Possession-style Soccer

the7wolf wrote:

bigtex75081 wrote:I think anybody that posts that they're looking for a "possession-style" team should automatically be required to define the term "possession-style" before their message is posted.

Agree with that. It normally stems from somebody accidentally catching 10 minutes of a Barca game and deciding that's the way to go. Conveniently overlooking that said team has probably 10 of the top 25 players in the world in its squad.

Passing for passings sake with no progression and then losing the ball. Always fun to watch.

Definitely see this on lower level teams. Have the right idea without the right personnel. Third or fourth pass is usually under the fullback's feet to the charging forward for their fifth goal. Very similar to American football where a team, without any offensive line, runs up the gut for -2 yards over and over again (to set up the passing game...right?).

Wonder how many hoops coaches watch the Heat and determine that's they way they want to play (finding that middle school Lebron)?

As mentioned above, the length of the pass doesn't matter as much as the intent/direction. How often do you see a player just turn and blindly fire it to no one (all the time).

clueless wrote:

the7wolf wrote:

bigtex75081 wrote:I think anybody that posts that they're looking for a "possession-style" team should automatically be required to define the term "possession-style" before their message is posted.

Agree with that. It normally stems from somebody accidentally catching 10 minutes of a Barca game and deciding that's the way to go. Conveniently overlooking that said team has probably 10 of the top 25 players in the world in its squad.

Passing for passings sake with no progression and then losing the ball. Always fun to watch.

Definitely see this on lower level teams. Have the right idea without the right personnel. Third or fourth pass is usually under the fullback's feet to the charging forward for their fifth goal. Very similar to American football where a team, without any offensive line, runs up the gut for -2 yards over and over again (to set up the passing game...right?).

Wonder how many hoops coaches watch the Heat and determine that's they way they want to play (finding that middle school Lebron)?

As mentioned above, the length of the pass doesn't matter as much as the intent/direction. How often do you see a player just turn and blindly fire it to no one (all the time).

Last night I watched a replay of the recent u20 game between USA vs South Korea. The USA was trying wayyyy too hard to play the possession style of soccer and it did not work at all.

****Spoiler Alert: South Korea beat the USA by a score of 1-0 but South Korea should have scored at least 3 more goals than they did. ****

As a USA fan, it was a horrible game to watch. The USA was doing nothing but short passes but the offense was going nowhere. The passes through midfield were only going at about a 75% completion rate. We created so many chances for South Korea with such poor passing that I just turned it off. It was a dreadful display. It often looked like our guys were passing to the other team on purpose.

The absolute lowest point was when USA was awarded a free kick in South Korea’s half of the field… After the foul was called the USA pushed all their players up the field to get an attack started. The kicker though, instead of serving the ball into the box, did a short 8 yard pass to a teammate. That pass was a really bad idea from the onset. The pass was immediately intercepted by a South Korean before it even got near the intended target. (The announcers were exasperated as well.) WE COULDN’T EVEN COMPLETE A SHORT PASS OFF OF A FREE KICK!!! Then, because all our players were pushed up, the South Koreans were immediately off on a counterattack. South Korea should have score it’s first goal right then. That’s when I changed the channel.

Ramos wants to copy Barcelona. You don't have La Masia nor hordes of wanna be xavi and Gaurdiolas.....never gonna work.

bigtex75081 wrote:

clueless wrote:

the7wolf wrote:

bigtex75081 wrote:I think anybody that posts that they're looking for a "possession-style" team should automatically be required to define the term "possession-style" before their message is posted.

Agree with that. It normally stems from somebody accidentally catching 10 minutes of a Barca game and deciding that's the way to go. Conveniently overlooking that said team has probably 10 of the top 25 players in the world in its squad.

Passing for passings sake with no progression and then losing the ball. Always fun to watch.

Definitely see this on lower level teams. Have the right idea without the right personnel. Third or fourth pass is usually under the fullback's feet to the charging forward for their fifth goal. Very similar to American football where a team, without any offensive line, runs up the gut for -2 yards over and over again (to set up the passing game...right?).

Wonder how many hoops coaches watch the Heat and determine that's they way they want to play (finding that middle school Lebron)?

As mentioned above, the length of the pass doesn't matter as much as the intent/direction. How often do you see a player just turn and blindly fire it to no one (all the time).

Last night I watched a replay of the recent u20 game between USA vs South Korea. The USA was trying wayyyy too hard to play the possession style of soccer and it did not work at all.

****Spoiler Alert: South Korea beat the USA by a score of 1-0 but South Korea should have scored at least 3 more goals than they did. ****

As a USA fan, it was a horrible game to watch. The USA was doing nothing but short passes but the offense was going nowhere. The passes through midfield were only going at about a 75% completion rate. We created so many chances for South Korea with such poor passing that I just turned it off. It was a dreadful display. It often looked like our guys were passing to the other team on purpose.

The absolute lowest point was when USA was awarded a free kick in South Korea’s half of the field… After the foul was called the USA pushed all their players up the field to get an attack started. The kicker though, instead of serving the ball into the box, did a short 8 yard pass to a teammate. That pass was a really bad idea from the onset. The pass was immediately intercepted by a South Korean before it even got near the intended target. (The announcers were exasperated as well.) WE COULDN’T EVEN COMPLETE A SHORT PASS OFF OF A FREE KICK!!! Then, because all our players were pushed up, the South Koreans were immediately off on a counterattack. South Korea should have score it’s first goal right then. That’s when I changed the channel.

It's painful watching the U.S. national team at the moment in all age groups, men and women. Hopefully this is a transition phase where they're trying to find their pants in the dark because its plain miserable. Somebody made a decision to switch from the short-short-long to the horses (or simply short-long on the women's side) to trying to pass the ball which is an alien concept to most of the national players. The USSF needs to decide on what style the U.S. is going to adopt and go with it because this hybrid of putting a cow's head on a kangaroo is just one plain ugly looking animal.

Watched as much as Toulon as I could take. Painful is a good word. Let's hope it's a growing phase.