fan of cover versions but if you have time check out Bryan Ferry’s version of my blog title.

Have a great summer.

How the MLS can change soccer in Canada...

I was working in the US when the MLS was born. I remember watching the first All Star game, in 1996, from a regional Olympic Development Camp and I clearly remember thinking that this league might change everything. Ten years later I was at the MLS Cup final in Dallas with 22,000 other people in a soccer specific stadium and everything had changed.  I was fortunate enough to see the first MLS game in Vancouver, this time my thought was that this league could change everything for us here in Canada, but will we have to wait 10 years to see change, and more importantly: what is the change that MLS has brought to soccer in North America.

Prior to the MLS American players had to leave the country to play at a decent level, Mike Sorber for instance currently one of Bob Bradley’s assistants played in Mexico from 94 to 96 before coming back to the US. The US World Cup 94 squad was littered with players playing all over the world, on the playing side things don’t seem to have changed too much as the 2010 US Squad only had 4 players playing in MLS.

The real change in the soccer landscape in the US has been in the coaching department. Take a look at the US National coaching staff:

Bob Bradley coached in the MLS, Mike Sorber played in the MLS, Jesse Marsch played in the MLS and Lubos Kubik also played in the MLS. Interestingly enough Kubik managed Torquay United but was fired after 2 wins in 15 games! Recently fired U20 Coach Thomas Rongen coached in the MLS and current U18 coach Mike Matkovich also coached in the MLS. Major League Soccer has become the breeding ground for American coaches. Since the league started in 1996 only three non US nationals have won the coach of the year award, Rongen in 96, our own Frank Yallop in 2001 and Steve Nichol in 2002, all the other winners have been home grown American coaches. Does anyone doubt that Real salt Lake’s Jason Kreis will join that list?

I had the pleasure of working with Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis and their GM and VP Garth Lagerway for a very brief period of time in 1994. I would doubt that they have much memory of me, but I remember them very clearly as two young guys who were even then, professional in their approach to the game. Both are first class guys, and products of the American new soccer culture. The MLS has provided them with an opportunity to follow their trade and they are working at the top of the game. 

What about Canadian Coaches?

There have only been two Canadian Coaches in MLS history, Frank Yallop and Nick Dasovic are the only two Canadians to have coached in a league that is almost 17 years old. That is the same number of coaches that Vancouver has had in half a season and a third of the coaches Toronto FC has had in their short time in the league. The Canadian versions of Kreis and Lagerway are certainly out there but will there be opportunities for them to play and ultimately coach in a domestic league? I am hoping that in time we will see more Canadian’s on the coaching staff of the soon to be three Canadian MLS franchises.

Frank Yallop has proven to be a great success in the MLS and in my opinion Nick Dasovic was never given an even chance in Toronto, the ownership was far to busy planning the Dutch revolution to seriously consider Dasovic. In order for our game to continue to grow we need to produce home grown coaches and these coaches need a place to coach.

I bumped into Victor Montagliani a few weeks ago and we talked a little about the current CSA moratorium on Canadian franchises applying to join US leagues. At first glance I along with many others couldn’t understand the thought behind this, but I think the CSA wants to check on quality control before it rubber stamps any new ‘clubs’. This makes perfect sense to me now, because at this point in time the last thing we need is new clubs appearing and disappearing because they don’t have a sustainable model.  I have seen far too many of these clubs try to run before they can walk and disappear without a trace during a season, and this reflect poorly on the whole soccer community. Maybe the CSA should look at imposing the same Canadian content rules in clubs as Canadian radio stations do! If that produced the footballing equivalent of The Arcade Fire, we would all be happy.

Now, back to the MLS, it’s not going to happen overnight, but Canadian content both on the field and in the dug out has to be the best chance we have of getting back to a World Cup.  It must be very difficult for the National program to find any continuity between training camps and games as the squad is so spread out. We have recently seen a number of International teams base their operations in Europe as the vast majority of their players are over there and they have the finances to travel at will. At the moment we seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place as we have some players playing in Europe and some of them here in the MLS, and we all know that the CSA isn’t rolling in cash.  A long term solution could be getting our players back here playing in a North American league for Canadian coaches in front of Canadian fans. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take 10 years!

Just a quick reminder, the next Lower Island Soccer Coaches Association meeting is on Friday 24^th June at 6pm at the Braefoot turf field in Victoria. The session will focus on basic dribbling and turning skills and our guest coach will be Dominic Butcher who will be introducing us to some basic movement skills.

Thanks to Lakehill Soccer association for the use of the field and as always remember to bring your boots!

It’s technique stupid…

Bill Clinton won the 1992 US Presidential election for a number of reasons, but a key turning point in the campaign was the Democrats phrase “It’s the economy stupid”. Once they woke the American public up to the fact that economy wasn’t that great the rest, as they say, is history. I have just spent the best part of three months conducting evaluations, I have been doing them that long that the other day I managed to select an over 35 men’s team from the line up at Tim Horton’s in Esquimalt! After 10 weeks of assessments I have an answer to the question, what do you look for in a player…Its technique stupid! I am using the work stupid for effect, so please don’t take offence.

Identifying speed and size is easy, but speed and size don’t guarantee anything. We have all seen the big donkey up front who couldn’t hit a barn door and the flying machine out wide that can’t cross a ball. The key ingredient and missing factor in so many players is lack of technique.  If a player has poor technique they will never reach their full potential. 

We all witnessed a technical master class from Barcelona in the Champions League final against a pretty good Manchester United team and I am hopeful that the one thing we will all take away from the Barcelona experience is that commitment to technical perfection.

Since the final there have been numerous articles that tell us we must copy Barcelona, this isn’t uncommon in soccer. We all want to imitate Brazil and try to play like the Dutch. The issue with trying to copy Barcelona is this, it’s not a style of play it’s a culture. Players in La Masia are schooled in the Barcelona culture, doing the things the right way and with style. As I previously stated, I don’t think you can copy a culture, but you can copy traits of that culture.

When I watch Barcelona play three things are always apparent in their play.

First of all, technical ability of the highest order across the team, they do the simple things perfectly and therefore always have time on the ball regardless of the pressure applied by their opponent.

Secondly, an amazing work ethic and commitment to winning the ball back as soon as possible. It’s not uncommon to see Messi chase the ball across the opponents back four at high speed for 40 metres. The oppositions have no safe space to play into and no area of the field to build in because of this pressure.

Finally: a commitment to team over the individual.  Billy Bremner, of Leeds and Scotland, was famously quoted as saying “Team before self every time”. There are many other great things this team does but they are truly a team and this is linked to the work ethic. If a player sees the greatest of his generation, Messi, or Iniesta or Xavi, working overtime to win the ball back then he will be inspired to follow the example. Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney possess similar qualities to Messi but lack his technical ability, Christiano Ronaldo matches Messi in technical ability, in my opinion but he couldn’t play for Barcelona as his ego would not allow him to become part of the collective.

Can we take these three traits, technical excellence, hard work and team work, from the Barcelona culture and apply them to youth soccer in Canada?

There is no reason why not, we just need to raise the bar and educate our players in the art of teamwork and hard work. I am not a big hockey fan, but I know a group of players committed to a cause when I see one. I would like to see the Canucks with the Stanley Cup because it’s clear that they are a group of players that have a deep understanding of what it means to be on a team and the commitment it takes to be the very best. If they manage to win the Cup than we have a great example to show our players that team sport is more about the group than it is the individual, sadly this seems to be something that is lacking in other team sports at the moment.

Barcelona and the Canucks, if successful, are great examples for our players to follow, both are highly skilled team filled with great players who play an exciting brand of their sport. More importantly they are great role models, which as a parent of a young son is a key part of my admiration for both teams.

Now, back to technique, the next Lower Island Soccer Coaches Association meeting will take place on Friday 24^th June at Braefoot Turf field month, the topic will be dribbling and basic turns. Our special guest will be Dominic Butcher who will talk about Fundamental Movement Skills, thanks to Lakehill Soccer Association for the use of their field.

I hope to see as many of you as possible and don’t forget to bring your boots.

Is our product good enough?

Over the last two months I have been watching a lot of games in the U8 and U10 age groups. When I was 8 years old I played for the not-so-world famous Grimesthorpe Boys Club in the Sheffield and Hallamshire U12 division. I had to play U12 because in 1975 that was the start of organised football in the area I grew up in. We didn’t win a game for a season and a half and probably didn’t keep the score under 10 goals against in our first season, our first two games were 24-0 and 20-0 defeats but we didn’t care. The oldest players on our team were 9 and we played together as a team in the U12 division for 3 seasons, no one got hurt and our fragile ego’s certainly got toughened up. Our parents never complained about the coaches because luckily for them, the parents that is they didn’t see too many of our games! We really were that bad. When we played away we went in the boy’s club van and sang songs all the way there and back regardless of the result.

 Sheffield in 1975 is a totally different animal to British Columbia in 2011, bring our team forward in a time machine and most of us would have quit after 3 games because we weren’t winning or being developed! The parents would have hunted our coaches down and replaced them with someone who knew what he was doing as how could they possibly be doing a good job if we were getting humped every week! In 1975 we had no other sports that we could play, none of us had play stations or Wii’s, we felt very lucky to be involved in organised sports and be on a team that had our own shirts that we didn’t have to wash ourselves. We paid 10p a week subs, which is less than 20 cents, and we enjoyed the games and the feeling of being on a team, however if we would have had some different options I am sure that most of us would have looked at them at some point. But the point is we didn’t have any other choices when it came to playing organised sports so we stuck with it.

This brings me back to the situation today: After watching some U8 and U10 games I have come to the realisation that our product, the game, is not as good as it could be. This is certainly not the fault of the volunteer coaches who are doing their best to keep the children active, its not the fault of the clubs or districts who are also doing their best to keep the teams playing and on the field and its not the fault of our governing bodies who are doing all they can to keep the game ticking over.

The fault, or blame, or whatever word you want to use to describe the deficiencies in our game, is, in my opinion…the game itself. Most games in these age groups revolve around two or three players on each team. They dominate the majority of the play and the other players are on the edge of the game and only get a kick of the ball when it comes near them. At this age the two things our players need from the game are, touches on the ball and exercise to keep them active. For two or three of them we are providing this, but for the rest of the players on the teams I think we are falling short. If they don’t get touches on the ball then they won’t improve as soccer players, if they don’t get the exercise or activity they need then the result of that can be much more serious. With a multitude of different sporting and activity options available to young children and families today it’s no surprise that we lose players from our sport as they don’t have to stick it out.

As I am watching these games I constantly ask myself, is our product good enough and if not how do we improve it so that we can retain more players.  We aren’t developing future pro’s in these age groups, we are trying to keep them active and get them to choose soccer as their primary sport and as a  life long sport, as in stage 7 of “Wellness To World Cup”. Once we lose a player to another sport they are pretty much gone for good, how many top class athletes do we lose every season because some other option proved to be a better one for them? Can we afford to keep losing these players to our rival sports?

The down side to having an opinion is that you have to be prepared for it to be wrong. Well, next season at Lower Island we will be monitoring a number of games in the U8 and U10 age groups in the hope that I am wrong. We will look at the number of times each player kicks the ball during a game and we will also be asking our customers, the players and their parents, what they like about the game and what they think would make it better, after all in the service industry the customer is always right!

When our research is completed we will share that information with other clubs and districts. If ,as I suspect, we find that the players are not seeing enough of the ball in the game or getting enough activity we will look at trialling some changes to our games program on the Island so that we can improve the product and keep more players playing.

Is it worth wasting all that time in the kid’s games on something we can introduce in the space of one week when they are a little older?

As promised, my Champions League prediction: Barcelona, but if it goes to penalties then I go for United as they have the best research on penalties in the game. Read Soccernomics if you get the chance as there is a great piece in the book on the penalty shoot out between United and Chelsea in Moscow in 2008

Could Roy of the Rovers have the answer to stopping Barcelona?

When I was a kid I used to read the Roy of the Rovers soccer comic and one story in particular stuck with me. Roy’s team were playing in a cup game against a team with a great striker who was scoring goals for fun. They asked one of their players ‘Blackie’ to mark this striker and keep him quiet in the game. As the game went on Blackie kept leaving the striker to try and win the ball elsewhere. Not surprisingly Melchester Rovers went on to win the game; it was after all their comic book.  After the game, Blackie got a grilling for not following the plan, and was asked why he didn’t follow orders. Blackie explained that when he watched the opposition he had noticed that the real threat was the number 6 who got all the assists. He told Roy that he thought it would be easier to cut off the supply to the striker than deal with the striker when he got the ball. What a clever lad Blackie was!

Anyway this lesson stayed with me and here are a couple of examples of how Blackie’s tactical genius might be able to help Manchester United deal with the headache that is Barcelona.

In the 1977 European Cup final Liverpool met Borussia Monchengladbach in what was to be Kevin Keegan’s final game for Liverpool. Keegan was imperious that night and led Liverpool to their first European title. He was able to receive the ball in advanced positions and dictate the play. He ran the Gladbach defence, including the great Berti Vogt’s, ragged for 90 minutes. Keegan ticked and Liverpool tocked and ran out eventual winners.

Three years later, Keegan was back in the European final this time with Hamburg against Nottingham Forest. Keegan was probably playing the best football of his life and had recently been crowned European Footballer of the Year. However the one question mark with him was his habit of dropping deeper and deeper to receive that ball if he wasn’t getting the service the needed.  Forest, under the leadership of Clough and Taylor chocked off the supply line to Keegan and forced him to drop deeper and deeper to gain possession.  The plan worked a treat and Forest beat Hamburg 1-0 in a massive upset.

Now how does that relate to trying to deal with a team that has more than one threat? I have heard that Jose Mourinho believes that the best way to beat a team is to take away the thing they do best, whether or not he believes it, I thinks it’s a pretty good place to start. For me Barcelona’s strength is not the make up of the team, it’s the wonderful rhythm and tempo that they play at. You can’t double Messi and then try to deal with Iniesta and Xavi as you can only play with 11 players.  If you are going to have a go at beating Barcelona then you have to try to take that rhythm away from them. The chances of doing this twice are slim, but in a one game winner take all you have a chance.

The key for me is two fold. First of all you have to stop the two full backs from taking up advanced positions Dani Alves, in particular, spends more time in the attacking third than the defensive third. Secondly when the two centre backs, Pique and probably Puyol, split when they are in possession; you have to stop Busquets from receiving the ball. He drops in and acts as the link to the advanced players.

Now if I was Sir Alex Ferguson, and I’m the first to admit I’m not, here is how I would put Blackie’s plan into play. You can’t choke the supply line as they simply have too many players that can hurt you, however you can disrupt the rhythm. Manchester United work harder than many give them credit for, and in Park and Valencia they have two great athletes who can cover amazing amounts of real estate, combine that with Rooney playing high up between the central defenders, a three man central midfield including Park, and Valencia, Hernandez or Nani as deep lying wide attacking players and United have the personnel to threaten Barcelona, playing in a 4-3-3 scheme.

If they can stop Busquets linking the play and keep the full backs from getting higher up the field then they take away, in my opinion, Barcelona’s biggest asset, which is their rhythm. So, look for a three man midfield with Carrick and Park and possibly Giggs in front of them with Rooney up top and two from Hernandez, Valencia and Nani wide.  I am sure that Pep Guardiola won’t be reading this so as long as he didn’t learn from Blackie and Roy of the Rovers, United have a chance! The strength of Manchester United is their squad and the flexibility it affords their manager.  In the first leg of the quarter final Arsenal played higher up the field and pressed Barcelona and had success. The staff at United will have seen that and you can be sure they will be well prepared.

On a final note, we should all enjoy watching Barcelona as we don’t see this type of team that often. They need to win the Champions League again to guarantee their place at the top table. I haven’t seen a team play such expansive soccer since the Brazilian team at the 1982 World Cup. It’s worth remembering that Brazil’s downfall at that tournament was a well prepared Italian team with a central striker who set the tournament alight in the final stages.  Rooney’s return to goal scoring form could see the pattern repeated. I won’t predict a 3-2 win for United just yet but I will stick my neck out before the game. Whatever the score I hope we don’t have to wait too long before we see another team like this Barcelona team, they are always a treat to watch.

Just a quick reminder, the Lower Island Soccer Associations May meeting will now take place on May 6^th at the Braefoot turf field in Victoria starting at 5.45pm. Many thanks to the Lakehill Soccer Association for providing the fields!