Soccer, sports, society and stuff...

Just my take on whatever comes to mind. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own, and do not express the views of any organization that I am affiliated to.

[marcomasucci-blog]

Part 2 of Canadian Soccer Struggles. The role of the club and its coaches.

“Ok coaches, thanks for being here for our annual pre-season meeting. Today we will talk about our club’s philosophy. We want to develop players in the long-term. Teach them basic skills and get them to be technically sharp. We will play out of the back, even if we make mistakes. We will be patient and educate the parents to believe in the process. Winning is not our priority. The kids need to get individually better”

Fast-forward two months and to an 0-0-4 season record...

“Ok so we need to play a 5-4-1 because we’re bleeding goals and need more players at the back. The parents wanna kill us because we keep losing and they’re getting aggressive, so we need to fix this fast. They are the paying customers. We need to be more direct because we give the ball away too often in our own half of the field. We need to get the ball to Timmy because he is our best player, we should hit it long to him as often as possible. John and Brian are really weak, so they should play in one-touch and just focus on passing and not dribble.”

This is a response that I have heard several times. And no matter how many presentations or talks I give, the reality is that our current system causes so many internal problems, it’s very difficult for a coach to stay on track. It’s a sad reality but it is nevertheless our reality. A player’s journey through the maze which is youth soccer is a cycle. It begins at the youngest ages. 

A bunch of kids are playing and having fun, then an adult, stops them from having fun by telling them that the object of the game at 5 years old is to win and outscore their opponent. 

So all of a sudden, kids and parents feel that experimenting and making mistakes is no longer ok. Even though standings don’t exist, the adults keep track of stats and who the best and worst teams are. After a year or two, a coach from another club will solicit the best few players and then the majority of teams will no longer be able to compete with the top few teams that are now reinforced with new talent.

Once this initial phase comes to a close, the coach that is actually developing his team at 8, 9 or 10 years old is losing games because other teams are just focusing on the results. In turn, the coach from one of the performance driven teams will solicit a top player from the development driven team and the performance driven team will become even stronger. The team that was focusing on development has now lost it’s top 2 or 3 players and now can no longer compete because all of its other players are now leaving too. This goes on for a few more years until AAA begins. At which point every top player will go to 1 or 2 top teams and make a 26 game season pointless, because only 4 games actually mean anything. The other 20-22 games are like target practice or so form of soccer-sparring.

Let me pause the story here folks. I’m sure each and every one of you is shaking your head right now because this model makes no sense to you. But why are you shaking your head? If it’s because the competition becomes lopsided and unfair - WRONG ANSWER!  

The problem is that if all the top players in Quebec, or Ontario or BC are all playing on the same team, and there are no competitive games the entire season, how will those top players improve? Who is challenging those players?

As discussed in my previous article, the new Club Licencing Program (see here for info:  https://www.canadasoccer.com/canada-soccer-introduces-club-licensing-program--p161707-preview-1&language=en ) that is being implemented by Jason De Vos, will hopefully fix this problem, if and only if, it is done the right way. The right way is to cap the number of teams who have access to the high performance league (AAA or whatever they want to call it). I will use the 8 as the magic number, because I don’t think we are currently at a point where more than 150 players of an age group are considered to be elite. 

Therefore:

From U4 to U12 - No teams, no games, no standings, no competition structure. Yes they need to compete, but they can do so in a pick-up soccer format, where the main emphasis is skill training and small sided collective principles. Throw in a few exhibition games to make the kids happy, a few tournaments for that little extra and that’s it. What is the result? Clubs will begin to work together. Those elite 8 clubs will help the other surrounding clubs with technical services and consultation. And in return, these top clubs will scout the clubs while working with them, and make sure that all of the highest level players eventually end up at one of the 8 nationally recognized clubs.

Come U13 - All of the top players in the province are now with one of the top 8 clubs. Each club has requirements and standards to maintain. Examples may include a minimum of 4 training sessions a week, a coach with a minimum of a B licence or age appropriate youth licence (newly introduced by the CSA). The club must have someone in charge of coaching education, a director general a pro team, etc...This would create parity amongst the elite. So now a top kid can play at any of the top 8 clubs and receive a high level of training and a quality growth environment.

8 teams, 21 games, on average 12 big games, 6 competitive games and maybe 3 easier games per year. This is how kids get better. They go to training 4 times a week, with a qualified coach, a physical preparator, a goalkeeper coach. All of their teammates are competent and able to challenge them during exercises and mini-games. They get to their game on Sunday and they aren’t able to just run end-to-end and blow up another team 15-0. The emphasis of a club becomes offering the best possible service, not winning games at U7 to make sure that everyone knows who you are and attracting players will be easier later.

In many countries, players develop themselves and coaches perfect them. This is not our culture and this is not our reality. If we train our kids twice a week, odds are that most of the kids will not touch a ball in between the training sessions. So we need more comprehensive programs that have kids on the field 4 or 5 times a week. We need to manufacture players, because we are certainly not growing them organically.

My take on parental involvement coming up next...

[marcomasucci-blog]

Canadian soccer struggles. Not as simple as it seems.

I’ve read every single one of them. 

“The Quick-Fix” - Fire everyone, everywhere and bring in a bunch of Europeans or South Americans to make Canadian soccer great overnight.

“The Victim” - No one finances Canadian soccer. There is no money. No infrastructure. No league. No one cares about us.

“The look at what they did, let’s do that because it must be good” - Every time there is a new champion, be it at the professional club level or even at the World Cup, the consensus is to drop everything and just copy the new hot trend.

And finally, my all-time favorite “It’s all about the money” - Nothing ever goes back to the kids. Where does all the money go? 

So I won’t go down this road of negativity today, because it’s become a little bit old and redundant. And at the same time, none of those claims are valid. If you allow me a few minutes of your time, I’ll quickly disprove each one of those arguments as quickly as I can, before bringing forward a few rational arguments and some potential good news. This will be my first, of a series of articles on Canadian youth soccer.

The Quick Fix, without going into detail, two words: Jurgen Klinsmann. He is the perfect example of what happens when you hire a foreigner, with no knowledge of a country’s soccer or social landscape and believes that he has all of the answers. He set American soccer back at least a full decade and they are in no better shape now than they were when Bob Bradley had them. A director needs to understand where the country’s soccer deficiencies are and have the patience and desire to work with the people in place to make valuable changes. Not go on TV and make claims about how the country is a mess and how lucky they are to have someone of his pedigree saving the day.

The Victim, money is important, but we are hardly as underprivileged as most believe. In terms of infrastructure, Canada is more of a leader than a victim of neglect. We have multi-million dollar indoor facilities, turf fields, state of the art gyms and fitness centers. People have invested a lot of money into soccer in this country. Maybe not as much as in Germany or the United States, but we are certainly not on the lower spectrum financially. I have had the privilege of speaking with some great soccer minds from abroad, who have told me that they feel that Canada may be too structured. There is way too much organization and nowhere near enough organic play. Free play in the parks, 2v2 games in the street. That is what goes on in soccer powerhouses. Brazil never needed brand new turf fields to win.

“The look at what they did, let’s do that because it must be good”, soccer is cyclical and trying to adopt trends will never produce results over the long term. The answer is to create an identity and work at it. It may take 5 years or 10 but there will be a base. Pretending that our players are good enough to play a Spanish style of play is nonsense. They have the best players in the world and even they don’t always do well playing that way. We need to evaluate what type of team will qualify for a World Cup out of CONCACAF and start developing specific players, not random ones. 

And finally “It’s all about the money”, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your political stance I suppose), soccer like most services in Canada, is publically funded. What that means is that there is rarely any excess and often times, major deficits. Some people want to pay $5000 per year to offer their children the best possible training environment, while others want to pay $150 and just have their child be active for the summer. Both these types of families exist in all clubs in Canada (minus few exceptions). It is very hard to explain to a parent that they need to pay more to finance another kid’s “high-level training”. Public sports associations only have two revenue streams - registration fees and sponsorship. So basically, whatever you put in is what comes out, with a little extra from the local sponsor trying to help out the community.

Okay! Now that we got through all that, let’s share a little good news. I won’t get too technical but just set the table for the next few posts.

There is hope. The hope comes from the CSA and its Director of Development, Jason De Vos. In a nutshell, Jason identified certain issues in our country and is aggressively trying to make changes that will, without a doubt shake the foundation of Canadian soccer. The theory is (and I’m inventing this theory myself, not to misquote anyone) at the younger ages - everyone deserves a chance, and we want to make sure that everyone gets the chance to get better. To fall in love with the game. To live a positive experience playing soccer and maybe get to the next level. Once the kids turn 12 years old...things get real! Only certain clubs will have the right to train the best kids. And to compete in the highest level leagues. Hire the top coaches. Have semi-professional teams. And this, will create a little bit of elitism, in our model which since the beginning of time has favored the masses. Maybe the perfect balance?

Why this will work? Very simple. First and foremost, Efficient Resource Allocation. Which is a model that I learned while working on a Masters Degree in Economics and not in a soccer course. There are a finite number of resources in Canada - fields, coaches, players and even equipment. By spreading these resources around, everything becomes diluted. Players will be training with inferior players. Top teams will not be challenged in their leagues. A club will maybe have a great coach at U14 but a lesser one at U15. This is what we call inefficiency. Now, in our new model, a club will have all of the top players around its given perimeter. It will attract the best coaches and have enough facilities to properly train these athletes. Some smaller clubs will lose the right to train top level athletes, but that is the way it works everywhere else in the world. A pro club has dozens or even hundreds of feeder clubs focusing solely on developing players for the top club to sign one day. And this is an efficient allocation of resources. No waste. Top coaches working with top kids. Developmental coaches working with developing kids. And recreational coaches working with recreational kids. Nothing wrong with that at all! It guarantees that all kids have a place to play, and no, not every kid will play at the highest level, but there is nothing wrong with that either!

I’ll go more into detail next time. Stay tuned and let me know what you think.

[marcomasucci-blog]

How to win a World Cup: Understanding that it isn’t a club competition

In a follow up to my previous article, let’s figure out what makes a good national team coach, and understand why many of the great club coaches failed at the national team level.

As I have said before, there are many differences in the conditions in which a national team faces compared to those of a club team. The most important of all of those is time. Time is a coach’s best friend. In my experience when preparing a team, there is never enough time. I feel that with every training session I am able to add a little bit more cement to the foundation that I am trying to build. Because it is very easy to present a theoretical gameplan, which the casual observer will say “yes, this is the best way to win the following game”. Although in practice, the reality is much different. First of all, a team does not play against itself. It competes against an opponent who has its own identity and ideas which it is trying to win a game with. Therefore to say “we want to pass the ball around the back until we find our key midfielder who can then link up with our forwards”, is a simple yet effective strategy, until you face a faster team that is pressing your defenders at all times. And perhaps your defenders are not technically good enough to be secure and confident under pressure. Or perhaps, your midfield playmaker is being man marked and isn’t finding the necessary space that he is comfortable with. A club team will have a plan A with scenario 1, 2 and 3. Plan B, Plan C and Plan D, all with their respective variations based on the opponent, down to a science. This creates a heavy advantage over a National Team who is stuck at Plan A or Plan B. And this is simply because the team does not have the time to go through all situations and understand their solutions with ease and automatic responses.

That being said, a National Team coach does not need to be a great tactician, with a complex system of play. He needs to be a great communicator. Able to express his thoughts in the most efficient way possible. He must be able to understand that if he only has 6 training days before the tournament, which of the hundreds of tactical elements are the most necessary to get through game one. And after game one, depending on the result, performance and next opponent, use his next 2 training sessions to get through game two. This is not an easy task. But it is easier for a coach who selected the best possible team for this reality and is able to make subtle adjustments, without drastic changes.

Another key characteristic of a successful National Team coach is his ability to motivate his group and create the right environment to succeed. Manage the egos, the different playing styles which each player has become used to in his club team, and most importantly get the players to buy in to his philosophy and why it is best for the tournament the are trying to win.

Fabio Capello, for instance, is one of the most decorated coaches of all time. He has had two National Team jobs, with England and with Russia. His stint with the English was very unimpressive to say the least. Rio Ferdinand called it “A prison camp”. Capello failed to adapt to the culture of his players, refusing to learn english and presented his team with a very “Italian” model of play in which the players didn’t understand or believe in. He did not take into consideration that each of his players brought with them habits and tendencies which made them successful in their own clubs, none of which played anything like what Capello was demanding. Capello believed that he would “force” the players in changing all of their habits in a very short period of time. Maybe in a club setting this would work, but at the biggest stage under so much pressure and scrutiny, the whole project just blew up for him.

Didier Deschamps on the other hand, understood his squad. He knew that he could count on a solid backline with Varane and Umtiti, screened by a midfield of Pogba, Matuidi and Kante. Just by staying organized, and not opening up more than they had to, the French rear block would be a force to be reckoned with. This led him to play a very compact defensive game and attack with lightning pace into Mbappe and Griezmann, complimented by a big target player in Giroud. The make-up was perfect and he didn’t overcomplicate the tasks for his players. Yes he had a great team, but so did many others who did not get to hoist the illustrious trophy. He also had a very young team. One that lacked experience at the World Cup. He used his own personal experience to educate his players and make them understand what it takes to win a tournament like this.

Many have failed, not because of the tactical preparation, but because the coach was not able to make the correct in game adjustments and substitutions. Which is another necessary quality for a National team coach to have. In a club setting, better preparation and comprehension of their match tactics could be enough to win a game. But since this advantage is lost during a major international tournament, the coach needs to be quick on his feet and make important adjustments as the game goes along. 

Antonio Conte is a fan favorite and lauded as being a hero for Italy’s Euro 2016 performance. Although the team was an inferior one, Conte managed to motivate the group and create a level of organization which was second to none in such a short period of time. A big reason for this was that most of his players played in Italy, and were comfortable with a compact style of play where the team would have to be able to absorb pressure, and get forward and press at the right moments only. He got the most out of his players, but in the end, his inability to make the necessary changes were blatantly obvious, He did not make one substitution until the 86th minute, despite the fact that the team was suffering and down by a goal until the 78th minute. Luckily, Bonucci scored a penalty to equalize the score, but the truth is that the game should never have gotten to that point. Italy was offensively impotent and the penalty came completely against the run of play. If he was more proactive early on, the result would have perhaps been different.

A final example of a great national team coach is Guus Hiddink. He developed a reputation of bringing sub-par sides to tournaments and overachieving. Meanwhile, at the club level, he was unable to repeat the same success. Why? Because Hiddink is pragmatic and is a great leader. Over the short period he offers the right solutions to his team and gets his lads fired up. In the club game, his tactical ideas are too simplistic and opponents figure him out easily over the course of 38 games. Variability is necessary to winning a league title, meanwhile consistency is key to winning an international trophy.

In the end, the job description of of a club coach versus that of a national team coach are vastly different. Both are very intricate jobs that require a precise skill set. Coaches that succeed in one department will often not succeed in the other. This does not mean that the coach is not good, it just demonstrates that each coach has strengths and weaknesses and it is the job of whichever club or federation that is hiring them to make sure he is the right candidate.

I will dive into the wild world of youth soccer in my next post. I hope you’ve enjoyed my previous ones and please feel free to let me know your thoughts.

[marcomasucci-blog]

A World Cup of upsets

Four years is an incredibly long time to wait for an event. In almost perfect unison, the triple whistle to mark the end of the World Cup Final comes with a feeling of emptiness. “I can’t believe we need to wait another four years before we get to see another World Cup”. Well, finally the World Cup is here and from what I’m reading, there seems to be an underwhelming feeling about all of the action during the first round of games. The quality of play has not been of the highest level, and the heavyweights have not yet asserted themselves against lesser opponents.

Are these feelings warranted? Yes. 

Is this something new? Absolutely not! 

There is something very romantic about World Cup football. The colors, the pageantry, the national pride. It’s an opera produced and enacted for the sports fan. These heightened sensations, and utopian emotions, mask the harsh reality that lies behind all of these wonderful things. The level of soccer is poor. 

In recent tournaments, this has been the case. Let’s look at a few obvious reasons as to why this is the case.

The “big teams” are made up of exhausted players. Not to bore anyone with statistics, but...Since August 2017, Lionel Messi has played 57 competitive games, between club and country. Cristiano Ronaldo has tallied 50 competitive games and Toni Kroos participated in 48 competitive games. Breaking these stats down further, Lionel Messi has participated in an average of 6 games per month. Furthermore, the world’s most elite players, the ones who make the game special, have had hardly any rest, if any at all. Ronaldo won a Champions’ League Final on May 26th. The World Cup began for Ronaldo on June 15th. In between those dates, there was a preparatory game on June 7th and a preparatory camp the week before the tournament began. So when does Ronaldo rest? How can we expect players of this level to be in form for the greatest tournament in the world? Some will argue that Ronaldo is looking great, so why can’t all players do what he does? Because Ronaldo is an outlier. And there is no certainty that his run will continue throughout the tournament or that he won’t get injured along the way.

National teams are not as fluid as club teams. The modern game is so fast that players need to have habits of play embedded in them. A one week camp before the World Cup begins, coupled with a few presentations and team meetings cannot get a group anywhere near the level of tactical preparedness to produce the fluid styles of play that we see in club football. The only saving grace for these teams, and coaches, is that preparation is relative. None of the other teams have had the opportunity to prepare their teams the right way either. But this does leave a lot to be desired during the 90 minutes of action.

The “small teams” are no longer that small. Soccer globalization has fostered the sharing of ideas and an openness by coaches to discuss their methods. Today, the coaches of Iran and Nigeria, have access to a wealth of information. Access to millions of games worldwide, tactical trends, statistics and player profiles. There is no excuse today for a team to enter the tournament without having a precise gameplan for each of their opponents. No one should be surprised by playing Argentina and meeting Messi, or facing Neymar in a Brazil jersey. If the game plan works, is a completely different discussion, but teams are better equipped. This preparation is what helps bridge the gap between the powerhouses and the smaller sides trying to survive.

Maybe this analysis seems simplistic, but it is the reality. The level of play is bad, the teams are disjointed, players are exhausted and heavy favorites are no longer as heavy as they once were. Fielding a star studded lineup is no longer a guarantee that the team will do well. Sure we will be entitled to witness a few classics, but overall, nothing compares to Champions’ League football. So what is the X-factor? What could make the difference at this level, given all of these constraints? The manager. 

What makes a good National Team manager? That will be discussed next...

Let me know your thoughts.

[marcomasucci-blog]

Aesthetics or Efficiency; A pro soccer debate

When I first started following soccer as a kid, getting to watch my favorite team on television on Sunday was as rare as catching a unicorn. There was one station, showing one game in the morning, and one game in the afternoon. And 90 percent of the time, my team was not being shown. Soccer, in Canada, was not a cool sport. There was no mid-week coverage, no pre-game or post-game coverage. It was a niche sport and to be honest, it was kinda nice in its own way. 

My soccer conversations were had with a select few, who were usually 40 to 50 years older than I was, because those were the only people who actually had an interest in the world’s game. Today, soccer is the new “in thing”. It is the most practiced sport in Canada, growing in popularity year after year. There are now tons of channels broadcasting games and even more streaming them online. While this is a great accomplishment for the sport, especially at the youth level (which I obviously have a huge vested interest in), it has created an enormous group of “neutral supporters”. A term which up until recently, never existed in soccer. And doesn’t really exist in any other sport. I digress…

I am in no position to deny someone the unparallelled pleasure of watching some of the greatest teams in the world play. And I think that it is great that lifelong hockey fans or football fans are now taking a liking to what’s going on on the pitch. My issue is when clubs and managers feel a certain pressure to play a certain way, in order to attract as many neutrals into their corner as possible. All with the simple goal of making bag loads of money. 

Ever since the magical Guardiola’s Barcelona, the tactically discriminatory term “play the right way” has become very prominent in my milieu. Please, before I attract hate mail and threats on my life, please remember that the title of this article is PRO SOCCER DEBATE. I am not questioning development or habits to be taught at the youth levels. I am discussing the aesthetics of a coach’s tactics and if it should have any bearing on their reputation. I have the unfortunate pleasure of being a die hard supporter of AS Roma. My job as a fan is to cheer them on, and hope that they one day, before I die win another league title. My friend is a Napoli supporter, his job is to cheer his team on and hope that they win another title before he dies. That is our sole interest, to see our team win. If Roma hires a manager, I want him to be balanced in his approach, adaptable and willing to do anything necessary to win games. In the past Roma was lauded for playing a beautiful and attractive game. They “played the right way”. But domestically, they were also mocked for never winning any titles. And this, to me, is a failure for a club. My mentality is shared by almost all supporters of any given club. 

Meanwhile, the neutral soccer fan, will not share my opinion. He or she will make a case that not only should a team try to win, it should also play a specific way that entertains the fans. A losing coach is applauded for his “courage to play the right way” against a better opponent, knowing fully well that they will most likely lose badly. Meanwhile a winning coach is jeered for not being entertaining enough, and for using counter tactics. How does this make sense? Sure, I’m positive that any pro coach would love to have a winning team that ALSO plays a pretty brand of soccer. But the truth is, and I have been in this position already while working in the NCAA circuit, my job was on the line. Wins make my contract grow longer, while losses make my contract slowly disintegrate. It is unfair to question the tactics chosen by a manager who gets the result that they went out to get. Especially when the neutral fan at home, or the over-idealistic analyst have nothing to lose and just want to be entertained.

For the true soccer fan, soccer is beautiful in all of its phases. I can appreciate Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a perfectly executed bicycle kick, with as much passion as I enjoy Sergio Ramos blocking a would-be-goal with a perfectly timed slide across the 6-yard box. The appreciation for defending is gone. The appreciation for tactical diversity is gone. We now want everyone to be the same. I loved Italy defending in 11, England playing direct to 2 strikers, Brazil doing a little Samba, Germany being meticulously efficient and Holland total-footballing. This is what made our game beautiful. It should be as tactically diverse as it is racially diverse. Each country brings with it a style of play that is a microcosm of their culture. We have lost that diversity. And similar to social and economic globalism, everyone now feels the need to fit in, or get kicked out.

And in closing, Roma conceding 5 goals to Liverpool was not as heavily scrutinized as at least a dozen Manchester United wins by a one goal margin, while supposedly “parking the bus”. My team was one goal away from heading to a Champions’ League Final…I would have loved a nice shiny bus at Anfield, let me tell you.

I’ll come back to this in another post.

Let me know what you think.

[marcomasucci-blog]

Generic Intro Post

Well...I’m back by popular demand! That was a lie, no one has asked me to write anything in about 5 years. It was something I did regularly and really enjoyed doing. But time became the enemy and I needed to put it aside. Last night someone inspired me without knowing, and I decided to give it another go.

Before I begin, there are some rules that I will ask any reader respect - This is a personal blog, it is in no way connected to the club which I work for, the organizations which I collaborate with or any other aspect of my personal life which I don’t discuss publically. I do not want to get into debates over the work in which I do through this platform. If you need to discuss work-related issues, please email me.

Now, this is exciting stuff. I would like this to be a forum to exchange, hopefully learn and maybe...just maybe help provoke some sort of change, be it within my profession or in any other impactful profession out there.

For those who know me, welcome, I know you know this will be fun.

For those who do not, My name is Marco Masucci. I am an economist by degree, a financial advisor by certification, but I am a soccer coach by trade. Next year will mark my 20th year coaching my favorite sport and I have a ton of stories to tell. I have been incredibly privileged to have been mentored by some great personalities of the sport. And because of them, I caught some breaks and I work full-time in soccer. Some of my finest and fanciest titles include:

Being a Head Coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University, a division 1 NCAA institution.

Head Coach of the New Jersey State Olympic Development Program

Working with Carolina Morace and the Canadian National Women’s Team

And last but certainly not least, my current post, which is Technical Director or Monteuil Soccer Club, as well as the Sporting Director of our Monteuil professional teams

I think over the past 20 years I have made tons of mistakes, some very good decisions but most important of all, helped some people grow as players and as people. Whether it’s a player looking for a scholarship, a young coach looking for a mentor or just a young player in my club needing to talk about everything but soccer, these are the ones I remember most. Well that and us almost getting kicked out of Nova Scotia after winning a National Championship and filling the trophy with Champagne! But that is a story for another time.

I’ll check in soon.