Ball junkie ... yeah I know the type, there are more of them out there in the U.S. than is commonly thought. I know many kids who could make similar lists of the moves they sometimes use, although they wouldn't know the names of all of them and they might not execute them as well as Brandon. Surprised he was blown out by Regional ODP; they usually like the small ball trickster types. The challenge for Brandon, of course, will be using these abilities in game situations. In a couple of years, he'll be an adult player, competing against larger, stronger, hard-nosed, and smart opponents who will take no prisoners when it comes to crunching flair players. The kid has gotta be smart ... the big mean dudes can afford to be dumb sometimes, but not a player with Brandon's attributes.
You really think that a pro head coach is responsible for teaching dribbling moves to his adult players? The game tactics a coach chooses with a pro team seem to be a separate issue from the technical skills that same coach would emphasize for youth players.
If some adult players can't perform fundamental skills, then it's a coach's job to improve the said players. Otherwise, you see the ball flying back and forth without anyone being capable of trapping it and completing a pass.
i dont agree with that... its the adult's coach responsibility to find players who have those dribbling skills, instead of teaching them
I dunno - I have trouble imagining Schmid (or any other MLS coach) taking practice time to demonstrate how to do a Rivelino or whatever. Besides, my guess is that most "low-skill" pro players can do lots of flashy moves on their own. Pulling them off in a game against high level competition is a different story.
Which makes it an issue for a club coach. You specifically made mention to Sigi as a YNT coach not being able to develop Manzonelli. The point is that a U20 coach doesn't see the players enough to have much, if any, role in their technical development. You really think a camp here and there, qualifying and the U20 WC is enough to groom an adult player's technical skills? Surely you're not that naive. At the U20 age, any technical development happens where the player spends his training on a consistent basis, ie his club (or in far too many US players, college). I just don't see how having Sigi has a U20 coach will hinder a player's technical development, which is the point you made.
I was thinking more of working with younger players, sub-20. But on the U-20 level, his choice was to go with less skill and more work rate, which made the 2005 U-20 team look like a typical US youth squad. So if you're looking for improvements in terms of ball movement and offensive skills, you won't find it with Sigi. Now, look at factors Wenger considers important. Does this sound like anything Sigi would teach? http://home.skysports.com/articlefp.aspx?hlid=428633&channel=nike
Um, Sigi was the "sub," meaning "under" 20 coach. If you're talking younger than the U20 team, there is ZERO evidence, anecdotal or otherwise, that Sigi is primed to be running a youth national team, nor has he ever done so below the U20 level so your point seems, again, way off base. Yeah, adding Lee Nguyen was a real work-rate player. Seriously, this guy brought Nguyen and Feilhaber, too of the more skilfull U20 players in sometime, into the YNT fold which, in turn, got them onto top teams in Europe. As for workrate-over-skill players, what deft skillful player was dropped for a workrate player? It's not like Sigi left home a Carlos Tevez or Lionel Messi in favor of the next Frankie Hejduk. You make do with what you got. Look at his first U20 team. He did the best he could. Of the 12 players from that age-group (79/80) who have since been capped by the senior team, 10 were on his U20 team. The two that weren't, Pat Noonan and Todd Dunivant, were HS seniors when the team went to the WYC in the spring of 99. You can say he missed out on them, and that's fair, but otherwise, it's not like he missed out in an abundance of skill players. If they aren't there in the U20 pool, you just can't make them up. Look, I'm not comfortable being Sigi's advocate. I think he's a good coach, but not a great one and he definitely has some shortcomings as a coach. But I also think he's done a very good job with our U20 teams. Of course, I view the U20 team as important for player identification and less on wins and losses. I care more about the future national team players that are brought thru the U20 team than anything else and I think he's done a nice job there. And, I don't think there is any evidence to suggest that a skilled player like Manzonelli is supposed to be, wouldn't make a U20 team coached by Sigi. Again, if a finesse player like Ngyuen makes the team, no reason a similar player, a la Manzonelli, couldn't also. I just think it's an unfair, and unrealistic did at a guy, not to mention in no way germain to any discussion about Manzonelli.
I don't think that the "new tricks/moves" of which Manzonelli speaks are the kind of fundamental skills that sfs is referring to. That they are practicing one on one drills tells me that they are dealing with the development of general dribbling skills on an individual level.
It just slays me when people think national team coaches (outside of Bradenton) can "teach" or "develop" anyone. People, it's not 1993 anymore. All our Nats have a club team.
Good enough. The rumors of Klinsmann appointing Schmid his right hand man and in charge of the U-20/U-23 and perhaps even younger teams were running rampant. That's what I was trying to ascertain and hopefully avoid. Well, he played Greg Dalby in lieu of Szetela, Kljestan, Bradley and Alvarez, all of whom can be deemed superior in skill. See above. I will plead ignorance to the 1999 event but I thought he was very poor in 2005. I see your point here but the U-20 WC selection is enough of a stand-alone tournament that it can be judged on its own merit. Selection is very important for the U-17/Bradenton group where you're working with kids for a couple of years. With the U-20s, you have a few camps, then a pre-WC camp and try to win the thing. As to selection, it may be of some worth but I am not sure if leaving Charlie Davies, an alleged half a million dollar man, for Jacob Petersen is an example of such. Benny Feilhaber may have been an aberration or the guy may have been an impossible player not to notice. Lee Nguyen really didn't play that much and the team really did not look that sharp on the offensive end. And the same could have been said about Sigi's MLS teams. Now, as to Manzo the Wunderkind, he'd probably have a lot lower chance to be picked for a Schmid coached team than a Pekerman coached team. I call it a hunch.
Absolutely not! If adult players are incapable of performing fundamental skills at a high level it is the coaches job to FIRE those players and replace them with ones who learned these skills as a 12 year old. An adult without fundamental skills has been tainted forever and is worthless! Our youth system geared toward results rather than individual player progress can be blamed for so few truly skillful adult players. Parents lining the touchlines screaming for results is destructive. Kids playing 3v3 & 4v4 and being encouraged to take players on, be creative with the ball, etc. gets the player to the skill needed not winning meaningless youth matches!
There were about 10,000 U.S. kids better on the ball at age 15 than Johann Smith, Marvell Wynne, Jay DaMerit, or Carlos Bocanegra, and they're doing pretty well. Part of me wishes success in soccer did occur solely due to quick feet, hours on the ball, and intelligent play ... but the reality is that 30% to 50% of the professional slots are filled by guys who are adequately technically, but whose chief attributes are size, speed, hard running, tackling ability, and tenacity.
As DK posted about Brian McBride somewhere recently, American 22-25 YO players can be very limited technically and tactically and it takes them years to perfect their games. You wish the youth soccer was different in its emphasis but it ain't. And, whether you're Real Madrid or Real Salt Lake, you have to work with what you can afford.
Then you will wholy hearted agree with soccer legend Cruyff, who beginning this season told the Ajax management that the youth coaches should not be bothered with results but with developing skills as their main drive.
On BigSoccer, everyone agrees with Johan ... the real problem is in finding coaches who feel likewise. And that's not counting the fact that many of the US coaches have nowhere the tactical and technical understanding of the best Dutch youth coaches ... or even the adopted Russkies like Igor Korneyev.
They only need the renewed dvd of good old Wiel Coerver. I miss Igor ever since he joined Hiddink. By the way, Beenhakker is pulling of the trick of turning a bunch of loosers into winners with Poland. Australia are courting him as a substitute for their Nat team, but sofar without reasult.
is there actually any news on this 16 year old kid on this board. I only read the last couple pages and didnt see much. Any updates on him?
If you really want news on him, check his site out, he updates it fairly regularly: http://www.manzosoccer.com/
Being the youngest player on the team sounds like a good sign, as does being on an actual reserve team rather than a youth team, although it's hard to read the tea leaves from a distance. Nice note from the kid, by the way ... and yes, I will wish him luck.
They have a roster for Villarreal C on their site so it will be interesting to see if they update it to include him.