How to read penalties.

Of course, if the player is experienced, it's not so easy.

The following figure is taken from Alex Walsh's The Soccer Goalkeeping Handbook (1998):

Hopefully it won't be an issue using it, but it's very useful in posing the following question: if the first taker of the penalties MUST score in order to reduce the confidence of the opposition goalkeeper, increase the pressure of the opposing team and generally set a good example for the rest of his team - why did Kewell kick to the obvious side (position C in the above figure)?

I suppose you could ask the same of Neill - but he was knackered... and not the first taker.

Letter to Graham Arnold

It's half-time. It's the first time I've watch Australia in the Asia Cup. I'm very upset and frustrated. So I've decided to write a letter.

Dear Graham,

Could you please stop giving instructions throughout the whole match. It's quite annoying to listen to as an outsider, I can only imagine how the players feel. You're not letting them play their own game, so they seem to be playing a 'stale' kind of match.

I am also unhappy with the players' fitness. I recall Guus had them whippet-thing. Now I see tummies showing under the green and gold.

Best of luck in the second half,

Cecilia
(a concerned fan)

U/20 World Cup Ramble #1

While I was away I had both the Copa America and the U/20 World Cup to watch. Sometimes they clashed, in which case I would watch the 'kids' as their quality of play and the lessons learnt by watching them were superior to the Copa America.

As Postecoglou had failed us, I went for Argentina - naturally. Their first match was against the Czech Republic. A while ago now, but I kinda blogged in my notebook:

Sunday 1st July, 2007

Anyway, last night the kids lost. Not on the scoreboard, but they didn't get their objective - which was to win the match. It finished 0-0 and at 80 minutes, when the Czech coach/manager/whatever took off his cute-as-pie striker* (Fenin) and put on another defender it was obvious that the Czechs were playing for a draw.

The Argentinians threw everything they could at the Czechs, but I think they beat themselves in not being able to score. There was a chance very early in the match when there were three (or at the very least two) Argis on the left side of the penalty box, but none of them could ever get the ball to sit where they wanted it to. That early in the match I am happy for them to use the condition of the synthetic pitch as an excuse.

A few minutes later there was a similar opportunity. I can't remember it all that well, but I know that at that moment I couldn't put the blame on the poor condition of the pitch. It was a poor shot, or straight to the Czech keeper. Perhaps there were two parts and the follow up was awful.

As the match wore on, we just couldn't score! Mind you, the Czechs had loaded the defense. You'd see two little Argis trying to do something with the ball, with at least six Czechs about them. And the Czechs weren't exactly small. But at that age, size is just height - it doesn't really slow you down. Big in build, but I suppose their muscles aren't all that heavy yet.

Though I'm convinced the Czech 'keeper is massive. [Random stuff here as I was trying to figure out why his goalkick motion bothered me - turns out his supporting leg is too far behind the ball, meaning he has to reach to kick the ball. Brute strength gives him a massive distance, but really, he can't kick.] He seemed agile enough, but the amount of times the Argis would give the ball to him made his job somewhat easy. I fear that he's only going to get bigger, so I hope that he limits his weight work and focuses on agility.

Back to the kids - one kid who I thought had lots of spunk was a second half sub for Argi. Hard to miss visually with his head of curls and crazy bandaged up face. #20 I think - Acosta?

He came onto the pitch full of instructions from the coach/technical director and then he'd be all over the park - but in a good way. Favourite moment was when one of our players was fouled and a couple of our kids went to argue to the ref. For f@%&'s sake! We're losing! (Kinda.) Let's get on with the match!!!

And along comes Acosta - not to argue with the ref though. No, he grabs one of his team-mate's hands and pulls him away from the ref. Then he comes back and pulls the other one away. Clever boy. :) Cute too, like seeing two little schoolkids in their matching uniforms and holding hands because their teacher told them too. Well, we had that in primary school so that someone always knew where you were. And I suppose it's easier to count pairs than heaps of individuals.

So I like Acosta from that moment on - spunk AND brains. I hope he's well looked after and developed properly as a player. He's got a good head by the looks of it. And as important as time-wasting can be (and I am such a fan of it too), it's also important knowing when NOT to waste time.

[Random rubbish about the only comment I yelled out at the Richmond match I attended the Friday before I left about letting the other team waste time while you're losing. Back to Acosta...]

There was a little bit of a save he made too, which I'd kinda forgotten about, since I only remembered the keeper's error instead. A Czech had broken through and the 'keeper (Romero) came out - off his line, right out of the box. No man's land. He went for the ball, but instead of smothering the ball with his body, he came out and tried to tackle with his feet - like any field player would. Trouble is, it didn;t exactly come naturally to him and the Czech got past.

By this time two Argis had come down, Acosta one of them - he must've run the length of the pitch! It had been a counter of sorts and I suppose Acosta could run that length so quickly as he had fresh legs. The Czech shot, trying to get the ball in front of the two Argi 'defenders', but Acosta was too fast. Love that kid already. :)

I found this Youtube of match highlights. You won't see the first Argi attempt, or Acosta leading his team-mates away, but you can see the second attempt and that awesome run. Watch for the bandaged head at the edge of the box at about 7:30 after the Argi corner.


Anyway, we're now playing the Czech Republic in the final. I'm scared. If it stays as a 0-0 draw... have you seen the Czech boys penalty kicks? The kind of kick where even if the goalkeeper catches it, he goes in the goals too!

A little bit about the attackers...

Wayne recently asked about the attack of my team, as so far I had really only focussed on defence in this blog. When I took the reins of this group of U/16 girls, we only had 7 players. Two defenders, a goalkeeper, one striker and three midfielders. I thought that the girls who had played striker previously was too good a player to have her talents wasted up the park. She seems to be a good reader of the game, and when we eventually grew to 10 players I had an opportunity to move that striker (#A) to deeper in the field.

I couldn't move her immediately behind the new striker (#B) as I had a great attacking midfielder already (#C) who had natural game of playing with her back to goal and laying the ball off. I wanted to keep #B up front as she was far more aggressive and while she could read the game, I thought #A's passes would be more useful in the midfield.

I've ended up playing #A on either wing, usually in the midfield, but she's happy to play anywhere on the field as long as she gets a chance to play. The kind of player I absolutely love to have, and I'm sure most coaches would agree.

I also have a number of players who are completely new to the game. Defence is a difficult spot to put them in, so I tended to play them in the midfield, with #B sitting up front on her own. But now I'm up to 16 players, with too many new ones for the spare couple of spots in the midfield. I 'dumped' one new girl up front - simply to get her out of the way but give her game time. Aside from some confusion with the offside rule she flourished there. Not having to mark someone, and the relative lack of pressure made it easier for her to play. Occasionally she gets in #B's way - but they sort each other out, so I can keep my eye on other new players.

I still need to call most of the players over to sideline when I need to explain something to them, but I want to minimise such instances as it can put the rest of the team in funny situations. They would essentially be playing with 10 players. So I keep a spine to the team - so that there's an experienced player in each section of the field. I have a defender who I play at right back (though she'll find herself on the left when I get back), #A and another midfielder to organise the engine-room of the team, and #B looks after the front. #C knows a lot about the game, so she teaches rules and explains incidents as they happen to players on the far side of the pitch. She's also a bit of a creative force, so I let her do her thing and not give her any other responsibilities.

The best goal of the season (and it occurred last week) began with #C. She won the ball in the middle of the park and ventured at an angle towards the left edge of the penalty box. She then had the presence of mind to look up, stop the ball, push it back a little and slot it through the defence with her right foot. #A, who I initially played in defence but then pushed up into midfield after 15 minutes, connected to it and scored - far post. :) I absolutely loved how #C attacked at an angle, looked up and assessed the situation and put through an awesome pass.

Anyway, I'm off overseas for the next four weeks, so my blog's taking a break. A caretaker coach is coming in to cover, and I need to write him an email about the team set-up. See you later!

Our first win

We've finally got some points to show how we've improved! 2-1 win today, finished an hour ago, and I'm about to head off to watch some VPL action. But had to make a note of this and tell everyone! Well, the handful or readers that I have.

Kicking off the 3rd season

We have been having some heavy fog about Melbourne lately, it came in on Thursday morning and has been hanging about since. The picture on the right was taken on Wednesday night - before the fog. I personally think that this was the event that started the fog.

Melbourne Victory have organised friendlies against three Victorian Premier League teams. Richmond was the first match, the week after it was against Oakleigh (Wednesday night) and this Wednesday it will be South Melbourne.

I wasn't able to attend Richmond, but I went to the Oakleigh match. Although the game finished 2-3 for a Melbourne Victory win, the result doesn't particularly matter. Victory are looking very cohesive already, and with more matches we can begin to play some fluid football.

It was good to see 4000 people turn up on a very cold evening (my fingernails turned purple!), but I'm hoping to see many more next week at Bob Jane. Perhaps the closest to a Derby as we'll get for a little while yet? I'll endeavour to take more photos.

It's been a while...

...since I updated the swoon list.

Over at Football in the Capital, Carl Valeri has been making a few appearances. I like him a lot as a player. Very calm and cool on the ball, which is always great to watch, and awesome to see in such a young player! He seems to have a stabilising effect on the national team, and a great passing ability. Shame that there doesn't seem to be room for both him and Grella to grace the field at the same time...

Anyway, go visit the appropriate posts, and check out the cute video!