Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: Bayer leverkusen, david platt, England, euros, Holland, ibrahimovic, joe cole, Real Madrid, russia, van basten, World Cup, youtube
My top five cup volleys
Marco van Basten: Holland v USSR Euro 1988 final
David Platt: England v Belgium World Cup 1990
Zinedine Zidane: Real Madrid v Bayer Leverkusen 2002 Champions League final
Joe Cole: England v Sweden World Cup 2006
Zlatan Ibrahimovic: Sweden v France Euro 2012
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: Ajax, Bas Dost, dutch, FC Twente, feyenoord, future, Heerenveen, Holland, John guidetti, Luuk de Jong, manchester city, young strikers, youtube
Bas Dost (Heerenveen) aged 22
Top scorer in the Dutch Eredivisie with 32 goals Bas Dost has been linked with some of the biggest names in England and Germany, but Dost himself claims to be more than happy in his native Netherlands with Heerenveen.
Signed from Heracles Almelo at the age of 20 after hitting 17 goals in 61 games, he has been a revelation since, impressing with his unorthodox style and finishing fourth highest scorer in Europe this season as he led Heerenveen back into the top five.
John Guidetti (Feyenoord) aged 19
Carlos Tevez is not the only wave-making exiled Manchester City striker – over in Holland, John Guidetti, on loan at Feyenoord from City, has 20 goals in 23 starts for the Rotterdam club. Just 19, he has scored three hat-tricks this season, one of which was against Ajax, Feyenoord’s greatest rivals.
Playing in Holland but not Dutch Guidetti is Swedish and won his first senior Sweden cap in Croatia and has a good chance of playing against England in the second Group D game at Euro 2012.
Luuk de Jong (Twente) aged 21
21-year-old rising Dutch star Luuk de Jong is tall, quick and technically gifted – De Jong boasts 62 strikes in all competitions over the last two seasons. The Holland international, who played against England at Wembley in February, scored 25 goals in the league this season for Steve McClaren’s FC Twente.
McClaren believes that Luuk de Jong’s style of play makes him a perfect fit for the Premier League. “Luuk is big, strong, brilliant in the air and scores goals so easily. He has every quality a top class striker needs to have for a big club.”
The Netherlands international has been in fine form this season, and has recently been linked with Borussia Monchengladbach, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle United and Tottenham.
“Very soon he will be the best in the Netherlands – and he even has all the qualities a forward needs to become a European great,” says Patrick Kluivert.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: angled goals, Arsenal, Barcelona, batistuta, Chelsea, Fiorentina, Hasselbaink, Holland, LA Galaxy, Manchester United, Ramires, Real Madrid, Ronaldo, russia, tight angled goals, van basten, van persie, youtube
By David Clarke
Champions League Semi-Final 2012: Barcelona v Chelsea
Ramires is the king of technique. His goal for Chelsea against Barcelona when his team was 2-0 down with John Terry sent off was as good as you will see. An impossible situation, but the through ball to him from Frank Lampard just before half time putting him into the penalty area at an angle to the goal was perfect. His finish was sheer class.
Here’s my top six goals scored from tight angles:
Ramires, Barcelona v CHELSEA (2012)
Marco van Basten, HOLLAND v Russia (1988)
Gabriel Batistuta, FIORENTINA V Arsenal (1999)
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, CHELSEA v Manchester United (2001)
Ronaldo, REAL MADRID v LA Galaxy (2011)
Robin van Persie, ARSENAL v Barcelona (2011)
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: acceleration, Holland, pre-season, raymond verheijen, sprinting, wales
Raymond Verheijen is a Dutch professional football coach who is currently the Assistant Manager to the Welsh national side. He recently said that running long distances at the same speed was pointless for players in pre season. He called it Jurassic Park!
In a match players run on average 10m sprinting and acceleration, so that is what you need to do in pre season.
I developed this exercise for my players in pre season.
In this speed and agility drill players are using quick feet, quick turns, changing pace between short and longer sprints and good body position – knees bent low in stance for good balance – to make players quicker and more agile on the pitch.
Work to compete
In this exercise players run between three sets of cones – a middle set and two sets five yards either side.
This is a test of your players agility, balance and turning technique as they compete against each other in a short sprint exercise. I often start by getting the players to run through the exercise individually then compete against each other. It’s one thing doing it on their own but watch how their intensity rises when they are competing.
Work out a sequence
The sequence I use is 5 yards – 10 yards – 5 yards which is a good representation of the changes of sprinting distances they will face in matches. You can, however, work out your own sequence or run it up to a 40 yard dash if you want to give older players a tougher test.
How to play it
• Opponents face each other.
• They must react on your call.
• Push off hard on the back foot – the foot furthest from the direction the player is sprinting in.
• Players with similar speed levels should compete against each other.
• Players should run 2-3 times before resting.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: Arsenal, counter attack, drill, Holland, Manchester United, passing
Hitting teams on the break is a good tactic to use when your team is playing away from home against a team they know nothing about. Fast counter-attacks can take advantage of players being out of position.
Players need to be aware and alert to their team-mates and react quickly when the ball is turned over.
It relies on accurate passing and having the ability to hold off retreating defenders. You can watch the best counter attacks in the video below and play this exercise to help your players get used to running with the ball and holding the defenders off.
How to play it
- Mark out an area 40 yards x 20 yards – you can make it smaller for younger players.
- In one of the corners, mark out a 10 yards square with a small, coned goal in it.
- In this soccer drill the ball is passed so the attacker can run onto it.
- The attacker must take full control of the ball at this point. The defender starts his run as soon as the pass is made and his first action is to hold up the attacker. The attacker should change his pace to fool the defender.
- The defender cannot tackle until they get into the marked-off zone.
- Once they get into the marked-off zone, the attacker must try to lose the defender with a turn – for instance, a stop turn, then try to put the ball between the two cones.
- The defender must stick close to the attacker and try to get a tackle in to win the ball.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills | Tags: Arsenal, coaching skills, Holland, Rafael van der Vaart, Robin van Persie, van Persie swivel
I wrote an article recently in an issue of Better Soccer Coaching about how Robin van Persie swivels and controls the ball with the instep of his foot to turn a defender. It looks great when he does it almost as though the ball is on the end of his toe and he is using it like a wheel.
While I was researching videos of him doing it – so I could work out how he does it! – I came across this clip of him playing for the Netherlands v Andorra in 2005.
It was such a good move I nearly included it with the van Persie swivel but would have to call it the reverse van Persie swivel. He does it backwards. I particularly like the commentator when van Persie swivels it to Rafael van der Vaart who exclaims “Woooh oh ho ho!” then in action replay shouts “Woopah!!”.
See for yourself:
Filed under: Dwyer Scullion, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Team Management | Tags: AC Milan, Arrigo Sacchi, coach, Croatia, Euro 2004, Euro 2008, Holland, Italy, Slaven Bilic, Sweden
Greece won Euro 2004 scoring a mere 7 goals along the way. I suspect Euro 2008 will be won by a team scoring a lot more goals.
Arrigo Sacchi (former AC Milan and Italy coach) predicts that the tournament will be won by the teams with the best individuals rather than the most organised or systematised. Slaven Bilic, coach of Croatia, agrees, saying “Systems are dying. It’s about the movement of 10 players now.”
Results so far would seem to bear this out. The domestic European competitions and Champions League commitments are so hectic these days that international sides rarely get the chance to get together to work on specific systems or styles of play.
Greece’s Euro 2004 victory was the result of an extremely well-organised but not particularly gifted group of players following their coach’s instructions to the letter, stopping their opponents playing, and nicking the odd goal to secure victory. You can’t fault their approach. It’s not a million miles away from what Italy have done so successfully for so many years (with all due respect to Italy’s great players, and Greece’s for that matter).
So far both Greece and Italy (the reigning Euro and World Cup holders of course) have lost their opening games. In both matches both teams attempted to play their traditional holding games and both teams failed to score, Greece losing 2-0 to Sweden and Italy losing 3-0 to Holland.
That’s not to say that tactics and formations aren’t important. But the teams who are doing well are made up of players with all of the following three key attributes – the ability to follow tactical instructions, high levels of physical fitness, and crucially, a willingness to play at a high tempo and attack, attack, attack.
No team in Euro 2008 is sent out to play without specific tactical and formation instructions. But the successful teams are the ones who will allow their most gifted players to fully express themselves – the teams that are less concerned with the opposition and more concerned with doing their own thing.
That’s the way it should be. That’s why this has been such an entertaining tournament so far, and that’s what I hope to achieve with my own young teams in the future. Just tell them to play their own game.
Having said all that, I wouldn’t be too surprised if Greece or Italy go on to win the whole thing. That’s called hedging your bets.
Dwyer Scullion, Publisher, Better Soccer Coaching
