Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer News, Soccer Team Management | Tags: Academy Finals, penalty save, skills, swivel, technique, turn and score, U15s US Soccer
Technique is vital in youth soccer. I watched the highlights of a few matches in the US Soccer Development Academy Finals and one of the games that stood out was PDA v Cal Odyssey U15s.
In the match highlights the team that wins – Cal – shows two great bits of skill at either end of the pitch where technique comes through for the winners. The Cal goalkeeper saves a penalty and the Cal striker controls then swivels on a pass and scores in the corner.
Technique for both goalkeeper and striker is the winning difference.
Great to watch and great for the team.
Here it is:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Team Management | Tags: adebeyor, Arsène Wenger, Arsenal, attacker, manchester city, mark hughes, striker
Sitting on the bench is not the way to give a striker confidence. So what will happen at Manchester City who have now got – at the last count – nine strikers? Carlos Tevez is one of them and he moaned about being on the bench at Manchester United. A striker needs confidence and needs to feel part of a team. At Arsenal, Emanuel Adebayor had the confidence of one of the best managers in the game, Arsene Wenger.
It was Wenger who made Adebeyor into the striker he is today – even a troubled season like the last one saw him create and score some great goals. He seems to be quite a handful for any manager. Make no mistake, under the wrong manager, the young aggressive Adebeyor would have developed into a much different striker, one more suited to Wigan than Arsenal.
As a coach and manager of young players we must all look at managers like Arsene Wenger and how he nurtures his players, makes them play soccer with a passing and receiving game and makes their ball holding technique so much better.
Now he has gone to Manchester City he will be under a much different coach, and maybe he will look back and wonder how great he could have been had he stayed under the watchful eye of Arsene Wenger.
Here’s Adebayor in his last season at Arsenal…
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching | Tags: David Beckham, formula one, motoGP, posh spice, pussycat dolls
Watching the glamour that surrounds the motor racing fraternity this weekend I wonder if the world of soccer is missing out. Since the demise of Becks and Posh we have little in the way of glamour.
When Lewis Hamilton was on his way to the first win of the season we saw the lead singer of the pussycat dolls, Nicole Sherzinger leaping around in the McLaren area.
And then I watched Valentino Rossi at the MotoGP 2009 championships and the girls that surround him.
So in soccer we have the salaries but no longer the glamour.
Watch this:
