As a soccer coach, trainer, fan, player and parent, watching live soccer is important in the development of youth soccer players. For example, I was talking to an outside defender the other day on his play and pushing forward up the pitch into really an “attacking defender.” I noted that his runs up the pitch have contributed to some great goals and opportunities for the team. While some stadiums are high enough to give you a birds-eye view of the pitch from a TV camera, you really miss the feel for the game if you are not watching it live/in-person.

So why are more kids not watching live soccer? In Minnesota, we have over 75,000 registered youth soccer players. However, you go to a Minnesota Stars FC (NASL/D2) soccer match and you only see a few youth players in the stands. DOCs from the various clubs fail to promote the matches and BODs and coaches are often too busy with the distractions of life to get their kids in the stands.

Regardless of your role in the soccer community, we all have a vested interest in professional soccer—regardless the level of play. So I ask you, if you think watching live soccer is essential to player development, what have you do to promote the game?

Discuss.

I'm not sure there's any evidence that viewing games live is a better educational tool than watching video. When it comes to individual technique, which is generally lacking in American youth players, you could argue that watching TV is actually preferable to live viewing due to replays and close-ups.

My 10-year-old watches Saturday morning EPL games religiously, but Saturday night at the Dome he kept asking about getting to the far side of the field for a kick-around, and halftime snacks.

Yes it should happen, but maybe their are real reasons why it has not yet happened here in america?

You can't force someone to love something, ether they feel it, or they don't.
I have seen high school age teams at pro games do nothing but make paper airplanes and see if they could hit the field with them all game long...

There is a big difference in having fun watching a game and learning from it.

It is not easy to analyze a players position, as well as his performance in that position. Figuring out a team's system is even more work and working at seeing the game is not what fans like to do. You have to use a method for game analysis when you have 20 players all moving at the same time. Some times you even miss the big parts of the game. It's not very much fun unless you are internally motivated by that type of thing.

When a young player goes to a game as a fan they do what everybody does, they watch the ball. They watch who has the ball and what they do with the ball. Players will learn little about the game only watching the ball. They might pick up a new move or two to beat a player 1v1 but that is about it.

Can you improve your first touch by watching someone else receive the ball? Not really, when someone at the top level performs the skill it looks easy.

Can you improve your passing by watching other players pass the ball?

Can you improve your shooting?

You could improve your supporting movements by knowing where the ball may go next.

You could improve you teams ability to maintain possession by understanding where the space is on the field.

Well coached players at the older age levels could learn more once they have been taught the basic tactics and how they are used. Do your youth team players understand these basic tactics? Have you taught them to your team? Is that really the best use of your team's valuable training time at the U12-14 age?

Once a country embraces soccer as a culture then these other areas will be developed. Forums like this one is one way we will move forward. But we need more people with strong opinions and the willingness to share those (even when wrong, it creates discussions). Many hard core US fans, and many youth coaches still don't understand tactics very well. It is not and easy thing to learn, it is not a static thing it changes every day.

You could learn more about being a better goalkeeper by watching an experienced goalkeeper and his positioning during shots but that is one of the few areas.


The things you can learn is about the game by just watching is the organization of the players and how each position works within that system used. But to be able to do that you need to have a very good understanding of all the systems and the difference in the players roles within those specific systems.

-But to the inexperienced young player an unguided observance of a player without their role defined within a system could bring bad habits. If their team plays with three forwards and the coach uses a high pressure defending system where you chase after the ball in the attacking 1/3 as soon as you lose it, then they are going to be confused when watching the actions of a lone #9 target forward in a 451 system that drops off and creates a compact defending unit of 9 with a line of confrontation at the back portion of the center circle. They would see the other two forwards (really outside mids) drop off and not pressure until the ball crosses that line of confrontation. They would start to think their own coach has it wrong and the pros have it right. They would not understand why this system is being used now at this time of the game/season.

Many top team use more than one playing system during a 90 minute game. Some may start out using a high pressure 433, then switch back to a more resting 451 for a while until something gives them a reason to go back to high pressure. Think of basketball, the full court press is only use for a few minutes at a time. The use of tactics can get very confusing and most times is intended to be just that for the other team.

Many coaches might just feel better having their players just listen to their instructions on one system of play using only one style of play instead of wanting to have a decision on team tactics every time the coach tells a player where and what they should be doing on the field. The tactics should be tailored to the team you will play, what system they will most likely use and the situation you are in (weather temp, field conditions, numbers of games played, season length, injuries, etc...).

This is what I feel is a big problem in american soccer at the moment. We don't know enough about how adjusting playing systems/organization and the resulting style of play can become the real twelfth player on the field. A good coach can adjust his system and end up wining games. A poor coach blames his player for not being able to play his system right. The world is not static, and a coach must adjust to the real play on the field in front of him.

This is one of the reasons why i'm personally disappointed in the current US Soccer coaching curriculum written up by Claudio Rayna. It tells everyone to play one style of high pressure attacking soccer. Some times that works but many times it is a poor choice against teams that can play well against pressure and especially in tournaments where you play many games in a few short days.
If the team looks really tired at the end of the 90 minute game, when most of the scoring happens then was the system and style use correct for a tournament where the same 11 will play again shortly with little rest? We need more teaching and learning about how we as coaches can adjust the play of the game and when to do that.

-Here is another example of a problem of watching top level pros play vs youth play. Many top mens teams will play their attacking players spread all across the whole width of the field to create more space for quicker counter attack play. Two wingers all the way out on the lines pulls apart a bad defending unit in the lower levels. In the last team I coached my assistant coach and my DC wanted my U13 girl players spread all across the width of the field when we attacked. I disagreed because my 451 defending system was a possession build up oriented team in attack (2011, without Shelby) we lacked any great 1v1 go to goal alone counter players. In my system I wanted my players to stay closer in attack and to provide better quick support to the ball with 10-20 yard passing distances (the best passing completion percentage range). We needed to be able to move the ball forward as a unit, at a slower pace in possession that is where our strength was. That is where possession development happens, when players provide good quality and speed of supporting options. I wanted them to use the width as space to play into when they changed the point of attack (switch and shift over with the ball as a unit). The closer spacing also created much better starting positions when we transitioned to defending (we were never considered to be the best team in our league, we were 2-3 at best) we were going to have to defend well against the strong teams.

Last year we played the best team in our league for 138 minutes out of 140 minutes (two games) before we gave up the first goal. We had five chances of our own to score in each game but did not finish on those. We lost the second game with two minutes to go against the strongest team in the league, We gained coincidence from those hard fought games. We were knocked out of the state playoffs during PKs not while on the field. That is player development.

In practice one day my assistant got upset because he did not understand the system. He told the wingers to get out wider near the lines. I stopped him and said no! That is a worthless tactic at the U14 girls level. I asked him how many of our girls can hit that ball all the way across the field with enough force to get it there quickly and with accuracy? He still had doubts because that is how his son's U17 team played...
So, I set up the play coming out of the back to show the team why we were using the system we were using. I had taught them all how to read the set up by the player about to play a long ball (the ball first pushed out in front of the player, the longer steps to the ball, the big leg swing and follow through). That set up alone takes two seconds. He was the defender playing the long ball out of the back. I was the defender covering the winger (and I stayed in the center of the field until I could read his intentions to play long) I had him move the winger all the out to the line and let him try to get the ball to her. He hit four or five well hit long balls and I was able to get to all of them before they got out to the player on the line... My team all now knew we had a system tailored to their real abilities not something that was just trying to copy a mens team game. It took 15 minutes to discuss and show this one point to my team and assistant coach.


Coaches can learn a lot about how systems and style of play can effect the game outcome by analyzing games played at the level they are coaching. Players should watch some games but they do better by spending their time on the field and listening and believing in their own coaches (problem is many of them are not great at what they do and many parents are not willing to pay for better coaching).

Sometime young players just get intimidated by watching bigger and older athletes doing things things they have not mastered yet. The environment to develop is best within their own age groups. Even better when they go help younger players develop their own skills as a youth coach themselves. That gives them more confidence, (being looked up to as the expert) then watching bigger stronger players do what they can't do yet (less confidence).

It is the coaching staff, dc, trainers, and club's job to teach them to be better players at the young ages. That is where improvement can be generated using the best teaching methods.

To promote and build the pro game to adults we need it to be more of an event than just a two hour game.

Tailgating, supporter groups where people make new friends that share the same passion and fun events for the fans is the key. The full event should be about four hours on a weekend. Dinner and talking to the players and coaches is great after the games, very unique to D2.

If you want more kids to come to the game then make it about them. Make more events where they can test themselves against others at their same age.
A season long skills competition where they advance up in the rankings as they do better.
Send them to a supervised game camp while you go to the tailgate and have a beer...

Running races
Kicking longest distance
Shooting competitions
Passing accuracy
Dribbling courses

4v4 games for those that make it to the top of their group.

Give the winners a ribbon, and pat them on the head... Then go watch the game once they are tired out and want to sit for 90 minutes.

Glad to see you still have your head in the sand MN Soccer Guy. BTW, why was your front desk worker trying to shake me down for $5 the other night during your v-ball tourney when I was clearly there to watch soccer/my kid. You would think the Liverpool kit top and soccer ball I was carrying would have given it away. I'm just saying...