Attacking 90 - the Soccer Blog

That Thing America Needs to Achieve Soccer Greatness

There is a lot of talk about soccer programs and what the USA must do different to become a true soccer nation.  Usually I hear this talk couched in terms of competitive success - but before we ever declare “US Soccer” a success, I think we’ll need to know what it is.

Soccer fans know what Brazilian soccer looks like, we know what Italian soccer looks like, what Spanish soccer looks like, what German soccer looks like, what Argentinian soccer looks like, and the list goes on.  Every great soccer nation has a style of soccer that is the basis for their success, but also exists as an end in itself.  It is part of their national identity.

Brazilians would rather lose, I think, than lose their samba and play boring 9 men behind the ball.  It is hard for me to imagine Italy happy with any victory where their defense gave away many goals.

Today I am watching some 13 year old boys play a match and a few of us soccer dads are talking.  One of the dads grew up playing soccer in Mexico, another grew up playing in Japan, our sons work together on the pitch against the other team.  We talk about the qualities of German soccer, of Italian and Mexican soccer.  What is US soccer?  A mix, is all we can figure.

If we study to become a great mix I fear we will not achieve greatness in any aspect of the game.  Without consistent greatness in some aspect of our play, we cannot become a great soccer nation.

Today the US style of soccer seems simply based on whatever strengths our better players happen to have.  That approach seems more destined to yield junk than jamabalaya.

Mix together: a direct forward with pace, a very physical center back, some midfielders who play direct, some who don’t, season with coaching…  OK, some games it works depending upon who plays and who the competition is, but crunching tackles and joga bonito don’t work well together.  You can add great Brazilian players (e.g. Robinho) to an English team (Manchester City), but that doesn’t make it Barcelona FC.

If we want to be a great soccer nation, there should be more method than madness, more plan than luck, there should player development in a style of play we want to play.

What is the US style of soccer?  What should it be?

FC Martians

Some basic premises we can all agree upon:

• Where there is water there is life
• Where there is life there is futbal (soccer)
• If it white and it evaporates, it is not salt

Now that NASA has video of the white stuff evaporating on Mars, it is time to consider what kind of futballers the inhabitants of that planet may be.

Some experts have suggested that any Martian life long ago emigrated to the Earth.  Observation of certain referees and club owners promotes this theory.  Still, we should be prepared to face modern Martians on the pitch.

And a challenge it may be with their 3 heads, 8 legs and infamous late tackles.  Lucky we’ve got Cristiano.

Rubbing Sticks Together

After writing about motivating teams, I was reminded how much the simple teammate to teammate chemistry can contribute to bringing out peak performance. It’s that positive friction, player to player, that fires us up, sets positive expectations of each other, and cements a social contract about commitment level and how we’ll play together.

You can get this exuberance in team sport from person to person interaction that is hard to find or generate in most adult pursuits. It is an addictive state to operate in and perhaps what makes team sport great.

It seems great team accomplishments also require dedication on a lot of rainy days where something more than team chemistry is required to lay the groundwork toward victory. The right motivational framework can provide the horsepower to power through the rainy days, as well as something to attach the team electricity onto.

Positive team chemistry is, like icing on the cake, the tastiest part of it all.

We can win this - lets go!

Roma Wasn’t Burned in a Day

Manchester United v.s. Roma on April 9, 2008 - all you needed to see was the first twenty minutes. The red devils were in overdrive, at full sprint. Every loose ball was United’s, if not with the first challenge, then with the next or the next until they had it and were attacking again. Fun to watch unless you’re a Roma fan. The shock of Park’s full speed industry all over the pitch is stuck in my mind, but the whole team was moving on hyperdrive. This without Rooney or Cristiano on the pitch.

At least, that’s how I remember it.

There are so many talented players, and so many teams with talent, but rarely do we see football like that. Playing beautiful is one thing, playing with that level of team desire is something else; it wins games, and hearts, and engraves memories forever.

I’m not sure how Sir Alex Ferguson motivates his professional team, but I do know the names on his roster are humans, as are the rest of us, and the same principles of motivation apply. My own research on motivation has yielded the following formula, which I offer below for the good of your team. It works - use it only for the good!

Instructions for building a fire under a team:

1. Give them a common goal, an achievable challenge they share and care about
2. Help them believe in it, give them the vision of success
3. Structure the team so that each player has responsibilities which make a significant contribution to the goal
4. Give each player a growth path so that they see themselves developing and ascending personally through their efforts for the team
5. Remove the individual’s fear of failure so that their minds are focused only on success
6. Foster camaraderie and fraternity among team members so that these well motivated players are as one

Or, the elements of a team’s motivational fire are:

• Goal
• Belief
• Contribution
• Growth
• Fearlessness
• Emotional bond

You might think that winning a game is a sufficient goal for high motivation. It usually isn’t. Everyone has won and lost games before. Some players may not believe they can win the game, and they may even be right. Players may not feel their contribution is significantly tied to the team’s success, or that they will not ascend through their efforts for the team, and they may be right. Players may have one eye on what happens if they give 100% and fail, and maybe they should. It all depends on how the coach has built the mission and the team dynamics.

Players out to serve their own needs sometimes will win games as part of a team, but that feels more like statistics, not like something of meaning to the human heart. What is possible as a team is beyond the individual, but building the highest level of fire under a team is hard.

It takes a whole lot more than pointing out the players’ errors, or giving a speech and a bit of encouragement.