Playing fast soccer is all about vision and brain power.

I often recognize problems in the game of soccer before fully identifying them.  I will allow that to sink in for a moment.

Soccer is a game that is all about angles.  To play at the highest level possible players need to see as much of the game as possible.  This is a fundamental truth of the game.

In watching our local high school team the last couple of fall seasons this has been driven home hard. They tend to play in channels which makes their play extremely direct. Now, I am not against direct play, per se.  However, if a team's m.o. is to play in a single channel, they become very predictable. As I watched these teams play my mind began to scream "Change the Channel!"  In this day and age of "pressing defense," remaining in the same vertical channel on the pitch plays right into the press.


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Winning isn't always about which team scores more goals.

I am one of the most competitive people you will ever encounter. That said, those who have played for me will attest to my rarely knowing the score during or after a match. As a player, I always knew the score. Not so much as a coach. This is because I am not in competition with the opposing team or the opposing coach. As a coach I compete with myself.

As a player I learned the need to improve each day. With each new sunrise I was driven to be better than the day before. Not blessed with blazing speed of incredible quickness I learned to read the game, to anticipate and to out-think the opponent. These things allowed me to play much faster than my physical speed would allow for.

In coaching I am fond of saying "the game is my test" to determine how well I prepared the team to play. One might consider if my team won, I have passed my test, but this is not always true.  I have had teams play poorly and win. Similarly I have had teams play very well and lose. Passing my coaching test, my self-evaluation of how well my team was prepared to play, is the the key to being successful as a coach.

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