Foothills Soccer Club: PODCASTS

UK Trip

Blog Entry - July 27, 2011

Foothills Followers,

We have now been over in my homeland for 6 days as we look to expose our U14 Sounders boys to a higher level of soccer, character building opportunities and some life enriching culture along the way.

We have played 4 games in total in England so far, 1 friendly + 3 tournament group games. The Arsenal International Soccer Festival (www.AISF.com) is a very good tournament and comparable to a Provincial or National Level tournament. It is hosted every year in the fantastic Royal Holloway University campus in Egham, Surrey. The main campus building is very grand and reminds me of Hogwarts from the Harry Potter films, which funnily enough I was told they actually filmed the Quiddich game scene on the campus. The fields (or pitches as they are called here) are in very good condition, with 5 playing fields side by side less than a 5 minute walk from our dorms.

Today we secured our qualification into tomorrow's quarter finals with a comfortable 3-0 win over Parma SC of Italy, with goals from Beaux Fleury, Scott Wycliffe-Jones and Isaac Ariza. We opened our first game of the tournament versus a very strong English club team called Bromley who beat us 3-1 with our goal coming from Matt Melynchuk. It was a rude awakening for the boys, as they were by no means superior to us technically, just physically stronger, mentally tougher, very direct and had some good "soccer savvy" in the fact they knew what to do, when to do it and how to get things done. Basically they ran us over in the first half, before we were allowed time to adjust for the second. The level of intensity in the games here are far higher than what we experience in Calgary and it always takes Canadian teams a few games to properly adapt.

English club teams equivalent to us play on average 9-10 months (Aug-May) - a year outdoor versus our 4 month (May-Aug) outdoor season and trust me, this makes a massive difference. English teams also have this burning competitive streak in them that drives them to want to be first to every ball with everything they have. Once in possession, their natural instinct is to attack as quickly and as often as possible, putting countless through balls over the top or down the sides of the back four for the strikers and wingers to run onto. From the first to the last whistle it is a high tempo'd, full blooded affair. The purpose of our visits here are to grow and learn and bring some of these attributes home with us, adding a new level of intensity, tempo and game intelligence to their already accomplished technical and athletic abilities.

We experienced a great "welcome to the English game" during our tournament opener, but have since been fortunate enough to play a Moroccan team (3-0 Win) and Italian team (3-0 Win) that have both brought varied playing styles and approaches to the game. The draw to the Quarter Finals has been made internally, with us drawing an academy team from London called "Actual Soccer". I was able to scout them first hand and will be compiling a game plan based on our strengths that will nullify theirs, whilst exposing their weaknesses.

Fingers crossed!!!

Tommy

Coaching Diary

Blog Entry - August 2, 2011

Foothills Followers,

Today we departed London after a hugely beneficial 9 days in England's capital, where the players (and parents) experienced a very well run Arsenal Tournament, some historical sight seeing, retail therapy and even some high level live Football action.

We took the team to Arsenal's state-of-the-art Emirates Stadium for their Pre-Season tournament involving Boca Juniors (of Argentina), Paris St Germain (of France, NY Red Bulls (of US) and Arsenal themselves. The boys were fortunate to watch back to back games involving Boca vs PSG, then Arsenal vs NY Red Bulls, with the latter being an emotional affair for the Arsenal faithful as they welcomed 'home' their prodigal son Thierry Henry (who now plys his trade @ NY these days). The best thing about this part of our tour, is the players are able to watch and learn so much with a live game. The intricacies of the team shape, off the ball movement, communication and how refined the techniques are when up close and personal, can not be learned when watching at home on the TV. Then as an added romance to the experience, the atmosphere of the home fans helped the boys to comprehend how passionate the game is enjoyed on these shores.

As we left London behind us, we headed south down the M4 motorway towards our Torquay base camp for the second part of our tour. This second week was designed to expose the boys to the professional academies of England. Having served my footballing apprenticeship @ Swindon Town FC (1995-97), I was able to call upon my good connections there to arrange an exhibition with their U14's today. With the weather consistently hitting +25 degrees here in England, the boys were looking forward to another warm game day in the sun... Their 7th in 10 days no less!

Swindon Town FC and their Centre of Excellence Director Jeremy Newton treated our Foothills players and parents first class. We were invited to a ground tour prior to the game, which on a personal level was very nostalgic seeing my current apprentices visit my old stomping ground. We were then escorted to the Swindon Town training ground in Wanborough, where the pitches were like bowling greens side by side that just created an environment fit for a Football factory ready to churn out the next set of professional footballers, (the most recent of whom was just sold by Swindon for $400,000 to Man City).

Our boys started the game the best they have on tour so far, matching the Swindon boys for effort, intensity and controlled possession. This was a massive positive for myself and Dylan as coaches and something we have been trying to improve on as a team whilst over here. For developmental purposes, the game was broke down into 3x25 minute periods allowing both set of coaches more coaching opportunities and the players more water breaks. The 1st period ended in a tidy 0-0 affair. The second half started quicker, with Swindon appearing ruffled at being held back by a Canadian club side. We were down 1 goal following a dipping shot from their centre forward after we turned the ball over on in our third. This however did not deter our Foothills boys who stepped up their game and pushed for an equalizer. Halfway through the 2nd period, we did just that when a quick throw in by Beaux Fleury to Drake Rendle, who dropped the shoulder in the middle of the pitch before playing a neat lobbed through ball over their back line for young Darius Ramsay to nip in behind them, before cleverly lobbing their on coming keeper to tie the game up. The 3rd and final period began to slow down with both teams beginning to tire and then let the ball do the work. Swindon's composed and patient passing out of the back was commendable and their movement in midfield was excellent. Our defensive shape and dynamic counter attack was threatening and resulted in 3 or 4 excellent chances forcing their GK into saves and even hitting the post. Unfortunately we could not find that killer instinct for the 2nd goal, thus leaving the door open for the Swindon team to score a last minute winner after we failed to clear our lines effectively.

Overall I was delighted with the performance our boys put on, however I would have loved us to have earned a result as a moral victory for the lads. With my Technical Director's hat on, it was a great benchmark for where our players are at in comparison to a professional club and academy. I was also delighted when I was asked about the possibility of our a couple of our boys staying on for a trial with Swindon.

Watch this space...

Tommy

The Professor

Foothills vs Exeter City

Foothills U14's 1-2 Exeter City U14's

Another quality display against a cultured professional academy team (from the English 3rd tier). We matched their possession and physicality and came away with a lot of plaudits "for trying to play the right way".

This is the second time in 2 days that I have been given feedback like this from professional clubs, commending us on how we try to pass the ball around the pitch. It is also the second time in 2 days that we have lost by the same narrow scoreline, where once again our naivity in defending our box cost us against more ruthless opposition. However, other than the 2 goals our goalkeepers were rarely tested, whilst we continued to probe at theirs.

All in all, yet another excellent performance from the Foothills boys against high level opposition. 3 of the lads have also been invited back next week for a try out.

Blog Entry - August 4, 2011

Foothills Followers,

We played our third and final game versus the 'junior professional' academy sides, with Plymouth Argyle of England's league 2 as our opponents. This was our 3rd game in 3 days, ninth game in 12 days (in England) and 14th game in 22 days (including the 5 CMSA games we had to complete in 10 days prior to traveling). In all my experience within this game, this has to be the heaviest game schedule I have even known. Therefore even I, with my high expectations would have forgiven the boys if they put in a tired and sloppy performance against a young and hungry Plymouth side.

Like with the 2 previous academy games, we played the game in 4 x 20 minute quarters to allow for more stoppages for coaching input, replenishing fluids and player rotations. A massive thing that I noticed as a coach, was the level of feedback I was giving during the game versus our opponents coaches. Taking a step back from the sidelines, I began wondering if I was giving "too much" information and not allowing the players to take ownership, or if I was compensating for our communication deficiencies against a very organized, disciplined and savvy opposition. I later found it was the latter, as the teams here are not only exposed to longer outdoor seasons (Aug-Apr versus our May-Aug), but they are submerged in an "Total Football" environment much in the same way we are with Hockey in Canada. It's the generations of Football supporting passed down from Granddad to Dad to Son, who have watched hours of Football, live and otherwise, in addition to reading the sports pages on the back of the tabloids that are dominated with the Countries favorite sport and not to mention the playground pastimes and topic of discussions being heavily dominated by Football.

At our Club, we can bridge the gap as far as possible in terms of technical input and coach education, however we can not and may never be able to fully capture the environment of a soccer mad nation like England, Spain, Brazil or Germany for example. Therefore we have to manufacture the environment or expose our players to bigger and better opposition and within and outside of Canada. Yesterday (Wednesday Aug 3rd) we took a massive step forward in terms of the gap we bridging by beating a technical Plymouth side 3-2 on their own pitch. Following on the back of two strong showings versus Swindon and Exeter, we finally turned a narrow loss into a comfortable win. Although we started the game slowly in the first period, we grew in the second scoring 2 good goals through Daniel Harrison who showed his power and pace running beyond the Plymouth defence, before Plymouth pulled one back in the middle of the third period. After a reminder of our key points at the interval, the boys were entrusted with "taking charge of the game" by organizing their shape off the ball and giving directional information on it. In credit to the lads, they were great and even scored a third goal through a Drake Rendle half volley following a well delivered corner from Beaux Fleury. Just before the final whistle Plymouth tried to make it interesting by curling in a well taken free kick, but strong defending led by the imposing Jamie Sell ensured the Foothills team sealed a well deserved victory against a professional academy side.