Can Soccer Teams Learn From American Football?

Discussion in 'Soccer in the USA' started by EvanJ, Feb 11, 2019.

  1. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/southgate-the-nfl-aided-england-s-world-cup is titled "Southgate: The NFL aided England's World Cup." He said:

    "We were at a coaching conference yesterday with some coaches from the [Atlanta] Falcons. The hours that they spend in team meetings to get that detail right – I mean, our lads can just about stomach 15 minutes then we have to get them out!"

    Can the USMNT and/or MLS learn anything from the NFL that would improve quality on the field and/or popularity?
     
  2. Paul Berry

    Paul Berry Member+

    Notts County and NYCFC
    United States
    Apr 18, 2015
    Nr Kingston NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Back in the 1980s English and Australian rugby league clubs would use NFL videos for motivation and training purposes.

    I think the Aussie NRL produces similar videos now.
     
  3. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Watching more film might very help with tactical awareness.

    I'm leery of any more NFL-ing of MLS, soccer in general, or really anything. I'm really not a fan of the league, though, so I'm not the typical American sports consumer.
     
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  4. Paul Berry

    Paul Berry Member+

    Notts County and NYCFC
    United States
    Apr 18, 2015
    Nr Kingston NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I think the biggest threat to the NFL these days isn't anthem protests or CTE, it's allegations of game fixing. But I guess that's for a different forum.
     
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  5. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    To be clear, the NFL could be squeaky-clean and have done a fantastic job of handling social protest issues and CTE and I still wouldn't be a fan. It's a taste/preference issue not moral or ethical objection on my part.

    That said, I think you could be right. I was sorta stunned at how widespread--and how matter-of-fact--the accusations and suspicions were in the wake of the Rams debacle. I did not realize there was such a groundswell of suspicion waiting for such a high-profile incident to tip it over the "critical mass" stage, but here we are.
     
  6. owian

    owian Member+

    Liverpool FC, San Diego Loyal
    May 17, 2002
    San Diego
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Short answer YES.

    Wouldn't surprise me if High School football players in Texas watch more film than your average Premier League player. Just look at the response when Liverpool hired a throw in coach, or the shock and admiration when a team scores from a set piece routine "straight off the training pitch."

    Now I am not saying Soccer will ever be like American Football (god I hope not) where every where everything is predetermined, usually from a coach up in the press box. But I do think there could be a lot of work done on both set pieces and even in open play. For example I suspect the top level players are instinctively reading defenses like a QB in the NFL, but that could be honed and brought to another level if they spent as much time studying their opposition as they do in the NFL.

    Funnily this is actually something that I discussed with some friends after the match on Saturday in relation to Everton's terrible defense against set pieces.
     
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  7. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Soccer doesn't have individual plays. Even if everybody involved in soccer thought the NFL was the perfect model of strategy, players would still need to decide what to do for sustained periods of time without stoppages, and even when there's a stoppage the whole club can't huddle together. You're a Liverpool fan. Do you think clubs play Liverpool knowing that Liverpool (and other top clubs) are much better to the point where they don't try to find out if there's a small area of the game where they're better than a club that is much better overall? An analogy is NCAA Men's Basketball, where Incarnate Word is 342nd of 353 teams in the NET, but is first in free throw percentage.
     
  8. canammj

    canammj Member+

    Aug 25, 2004
    CHINO, CA
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    When I saw the title of this thread, the first thing I thought was it was backwards. The NFL could stand to learn a few things from soccer.
     
  9. HomietheClown

    HomietheClown Member+

    Dusselheim FC 1971
    Sep 4, 2010
    Club:
    --other--
    I am a huge sports fan of all the major team sports and occasional Olympic sports.

    From what I have seen players and coaches can learn things from every sport. We are all humans and we can all learn things from other humans and try to apply somethings to your jobs in some sort of way, Especially when other people we are learning from are successful.

    Juan Carlos Osorio for instance has mentioned how he leaned many things from Basketball and American football training sessions and practices he witnessed here in the USA and applied some general things into his coaching repertoire.
     
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  10. Cubanlix63

    Cubanlix63 Member+

    AFC Ajax
    Feb 19, 2014
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    One of Pep's assistants at Manchester City is a Water Polo player.
     
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  11. Master O

    Master O Member+

    Jul 7, 2006
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Free kicks and penalties say "hi".
     
  12. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Oh, God, game fixing in the NFL. Because an official blew a call.

    If you are going to fix an NFL game, you don't do it with an official making a (non) call that is so obvious and egregious that not only is everyone talking about it months later but it ACTUALLY LED TO A RULE CHANGE.

    Every single time - EVERY SINGLE TIME - there is controversy in an NFL game, butthurt fanboys go instantly to "game was fixed, officials were paid off."

    That ain't how you would do it, first off, and you certainly would not be that obvious about it lest you invite more scrutiny.

    For all the caterwauling over the years and Dan Moldea's decades-old insinuations, a fixed NFL game has never been proven.

    It's not an existential threat. That's silly
     
  13. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The threat is the perception.

    I'm not sure what the NFL can do about that--part of me suspects that these "scandals" just provide an excuse for football-weary fans to stop supporting the top league in the country.
     
  14. soccernatzi

    soccernatzi New Member

    River Plate
    Jan 29, 2019
    learn what ?
     
  15. gunnerfan7

    gunnerfan7 Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Jul 22, 2012
    Santa Cruz, California
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    How to analyze film in sufficient quantity and depth to improve on-field performance..?

    I mean, and I know the comment was a little tongue-in-cheek, but it's pretty pathetic if you could only do 15 minutes of film study with a National soccer team. They're professional athletes with a limited amount of time to work out/practice. You should easily be able to work in a couple of hours of film study, and you'd still have most of the day off.
     
  16. Cubanlix63

    Cubanlix63 Member+

    AFC Ajax
    Feb 19, 2014
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Most top clubs have video/match analysts on their staff especially Bundesliga clubs. Louis Van Gaal actually annoyed Manchester United players with the amount of video work they did. Unai Emery is known for his use of USBs he gives to players for them to watch at home. And there was that Marcelo Bielsa press conference. Plus Hoffenheim has their video wall at training.



     
  17. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    In order for video preparation to be popular, coaches and players must want it.
     
  18. soccernatzi

    soccernatzi New Member

    River Plate
    Jan 29, 2019
    in favor of migration from soccer loving latin america if it results in replacing baseball and football with soccer !
     
  19. asroma1982

    asroma1982 Member

    Sep 1, 2016
    Club:
    AS Roma
    what can you learn from dumbest sport in the world no tactics involved i mean there is no patience in this useless sport you have to have similar players lined up against similar players and on and on
     
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  20. Paul Berry

    Paul Berry Member+

    Notts County and NYCFC
    United States
    Apr 18, 2015
    Nr Kingston NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    If you can motivate an underpaid lunk to ceaselessly injure by himself running head first into 250 pounds of bone and muscle, you can surely motivate Michael Bradley to pass the ball forward.
     
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  21. bostonsoccermdl

    bostonsoccermdl Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 3, 2002
    Denver, CO
    Huh?:unsure:
     
  22. Cubanlix63

    Cubanlix63 Member+

    AFC Ajax
    Feb 19, 2014
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    American Football is a very tactical sport. Possibly the most tactical. The big difference is American Football is mostly a coach's game while in Soccer the players are mostly in control.
     
  23. Roger Allaway

    Roger Allaway Member+

    Apr 22, 2009
    Warminster, Pa.
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is the sort of thing that fans of American football say about soccer when they haven't bothered to learn about the tactics involved in soccer. You're only encouraging them by bashing their sport.
     
  24. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    American football is almost nothing BUT tactics. It's probably the most coach-driven team sport in the world.
     
  25. asroma1982

    asroma1982 Member

    Sep 1, 2016
    Club:
    AS Roma
    so you consider tactics to be stationary and where certain players can not move out of the imaginary box they are confined to and that only 4 players can catch the ball or run and other 7 players are playing their own stupid game of shoving and what ever else they do to be TACTICS
     
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