Rants

That's because the last one someone tried to start I locked and deleted.

Tantrums are for children.

 

On playing on a small field.

I have been arguing with other coaches for over 20 yrs, that no field is small if you know how to play on it.

Keep the ball moving from one side to the other, and while your doing it always look for the through pass then no field is too small.

Holding the ball in one place for too long makes the field small. Going in a forward direction for too long makes the field small except if you have a break away.

Another point if you have the ball on the flank do you need a team mate on the other flank? He is out of the play on the other flank as long as the ball is on the opposite flank. If you position like this that man is out of the play, and your really playing a man short during that time and space.

You don't want to be on the flank too long after the first touch because their is an over shift by the opponents players to ball side. That shift is killing the dribblers space to play. As the players are shifting over to the ball side. The ball has to be played away from that pressure to where those overshifted players came from.

Good way to do that is the wing mid without the ball then moves inside the field past and behind the inside player moving with the ball to his side. Then the dribbler has more space on that side to move to or he can do a takeover to that wing mid who is moving inside the field. If he does that the ball is now moving to the side of the least pressure. Also because it is going to a player who has now moved more inside the field. That player has a number of options. 1 if in range he can shoot the ball on goal. If he is not in range he can look to make a through pass to a team mate, and he can shoot on goal. If there is no through pass option he can pass to the far side wing mid who opened up the field or the back moving up the field with one pass not two.

Wait too long on a side you can be double teamed at the touch line. That keeps the dribbler from moving away from the pressure. So move before the pressure arrives.

If a great 1 v 1 player beats his first defender on the flank. Don't try to beat the second unless you can get a shot on goal. If you can't then get out of the flank instead of taking on the second defender. Why? After you beat the first defender the second defender has to move to the flank. If you attack inside after you beat that first defender then you also beat that second defender. Plus you cleared some of that middle space. So now attack that middle space. The goal is in the middle of the field.

Far side flank player or near side player moves inside or dribbles inside the field. The defense moves in side. That leaves space on the far side flank or inside flank for a back to use can use. Just got to get the ball to them.

Far side player trys to beat the defender inside the field when the ball is on the other flank. That team mate gets inside the defender he can see the ball with no one else in the way. See the ball you can score and that player is near the goal not far from the goal. Get the ball to him it's a goal. Remember that flank player who moved inside the field after got the ball after the takeover? If he can gets the ball to the outside flank player who moved in side the field. That is a wing to wing pass hit that pass it is an easy goal.

Nothing to it with some practice do it functionally.

So that is how you make a small field look big. That inside takeover works great in an indoor gym soccer.
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On HS rules where do they get these rules from not FIFA that is for sure, If a team comes with less then a 11 players and your team comes with more then 11 players. You should not have to play short players. You should be able to play 11 on a side. They have to play short not you. They can put as little as 7 players on the field and still play and not forfiet.You should not have to penalize your players playing time because they are short players.

Incidently we have beat teams playing short bad. You have to practice playing short. You never know injuries and bookings can force you to play short players You can practice playing short in the first half of a friendly. Then add players in the second half. It is all about player confidence.


The time of the game is the time of the game. You can't just agree to play for less minutes?

"Since they had no subs they pulled a few tactics I wasn't thrilled about. First of all, whenever they got touched they fell to the ground and rolled around while the others caught their breath. Luckily the refs didn't buy most of the dives."

After doing that a few times the officials didn't book the player for doing that? If not he is a bad officials. What, if gave them a pass because they were short well so was your team after agreeing to play short. If you did not have to play short you should have never done that.

"Then as the game wore on and we were controlling more of the possession, the other team started football tackling some of my girls. It was straight up linebackeresque."

If it is like you say those are bookable fouls. It is up to the offical to call those fouls.

"Instead, they stuck it out with an injured girl hobbling around the field."

That is a bad coach. I would not want that coach coaching my kids.

 

I rant on occassion myself about the state of our country as it is now. But no one is listening.

Some one asked me what was better the 1950s or 2012. I said I liked the 50's better except I was poor then. But most people were poor then. Most people worked a 6 day week, and did not think nothing of it. They really enjoyed their Sundays. The good news then was an apartment was $30 a month back then.

 

Yeah, NFHS specifically allows a 50-yard wide field, so a football field can be used in place of a soccer field (pointyball field is 160' wide, or 53-1/3 yards). Then you get the combo football/soccer goalposts, so you have a field that's 53 yards wide by 120 yards long. Now add a cheapo school who can't be bothered to change paint colors for the soccer lines, so all the soccer lines (probably faded since they don't care) and football lines (freshly done for every Friday game) are the same color. Oh, and the field is steeply crowned so any soccer ball played to the flank rolls off the field.

Yep, coached at just such a school for 5 years. On the plus side, the boys could throw the ball from the sideline into the goalmouth, so any throw-in within 30 yards of goal was as good as a corner kick. We scored at least one goal a season right off a throw-in.

 

You have to make the best out of any bad situation. You have to try and turn it into an advantage for your team.

We played for years on a terrible home field. Brooklyn college was our home field for many years. It was astro turf it was titled down off the touch line for drainage. It had a clay running track around the field. They are making a new field there as we type.

We turned that crap field into a big advantage for our team. Teams hated to play on it. We hardly ever lost playing on that field.

Then we went to another field over looking the beautiful Veranzano Bridge .

For big games we moved our home field to right near the water. It was windy man. So we worked on playing with and against the wind. Again we were un beatable on that field.

We used to laugh about it. Teams hated to play us because we were good and we knew how to play on our fields.

 

That's bad man I am sorry to hear that and I mean that. Two months in the hospital is a long time.

Make sure you talk to the officials well before the start of the game, and let them know what the situation is maybe even the coach of the opponent.

Tell her we wish her all the best.

 

Here's a small rant and a question.

Rant: I'm coaching a U10G travel team - middle of the road division (not top, not bottom). First game was last Sunday, and the refs come to check us in, and the center gives the usual spiel about playing fair, etc., and then he says, "no slide tackling." What? Although I've heard the same erroneous statement from other refs in other games, this is not the rule in this state. Slide tackling is permitted (provided of course that its execution isn't otherwise an offense under the laws). Let me point out at this time that I could count the number of slide tackles attempted last season by my players on the fingers of one hand, and still have fingers left over. It's something that I've worked on a little bit with the team, but just to make sure they understand the safe way to utilize that tackle. Our emphasis, when we've worked on basic defensive principles, is quick, slow, sideways, low; bending the approach; pressure/cover; and when to look for block and poke tackles. As I tell the players, you can't play soccer on your butt. So this isn't a big deal, but it's the principle involved.

Question: Of course the girls look at me and ask, "Coach, he said we can't slide tackle, but you say we can?" How do you answer that question?

A. The ref doesn't know what he's talking about. Sure you can slide tackle (directly undermining the authority of the ref).

B. Always listen to the ref. If he says you can't do it, don't do it (undermining my own authority and reinforcing the wrong interpretation of the Laws of the Game).

C. That's not really what he meant. He meant you can't use a slide tackle to trip the other player (a compromise that still undermines the authority of the referee, doesn't' fully address the statement, and requires an explanation at a time when you're trying to get your team ready to play).

D. Other.

 

55 yards is the NFHS minimum.

Rule 1
The Field of Play
SECTION 1 SIZE OF THE FIELD
ART. 1 . . . The field of play shall be rectangular, 100 to 120 yards long and 55 to 80 yards wide. The following minimum dimensions are highly recommended:
a. High Schools-110 yards by 65 yards;
b. Junior High Schools-100 yards by 55 yards.

 

it is your obligation to be an expert concerning the rules that your particular league has adapted. There are some leagues that have banned the slide tackle. You have to be aware if your league has that rule. Maybe it is just for the young age groups.

Our youth leauge does not ban anything. Our league is the oldest league in the US. I think it started in the early 1930s.

 

But perhaps you missed my point. The ref was wrong; slide tackling is permitted, of that I'm sure (and as full disclosure, I'm a ref, too). If I had a doubt about whether the ref was wrong, I wouldn't have asked the question, which generally is, when the ref says something wrong that you know is wrong, how do you address that with your players (especially younger players).

 

I would have no problem with, right then and there, asking the ref, "Are you sure? I believe there is no rule banning slide tackles in this league. Can you double check?" In front of anyone.

If the ref still insists, you tell the team, "Okay, we'll go with the ref today--no slide tackles. I will find out for sure by checking the rules for the next game."

I don't think that undermines the ref's authority, but still leaves the question open, if nobody has a copy of league rules handy. I don't it's a bad lesson that facts you are unsure of ought to be questioned and checked--in a respectful manner.

 

Oh so you read the leagues rule book, and not just the laws of the game book so they did not say no slide tackling well that is different then. Isn't there someone in the league that is in charge of the officials? Raise the question with him after the game or during the game if you can find him.

If the official said to me, and my players no slide tackling allowed before the match started. I would tell the guys don't slide tackle in this game. I well tell them to just do the stand up block tackle the normal tackle.

However, what if a player slide at the ball to put it into goal. Or if he slide to keep the ball from going over the goal line. So the slide was not to take the ball away from the opponent. What could he do in that situation?

 

That's tough. I wouldn't want to call the ref out, as GKbenji suggested (but that's a personal bias; I think his approach is entirely valid). I'll make a bet, this being a U10 game, that it's a young ref, and that's probably something he heard inhouse refs say over and over again to him, so he just repeats it mindlessly (15-year olds are not good at extemporaneous speech). My guess is that in a game he wouldn't call it. With that in mind, here's what I would say:

"Girls, I'm not sure what the referee meant by that. It shouldn't matter; defend like we've worked on it in practice and you won't need to slide tackle. But if that's the only play you have, make the tackle and if the ref calls it, he calls it. I've got your back either way."

 

Why not just apply to the association for permission to wear them rather than asking the referee to ignore the rule each game?

 

Good for her and good for the KC organization.

Remember when Kansas City 1 beat Chicago O for the MLS championship one year it was around 2000.


I knew someone who worked for Gansler. I wanted KC to beat Chicago in the championship game because Tony Meola was their keeper at that time. Ever notice how Chicago's Ante (Pass) Razov used to jump early and high when he was in the wall. If you took a free kick just outside the 18 you can score under the wall with practice. A couple of days before the game. I mentioned it to that guy. He said he got it to Gansler. I met Gansler with the National team and Bilardo from Argentina years before here in NYC. They were doing a clinic my team was the only one there. It was in a soccer coaches paper that hardly anyone reads. We don't know how to promote the game here in the US.


Any way I am watching the game and waiting for the situation to come up. They didn't try it the first FK. But I knew Gansler must of saw Razov do it. Then later KC scored on a regular goal. Then later in the game that situation came up again. Preki took it and sure enough he shoots low ball goes under Razov's jump, but it had nothing on it. So the keepr made the save.


You can find it some where on the internet. If she has a Ipod or an I pad she maybe able to check it out for herself.

 

Parent rant. Besides coaching, I administer a rec league. Our rec league is by grade(s) not classic U-8, U-10, U-12. Recently we changed our 2nd and 3rd graders from 7v7U-10 rules to a hybrid U-8 & U-10, since almost every kid is a U-8 age. Split fields, Small-sided 5v5 w/ Goalkeepers (but more of a sweeper-keeper). Mind you, we explained what we were doing to all parents earlier in the summer and asked for their input. Here is the email I received yesterday:

XXX, just want to know what is going on with this 2 and 3 grade level of soccer. Is this a joke!!! Are we trying to get our best players to leave to go to other clubs?? I would love a explanation on this one . Why micro fields??? Why aren't travel players moved up to play one or two levels higher??? U-10 is on a larger field why do they not stay in same format. We are going backwards as a club not forward which with the level of talent on our area is not such a positive move.

Sent from ?????

First, the anonymous signer was easily identified via our registration database
Players ARE allowed to request to play up and space on the field has actually INCREASED due to these changes. Just find it hard that in this day and age that small-sided matches are still viewed as 'Special Education.'