soccer soccer soccer

[wolf stansson]

LMAOOOOOOOOOO

[wolf stansson]

American soccer woes continue. McKennie is out 6 weeks with a partial MCL rupture and Herculez Gomez exposed the Gonazlez debacle with receipts on his podcast. It's disheartening. Highlights include Thomas Rongen lying about visiting Jona's family, Richie Williams (a failure of a coach who keeps falling up) tell his family that he, at age 14, had 10 minutes to choose between academy offers in Mexico and the Bradenton Academy before he'd pull the offer, and the Mexican Federation basically acting super classy and competent in their recruitment and relationship with the family. I walked away from that podcast knowing that Gonzalez made the absolute correct choice for himself. This was a completely unforced error. The US frankly should've lost him years ago and it was only his loyalty to his birth country that kept him around long enough to give us a shot to keep him.

I really, really hope Kyle Martino wins the USSF presidency and can fix some of these obvious things. Thomas Rongen and Richie Williams should have been canned 10 years ago or more. Instead, they were given jobs with no accountability that are essential to the future of the national team. Missing the world cup is going to be beneficial in the long run. It's unfortunate that this is what it took.

[Banedon]

The Boston Breakers are folding...

https://deadspin.com/longest-running-wo ... 1822448843

[shnsajax]

I always hated Richie Williams.

[shnsajax]

What’s with this whole Mix to Man City thing?

[Transmogrified Tiger]

What’s with this whole Mix to Man City thing?

From some quick searching, it looks like he's taking advantage of the NYCFC/Man City connection to be able to train at their facilities while he looks for a club in Europe, but to do so he legally had to sign something with Man City even though he's not going to have anything to do with the EPL club.

[soccer10k]

Anyone who knows more than me about it want to tell me why the new US Soccer president will be different from Sunil and not more of the same?

[bukie]

Anyone who knows more than me about it want to tell me why the new US Soccer president will be different from Sunil and not more of the same?

Well, first of all, the president will be primarily focused on the business end, amd a yet to be appointed GM will be in charge of soccer direction.

Other than that, though, it was a hugely disappointing election with the change candidates splitting their vote, never really giving anyone from outside a chance.

[biittner77]

So I got talked into coaching my son's U10 spring team. The coach from last fall and indoor was awesome but has travel baseball and can only help in the spring.

They're going to play 5 v 5 on a short field so as to emphasize skill development. Anybody have any sources for good skills drills before I start wading through Youtube?

[Banedon]

So I got talked into coaching my son's U10 spring team. The coach from last fall and indoor was awesome but has travel baseball and can only help in the spring.

They're going to play 5 v 5 on a short field so as to emphasize skill development. Anybody have any sources for good skills drills before I start wading through Youtube?

Did the league not provide you with any of that? I've only assistant coached...so I'm little more than ball retrieval and hollering at kids to pay attention on gameday, but the head coach definitely got some resources from the league.

[biittner77]

So I got talked into coaching my son's U10 spring team. The coach from last fall and indoor was awesome but has travel baseball and can only help in the spring.

They're going to play 5 v 5 on a short field so as to emphasize skill development. Anybody have any sources for good skills drills before I start wading through Youtube?

Did the league not provide you with any of that? I've only assistant coached...so I'm little more than ball retrieval and hollering at kids to pay attention on gameday, but the head coach definitely got some resources from the league.

I haven't asked yet. The team I'll have has been together from outdoor through indoor and have gotten to the point where they understand where they should be position wise but aren't always disciplined enough to hold their shape. They're 10, they're starting to get it but the next step as I see it is to trust that their teammates are going to be where they should be so they can make great passes that lead to goals.

The league itself has built in instruction time outside of what happens at team practices that will hopefully focus on skills.

[Banedon]

So I got talked into coaching my son's U10 spring team. The coach from last fall and indoor was awesome but has travel baseball and can only help in the spring.

They're going to play 5 v 5 on a short field so as to emphasize skill development. Anybody have any sources for good skills drills before I start wading through Youtube?

Did the league not provide you with any of that? I've only assistant coached...so I'm little more than ball retrieval and hollering at kids to pay attention on gameday, but the head coach definitely got some resources from the league.

I haven't asked yet. The team I'll have has been together from outdoor through indoor and have gotten to the point where they understand where they should be position wise but aren't always disciplined enough to hold their shape. They're 10, they're starting to get it but the next step as I see it is to trust that their teammates are going to be where they should be so they can make great passes that lead to goals.

The league itself has built in instruction time outside of what happens at team practices that will hopefully focus on skills.

It's so huge that they've previously played together though. My son's team is just a rec league team...but they win every week, just because these same kids have been together playing soccer for several years now.

It's still tough at this age to get past the "do it myself" mentality, and convince them to look up and find the open man.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I don't have specific suggestions, but at that age and especially if it's 5 v 5, I'd spend all kinds of time working on developing foot skills and comfort on the ball. That'll be way more helpful in the present and future than understanding shape/formation, practicing corner kicks, or even shooting.

[biittner77]

I don't have specific suggestions, but at that age and especially if it's 5 v 5, I'd spend all kinds of time working on developing foot skills and comfort on the ball. That'll be way more helpful in the present and future than understanding shape/formation, practicing corner kicks, or even shooting.

That's pretty much been the focus during the time they've been together. I'm not really concerned about winning games so much as developing as players. I'm woefully unqualified to teach skills but I have 2 people helping that hopefully can cover that part.

I think there are some general principles that will always be true such as "forward" isn't always the direction that the ball needs to move, pass the ball then move to a danger spot for the return pass, trusting your teammate to play his/ her position but putting yourself in a good place to support in case they lose possession. I expect all of these concepts will help them down the road whether it's 5 v 5, 7 v 7 or whatever. Having seen them play for the last 4 months, I think I have a pretty good handle on their strengths and weaknesses.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

MLS starts their season today. If you've wanted to follow a team more closely, now's a good time to start. MLS Live is moving to ESPN's new ESPN+ streaming platform, and until ESPN+ launches later this spring, MLS Live is free. All you need is to sign up(no subscription required) and start streaming, though local blackouts still apply: https://live.mlssoccer.com/

Once ESPN+ launches it'll only be $5/month for programming that includes MLS Live, so the streaming package is discounted(it used to be $70 for a single team subscription) on top of other programming ESPN+ might have.

[wolf stansson]

Tim Weah got more pt with PSG this weekend than Pulisic with Dortmund.


This is a snide way of pointing out that Weah seems to be making real progress (almost scored) and Pulisic seems to be out of favor with the new manager. His form hasn't been terrible but it hasn't been great either and with German stars like Reus, Schurrle, & Gotze getting healthy, he's been benched.

[jersey cubs fan]

[stitchface]

I don't have specific suggestions, but at that age and especially if it's 5 v 5, I'd spend all kinds of time working on developing foot skills and comfort on the ball. That'll be way more helpful in the present and future than understanding shape/formation, practicing corner kicks, or even shooting.

That's pretty much been the focus during the time they've been together. I'm not really concerned about winning games so much as developing as players. I'm woefully unqualified to teach skills but I have 2 people helping that hopefully can cover that part.

I think there are some general principles that will always be true such as "forward" isn't always the direction that the ball needs to move, pass the ball then move to a danger spot for the return pass, trusting your teammate to play his/ her position but putting yourself in a good place to support in case they lose possession. I expect all of these concepts will help them down the road whether it's 5 v 5, 7 v 7 or whatever. Having seen them play for the last 4 months, I think I have a pretty good handle on their strengths and weaknesses.

I'm in my 8th year coaching - different teams every year. I would highly recommend focusing on possession - not as a team but as individuals. Shielding, first touch to space, patience, drop passes. What always derails youth teams is kicking the ball away because they are afraid to lose it. This also gives their teammates time to get to support positions. I would not recommend tons of times on skill drills because they get bored and don't focus. Show a technique, have them do it, then move on to an activity where they are playing and using the technique. No lines, lectures or laps. It really is true.

Related to the USSF conversation, their new mantra is Play-Practice-Play - meaning get the kids playing right away at practice and let them learn by playing. Seems like a good idea to have them play more and gain some creativity. Trouble I see, is what we really need is to hold training sessions and then let them play on their own the other days of the week.

Here is one link I like for ball touches: http://www.progressivesoccertraining.com/faster-feet/

[biittner77]

I don't have specific suggestions, but at that age and especially if it's 5 v 5, I'd spend all kinds of time working on developing foot skills and comfort on the ball. That'll be way more helpful in the present and future than understanding shape/formation, practicing corner kicks, or even shooting.

That's pretty much been the focus during the time they've been together. I'm not really concerned about winning games so much as developing as players. I'm woefully unqualified to teach skills but I have 2 people helping that hopefully can cover that part.

I think there are some general principles that will always be true such as "forward" isn't always the direction that the ball needs to move, pass the ball then move to a danger spot for the return pass, trusting your teammate to play his/ her position but putting yourself in a good place to support in case they lose possession. I expect all of these concepts will help them down the road whether it's 5 v 5, 7 v 7 or whatever. Having seen them play for the last 4 months, I think I have a pretty good handle on their strengths and weaknesses.

I'm in my 8th year coaching - different teams every year. I would highly recommend focusing on possession - not as a team but as individuals. Shielding, first touch to space, patience, drop passes. What always derails youth teams is kicking the ball away because they are afraid to lose it. This also gives their teammates time to get to support positions. I would not recommend tons of times on skill drills because they get bored and don't focus. Show a technique, have them do it, then move on to an activity where they are playing and using the technique. No lines, lectures or laps. It really is true.

Related to the USSF conversation, their new mantra is Play-Practice-Play - meaning get the kids playing right away at practice and let them learn by playing. Seems like a good idea to have them play more and gain some creativity. Trouble I see, is what we really need is to hold training sessions and then let them play on their own the other days of the week.

Here is one link I like for ball touches: http://www.progressivesoccertraining.com/faster-feet/

Thanks. I see what you mean about them getting bored with drills. I also dislike scrimmages which seem to devolve into a couple kids dominating everything and the others chasing them around. I think maybe some mini games mixed in with drills might find the right balance.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

goodness gracious Joe Corona

[Transmogrified Tiger]

[shnsajax]

I don’t think I will ever love another America player more than Deuce.

[wolf stansson]

I don’t think I will ever love another America player more than Deuce.

Same.

[Banedon]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/90minutes ... story.html

The Chicago Fire have a new television broadcasting home.

ESPN+ has signed on to be the exclusive broadcaster of the Fire’s 27 non-national games after signing a three-year contract, leaving NBC Sports Chicago (formerly CSN Chicago) and cable television entirely, the club announced Friday.

Games will only be available -in English and Spanish- through ESPN’s new streaming service. All Fire games will be available for free until the new service launches sometime this spring.

ESPN+ will require a $4.99 monthly subscription after its launch, which is not included in cable or satellite TV packages.

[wolf stansson]

3 assists in 120 minutes for Pulisic. He looked great this weekend. Form no longer seems to be a problem.