Rapinoe, Woznuk, Lopez at National Team Camp!!!!!!!

PurpleGeezer--

If that video is what you mean by "posession" soccer, then I think we are on the same page. Although there's not as much one touch soccer there, it's still two touch with a simple trap and a pass on every possession, knowing that the ball travels faster than any human can run... The best teams in the world in Italy and Brazil play that style at their best. I think that the womens' national team played that way at their best under Tony DiCiccio and has gone away from that in recent years. In my opinion though, playing that style is more a matter of coaching than players because our national teams are always loaded with All-Americans and future All-Americans.

I guess that I was curious to see what you meant because the college game and the National Team game are so different IMO. I think there's more of a disparity of talent at the college level, and it's more okay to let players play a little bit more one-on-one and take some risks and have fun. At the National Team level, there's less of a disparity of talent and the game is faster. If we don't play one touch or two touch soccer, teams like Brazil or Germany will beat us. If we do, were' still the best in the world IMO...

That's just one opinion from a hard core fan though...

I think there is definitely a need for the player with good 1 v 1 skills. I would guess the vast majority of goals are probably scored because an offensive player with the ball beat someone and either scored or set up a score. However, that needs to happen around or in the box, not farther back down the field. It is the possession game and, as Geez said, attacking through the angles that gets the ball to your dangerous player in a dangerous spot. 1 v 1 does little if any good farther back, which is a lesson many (probably most) younger teams need to learn.

Anyway - strayed from my point - I think a good team needs that one player with the 1 v 1 skills who can take someone on in or near the box after the possession gets it to him/her there, and either score or set up a score. In a tight, even game, you need that kind of player, the one who can get the ball into the net when you really need it, and I think the most successful teams have that player (see UNC in the championship game, or Portland with Sinclair, or USC last year with Rodriguez). You get the ball to that player in a dangerous spot often enough and you'll score.

It's always important to have players who can finish like Sinclair, Milbrett, or Landon Donovan (in the men's game). I don't think we are in disagreement any longer on this. I just feel that by the above idea of the "posession game" it's more a matter of coaching than players. The Brazilian and Italian coaches are the ones who create the environment to tell their players, "We're only going to play one touch or two touch football."

In the goal in the video, the player who scored was just in great position after all of the two-touch soccer had been done. No one-on-one moves were necessary...

I need a beer. I think we are all starting to take the sport a little too seriously.

AJ -

1- I couldn't agree more that it is the coaches who create the concept of "possession game" with their players. I always stressed the idea that EVERY POSSESSION COUNTS - don't waste them, don't give the ball away until we have at least made a few passes (these were high school girls at a small school), do NOT just bash the ball forward, (that usually got a girl out of the game for a while), and above all, pass back out of pressure when necessary - for some reason, a very difficult concept at that stage of development. Incidently, it took years to get them thinking this way and to develop the skills necessary to play this way.

2- I think you could make a case that the great 1 v 1 in-the-box move in the video was the heel pass, although that may be a stretch and your point is well taken. I do still think that most goals are scored after someone beats a defender in close to the goal to either score or set up a score. A very common one is an outside player getting around a defender to send in a good cross. One of my favorite 1 v 1 goals is Sinclair's goal vs UCLA in the 4-0 championship game, after receiving the lateral pass, I think from Rapinoe (maybe Budge?).

3- I don't agree about taking the sport too seriously (probably not possible), but I completely agree about the beer.

Here's a commercial to lighten things up...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfzJMVj61Ds

Very good, AJ - A beer commercial would have been perfect.

(Yawn....stretch).....aahhhhh! What's up, everyone? Been asleep for a few weeks. Showing signs of actually getting out of bed.

Real happy for Megan, Woz and Steph. Hope they all make team.

Go Pilots - recruits, current players & alumni!!!

my favorite soccer video!
Why Japan will never win the world cup.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3050392803208120893&q=soccer+japan+pepsi