Saturday, June 19, 2010

God sent an important message to FIFA

Yesterday's USA - Slovenia 2-2 tie, where what should have been the winning USA goal was incorrectly disallowed, contained a hidden message from God.  It took me a while to translate the message, but when I did, here is what it said:

DEAREST FIFA,

This is God, so listen up, I have a to-do list for you:

1. Thou shalt bring thy game into the 21st century.
2. Thou shalt start using a video review of critical calls (goals disallowed, red cards) if the manager of a side requests it.
3. Thou shalt actually stop the holy here-be-fore never stopped game clock while a supervisory video review referee consults with the field referee over what the correct ruling should be.
4. Thou shalt also show sponsor commercials on the tv during this pause in the action, which will help everyone make money, which is a good thing for the game.
5. Thou will make your fans happy with these pauses in the action, because its unfair to expect fans to wait 45 minutes between bathroom breaks. If thou shalt refuse my request, I shall continue to strike referees deaf, dumb, and blind during critical matches, as I did today in the USA-Slovenia match.

Yours Truly,
GOD
(by the way, if my fictional letter from God offends anyone, no offense is intended)

What do you think? Should professional and International/FIFA matches have a video review of certain calls?  If so how would it work?  As in who would ask for a review, what would happen with the game clock, who would make the decision on the call once video is reviewed, would it only be allowed for certain types of situations and which ones?  Lots to figure out, but its time to get on it, IMO.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

USA England review

Many of the reviews, particularly by foreign commentators, on the 1-1 draw between the USA and England have focused on England keeper Robert Green's mishandling of a Clint Dempsey shot.  But there was a lot more going on than just a simple keeper error, for one thing, the error wouldn't even have mattered if we had not held England to one early goal. Here are some other ways to look at the game:
* The balls used in the World Cup are unlike any we play with.  The way they are stitched and grooved makes them incredibly responsive.  A bend bends more, a bounce can cause an unpredictable movement, a poorly struck ball looks even worse than it would with a store-bought ball.  Clint Dempsey said after the game, "These balls move so much, you just hit them on goal, you have a chance." Keepers have it particularly tough at the World Cup, and in the last week Howard and others have grumbled about how the balls for this Cup are tough to predict.
* Wayne Rooney didn't touch the ball for the first 17 minutes and didn't touch it in the box until the 70th minute. I think this should be seen as the big news from this game.  Cheers to Bob Bradley's coaching and the US defenders for basically taking this top striker out of the game.
* In recent World Cups, when the USA has gone down a goal early, they have kind of fallen apart.  England scored in the 4th minute.  In the 29th minute, Howard took a cleat in the chest, and was clearly in a lot of pain and might have to come out.  How did we respond?  We scored in the 40th minute, and increased our pressure, coming close a few times to scoring a go-ahead goal.  Cheers to the US team's determination to believe in themselves and play hard the full 90 minutes.
* Back to the US defenders.  Steve Cherundolo shut down attacking-midfielder James Milner in the opening 30 minutes and then shut down his sub Shaun Wright-Phillips. Cherundolo also drew several fouls in the first half as he made fast runs forward.
* The US starting defenders were, from left to right:  Bocanegra, Onyewu, DeMerit, Cherundolo.  All had solid games, DeMerit may have had the most costly lapse.  The England goal by Steven Gerrard occurred when Gerrard made a run in the box and US midfielder Ricardo Clark lost his mark on him.  US defender Jay DeMerit allowed his mark, Emile Heskey, to complete the through pass to set up Gerrard's goal by not getting pressure on him sooner.
* Both teams played a 4-4-2 (four defenders, four midfielders, and 2 forwards/strikers).  The next US opponent, Slovenia, also played a 4-4-2 in their 1-0 win over Algeria today.  Slovenia and Algeria are the other two teams in our group, so Slovenia now leads our group of four teams with 3 points from their win today.  The USA will play Slovenia this Friday, June 18 at 10am.  Getting a win would hold Slovenia at a total of 3 points, and would give the USA 4 points total (a win plus a draw).  It is likely that England will win their Friday match versus Algeria which will give them 4 points. The top two teams of the four in our group advance, so after Friday, we will have one more game each.  Best to enter that third and final group game in at least second place and in a position to advance!
DID YOU SEE:  When the U.S. had a couple of corner kicks, the ESPN cameras showed the battle to get position in front of the goal between Altidore and Rooney. It was fun to watch.  It was also interesting that they brought Rooney back to mark Altidore because of Altidore's strong physical presence.
AN AREA FOR CONCERN: The U.S. passing accuracy was 66.8 percent, its second-lowest total since the stat was first tracked in 1966. Since 1966, only seven teams won a World Cup match with a passing accuracy lower than 67 percent. In the 2nd half, England's passing accuracy was 82 percent and the US passing accuracy was 62 percent.
This post was written by Brian Herbert

Thursday, June 10, 2010

what is galindo's golazo all about?

When I started writing little articles and compilations of soccer news, I was already managing a boys’ academy web site for our U9 and U10’s at Gwinnett Soccer Association.  Though I was plenty busy with all the administrative tasks that go into being team manager for 37 boys, two age groups, and up to 12 or 13 matches for just a regular season Saturday-Sunday, and more on tournament weekends, I wanted to do more than just dot the I’s and cross the t’s.

Working with our coaches and directors, I had been steadily ramping up the content on our team web site to try to capture the passion of the soccer world and make it available to our boys.  I started by providing links to pro leagues and sites for National teams.  I also started providing news about teams, players, nutrition, articles by our coaches, and then added video clips of great plays by guys like Messi and C. Ronaldo.  A simple, “thanks, we enjoyed that article” from a parent while picking up my son from practice, or a comment from one of our directors like, “you are raising the bar for what all our teams need to be doing” encouraged me to keep dedicating the time and energy to connect with players and parents and share my passion for the sport.

So, having a business background and some sense of marketing, I thought, “if I become a regular blogger, what’s my niche?  There are lots of soccer blogs, am I offering a new or better ‘product’?”  And it hit me:  talk about what I’m most passionate about, youth soccer, and my experience as a very involved soccer Dad!

My son is now 11 and I started coaching his rec teams when he was five.  I always put a lot of energy and passion in trying to connect with each kid on the team.  My greatest coaching victories were when a parent told me that their son who didn’t want to play at the start of the season, just signed up for the next season.  Or a kid I coached two years ago sees me on the pitch and comes up and says “hey, coach!”  And the best is one 9 year old who was really down on himself, second season playing, and he makes a great tackle and passes the ball upfield to spark a scoring play, and his face lights up.  That is lightning in a bottle, and we adults need to help kids capture it.

These experiences brought back memories of my own ups and downs, victories and defeats from when I played youth select soccer, and other sports for that matter.  So that is what I am writing about – the youth soccer experience, with posts oriented more toward kids in a language they will enjoy reading, and posts oriented more towards soccer moms and dads like me.  We lose a lot of kids from soccer programs from the U10 to U14 range, and adults need to share responsibility for that.  Kids can be thinking about quitting, unhappy with something but not having said anything for a long time before we know about it, and then it may be too late.

As my son gets more into the competitive levels of soccer, of course I am interested in excellence and seeing them win, but there is a bigger mission to keep in mind.  Even competitive players reach a stage when they are no longer competitive.  For any player, competitive or not, do you love the game for the game itself, for the exercise, for the sense of community on the field?  If you do, you can always find a game somewhere. There is an excitement I feel in just driving past a nicely groomed pitch and imagining playing a match on it. This blog is about serving that kool-aid up for others to enjoy.

p.s. - Galindo is my middle name, Colombian heritage from my mom's side of the family, and a Golazo - well, that's just an amazing, spectacular goal.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

What can soccer players learn from John Wooden?

Former UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden died a few days ago at the age of 99.  May he Rest in Peace.
Wooden won 10 (yes TEN) NCAA National Championships in the 1960's and 1970's.  Way before there was Duke, UNC, Kentucky, or Georgetown, there was Wooden and UCLA. Growing up, I loved both soccer and basketball, and I have often thought that almost everything you learn on a basketball court can be applied to soccer (the give and go, isolation, rebounding, etc.).  OK, you can't set a pick in soccer, I'll give you that, but you get my point.  But aside from the similarities in the sports, I wanted to write a brief note about a man whose importance goes way beyond hoops, and applies to the pursuit of excellence in any sport, and to life itself.
Wooden's motto for players was "failing to prepare is preparing to fail".  Kind of like the approach in our academy soccer program, if you work your hardest in practice, if you repeat and repeat until your muscles and your mind know what to do, even when you are tired and grumpy, performance in games just kind of happens.  When Wooden was a pro player (before coaching), he once hit 138 straight free throws in pro games.  Hmmm...do you think he might have spent some solo time outside of practice working on that skill? 
Legendary former Georgetown Coach John Thompson, a big fan of Wooden, taught his players the following saying from Wooden: "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are while your reputation is just what others think you are."  Wow. How does that Wooden-ism apply to you guys playing Academy soccer?  It means guys, there is a lot of noise out there that doesn't matter: Games are won or lost, you may miss a shot or let a goal in, you may play on the "A" team or the "B" team, and parents may, unfortunately, be quick to tell you where they think you messed up.  John Wooden would say, if you are stressed about those things, you need to chill out and focus on what you can control:  the way you work, the way you relate to your coach and teammates, and the way you take care of yourself and show the pride of an athlete.  THAT is character, and character always wins in the long run.
On doing what you love, and keeping things in perspective, there is no greater role model than John Wooden. He frequently mentioned how basketball is nowhere near as important to him as his faith.  In this age of multi-million dollar salaries for college coaches, John Wooden's salary in 1975, the year he won his 10th NCAA Championship, was $35,000 for the whole year, probably what some coaches now make for a single game!  When asked once how he was able to be so successful, Wooden replied, "I have been blessed with players who focused on 'we' instead of 'me'."  Just a plain-spoken, humble guy, who happens to be the greatest college basketball coach of all time.  We will miss him.
This post was written by Brian Herbert.