The coaching: Brazil Post Game discussion [R]

Most embarrassing loss in USA Women's history. Fire that know-nothing coaching hack. Solo and the rest of the team deserved a lot better.

 

Looks like USA bounced back with a big win against a strong team from Norway. Anyway, I hope the coaching controversy is over. With a 51 gaime streak with no loss and starting a new one it is easy to second guess the coach. Soccer is a game that is won or lost by a team not due to the actions of one player or even the Coach.

 

While many, if not most, of the people upset about the loss to Brazil and the events surrounding that match wanted Ryan gone because of the keeper change, many followers have problems with more than just the Ryan/Solo exchange. Many followers have problems with tactics, style of play, subbing, call-ups, and many other things that were the responsibility of Ryan.

 

I was hoping for a loss to show the brass at UNWNT that the tactics are the problem. The girls USED to be fun to watch, they knocked it around, changed the point of attack, played concise thru balls, and kicked a$$. This year they have regressed to a kick and run level. 4-3-3 is a basic kick and run set. You have lots of kids in front and you whack the ball up and they fight for it. Basic U-10 strategerie. UNWATCHABLE at a WWC level. It began with April and Greg has taken it TOO far. They thought that it was the way to win against weak sides, and I guess they were right. But against the better sides, they look foolish. Possesion is lost too easily and the defenders put it to their mids who set up the attack properly. Against a physically similar side with good tactical knowledge, it is futile to run a kick and run attack. Didn't see third place game yet, I'll catch the replay.

 

Having coached for many years it is hard to pin down on a particular style that is consistently successful. Brazil a team that played possesion (they won the time of possesion) but still lost to a ugly style of game played by Germany.

And now what is this ugly style. It is called "Direct Play" out come of reasearch done by the Football Association in UK. They had surmised that most goals in the run of play come from fewer than 5 passes. As a coach I used to count the number of passes on the offensive third and whenever it hit 5, the attackers faltered and there was no score. In reality, it gives the defense time to fall back and provide more bodies behind the ball.

However, what is successful is a combination of the two styles. Possesion and control in the middle and defensive third. And then attack with speed and fewer passes in the attacking third.

And then one should not overlook penalty shots and set plays. Set plays are responsible of over half the goals that are scored. A good team will focus on these at every practice.

I have not seen enough of Coach Ryan's games to pass a judgment. But it is hard to second guess his success.

 

Look at the source, the england NT has been having more than a few problems of their own. Here's a statistic for you that I came up with from the club of common sense. If you have possession, the other team is not going to score 99.9% of the time. Statistics are misleading and if you latch onto one statistic and make it your mantra, you are nuts. The part about set pieces is 100% correct. However, you also don't get as many set pieces if you don't maintain possession. The USWNT is VERY good at those set pieces with Wambach towering over defenders. They don't maintain enough possession to GET as many of those set pieces. Possession is important to break an opponent down and to discover strengths and weaknesses and where to attack them.

 

Most of teach our children to own up when we make a mistake. Ryan's inability to admit sitting Solo show lack of character. He then compounds the situation by leaving her off the team when playing the final game.

Coach Ryan should step up and do the right thing (resign!)

When you decide to coach, you are giving your players your time and attention, more importantly; you are helping them master their abilities, knowledge and skills. You are also showing respect for their individual capabilities and providing what I consider the most important motivation a person can have -- the opportunity for self-development.

Coaching is helping your players develop their potential to maximize their performance.

A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximize his or her strengths and minimize his or her weaknesses.

I did not see this with Coach Ryan.

 

Ryan's post game press conference should have sounded a lot more like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX4ox7aX_wc

notice the part about how the coaching sucked... yeah...