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Aman,
Best U10 team provided too much pressure for my boys and we were not flexible enough tactically to play long balls so we kept trying to play out of the back and got pinned against our own goals. The other team did not do much – just a lot of pressure and then capitalized on our mistakes on our own half. In Xavi U10 video there are couple fragments when we were able to play out of their pressure (I think they are the only team in this video in red uniform).
In fact after that game I went back to 3four3 blog and red again their report on games against Spain Barcelona in MIC cup. I remembered that that game did not look like possession game from both sides but was an extremely high speed and intensity game. When I red about 3four3 team preparation to this game (and/or to the game against Ajax) where they stated that they had to sacrifice playing out of the back for the result since the pressure was too high, I decided that we need to be more flexible in this and last month we worked a lot on this. So yes, I use patterns just like you said – goalkicks etc. In fact a goal in U9 final (header) started exactly how you just described: GK long kickto the halfline (not in the middle), my player won it, played back and then we started a wing pattern with the cross.
Thanks,
Tolya
Dana, since they are U9 and unlike Mexican kids in CA they have very little time/will to work on their own, I spend one practice a week for tactical work and two practices for technical work. Twice a week both teams practice together and these are technical days, once a week when I have only one team per session I mainly focus on tactical work and this includes 3four3 curriculum and some other good, possession based activities (some from Jed Davies book and some others). So 3four3 is ultimate guide for me in terms of possession soccer but I only spend about 30% of my time on it.
Scott, I think we were quite lucky and my kids did not get too much roughed, but from time to time of course this happens. I always tell my kids that timing is everything and with the right timing they do not have to deal with tackles – I think they got this when played against the best U10 team and they were on our ass all the time. We lost 0:7 but this was one of the the best game we played.
Well, we are focused on possession soccer and right now it mainly means DEVELOPMENT, not necessarily winning. Xavi team in U10 division wins little bit less than 50% of the time. Iniesta in U9 division wins about 75%. The only absolute winning record has Xavi in Colorado Cup (U9 division). But it is more important for me that even in the games we lose we play better soccer (in most cases by far) and the result will come – need just keep working on precision and speed of play.
Both teams have good players. I can bet that the difference is in practices: one team plays all day long possession games while the other team runs specific practices on what to do in different specific situations with focus on possession soccer ( training sessions here). So one team is organized and each player knows (or I should say expected to know) what to do on the field and therefore act two-three steps in advance, while the other boys basically play one step soccer – react on what just happened on the field. They try to play out of the back but simply could not do it with their speed of decision making on and off the ball against that well organized pressure.
Interestingly, in second half Chivas started to rush transition from the back to forward always using wings (wanted second goal too much) and lost the ball way more often and then the game became equal – not much difference. Teams had equal number of scoring opportunities.
On my opinion for Chivas the biggest issue is transition from the back – using wings all the time is getting too predictable and center mids did not show very good movement off the ball. No rotation among them (so when one center mid is covered he would recycle with the other), very rarely they received the ball from center back and face forward almost always played one touch pass back to another center back. On the other hand, holding center mid was extremely efficient in his job – on my opinion very tactically smart player.
Question: to me Chivas team were better trained on high pressure defense than on playing out of the back (don’t get me wrong they played well out of the back in 1st half, but they played great high pressure through whole game (were moments of sleep but in general was impressive). Is this because it is new team or because Brian first focused on high pressure defense (also may be because the team is new). In other word, when you have new U14 team full of talented boys but half of them never played with each other what are your priorities in training. I just guessed: it is equal between defense and playing out of the back but the last one is much harder to perfect.
Another question: since second half did not go they way Brian wanted what would he change in his halftime talk? Just curious as I always think about it in such situations (as any coach I have good and bad examples).
Thanks a lot for sharing this and Brian’s comments were fantastic – great lesson for me. Kids MUST love this kind of coach – critical but not too negative and on the same page with boys. Very often comments were not on the player directly involved with the ball but 2-3 steps ahead.
Thanks,
Tolya
I agree. I usually do not have time to write much but I try to read everything and watch posted training videos one a week (during weekend) – every time pick something new in DELIVERY of the on or the other drill – that’s the key here. Do not think I need more videos for next couple months – have enough to study in deep.
Have read recently two books on soccer psychology by Dan Abrahams:
soccer tough – addressed to players but think is very useful for coaches as well. Liked a lot!
soccer brain – for coaches. Little bit harder to read but also good.
Jed’s book on tiki-taka is great for understanding the nature and roots of possession soccer – inspired a lot of thoughts.
I agree with John in general.
My teams play 3-3-1 as well. Using GK when playing out of the back is crucial so I want him to play pretty high and facilitate the switch. I know that GK usually does not have good feet at this age so I use 4 goalies during each game (half of each half) – the rest of the time they play the field. 3 in the middle are one holding CM (HCM) and 2 attacking CMs (ACM) their job is to facilitate playing from the back through the middle, turn and start attack. If OB goes high up the field I want HCM shift under him and fill his spot – not too deep but with ability to control this area. Long balls probably will go over his head so CB also shifts to that side (to clean up long balls) and the other OB also shifts little bit more centrally. So basically, at the transition when we lost the ball we are 2 (OB and CB)-1 (HCM)-the rest of players high up the field providing high pressure. I would love to instruct one of the attacking CMs (furthest from the ball) to drop but this did not work so far. For this age groups (U9-10) HCM is the hardest position to play as it requires more reading of the game than playing with the ball (should have maximum two touches on the ball before playing forward to either to OB, ACM or play back to CB or the other OB).
The question I have is that the problem with these age groups is pretty widespread roster in terms of skills, so where you play your weakest/strongest players is the key. In the Fall I played best players on CB and ACM positions with the goal to play from the back through the middle and then wide or forward. HCM was the tough kid with decent passing technique but not fast at all. Since kids getting better technically will try to move best players into wide areas (OB) so they can penetrate wide using their individual skills or 2v1 situations. Anybody else have different solutions to this??
