Switzerland vs Argentina on February 29th should be a great game to watch tactics in use.


Tell me...
Who does Argentina think they are?

Who does Switzerland think they are?

Who is more realistic?

And which playing style shows that?



*In their first game in group H, Switzerland achieved a 1–0 win against Spain in South Africa... This is what it is all about. Knowing who you are and what tactics your team can use to win one game against any team in the world on just one day.



Messi...

Now he is one of the guys that has his system fully thought out and is training his team to play the complete system of high pressure defending. And his guys are getting the results with this system.


US U23 team

USA V Canada Olympic Qualifying game 3-24-12
433 v 451

When coaches lose they should just say, Yep, we lost we can do better.

But no, they all want to try to explain it...
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/20...nadian-strategy

"They set up in Christmas tree, a 4-3-2-1, and it's not a shape they've used," Porter said in the postgame press conference. "That's a shape you use to really stop a team. They did that to shut down. Essentially, we were three vs. five in the middle.

Score = 0-2
I guess it worked then, too bad you don't get style points in football.




-I thought you said this whole 433 attacking stuff was a sure thing?






Tactic = 5v3 in the middle against a "433 possession attacking team"
So that surprised you ahe?

* I tried to be positive about the 433 in the post above... It did not take long to go back to being cynical about it.

0-2
THAT WAS ONLY CANADA, AND WE WERE NOT PLAYING HOCKEY!

3/26/2012
USA vs EL Salvador 3-3
Olympic Qualifying game

That was one of the poorest displays of defending a lead with only ten minutes left in a big game I have ever seen.

A US Soccer "C" coaching couse topic: Possession with a purpose!

Nuff said about that!

This U23 2012 Olympic qualifying will kill the "Why would we not copy the best team in the world" idea.

This thread is now finished. Another mission has been completed.
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US Soccer Best Practice (.pdf)
http://www.ussoccer.com/Coaches/Resources.aspx

Coaching soccer can be confusing at times... U.S. Soccer feels it is helpful to keep the following ideas at the forefront of your mind:

1. Set up situations where the players can learn by playing the game. The game is the best teacher.

2. Coaches can often be more helpful to a player’s development by organizing less, saying less and allowing the players to do more.

3. Teaching and learning the game of soccer is a process.

4. Set appropriate goals i.e., know what the player is able to do.
As a coach, work with these strengths, not against them.

*The objective of the Men’s National Team is to achieve results in international competition. For this reason, there is a close relationship between the Men’s National Team and the U-23 team, and at times, the U-20 team.

-I'm thinking about taking a trip to Australia... Maybe around... July 25 through August 11, do you want to come?

-Can we leave sooner than that?

OMG! You have to be kidding?

http://www.ussoccer.com/News/U-23-MNT/2012/03/US-Faces-Elimination-after-Late-Equalizer.aspx

"The U.S. defended well as the final whistle approach, with Johnson making a series of impressive saves and the backline doing everything possible to clear its lines at each opportunity".

"Even so it looked like the U.S. would hold on for the win until the final moment of the game, when El Salvador’s Alas curled a left-footed shot from 20 yards".
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That was the worst example of defending a lead I have ever seen. It was not even close to good defending.

We just simply did not display good defending tactics.

-We did not get numbers behind the ball in our own defending 1/3.
-We did not take away space for them to play into near our own goal.
-We were in very poor shape the whole last 10 minutes, you could not see any type of organized lines of defenders.
-We did control where the ball was able to be played.
-We lacked cover, but still pressured the ball chasing the ball as individual defending players.
-We did not get faced up the field before attempting to pressure the ball.
-We were not compact as a full unit of 8-9 players.
-We did not move with the ball as a unit of 8-9 players.
-We had no redundancy built in to the defending system in case something went wrong.
-Our desperate clearing long ball play gave them hope, that hope created their energy to pressure us strongly in the final minutes.


+We did win the ball back many times, -but only because we lost the ball even more times in the last 10 minutes.


-We did not play away from pressure when we regained possession.
-We attempted way too many long ball counter attack passes. The longer the pass the less likely to maintain possession. It's a well know fact!
-We continued to give them the ball back, we created their chances, we gave them repeated attempts to attack us in our half.
-We did not keep possession of the ball for more than three passes in the last 10 minutes.
-We showed complete panic by clearing the ball in a desperate attempt to get out of the pressure, repeatedly.
-We did not have enough energy left in the final 10 minutes to give the ball good supporting options to maintain possession.
-We made risky passes in the middle third forcing the ball forward, without even looking for a safer pass to maintain possession.


*It was 10 minutes of 1v1 duels at a very high pace played back and forth on the field, exactly what you don't want when up by one at the end of the game.

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1679/us-n...ed-like-a-loser
"You can't measure success always on results," Porter said. "You sometimes have to prioritize winning less to play a certain way."

We did not at all... look like Barcelona...?
We did not control the game, we did not control the pace of play, we did not control the possession of the game, not at all!

-It looked more liked a high school game, and it also emotionally ended like one.

It should have been more like this.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/20...ule=from_footer

The tactical mess that the US made on the field, something I alluded to in this space a month ago, is why.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/02/17/armchair-analyst-4-3-3-and-new-american-orthodoxy

Put simply: The 4-3-3 was the wrong choice for this group of talent.

Look, I understand that we all want the US to look like Spain as soon as humanly possible. I certainly do.

But this current Spanish generation is pretty much the product of 40 years of Barcelona's famed La Masia academy. You don’t replicate that in one Olympic cycle, not without cutting some corners and driving some square pegs into round holes.


...spent so much time chasing is because of how spread out the US were. That’s what this version of the 4-3-3 is designed to do – get the game wide open...

The US didn’t dominate physically...

So the Salvadorans were able to stay compact on defense, then charge into gaps that quite literally showed up all over the field whenever the US turned the ball over. Which was often.

The Canadians, meanwhile, played a 4-3-2-1, stifled any US creativity in midfield...

The US, in that alignment, are easy to play against. You have room to pass. You have room to receive. You have room, as Alas did, to dribble, unmolested, 40 yards across the midfield and choose your shot.

When has that ever been said of a US side? Have the US, even when outclassed, ever made the game easy for the opposition in a game that counted?


The final big sin of the 4-3-3 is that it got away from what this particular age group has: big, strong forwards and tons of guys who can cross.


What it comes down to is that this group wasn’t designed to play the way Porter asked them to. And then when he had a chance to adjust, he didn't.

And that’s the real lesson this autopsy gives us: Wishing you can play a certain way is not the same as actually going out and doing it.