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!

Harmony....

I have been involved in youth soccer on a day to day basis since the summer of 1993, working in the United States, England and for the the last 9 years in Canada. during that time I have seen many new 'ideas', some have stuck around and some have disappeared. I have had the great pleasure to work alongside some great coaches and great people and also some great coaches who weren't very nice people! Being a good coach is not dependant on being a good person but in my personal opinion I think it helps.

One of these great ideas that I have come across was one put forward by the great Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, currently coaching Iran. Sean Fleming, Canada's current U17 men's coach, is fond of telling this story and if you have ever been in a room with Sean the chances are you will have heard this story, if you haven't here goes. Back in the 90's US Soccer commissioned Queiroz to put together a blueprint for the US to win the World Cup in 2010. Queiroz produced his report and a $50 million plan was embarked upon which spawned what we now call 'Generation Adidas' and the US Residency program in Bradenton, Florida. The first part of this plan deals with one idea, which doesn't cost $50 million and doesn't need a series of full time residency programs dotted around North America. This idea is free to implement and can be rolled out into club programs all across Canada at no extra cost. The idea, which as I understand was the first word in the report is HARMONY.

In short, Queiroz found a disjointed, poorly functioning program with different groups pulling in different directions. Does that sound familiar to you? It should because I think its a good description of the Canadian soccer landscape in 2011. How are we as a country supposed to compete at the international level when we spend the majority of our time arguing about who has the best system to develop players, who can be on the board, who should coach the gold team, when can I get the players.....

Now I am not suggesting that a love fest breaks out on fields across BC and Canada, coaches are, by nature, competitive and should remain that way, however I do think its time we all started to look at the bigger picture. One of the biggest problems I see is the one of player ownership. The players don't 'belong' to anyone. They aren't mine and they aren't yours, they belong to CANADA! I don't believe that there are coaches who deliberately hold players back from progressing to the next level, its an urban myth in our game. However there are some coaches who don't positively encourage their players to move up to the next level, I am sure we can all give examples of these types of coaches. Are these coaches doing any harm, they aren't putting children in danger by holding them back, but they are not giving their players all the opportunities that are available to them.

The key to changing this mindset is, in my opinion, communication and education. The vast majority of youth soccer coaches are volunteers who are also involved in other sporting activities. Its a fair bet that in Canada a large chunk of these coaches don't see Soccer as a primary sport. Its up to all of us, and I include myself in this group, who see Soccer not as a primary sport, but the only sport, to do a better job of selling our game. 

Dick Bate, who served as the CSA technical director for a very short stint asked a question that needs to be asked of all of us on a regular basis. "Who cares for Canada"? Far too often we are all caught up in our own world to see the wood for the trees. As a group, soccer coaches have to do a better job than we have done before. Its easy to point the finger at the national and provincial associations and lay the blame at their door, however the change has to come from the bottom up. At the Lower Island Soccer Association we formed a coaches association so that we can meet on a regular basis and get to know each other away from the field, instead of glaring at each other from across the field. We all share the same problems with our teams and the hope is that through communication and shared experience we can better work together to improve the game for everyone.

Our next Coaches meeting is at Braefoot Park in Victoria on May 5th starting at 6.45pm. We will be talking about basic ball striking and introducing the Loughborough Soccer Passing Test with special guests Dr. Kathy Gaul and Marc Jacobson from the University of Victoria's School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education.

I hope to see you there, and many thanks to Lakehill Soccer Association for the use of their field.