"My Team is Terrible!"

Do you remember the movie, "The Big Green"? It was by far the best soccer movie that had ever been made for soccer players under the age of 14. It had it all... the funny guy, the random mascot, the little kid that was too small and too young to play but came to everything, and the superstar that nobody expected. If you haven't seen this flick, you need to watch it. Its like a combination of the world cup and... well... Carowinds. Go grab a bag of popcorn and watch the short clip below...

This part of the movie is classic. The team is terrible. They lose every game. They don't resemble a team at all. The school gets a new teacher who happens to be from England who has agreed to coach the soccer team. They get a new student, Juan, who has just moved there with his mom. Once they realize that Juan is a great player, they turn all of the focus onto convincing him to play on their team. Juan's reluctant mother gives in and the movie quickly progresses to their next game. Everytime the team gets the ball, they pass it to Juan and just stand. One player even has a wide open shot inside the box, hesitates, then unsuccessfully passes the ball to back to Juan. Halftime! Everyone is mad at each other, the assistant coach is calling them "midgets". Its a mess. However, you need to catch something. The coach comes in and talks about teamwork. The players write off what she says until she makes the comment, "if 3 guys are marking Juan, how many people are open on our team?" You see the light bulbs go off and the heads begin to nod. They get an ounce of hope and they begin to take ownership. And the second half is better, and includes scoring goals from other teammates instead of just the "star".

(Rabbit Trail) How funny, yet appropriate, is Larry's visions of the other team turning into bad guys and paralyzing him with fear? This clip shows the opposing team having a break away, then all of them turning into Terminators on motorcycles. They score with Larry basically falling out of the way of the ball. What would you do if this was your player? How would you help him work through it?

Every coach wants to make their team better. I think that is a given. Of course, that standard of what it means to be "better" is completely different for each coach, unfortunately. I was watching a game this past spring, and a coach was screaming at his U9 goalkeeper for not picking up the ball with his hands, and instead chose to kick the ball away first touch. Now, I'm sure you have seen this happen a few times, and as a coach it may be frustrating. But how quickly do we forget that U9 is typically the first year that goalkeepers are even used! 3v3 and 4v4 do not utilize goalkeepers yet for numerous reasons (Handbook).

So, whats the moral of the story? How well do you do at monitoring your team's improvement? What are your standards? Development of our youth is fragile in my opinion. Figure out what you are trying to accomplish, and why you are trying to accomplish it.

Parting Thoughts:

Your #1 job as a coach is to build belief! Give your players something to believe in themselves. There is always something positive to find in every player. Speed, athleticism, communication, first touch, vision, courage, leadership, servanthood, comical relief, loyalty, discipline. Find something that your player can take ownership of. Build their belief that they belong on the team, and hold the power in their own hands to perform.