One Door Closes, Another Opens

Written By:YAEL AVERBUCH
Article from: http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com
Exact Link Here 

Our intrepid blogger was not named to the United States roster, which was announced Monday, for this summer’s Women’s World Cup in Germany. She nevertheless filed this assessment.

“It’s interesting to contemplate how our lives build to these special, pivotal moments — the moments we dream of, work toward, and emphasize so heavily. But, in truth, the bulk of our lives are in the in-between time, the waiting. The ‘off moments,’ so to speak. The special moments are only minor reference points along the way. … I don’t play this sport for the moment of glory. And I think the people who do are missing out. Yes, I love the roar of the crowd, the championship game and the thrill of performing when it really matters — but I love the preparation — the process — equally as much.”

ON THE ROAD TO BUFFALO — The above passage is from a speech I gave in January 2010. My journey has been full of these reference points. But sprinkled among many wonderful, exhilarating moments, has been my fair share of disappointments.

When Pia [Coach Sundhage] said to me, “You are not on the roster for the World Cup team,” my heart dropped momentarily. In the minutes after, reality sank in. I scanned my memory in search of anything I could have done better or differently. I felt angry, sad, embarrassed.

I had poured my heart and soul into a goal that I didn’t achieve. In my journal, “Germany 2011” is written in big letters and in multiple places. So, yes, I felt all of the emotions that come along with failure (the day I don’t feel that way is the day I’ll know that I should no longer play competitive sports). But then I opened my journal to a fresh page and wrote: “Olympics 2012.”

Conquering my fear of failure has been a monumental step in my development as a person and an athlete. Actually, maybe no one really ever conquers the fear of failure. Maybe it’s all about reframing one’s definitions of success and failure. How can I ever truly fail if I do my very best? This process has led to significant growth for me as a player, and I feel very proud of what I offer on the field. The only way I could have failed is to not have grown along the way.

I don’t mean to gloss over the disappointment I feel, or in any way diminish the great accomplishment of those players who have made the roster. But my reasonable side continually reminds me that this is just another one of those moments — a blip on the radar screen that maps my unique path. Playing in a Women’s World Cup is one of my ultimate goals, yet doing so will make me no greater of a player. Likewise, not being in Germany this summer makes me no less of one.

So, as this chapter of my journey ends, another one begins. I am heading up to Buffalo to join my W.P.S. team, the Western New York Flash. I’ll have the opportunity to train and play alongside some of the greatest female players in the world (Marta and Christine Sinclair, among others). As the door to one opportunity closed for me, another one opens. The only way I could possibly fail at this point is to focus so much on the past as to miss out on what presents itself on the road ahead.

Midfielder Yael Averbuch, a Montclair, N.J., native by way of the University of North Carolina, will be contributing to the Goal blog during the W.P.S. season and during the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany later this year.

I'm a romantic, says Xavi, heartbeat of Barcelona and Spain

Article Written by Sid Lowe

The Guardian, Fri 11 Feb 2011 08.00 GMT
Exact Link: http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/feb/11/xavi-barcelona-spain-interview?cat=football&type=article

Many have described Barcelona's 5-0 win over Real Madrid last November as the greatest performance ever. Even Wayne Rooney admits that he stood up in his living room and started applauding.

[Xavi's face lights up]. Yeah? Really? Rooney? That makes me proud. Rooney, wow! Rooney is extraordinary, he could play for Barcelona. And before people imagine headlines like "Xavi says Rooney to join Barcelona" – although, I'd love him to! – what I mean is that he's our kind of player. That game was wonderful, the best I've played. The feeling of superiority was incredible – and against Real Madrid! They didn't touch the ball. Madre mía, what a match! In the dressing room, we gave ourselves a standing ovation.

You mention Barcelona's dominance of possession. It's tempting to conclude that we've never seen a team with an identity – for better or worse – as clear as the current Barcelona and Spain teams. It's all about possession. And that's your identity – one that seems to have become dominant.

It's good that the reference point for world football right now is Barcelona, that it's Spain. Not because it's ours but because of what it is. Because it's an attacking football, it's not speculative, we don't wait. You pressure, you want possession, you want to attack. Some teams can't or don't pass the ball. What are you playing for? What's the point? That's not football. Combine, pass, play. That's football – for me, at least. For coaches, like, I don't know, [Javier] Clemente or [Fabio] Capello, there's another type of football. But it's good that Barcelona's style is now a model, not that.

But some claimed Spain were boring at the World Cup. You kept winning 1-0.

That's upside down. It's not that we were boring, it is the other team that was. What did Holland look for? Penalties. Or [Arjen] Robben on the break. Bam, bam, bam. Of course we were boring – the opposition made it that way. Paraguay? What did they do? Built a spectacularly good defensive system and waited for chances – from dead balls. Up it goes, rebound, loose ball. It's harder than people realise when you've got a guy behind you who's two metres tall and right on top of you.

So, what's the solution?

Think quickly, look for spaces. That's what I do: look for spaces. All day. I'm always looking. All day, all day. [Xavi starts gesturing as if he is looking around, swinging his head]. Here? No. There? No. People who haven't played don't always realise how hard that is. Space, space, space. It's like being on the PlayStation. I think shit, the defender's here, play it there. I see the space and pass. That's what I do.

That's at the heart of the Barcelona model and runs all the way through the club, doesn't it? When you beat Madrid, eight of the starting XI were youth-team products and all three finalists in this year's Ballon d'Or were too – Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta and you.

Some youth academies worry about winning, we worry about education. You see a kid who lifts his head up, who plays the pass first time, pum, and you think, 'Yep, he'll do.' Bring him in, coach him. Our model was imposed by [Johan] Cruyff; it's an Ajax model. It's all aboutrondos [piggy in the middle]. Rondo, rondo, rondo. Every. Single. Day. It's the best exercise there is. You learn responsibility and not to lose the ball. If you lose the ball, you go in the middle. Pum-pum-pum-pum, always one touch. If you go in the middle, it's humiliating, the rest applaud and laugh at you.

Your Barcelona team-mate Dani Alves said that you don't play to the run, you make the run by obliging team-mates to move into certain areas. "Xavi," he said, "plays in the future."

They make it easy. My football is passing but, wow, if I have Dani, Iniesta, Pedro, [David] Villa … there are so many options. Sometimes, I even think to myself: man, so-and-so is going to get annoyed because I've played three passes and haven't given him the ball yet. I'd better give the next one to Dani because he's gone up the wing three times. When Leo [Messi] doesn't get involved, it's like he gets annoyed … and the next pass is for him.

You're talking about style over success but not only can they go together, they have to go together, don't they? Arsenal play great football, Arsène Wenger is a hugely respected coach, but they've not won anything for years. Could that happen at Barcelona?

Almost impossible. If you go two years without winning, everything has to change. But you change names, not identity. The philosophy can't be lost. Our fans wouldn't understand a team that sat back and played on the break. Sadly, people only look at teams through success. Now, success has validated our approach. I'm happy because, from a selfish point of view, six years ago I was extinct; footballers like me were in danger of dying out. It was all: two metres tall, powerful, in the middle, knockdowns, second balls, rebounds … but now I see Arsenal and Villarreal and they play like us.

Do you see yourself as a defender of the faith? An ideologue?

It was that or die. I'm a romantic. I like the fact that talent, technical ability, is valued above physical condition now. I'm glad that's the priority; if it wasn't, there wouldn't be the same spectacle. Football is played to win but our satisfaction is double. Other teams win and they're happy, but it's not the same. The identity is lacking. The result is an impostor in football. You can do things really, really well – last year we were better than Inter Milan – but did not win. There's something greater than the result, more lasting. A legacy. Inter won the Champions League but no one talks about them. People discovered me since Euro 2008, but I've been playing the same way for years. It is true, though, that I have grown in confidence and tranquillity. And that comes with success.

Has English football suffered because it embraces a different footballing culture?

It has changed; the style's a bit more technical. But before it was direct, it was about the second ball, the typical No9 was a Crouch or a Heskey and there was no football. Carragher, boom, up top; Terry, boom, up top. I think it's changing: Barry, Lampard, Gerrard, Carrick … they are players who treat the ball well. You see them now and think, Christ, they are trying to play.

Is Paul Scholes the English Xavi?

[Xavi interrupts, almost bursting with enthusiasm] Paul Scholes! A role model. For me – and I really mean this – he's the best central midfielder I've seen in the last 15, 20 years. I've spoken to Xabi Alonso about him. He's spectacular, he has it all: the last pass, goals, he's strong, he doesn't lose the ball, vision. If he'd been Spanish he might have been rated more highly. Players love him.

England seems to mistrust technical players.

It's a pity. Talent has to be the priority. Technical ability. Always, always. Sure, you can win without it but it's talent that makes the difference. Look at the teams: Juventus, who makes the difference? Krasic. Del Piero. Liverpool? Gerrard, or Torres before. Talento. Talento. When you look at players and ask yourself who's the best: talento. Cesc, Nasri, Ryan Giggs – that guy is a joy, incredible. Looking back, I loved John Barnes and Chris Waddle was buenísimo. [Open-mouthed, eyes gleaming] Le Tissier! Although their style was different I liked Roy Keane and Paul Ince together, too. That United team was great – my English team. If I'd gone anywhere, it would have been there.

In England do we overrate physical players? You mention Carragher, Terry …

Whoa! Wait! Be careful. They're fundamental. We've got Puyol. Technically he might not be the best but it's incredible the way he defends. Carragher and Terry are necessary, brilliant, but they have to adapt to technical football [not the other way round]. For me, that comes naturally – or for Messi, Iniesta or Rooney. Others have to work at it. For them it's harder to lift their head up and play a pass – but they have to.

But when a player is offered to a club, the first question is: "how tall is he?"

Have you seen [the Villarreal winger] Santi Cazorla? You think I'm small, he's up to here on me [Xavi signals his chest]. And yet he's brilliant. Messi is the same and he's the best player in the world. Maybe it's the culture, I don't know, but in England you're warriors. You watch Liverpool and Carragher wins the ball and boots it into the stands and the fans applaud. There's a roar! They'd never applaud that here. 

Next week you play Arsenal again in the Champions League last 16. Are they different? A kind of Barcelona-lite?

Arsenal are a great team. When I watch Arsenal, I see Barça. I see Cesc carry the game, Nasri, Arshavin. The difference between them and us is we have more players who think before they play, quicker. Education is the key. Players have had 10 or 12 years here. When you arrive at Barça the first thing they teach you is: think. Think, think, think. Quickly. [Xavi starts doing the actions, looking around himself.] Lift your head up, move, see, think. Look before you get the ball. If you're getting this pass, look to see if that guy is free. Pum. First time. Look at [Sergio] Busquets – the best midfielder there is playing one-touch. He doesn't need more. He controls, looks and passes in one touch. Some need two or three and, given how fast the game is, that's too slow. Alves, one touch. Iniesta, one touch. Messi, one touch. Piqué, one touch. Busi [Busquets], me … seven or eight players with one touch. Fast. In fact, [the youth coach] Charly [Rexach] always used to say: a mig toc. Half a touch.

Arsenal-Barcelona always provokes questions about Cesc Fábregas's future.

If I'd ever gone to another club, I'd have been thinking about Barcelona – the link is strong. The same is happening to him. But now there's a problem: now he's expensive. But I think that a footballer ends up playing where he wants. He has to end up here.

That's not what Arsenal fans want to hear and some have accused Barcelona players, you included, of stirring trouble. Last summer there were so many remarks supposedly coming out of Barcelona …

Really? I hardly spoke then. I imagine they wouldn't have liked that. [Xavi pauses, adding quietly, almost shamefacedly] You know, often footballers don't think. We're selfish, we don't realise. I also say it because I'm thinking of Cesc. He wants to come here. Barcelona has always been his dream. But of course he's Arsenal's captain, the standard bearer, a leader. This situation is a putada [bummer] for him. He's at a club that plays his style with Wenger who has treated him well, taught him, raised him. Cesc respects him. If he'd been at, say, Blackburn it might have been easier to leave. Look, the truth is: I want him to come here. Of course. Barcelona have a very clear style and not many footballers fit. It's not easy. But Cesc fits it perfectly.

Would he replace you, though?

I don't see new players as a threat; I don't say "this is my patch". I'm more: "bring them here, let them play". The more talent in the middle, the better. Four or five years ago [people said] me and Iniesta couldn't play together. We can't play together? Look how that one turned out.

Last year, you beat Arsenal comfortably …

Yes, but this year they're much better. I think it's a disadvantage for us that we played last year. They had [too] much respect for us. It was as if they let us have the ball; we always had it, home and away. The game in London could have been a 4-0 we dominated so much – but it finished 2-2. This year will be different.

What was your reaction to the draw?

I was happy. I like the fact that we'll see a great game. Arsenal aren't the kind of team that come to try to putear you [piss you off, break up the game, destroy the match]. If it was Chelsea, you might think Madre mía, they're going to leave the initiative to you, wait deep, close up, play on the break with Drogba and Malouda. But, no, I think Arsenal will want the ball. There will be more of a game. As a fan I'd definitely pay for a ticket to see this game. Manchester United or Chelsea would play in a more speculative way. They would leave us the ball. Arsenal won't.

Does English football attract you? Spanish players always return from there raving about it.

It's incredible. Una pasada. Now that is football. England really is the birthplace, the heart and soul of football. If Barcelona had Liverpool's fans, or Arsenal's, or United's, we'd have won 20 Champions Leagues, hahaha! OK, so that's an exaggeration but I've never seen anything like it. We won 3-1 at Liverpool once and we were both applauded off the pitch. In England, footballers are respected more, the game is more noble, there's less cheating. Every Spaniard who goes loves it – and comes back a better player. If I had ever left it would have been to England.

The final is at Wembley, which makes it even more special for Barcelona, doesn't it? Last year it was special because it was at the Bernabéu but Wembley is the scene of the Dream Team's one European Cup. And this feels like a year in which you are being constantly compared to them …

In 1992, I was 12 and my brothers went but my parents wouldn't let me. I was in tears but it made no difference. I'd love to play at Wembley. It's special for Barça – and for everyone in football. Last year was more morbosa [about the rivalry with Real Madrid, almost a little dirty, titillating]. This year is more nostalgic, more classic. And I'm more of a nostalgic. Me? I'm a romantic.

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The Question: Are Barcelona reinventing the W-W formation?

Article from The Guardian
Author: Jonathan Wilson
Exact Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/oct/26/the-question-barcelona-reinventing-w-w 

To counter teams who sit deep, Barça push both full-backs up the pitch – echoing the 2-3-2-3 formation of the 1930s

Barcelona players celebrate yet another goal. Photograph: Manu Fernandez/AP

Football is a holistic game. Advance a player here and you must retreat a player there. Give one player more attacking responsibility and you must give another increased defensive duties. As three at the back has become outmoded as a balanced or attacking formation – though not as a defensive formation – by the boom in lone-striker systems, coaches have had to address the problem of how to incorporate attacking full-backs without the loss of defensive cover.

For clubs who use inverted wingers, as Barcelona do, the issue is particularly significant. For them, the attacking full-back provides not merely auxiliary attacking width but is the basic source of width as the wide forwards turn infield. The absence of an Argentinian Dani Alves figure in part explains why Lionel Messi has been less successful at national level than at club level. For Barcelona, as he turns inside off the right flank, Alves streaks outside him, and the opposing full-back cannot simply step inside and force Messi to try to use his weaker right foot. Do that, and Messi nudges it on to Alves. So the full-back tries to cover both options, and Messi then has time and space to inflict damage with his left foot.

It is the same if Pedro plays on the right flank, and the same when David Villa plays on the left. Barcelona's wide forwards are always looking to cut inside to exploit the space available on the diagonal, and that is facilitated if they have overlapping full-backs. Traditionally, if one full-back pushed forwards the other would sit, shuffling across to leave what was effectively a back three.

Barcelona, though, often have both full-backs pushed high, a risky strategy necessitated by how frequently they come up against sides who sit deep against them. With width on both sides they can switch the play quickly from one flank to the other, and turn even a massed defence. They still, though, need cover in case the opponent breaks, and so Sergio Busquets sits in, becoming in effect a third centre-back.

That, of course, is not especially new. Most sides who have used a diamond in midfield have done something similar. At Shakhtar Donetsk, before they switched to a 4-2-3-1, Dario Srna and Razvan Rat were liberated by Mariusz Lewandowski dropping very deep in midfield. At Chelsea, Luiz Felipe Scolari would often, when sketching out his team shape, include Mikel John Obi as a third centre-back. And Barcelona themselves had Yaya Touré dropping back to play as a centre-back on their run to the Champions League trophy in 2008-09.

What is different is the degree. It is not just Barcelona. I first became aware of the trend watching Mexico play England in a pre-World Cup friendly. Trying to note down the Mexican formation, I had them as four at the back, then three, then four, then three, and I realised it was neither and both, switching from 4-3-3 to 3-4-3, as it did during the World Cup.

Ricardo Osorio and Francisco Rodríguez sat deep as the two centre-backs, with Rafael Márquez operating almost as an old-fashioned (by which I mean pre-second world war) centre-half just in front of them. Paul Aguilar and Carlos Salcido were attacking full-backs, so the defence was effectively split into two lines, a two and a three. Efraín Juárez and Gerardo Torrado sat in central midfield, behind a front three of Giovani dos Santos, Guillermo Franco and Carlos Vela. The most accurate way of denoting the formation, in fact, would be 2-3-2-3: the shape, in other words, was the W-W with which Vittorio Pozzo's Italy won the World Cup in 1934 and 1938.

Of the same species as Pozzo

Pozzo first latched on to football while studying the manufacture of wool in Bradford in the first decade of the last century. He would travel all around Yorkshire and Lancashire watching games, eventually becoming a fan of Manchester United and, in particular, their fabled half-back line of Dick Duckworth, Charlie Roberts and Alec Bell. All centre-halves, he thought, should be like Roberts, capable of long, sweeping passes out to the wings. It was a belief he held fundamental and led to his decision, having been reappointed manager of the Italy national team in 1924, immediately to drop Fulvio Bernardini, an idol of the Roman crowds, because he was a 'carrier' rather than a 'dispatcher'.

As a result, Pozzo abhorred the W-M formation that his friend Herbert Chapman, the manager of Arsenal, developed after the change in the offside law in 1925, in which the centre-half – in Arsenal's case Herbie Roberts – became a stopper, an 'overcoat' for the opposing centre-forward. He did, though, recognise that in the new reality the centre-half had to take on some defensive responsibilities.

Pozzo found the perfect player for the role in Luisito Monti. He had played for Argentina in the 1930 World Cup but, after joining Juventus in 1931, became one of theoriundi – those South American players who, thanks to Italian heritage, qualified to play for their adopted country. Already 30 when he signed, Monti was overweight and, even after a month of solitary training, was not quick. He was, though, fit and became known as Doble ancho (Double wide) for his capacity to cover the ground.

Monti became a centro mediano (halfway house) – not quite Charlie Roberts but not Herbie Roberts either. He would drop when the other team had possession and mark the opposing centre-forward, but would advance and become an attacking fulcrum when his side had the ball. Although he was not a third back, he played deeper than a traditional centre-half and so the two inside-forwards retreated to support the wing-halves. Italy's shape became a 2-3-2-3, the W-W. At the time it seemed, as the journalist Mario Zappa put it in La Gazzetta della Sport, "a model of play that is the synthesis of the best elements of all the most admired systems", something borne out by Italy's success.

Footfalls echo in the memory

To acknowledge that modern football's shape at times resembles the 1930s, though, is not to repeat Qohelet, the author of Ecclesiastes, and lament the futility of a world without novelty: "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, 'Look! This is something new'? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time." Nor is it to argue that tactics are somehow cyclical, as many bewilderingly do.

Rather it is to acknowledge that fragments and echoes of the past still flicker, reinvented and reinterpreted for the modern age. Like Mexico, Barcelona's shape, at least when they use only one midfield holder, seems to ape that of Pozzo's Italy. Those who defend three at the back argue that, to prevent the side having two spare men when facing a single-striker system, one of the centre-backs can step into midfield, to which the response is few defenders are good enough technically to do that, and why not just field an additional midfielder anyway? What Barcelona and Mexico have done is approach the problem the opposite way round, using a holding midfielder as an additional centre-back rather than a centre-back as an additional midfielder.

But the style of football is very different. It is not just that modern football is far quicker than that of the 30s. Barcelona press relentlessly when out of possession, a means of defending that was not developed until a quarter of a century after Pozzo's second World Cup. In the opening 20 minutes at the Emirates last season when Barcelona overwhelmed Arsenal, the major difference between the sides lay not in technique but in the discipline of their pressing.

Inverted wingers, similarly, would have been alien to Pozzo: Enrique Guaita and Raimundo Orsi started wide and stayed wide, looking to reach the byline and sling crosses in. Angelo Schiavio was a fixed point as a centre-forward – no dropping deep or pulling wide for him. The two wing-halves, Attilio Ferraris and Luigi Bertolini, would have been too concerned with negating the opposing inside-forwards to press forward and overlap.

Nonetheless, the advantages of the W-W for a side that want to retain possession, the interlocking triangles offering simple passing options, remain the same. Having Busquets, the modern-day Monti, drop between Carles Puyol and Gerard Piqué is not just a defensive move; it also makes it easier for Barcelona to build from the back. Against a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1, Busquets can be picked up by a deeper-lying centre-forward or the central player in the trident, which can interrupt Barcelona's rhythm (just as sides realised after Kevin Keegan had deployed Antoine Sibierski to do the job, that – counterintuitively – Chelsea could be upset by marking Claude Makélelé); pull Busquets deeper, though, and he has more space to initiate attacks.

There is a wider point here, which relates to notation. Looking at reports from the early 70s, it seems bizarre to modern eyes that teams were still listed as though they played a 2-3-5, which had been dead for the best part of 70 years. Yet that, presumably, was still how journalists and their readers thought. Future generations may equally look at our way of recording formations and wonder how we ever thought it logical that a team playing "a back four" could feature fewer defensive players than a team playing "a back three".

We understand that full-backs attack and that in a back four the two centre-backs will almost invariably play deeper than their full-backs, but the formation as we note it does not record that. Barcelona tend to play a 4-1-2-3 or a 4-2-1-3, according to our system of notation; heat maps of average position, though, show it as a 2-3-2-3. Barcelona, like Mexico, play a W-W, but not as Pozzo knew it.

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Do Your Players Truly Trust You?

By Randy Hanson
From: http://www.soundsoccer.com/members/219.cfm 

Here's the setting.  I asked my players a simple question with these parameters. 

"What does it take for you to trust your coach?" List no more than 5 things but no less than 3 and put in your priority order.

The players were college women, ages 18-21 and all answers were anonymous.

Luckily, I didn't have to stop there.  I also lead an organization at our university that consists of three representatives from all sports and both genders.  That means males and females in sports like American Football, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, swimming, track and more.  23 separate teams.  I asked them the same question under the same conditions.  They are ages 18-22.

Before I reveal the findings, I want to bring up a point.  The opposite of trust is suspicion.  If you raise suspicion in key areas that players care about, your teams experience will not be what it could be and it will also affect the results you are able to achieve.  Players will have doubt, hold some commitment and effort in reserve and perhaps even blame others for their lack of results.  It can create a very toxic culture.

So here are the results ...

THE COLLEGE TEAM

As I filtered through the data, 5 major things rose to the top.  I created a "Pyramid of Trust" to illustrate their priorities.

What does it take for you to trust your coach?

1.  Character

Honesty, integrity, fairness, admitting own mistakes, follow-through and how the coach represents the team. "The coach does what they say they will do".

2.  Competence

Knowledgeable, intelligent, understands different player personalities and has a passion for teaching. "The coach knows what they are doing".

3. Communication

Approachable, respectful, constructive, encouraging and open to input. "The coach is someone I can talk to".

4.  Caring and Committed

Works hard, passion for soccer, cares about us as people and has fun.  "The coach cares about me, the team, our sport and us enjoying the experience".

5.  Belief

Sees potential in me and sees potential in each player on the team.  "Whether I am a starter or reserve, the coach believes in my abilities and my potential to improve".

THE "ALL-SPORTS" GROUP

Because there were many responses, I was able to get the major ideas they listed down to eight. 

"What does it take for you to trust your coach?"

1. Interest and Belief In Me
2. Knowledge of the Sport
3. Respect
4. Dependable, Consistent Behavior
5. A Track Record of Success
6. Commitment and Dedication
7. Love and Passion for the Sport
8. A Fun, Humorous Personality

THE BIG IDEAS

As I went through all the data from both groups, there are two main things coaches should be thinking about, in this priority order:

1. People
2. The Sport

As you are concentrating on your people and sport, there are 3 areas you will constantly be evaluated in regarding them: 

How Much You Care

It is not just how much you care about individuals, but also how much you care about your own actions, your sport and pursuing excellence through all.

What You Know

Knowledge of your sport is very important but so also is continuing to improve as a coach and showing a knowledge of teaching and working well with people.

How You Treat People

Apparently you as coach are being evaluated at all times as to how you are treating others.  Words like respectful, approachable, constructive, encouraging, consistent behavior and even having a sense of humor were used often.

It is not only how you treat your players but how you represent them to all others.

The takeaway for me is that the clarity and consistency of the message that the coach puts people first and that, the way they communicate to individuals and treat others is constantly being monitered in regards to trust.

Please know that a team that has high trust in the coach and each other will create a fully committed, aligned team with positive energy and people, clear and effortless communication, inspiring work, a winning culture, better results and a positive experience for all.

Best of luck to you and your team!

Please feel free to leave comments below or in the Discussion Forum.

U17 So Cal Blues set new standard of success

Article From Top Drawer Soccer

Article Written By Amrit Naresh, ESNN

Exact Link: http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer/club-soccer-archives/nid-14806/U17-So-Cal-Blues-set-new-standard-of-success

If there is no rest for the weary, there's even less for the well-off. 

The U17 So Cal Blues girls proved as much this summer, walking a tightrope schedule to pull off one of the most remarkable seasons in U.S. Youth Soccer history - winning the National Championship and the Surf Cup title in the same year. 

Their incredible journey started at the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championship in July. After fighting tooth and nail to win the national title, coach Randy Dodge gave his team a chance to get some well-deserved rest. 

But less than one week later, the Blues were back at work.

Harsh as it might seem, it was all Dodge could do. A mere six days after the confetti fell in Kansas City, the Blues had a date at the Surf Cup in San Diego, one of the most coveted invites in the club circuit. 

So instead of celebrating and allowing the catharsis of victory set in, the Blues charged into San Diego, won the Surf Cup, and completed a season for the ages.

After becoming just the third team ever to win a national title and Surf Cup the same year, Dodge credited chemistry and continuity for the Blues' summer success. 

"This group has been together for a long time," he said, "and it's our fantastic chemistry that sets us apart. After Nationals the girls needed some rest, so we gave them the week off and then hit the ground running a few days later when the Surf Cup began. That's impossible to do without chemistry. That's why we were able to accomplish something pretty special this summer." 

Star midfielder and Stanford-commit Haley Rosen, agreed.

"The chemistry on the team really pulled us through in the end," she said. "There were times this season when each of us had our individual struggles, but we never collapsed as a team, and we were always able to pull each other back up. We had success this year because we came together - and together, we're stronger than anything."

While the Blues are no strangers to the Surf Cup - 2010 marked their fourth straight Surf Cup championship - the national title was uncharted territory. 

"Nationals was a huge deal for us," said Rosen. "We'd been there three times - our first time, we lost in the finals [to Dallas Texans] - so we had a taste, but we were hungry for more. Winning Nationals this year was, I think, the biggest accomplishment in all of our lives. And then to come back and win Surf Cup on tired legs, it showed our character as a team. Winning a tournament is always a great accomplishment, but winning Nationals and Surf Cup in succession was obviously incredibly sweet."

Now, the Blues face the only task tougher than winning a national championship: defending it. 

But with players like Rosen, Lauren Bohaboy (Notre Dame), Kimberly Marshall (Wake Forest),Kaitlin Dickmann (California) and Kaylie Davidson running the show, coach Dodge knows his team is up for the challenge. 

"This group has great veteran leadership, and they don't get the luxury of cruising," he said. "They know every practice, every game we expect the best out of them They're a humble, hard-working, extremely competitive group. 

"As far as the pressure of defending a title, we already had a bull's eye on our back, so we're used to the pressure. Our mindset won't change at all. If the ball rolls our way, it rolls our way - and this year we'll work to make sure it does more than it doesn't." 
 
And maybe even get a day or two of rest along the way.

There's no fluff with Bob Bradley

By Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/5263704/ce/us/bob-bradley-leads-us-men-national-team-world-cup-discipline-intelligence?cc=5901&ver=us

PHILADELPHIA -- Bob Bradley leans forward on a cushy couch at a posh downtown hotel, his elbows on his knees, head resting on his closed fists. His mind races, his body sits still. He's been this way for almost 30 seconds since the question was asked, not saying a word, not saying a thing. Just sitting there.

It was a simple enough question, really. What don't you like about yourself? We all have things we don't like. Come up with something, spit it out and let's move on. But that's not Bob Bradley.

The man who will be pushing the buttons and pulling the strings when the U.S. men's national team takes the field for the 2010 World Cup on Saturday against England (2:30 p.m. ET, ABC) does not speak without thinking. Before any word comes out of his mouth it is internally scrutinized, analyzed and dissected.

Ask him something probing about himself and Bradley won't ramble that he is too competitive or intense. Instead, silence fills the room. Thirty seconds. A minute. Ninety seconds. Two minutes.

Finally.

"Growing up," he says, "things …"

He stops. Twenty-eight more seconds go by.

"Umm," he continues. "Probably that I could …"

He stops again.

He is this way with everything in life. Every movement, action, decision -- it is all scripted, all with a purpose. With Bradley, there is no fluff. His personality mirrors his chiseled face. There are no extra chins, no puffy cheeks. The veins bulging on the side of his temples carry blood to and from the brain. The piercing blue eyes recessed in his head slice through any and all incoming B.S. And every single neuron that fires does so with one purpose: To simply be the best. At everything.

He doesn't smoke, doesn't drink and doesn't put unhealthy food in his body. His handshake is firm, his stare ultra-serious. He refers to his brutally honest one-on-one meetings with players not as face-to-face but rather man-to-man. Intense, focused, driven. Yes. All of it. It's as if he graduated from West Point.

"He strikes people like a force of nature," says Princeton religion professor Jeffrey Stout, who met Bradley at the Ivy League school more than three decades ago. "There are other people who care about the truth, who are intense, who understand what it means to be a man and build a team. There are other people who care about their players and their families and the communities in which they live.

"But I can't think of anybody who cares as relentlessly and passionately as he does. There just aren't many people like him."

Maybe that's why the U.S. coach struggles to describe something he doesn't like about himself. Seventeen more seconds have elapsed since the last attempt. This time, Bradley opens his mouth, begins to speak and doesn't stop. He talks about the way he responds when people cross him. In his black-and-white world, he says, it's very simple. They're done. So what doesn't he like about himself? The man who exudes excellence says he wishes he could be more forgiving of those who fall short.

"That's the main thing," he says. "I can be very tough. And there are times when if a guy can't quite handle it, there are times where I feel a bit bad about that. I don't like myself in those moments. I wish I had a better way sometimes. But that's the way it is."

The revelation is a rare insight into a man who seldom opens up to the outside world. He doesn't care what people think. He doesn't care if those on the outside know or understand what happens on the inside. There's a circle of trust. The inside, he protects. The outside, he rejects.

And telling his story does nothing to help his team's chances at the largest sporting event in the world. If anything, throwing the spotlight on his shiny dome potentially hurts the team-first mentality he's spent the past three years trying to build.

So yes, Bob Bradley should stop reading. He's not going to like this.

Intensely driven

In June 2009, on a bright, muggy morning in Central America, the U.S. team prepares for its World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica. At the team hotel, some players go for a swim. Others take a nap or watch movies. But not the head coach. He's here, in the hotel gym, his shoes rhythmically pounding on a speeding treadmill with the drive of someone training for a marathon.

Push-ups, crunches and a series of Pilates exercises -- they are still to come. For now, Bob Bradley runs -- head up, shoulders level, eyes staring through the glass wall before him. The room fills with drive, determination. As the son of a man who earned a purple heart in Korea, that's all Bradley knows.

In college, friends say, he fought the common cold not by staying in bed or popping over-the-counter medicine but by working out. The morning after he was fired as manager of the MLS's New York Metro Stars (now Red Bulls) in 2006, he did the same -- first cleaning his office, then heading to the team gym to take out his frustration by pedaling on an Exercycle.

His sophomore year at Princeton, after suffering a gruesome compound fracture of his ankle, he ignored the fear that his career was over and returned the next season. He scored four goals in his first game.

"If the doctors told him to rehab for an hour, he'd do an hour and a half," says Mark Mulert, Bradley's college roommate and teammate. "If they told him to walk, he'd run. If they told him it would take six weeks until the cast came off, he would make sure it only took four.

"He's relentless. Once he decides he's going to do something, it's complete and utter over-the-top dedication. And he won't stop."

Back in 2006, when U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati announced Bradley would replace Bruce Arena, the winningest men's coach in U.S. soccer history, the decision was greeted with somewhat of a yawn. Everyone -- Gulati included -- had salivated over the possibility of Germany's Jurgen Klinsmann leading the Yanks. Not until those negotiations crumbled did Gulati name Bradley interim coach. And even then, he was viewed as nothing more than a stop gap until a headline-grabbing international name could be found.

Bradley responded by going undefeated in his first 11 matches, winning the 2007 Gold Cup and giving Gulati no choice but to ditch the interim tag. Last summer, the U.S. finished second at the Confederations Cup, the highest finish ever for a U.S. side in a major FIFA tournament. And they again qualified for the World Cup by finishing first in the CONCACAF region.

"When we're in camp together this appears like a 24-7 job for Bob," Landon Donovan says. "Aside from sleeping, he's working on what he needs to do to make us successful that week, that camp, that trip, that tournament, whatever. He cares a lot about what he does. And he cares about this team being successful."

Yet Bradley has more than his share of critics. They say he lacks passion. They see his stoic expression on the sidelines and wonder if it is blood or motor oil running through his veins. They wonder why he always wears a U.S. soccer track suit and not business attire on the sideline. He has been criticized for everything from favoring his son Michael, who starts for the team, to not including enough Hispanics on the roster. Both are somewhat laughable. Bradley is "an absolute staple" of the squad, according to Donovan, and both Jose Francisco Torres and Hercules Gomez are potential starters in South Africa.

But the stories that would help people understand Bradley, the tales that would peel back the layers and give insight into who this man is and why he does what he does are the same stories he doesn't want told. 

In fact, ask any of the current members of the U.S. men's national team to share a funny story or personal anecdote about their head coach and they will all give you the same answer. "I should probably check with Bob first."

"He cares about winning games and he cares about his players. That's it," says Nick DiBenedetto, who worked with Bradley as the public relations director for the MLS Chicago Fire and the Metro Stars. "There's no style points. As long as his team scores one more goal than the other team, that's what he cares about. Not winning a popularity contest." 

Born for this

To understand how Bradley got here, to the most important soccer coaching job in the country, you have to understand where he came from. 

Part of the answer lies in Montclair, N.J., and the playgrounds of the Essex Falls Elementary School, where he and his two younger brothers spent their childhood listening for the cowbell that meant it was time to come home. Part of the answer lies at Princeton, where Bradley played baseball and soccer, graduated with honors and spent 11 years as head coach. And part of the answer lies in coaching stints at Ohio University and the University of Virginia as well as MLS jobs with D.C. United, the Fire, Metro Stars and Chivas USA.

But to understand why Bradley became the man who will lead the United States onto the field Saturday, you have to go back to the ice rinks of northern New Jersey where, in 1967, a 9-year-old boy first revealed he was a bit different than his peers.

All three Bradley boys were athletic. Jeff now writes for ESPN The Magazine. Scott was the star who eventually spent nine years as a major league catcher. On the ice, Scott was the best skater, the best shooter and the one who could make the crowd go "Oooooooh."

But big brother Bob was the one who scored goals.

"Every game I'd have five or six breakaways and I'd be lucky if I scored once," Scott says. "And he would find himself in the right spot four different times and have a hat trick. It drove me crazy. I remember wondering, 'How the hell is he scoring all these goals?'

"But looking back, that was the beginning of his ability to analyze games and slow things down in his mind. He was very aware that there were things more important than being 100 percent the best athlete. And he wasn't even 10 years old."

Even then, Bob Bradley knew that what took place from the neck up was often as important as the skills from the neck down. He used that understanding on the baseball field, where the four-year high school letterman tinkered with his batting stance more than Cal Ripken Jr. And on the tennis courts, where he would watch Bjorn Borg on television then replicate Borg's stroke on the courts across the street. It carried over to the golf course, where a lethal pitching wedge still helps Bradley shoot in the mid-80s despite playing only a few rounds a year.

"While the rest of us are hitting some half shot that we're not good enough to hit," Scott says, "he's hitting a 5-wood off the tee because he wants to be at 120 yards. He's literally counting back on every hole so he can take out his pitching wedge and, from 120 yards nine times out of 10, put it next to the hole."

And of course it carried over to the soccer field, where Bradley led the Tigers in scoring his senior year by perfecting the art of being in the right place at the right time.

After graduating from Princeton, Bradley took a coveted position in Procter & Gamble's executive training program. Each morning, he would take his company car, a Ford Fairmont, fill it with charts, spreadsheets and Duncan Hines cookie mix and visit area grocery stores peddling product.

He hated it. Still living at home, he would lie in bed at night and confess his frustrations to Scott, with whom he shared a room.

"He was miserable. We would sit there and he would tell me over and over, 'This is God awful. This is God awful. I have to figure out what I'm going to do with my life,'" Scott said.

Bradley entered the training program because he had loans to pay and parents to please. But after that opportunity faded and frustration built, he enrolled in the sports administration program at Ohio University. As it happened, the Bobcats needed a soccer coach. At 22, Bradley took control of a Division I program.

"There are some guys who go to Princeton and they know what they want to do," Bradley says. "Law school, the financial sector, whatever. But in some cases, there are those of us who graduate and feel like, 'OK, where am I going?' But it's only when you get out of there that you start to come to grips with what's next. And that's when you find your answer."

Bradley's team-building

Spend enough time with Bradley and inevitably, at some point, he'll sell himself short. He'll make fun of his receding hairline and his aging body. He'll tell you how he wasn't a talented athlete. Or he isn't that smart -- especially not for a man from the Ivy League.

Stout, the religion professor who has taught at Princeton for 25 years and just earned the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching, says he considers Bradley one of the smartest people he's ever met at the institution. And one of its best teachers.

"And I don't know how often that can be said about a member of a coaching staff," Stout said. "This is Princeton. This place is full of brilliant people. But Bob is near the top."

The reasons go beyond grades, test scores or Bradley's impressive memory. ("He could tell you every goal scored for or against us for all four years of college," college roommate Mulert says.) Instead, it's Bradley's ability to accurately read people -- as well as their thoughts, needs, wants and desires -- in a frighteningly short period of time. And then his ability to apply that knowledge to help people reach their ultimate potential. 

"It's pretty simple," says Jimmy Barlow, who played for Bradley at Princeton and now coaches the Tigers as well as the U.S. Under-15 team. "He knows what you're thinking, what you're feeling before you even do. He will say things, and you just go, 'Oh yeah, you're right.'"

Bradley communicates to his players through brutal honesty. Maybe it's putting his arm around Jozy Altidore after a training session and explaining he needs more from the team's starting forward. Or confronting Clint Dempseyduring the early rounds of the Confederations Cup and demanding answers about the midfielder's erratic play. Or talking to Landon Donovan on the flight home from Honduras after qualifying last October and explaining to Donovan that yes, the regulars would, in fact, be playing in the final qualifying match against Costa Rica. Even though the Americans were already in the World Cup, there was still work to be done, goals to achieve. Like winning the CONCACAF group.

"He's a realist," says DaMarcus Beasley, who has known Bradley since he was 16. "As a player, you know exactly what he wants. He's straightforward. He doesn't beat around the bush. And because of that, he gets the absolute best out of his players."

Bradley's style is influenced by a little bit of seemingly every great coach. In 1980, he and his college roommates sneaked in to the Olympic hockey center to watch Herb Brooks coach the U.S. team to a 5-1 victory against Norway. As a soccer assistant at Virginia, he could overhear the conversations in the visiting basketball team's locker room, giving him a unique chance to learn the styles of coaches such as Dean Smith, and Jim Valvano, Lefty Driesell and Mike Krzyzewski. At Virginia, he was surrounded by coaches such as Geno Auriemma, Dave Odom, Seth Greenberg and Tom O'Brien.

He's read coaching books by Sir Alex Ferguson and Vince Lombardi. Before the team gathered for its pre-World Cup training camp, he visited with Krzyzewski. And when it came time to ask someone to speak to the team before it left for South Africa, he chose a man whose career defined greatness, Bill Russell.

"The essence of this whole thing is trying to become a good team," Bradley says. "And becoming a good team is hard work. That's the reason most teams don't become good. It requires the ability to have tough conversations, real communication. It requires an honest sense of roles and the ability for a team to come together, grow and see what's important."

The foundation of Bradley's team-first, me-last coaching philosophies were hatched in the front seat of a Volkswagen Rabbit with his mentor, former national team coach and current Seton Hall coach Manny Schellscheidt. The two still talk regularly, and even now their discussions are more about the philosophy and psychology of coaching than X's and O's. Their favorite phrase is "Who gets it?" And they judge players not on goals, assists and effective tackles, but rather how he responds after losing the ball.

"Bob is able to sort out who he can count on," Schellscheidt says. "Does somebody really want it bad enough? And if they do, are they perfectly willing to make themselves better? A lot of guys pretend they love the game but when push comes to shove they didn't mean it so much. Bob makes sure they mean it.

"Look, chemistry matters. And if you're a nation that isn't rich on talent -- and we're not quite there yet -- that's the only way to compensate."

The future

No matter what you think about Bradley, it doesn't matter. Whether he's a genius or a robot, whether his heady approach will help or hurt the psyche of the U.S. team is, at this point, irrelevant.

Fifty-two years of preparation for the biggest moment in Bradley's life will come down to the next four weeks. One Oguchi Onyewu slip on the grass, one missed penalty kick by Landon Donovan, one mistake that leads to a 35-foot Algerian laser past Tim Howard and all that Ivy League-driven planning and team-building won't mean a thing. If the U.S. doesn't advance out of its group, Bradley will have failed.

Don't feel bad. He knows this. That's why his fingerprint is on every single thing his team will touch in South Africa.

"He's done everything he can," captain Carlos Bocanegra says. "There won't be a team that is more prepared than we are in the entire tournament."

Ask the people close to Bradley what might be next for the man who likes proving the world wrong and the answer shouldn't surprise you. There are those who believe that when this World Cup stint is over, he might just head to Europe, with the goal of becoming the first American coach to succeed on the continent where soccer is king.

"I would not rule that out," Schellscheidt says. "And knowing Bob, I guarantee he'd be successful. He doesn't know any other way."

Wayne Drehs is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at wayne.drehs@espn.com.

How a Soccer Star Is Made

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html?pagewanted=10&hp

Andres Iniesta Part IV

Andres Iniesta Part III

Andres Iniesta Part II

Andres Iniesta Part I

The Origins of Messi Part III

The Origins of Messi Part II

The Origins of Messi Part I

Pep Guardiola Part III

Pep Guardiola Part II

Pep Guardiola

Think you’ll be a partying freshman? Think not.

Article Written By ESNN

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer/college-soccer-archives/nid-14518/Think-youll-be-a-partying-freshman-Think-not

Contrary to popular belief, college is not all fun and games (like in Animal House).

Maddie Payne is a California girl through and through. So when the former Pleasanton Rage star found herself driving in snow and reminiscing back to the days of beaches, she knew she was in for an adjustment.

Temperatures aside, the Boston College freshman had to weather a lack of playing time and a 48-hour rule that cramped her social life. Here are the most important lessons Payne learned during year one and the advice she imparts to you. 

Be prepared for change

One thing the coach told me from the beginning is that every player in college was their team’s best club player. I went from being a top player on a team that was making nationals to playing five minutes a game. You have to check your ego at the door. 

It’s a long season when you’re not playing much

Sometimes it’s hard to keep pushing yourself through an entire season. The season is so long and you’re motivating yourself to only play five or six minutes. You have to stay positive and it has to be about the team. I love my team so much and decided I was going to do whatever it took to get better for them.

Less playing time means less fitness

I didn’t learn until late in the year that if you’re not playing a lot you’re not going to have the fitness level of someone who is playing the entire year. It’s a bummer because you can’t work out extra the day of a game because you’re not sure if you’re going to play and have to be ready. So that means you have to put in the extra time at practice. It finally dawned on me, that, ‘I should probably be doing extra to make up for what I don’t see on the field.’

No partying for me

I found out quickly that it’s very difficult meeting people. It’s not like we could go out partying because of the 48-hour rule (can’t be out within 48 hours of a game) and a lot of the people I did meet didn’t remember me later because they were always out partying. I’m a very outgoing person so for me this was tough, but it helps you lean on your teammates and really make a strong bond with them.

Stay patient with recruiting

Both of my parents and my brother went to California so I really wanted to go there, but the coach there basically told me I would have to try to walk on. I was devastated. I was considering just attending the school and not playing soccer until a college coach I spoke with explained what a waste that would be. 

I decided to explore other options and stay patient and everything worked out for the best.

So always keep in mind that if you want to play somewhere, even if you’re not going to be the best player on the team, you should make it happen and still get the great reward from playing college soccer.

Phil Just Kept Smiling

Last weekend, as I tried  to enjoy one of the greatest golf tournaments in the world, all I was "entertained" with was the Tiger Woods show. As soon as one golfer would hit a tee shot or make a putt, it seemed that the next shot would be that of Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods just missing a putt that would have put him in contention with the other golfers. Tiger Woods hooking his drive which showed how his time off had hurt his game. Tiger Woods trying to "respect" the game. How it seemed that the Tiger was able to put his past transgressions behind him and was able to concentrate on  the job at hand. It just kept going on and on about Tiger this and
Tiger  that.

On the other hand, a little miracle was occurring at the Masters; one golfer just kept smiling. He smiled if he made a good drive, or if he made a bad drive.  He smiled if he made a long putt or missed a 5 foot putt. As he walked between holes, he smiled and shook hands with the crowd. He never cursed a bad stoke or blamed another person for a miss. All he did was smile.

Why would Phil Mickelson be smiling? Here was a man whose wife has breast cancer. Here was a man whose mother has breast cancer. Here is a man who rather than allow his wife and mother to fight this battle by themselves, took time off from the PGA tour to be with them.  Here was a man that returned to the game he loved when his wife ordered him to do so. Here was man, who was so glad for the miracle that was happening as his wife moved closer to a cure, that he rewarded her oncologist by allowing him to be his guest caddy at
last week's golf tournament. This move, which could have cost Mickelson thousands of dollars in purse money, was his gift to a man he knew he could never thank enough for what he had given  to him.

During the final round  on Sunday, Phil's wife was staying in their hotel room since she was still weak from the chemo treatments she is receiving. Phil did not know as he walked up to the 18th tee that his wife would be there. All Phil did was  smile. He smiled to the crowds, he smiled to the TV audience, he smiled to God. After his last putt found the bottom of the hole, he hugged his caddy and others and walked to the scorer's shack. He then gave the biggest smile of the whole four days. He saw his wife, and even in the midst of thousands of people, it seemed that only two where there. 

Tomorrow I am going to smile. I am going to smile if it is nice weather or bad. I am going to smile at the driver who honks his horn at me or the driver who cuts me off. I am going to smile if I get the order or not. And when the day is done, I am going to save my biggest smile for the person who makes me complete.  Then I am going to look to the heavens and give thanks for being able to smile.

Thanks Phil! God bless  you and your family. And keep on smiling!