Scouting the Opposition

The reason coaches scout the opposition is to gain an advantage for their own team. It can help to know the opponents formation, whether they play zonal or man marking defense, their set pieces and certainly the most dangerous opposing players. It is quite natural to want any and every advantage we can accumulate.

There is also some inherent risk in scouting opponents and I will use two examples from this summer to highlight what I mean by this.   

The first example comes from my spring team. We were set to play for the championship of the Creek Classic against a league rival. We had defeated this same team twice earlier in the season. The first match was a close hard fought win at their place, The second was a more comfortable win on our home pitch. This third match was on a “neutral: pitch in the opponent’s backyard. 

I knew from the first two meetings that they would seek to double and even triple team our Portuguese exchange student, Calo. The first meeting he played forward for us and they had a difficult time handling him. The second meeting, in anticipation of them double teaming Calo we moved him around quite a bit. For this third meeting, we intentionally didn’t even start him.

We had another secret weapon they were largely unaware of due to his being injured much of the year. Unbeknownst to the opponents, Taylor was a goal scoring machine for us. Beginning the match with Calo on the bench momentarily threw them off their game plan. We went up 2 – 0 before Calo entered the game and for all intents and purposes the game was over by halftime.  It was 3-1 with Taylor having scored twice and the opponents lone goal coming very late in the half as I rested the starters. We started the second half with both Calo and Taylor on the field as they had begun to double team Taylor. Now they had to pick and choose their posion. We won by a comfortable 6-2 margin with my having called off the dogs early.

I firmly believe because our opponents had built a game plan around stopping Calo based on what he had been able to do against them in the first two games  his absence from the starting line confused them. Then having to deal with both Calo and Taylor simultaneously in the second half caught them completely off guard. It just wasn’t in their scouting report on us rendering that report useless.

The second example comes from the Findlay at Shawnee game I wrote about earlier this week. I had accompanied a couple members of Shawnee’s coaching staff to scout Findlay 2 days prior to Shawnee playing them. Their opponent that evening played a 4-4-2 man-marking system. Shawnee plays a 4-3-3 zonal system. I attempted to broach the subject of how Findlay’s approach might differ against Shawnee due to the difference in systems, but did not get a lot of reaction to this. The consensus seemed to be that Findlay wouldn’t change anything. I wasn’t so sure.

A couple of nights later everyone was proven right. Findlay began the game playing exactly as they had when we scouted them. Shawnee held their own during the first half and quite honestly probably had the better chances. Good call by our coaches and we went to half tied 0- 0.

To start the second half it was immediately obvious Findlay had entirely changed their approach to the game. The scouting report Shawnee had on them could have been thrown out the window for it was now useless. Findlay made the adjustments based on Shawnee’s system of play that I had warned about. Being completely honest, I did not know exactly what adjustments they would make, only that they would adjust to having to defend three forwards instead of defending two forwards. They did and completely dominated the second half winning the game 2-0. Kudos to Findlay’s coaching staff on the adjustments they made. It was the difference in the game.

The point being made here is one must be careful in scouting opponents. In the first case above our opponents did not anticipate I would change our lineup thereby negating what I know was a large part of their pre-match planning. In the second case above Shawnee scouted an opponent against a team using a drastically different system than what Shawnee would employ two nights later largely rendering Shawnee’s scouting report useless after halftime adjustments by Findlay.

Scouting reports need to come with a warning and understanding that they are based on limited exposure to the opponents. Adjustments and adaptations are likely to be made on a game by game or opponent by opponent basis. The scouting report is a basic foundation from which to build your own game plan but it would be prudent to attempt to anticipate the adjustments the opposition will make to defend and attack YOUR system as opposed to how they defended or attacked the opponents you scouted then against.

I consider the first half of the match you play against the opponent to be the critical time to scout and those precious minutes at half time to be crucial game planning time. Even then there must be recognition the opponents have also been scouting you during the first half and are busy making adjustments to their own game plan. Can you anticipate what those adjustments will be and incorporate them into the game plan you present at halftime? That right there is often the difference between winning and losing.

One of the best in the world at half time adjustments is USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann. How many times have we seen the US struggle in the first half of matches only to come out in the second half with a dominating performance? I have long had a fascination with half time adjustments but have only begun to really study the process the last 4 or 5 years as I have studied game tape and evaluated my own performances as a coach. 

In the first example above I was ahead of the game in my scouting and anticipation of what the opposition would do, how they would react. In the second example, I “knew” Findlay would make adjustments due to Shawnee playing a different system, but I failed to anticipate what the adjustments would be. It was not until reviewing the film of the game that the changes became apparent. Another learning experience for me. By watching the tape from a Findlay perspective I discovered what they had seen to prompt the changes they made at half time to swing the game in their favor. In a way, Findlay used our own scouting against us much as I did to the opponents in the first example above. I’m better for the experience but it was still a painful lesson to learn.