Latest News/Pics from USMNT Camp

[lurking]

Yes it is about passing with an offensive bent but to say that passing drills are unimportant is tantamount to ignorance and yes, he should stop posting such opinionated no-nothing advice. It is vlear that he has never ever played competitively with any sort of success. This is a team game, thats why there are 11 players on the field and a one two touch is the quickest way down the field using the least amount of energy unless you play longball, which is totally ineffective unless the defense is asleep and you spot a defensive lapse.


One two touch soccer is the quickest way up the field, but it doesnt always work. And if your players are constantly trying to one and two touch, and aarent connecting well, or their passes are getting cut out by the defense, it can lead to very sporadic play.

My problem with the overemphasis of one and two touch soccer is it can lead to overly nervous, jittery play on the ball. Players try to force things that arent there on that 1 and 2 touch rythm. Especially if the defense is pretty good.

So by all means, off the ball movement, 1 and 2 touch play, making the ball do the work, all these things are good. But Id rather leave it up to the players themseles to figure out how many touches as they need to make a good pass.

[gejal01]

One two touch soccer is the quickest way up the field, but it doesnt always work. And if your players are constantly trying to one and two touch, and aarent connecting well, or their passes are getting cut out by the defense, it can lead to very sporadic play.

My problem with the overemphasis of one and two touch soccer is it can lead to overly nervous, jittery play on the ball. Players try to force things that arent there on that 1 and 2 touch rythm. Especially if the defense is pretty good.

So by all means, off the ball movement, 1 and 2 touch play, making the ball do the work, all these things are good. But Id rather leave it up to the players themseles to figure out how many touches as they need to make a good pass.

I agree with you in principle but one does have to remember how this particular discussion was started. It involved the drills that were shown in the clips which featured a group of players doing one touch drills which were described as a waste of time. Which they unequivocably are not. Yes there are times when one must hold the ball to allow pass lanes to develop but one should still be adept at the quick touch pass.
My point was that players at the national level all have the technical ability to dribble, juggle and more or less play with the ball at their feet. And to go one on one really does not teach teamwork. What does teach teamwork is exactly what the coaches asked the team to practice. I have yet to see a team with a single ALL STAR consistently win, when a team that plays as a team is the opponent.
To drill that way teaches many things, allows each player to familiarize themselves with other player's techniques, movement and general tendencies which will eventually become automatic if the teams chemistry is good.
Passing for passing's sake is never good football and becomes boring very quickly but then so does dribbling and losing the ball. As a coach I have actually benched selfish players who hogged the ball at all levels. They may be technically (again I use that term hesitantly) very well advanced but do not do the team any good at all. I have even coached teams were that gifted dribbler was never even passed the ball because everyone knew they would never get a return pass. So the net result was bench him and get someone out there who plays with the team.

That is all that I am saying in respect to passing drills and it is of course based on hypothetical perfection as is every opinion. I also know that NOTHING every always works, but to gainsay any coaching effort without a clue as to result is somewhat myopic.

My other gripe is the continual sniping at the coaches even without seeing a single result of what their coaching has achieved.

[gejal01]

Check out this clip from the 1994 World Cup, Saudia Arabia vs Belgium (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=627114318359200507). Most people don't remember this, because the goal scorer is not named Maradona, but Al Owarain. This was the first WC game I attended, and I still have this one burned in my memory. He juked several guys, depending on your definition, but speed and placment were equally important.

Thanks, there are some really magic moments in football.

Did you see Martins goal for Newcastle against Tottenham on Sunday? Martins started it with a quick pass forward, he overlapped from right to left and took a pass right back, touched it to his outside and it flew into the upper left corner from about 20 yards out. Was a lightning strike I will remember a long time. Now that is what a one two touch is all about.

[Bigrose30]

This is the best thread ever.

Anyone have any first hand accounts of camp?

[Shibb]

Thanks, there are some really magic moments in football.

Did you see Martins goal for Newcastle against Tottenham on Sunday? Martins started it with a quick pass forward, he overlapped from right to left and took a pass right back, touched it to his outside and it flew into the upper left corner from about 20 yards out. Was a lightning strike I will remember a long time. Now that is what a one two touch is all about.

Yeah, I saw most of that match. Incredible shot, it just happened so fast. Overall a very exciting duel, could have easily gone the other way, but Tottenham seemed too clever by half on the ball. They're wanting to be Brasil it seems when they should be happy to be Spurs. Perhaps there is a lesson there?

[FC Uptown]

Recent Sacha blog from camp

http://centercircle.ussoccer.com/fullStory.jsp_46-281611.html

[Hedbal]

Check out this clip from the 1994 World Cup, Saudia Arabia vs Belgium (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=627114318359200507). Most people don't remember this, because the goal scorer is not named Maradona, but Al Owarain. This was the first WC game I attended, and I still have this one burned in my memory. He juked several guys, depending on your definition, but speed and placment were equally important.

I was at this match and thought it was the finest individual goal I had ever seen except for one Cruyff scored for the LA Aztecs against the Washington Diplomats in the waning days of the NASL.

[Lloyd Heilbrunn]

I was at this match and thought it was the finest individual goal I had ever seen except for one Cruyff scored for the LA Aztecs against the Washington Diplomats in the waning days of the NASL.

Did you think that one better than Best vs the Strikers??

[Hedbal]

Did you think that one better than Best vs the Strikers??

I don't have that one in my rapidly diminishing memory bank. I remember him doing some amazing things with the ball when he played against the Dips, but that's all--just as I remember a rather rotund Gerd Muller scoring at will with his one, signature move: back to the goal, fake one way, turn the other, take one step and fire.

[Craig P]

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Dempsey's pass back. And there was no clear foul.

Watch it again. The Ghanian goes through Reyna's knee to get the ball. I'm not saying that it's easy for the ref to see in real time -- I don't know of anybody that identified the foul before seeing the replay -- but if he actually saw it as it happened, it should have been blown dead.

[Adam Zebrowski]

i'd say the german ref "wanted" ghana to advance, hence the no-call on the reyna tackle, and the liberal pk call against gooch...

that's how you fix a match, when the iffy calls go a certain way all the time...

see south korea 2002 for further existence

[GalaxyOne]

Watch it again. The Ghanian goes through Reyna's knee to get the ball. I'm not saying that it's easy for the ref to see in real time -- I don't know of anybody that identified the foul before seeing the replay -- but if he actually saw it as it happened, it should have been blown dead.

On the youtube replay, it sure looks to me that the Ghanian player leads with his outstreched foot, contacts the ball with his foot first, then follows through with his knee and then other foot. If you step through the video, there is a frame where the Ghanian's foot is on the ball, prior to the knees colliding. Given that, I don't see where the foul is. The knee on knee is incidental contact. What is your take on it, do you see that as a foul, or do you see something different in the video?

[Ronaldo's Idol]

On the youtube replay, it sure looks to me that the Ghanian player leads with his outstreched foot, contacts the ball with his foot first, then follows through with his knee and then other foot. If you step through the video, there is a frame where the Ghanian's foot is on the ball, prior to the knees colliding. Given that, I don't see where the foul is. The knee on knee is incidental contact. What is your take on it, do you see that as a foul, or do you see something different in the video?

Watch it again...the Ghana player plants his left foot near the ball, between Reyna's legs, but doesn't make contact with it (notice how the ball doesn't get nudged at all) and then the knee contact, and then he gets the ball. At least that is how I am seeing it.

[Lloyd Heilbrunn]

I don't have that one in my rapidly diminishing memory bank. I remember him doing some amazing things with the ball when he played against the Dips, but that's all--just as I remember a rather rotund Gerd Muller scoring at will with his one, signature move: back to the goal, fake one way, turn the other, take one step and fire.

I think it's the one here under best goal.


http://www.myspace.com/georgiebest

[Hagbard Celine]

Watch it again...the Ghana player plants his left foot near the ball, between Reyna's legs, but doesn't make contact with it (notice how the ball doesn't get nudged at all) and then the knee contact, and then he gets the ball. At least that is how I am seeing it.

If it's so close a call that we have to keep watching it frame by frame and still can't agree on it, then I'm inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to the attacking player and let him play on...

And I definitely don't pin the loss on Reyna.

[Phuqinu]

Well then I think you should most definitely get on the National team because not a single one of them is capable of that. Not a single World cup player on any team was capable of that this last World cup. The last one who did something like that was Maradonna against Germany but even then he only juked one player and then just plain outran everyone else. He did however also use touch and no smokin'. But that was my point.
I too played forward as well as attacking midfield when total soccer was all the rage. I never enjoyed dribbling through a defensive wall but always used my teammates to break through with a one two touch and rapid single touch shot or a well placed curve either over or around the keeper. I also never said that taking on a single last defender was not advised. Any striker should have that ability but to say that we need to take players on and dribble thru them is ridiculous when there is a whole supporting team available to help.
More power too you if you are that capable and I am very happy to hear there are players of your caliber who are actually not good enough to play for the Nats. (in a way, also somewhat disheartened in the fact that you were obviously overlooked) Tells me that player selection will eventually produce great National teams.
So We'll just have to remember that it's you and Maradonna.

We'll be sitting at midline on Saturday and hopefully they will play well. A win is not that important but a unified and well played effort would be SUPER.
Am even taking my son and grandson to see the game. Will be lots of fun.

Haha, I love the sarcasm, but I sense no harm or ill intent in your response to my post. To say that I should be on the Nats team is, well, crazy. Then again, if Josh Wolff can make the team, I suppose anyone can;) . As for the beating 4 and 5 "defenders" in one run, it's not like that's the norm... more like the exception. However, I'm not playing against Nat team level competition(more like DII/III, not to mention I'm not even stateside at the moment) when I've pulled it off either.

My point was, merely, that it's not impossible to run through/around a few defenders to get to goal and take a shot that's well placed, whether you're fatigued or not. And, like your Maradona reference above, it's rarely about "juking" 3 or 4 defs so much as it is outrunning and/or out angling them on your way to goal.

I'm jealous you're going to the game. Don't even know if I'll get to see it, but d@mn if I'm not excited about us getting back out there for 90. Have fun man.

[scarshins]

It was incidental contact as stated earlier, it was not a foul unless you are really already looking for one, and slow motion is a poor way to analyze contact.

[gejal01]

(((((Phuqinu;10450117]Haha, I love the sarcasm, but I sense no harm or ill intent in your response to my post. ))))))

It wasn't sarcasm just a bit of tongue in cheek and I realize it happens but only ever so rarely. Did not mean to malign at all.

Will be thinking of you when our throats are raw and asses hammered from jumping up and down.

Hope you're not in Iraq.

[sidefootsitter]

I think it's the one here under best goal...
hey, this guy never plays 2-touch :mad:

[FC Uptown]

ussoccer.com

Tuesday, Jan. 16 @ 1:47 p.m.
So it turns out the way to Eddie Robinson's heart is through his stomach. "I love to eat," Eddie said while plowing through chicken and broccoli at lunch. He's also the cook in the family, but said his wife makes a mean turkey lasagna and also chicken enchiladas. He eats so much spicy food he thinks he must have been Mexican in a former life. And his advice to make anything taste better: "Put tabasco on it. Makes it taste like hot wings." Apparently he made a convert in Bobby Boswell, who doused his plate in it ...