Does "how" you play the game really matter?

Joga Bonito - Play Beautifully.

Does "how" you play the game really matter? 

This topic comes up often in soccer .  First you speak of the result, then how the game was played.  Was it beautiful?  Technical?  Ugly?  Sloppy? What was the style of play?

Do people really care how a sport is played?  Well, let's go back to 1972 and how the Soviet brand of hockey captured everybody's imagination.  With more European hockey appearing before us, many fell in love with their style.  And it continues to ruffle the feathers of some hockey dinosaurs in Canada.

For some people, the score is the only thing that matters, regardless of the level.  Even at the youth levels.  For those people I offer this:

FIFA Ranking as of Sept 10

When we visited the academy of Club Brugge in 2009 there was a U15 game going on.  The Academy director said to me, of their opponent, "Nobody likes that team because the players don't have ideas when
they play. They just come for the result."  His desire was for beautiful soccer.  He explained how it was every academy's job to develop players to improve their league.  Results were for the first team to worry about.

Here is the problem, if you don't learn to play the game correctly and allow and welcome creativity, you will never develop players who can jump to the next level or compete with the better teams.  Ugly soccer isn't fun for the recreational player who has to watch the ball fly over their head for an entire game.  Ugly soccer doesn't sell the game to your current or future players as they can't relate it to what they see on TV.  It's not enjoyable for players and coaches.  For the fans, it's not pleasing to watch.  It's just plain old UGLY.

...let's go back to 1972 and how the Soviet brand of hockey captured everybody's imagination.

When my friend Rino and I coached our 1994 boys team, we had temptations at U9.  Some teams beat us up badly early on and the fix was easy, but we held firm to what we wanted; to play nice soccer that was enjoyable and expressive for the players.  One at a time, over the months and years, we put those other players and teams behind us.  Two teams beat us 5-0 each during our U9 pre-season.  Six weeks later we beat one of those teams twice in one tournament, 3 months later we tied the other and lost our cup game to them 2-1.  Over the next 4 years, the first team mentioned only managed to tie us once.  They kept moving the ball to the same two big players they focused on at U9.  It wasn't about beating them, it was about our kids seeing that good soccer was the way to go.

By the end of U12 most of the soccer had disintegrated around us but we still kept chugging.  That was not a good thing for our age group in our district.

We didn't stack our team, fish kids from other teams or claim to be youth development experts.  We had:

• patience and support from our parents
• confidence in the kids
• confidence of the kids
• enough experience with young players to have seen the pattern a few times

Soccer that is not beautiful will eventually lose.  Coaches coaching only to win at U9 will fail.  Young players will collapse and quit because of unreasonable external pressures.  Players who sit the bench will quit, bloom later in life and play another sport.  Players who are not allowed to make their own decisions will eventually fail.  Players who can't handle a ball will eventually be left behind.  All motivation tools for win-only coaches will wear off quickly or burn-out your players.  (Ask Billy Martin).  Players who don't see the point of how the game works will walk away.

What made it so hard for beautiful soccer to develop in Canada?

Easy cookie-cutter answers:

• Poor fields, not allowing the ball to roll true
• Lack of time on the ball (with and away from organized programs)
• Lack of experienced coaches
• Lack of good soccer to imitate

Real answers (in my opinion):

• Results based society that judges sports solely on the final score.
• Need for status of what place or level your team is at (or your child's team)
• Lack of patience, part of a society based on instant gratification

Wherever you coach, especially at the youth levels, you can't take comfort in your scoreline.  You always have to ask "Can my players play with the better players in our league/region/province/country?"  If you are not sure what players are capable of, go watch better teams and players play in the same age group.

Coaching at Niagara College,  our entire staff is on the same page that beautiful soccer will allow us to move our program up the ladder over time and serve as one recruiting tool for players looking to play college soccer.  The fact is if we don't play good, attractive, positive soccer we will never compete for a Provincial or National title.  Ever.

On September 9, our Canadian Men's National team beat Jamaica and the display was better than usual.  In order for that display to become common place, there has to be an army of teams and players out there looking to play the game beautifully.  We have good players in Canada, we just don't have enough of them.  You cannot play beautifully without technique, enjoyment, expression and freedom.  Those four facets of the game must be instilled at the young ages.

I honestly believe that the Canadian soccer community is hungry for nice soccer. But are they willing to be patient when it's time to be patient?  Thankfully, LTPD has mandated some of that required patience on to the community, but it will need the parents as supportive partners.

The question is: how patient are coaches and parents willing to be?