1st touch

[FWSCKEEPER]

I don't think I am alone here, when I say that overall our 1st touch is crap. We need to improve this in the US game as much as anything. How many times did BMB pop the ball up instead of making a clean touch on it. We don't seem to be able , on the whole, to make the touch where we want it to be. I think it is a thought processs thing . We are not thinking about that until it gets to us.
This goes hand in hand with being comfortable on the ball in sticky situations.
I believe this is the greatest weakness in the American game right now. We play Defense well, and have good tactical awareness and can carry out a plan, but until we can control the ball in tight spaces instead of dumping it into the corner we are going to stay at about that #10 spot in the world. That is not a bad place to be, but we can be better. I ho[e the next generation of american player has this 'touch'. it will be fun to wathc us run circles around teams before we beat them.

[lasoccervegas2002]

Originally posted by FWSCKEEPER
I don't think I am alone here, when I say that overall our 1st touch is crap. We need to improve this in the US game as much as anything. How many times did BMB pop the ball up instead of making a clean touch on it. We don't seem to be able , on the whole, to make the touch where we want it to be. I think it is a thought processs thing . We are not thinking about that until it gets to us.
This goes hand in hand with being comfortable on the ball in sticky situations.
I believe this is the greatest weakness in the American game right now. We play Defense well, and have good tactical awareness and can carry out a plan, but until we can control the ball in tight spaces instead of dumping it into the corner we are going to stay at about that #10 spot in the world. That is not a bad place to be, but we can be better. I ho[e the next generation of american player has this 'touch'. it will be fun to wathc us run circles around teams before we beat them.


I agree, i think thats a very basic skill of this sport

[Stupid_American]

I agree, however, I would like to add another to your mention of BMB.... Chris Armas, who hasn't had a good first touch, or second touch, in a while.

[kevbrunton]

Actually, I think that McBride generally has very good first touch as does Donovan and some others. But we didn't see too much last night.

I think what you were seeing last night was the effect of the poor field conditions. The ball was bouncing a lot and it was causing a lot of those poor first touches. The Mexicans had some too -- but they were generally making shorter passes, so there was less of a chance of the field affecting the pass. Since we were frequently making much longer outlet passes from our defense, the opportunity for the field to affect the pass and therefore the first touch was much greater.