football test

You all know Eva, Don’t you? She had a crush on that other charmer. It wasn’t really a blind love, as she could see the pros and cons in that relation. But for the beautiful times they shared, she always believed that she can’t live without him even though she was so certain he will always break her heart.

One day, she came back home and BOM! He is not there anymore! She lost her appétit for food, naps, and smiling. Within two days she grew a decade older and was too weak to handle it. She eventually collapsed in her bed diving in a deep sleep until the solar heart sent its tender shafts of light tipping a kiss on her pale face. She opened her starving eyes and her soul dragged her body up toward the window. “Nice weather…” She murmured and in a moment she found herself out walking aimlessly in the streets where she lived since as long as she can remember. Still, it all felt different.

“Lot of handsome guys in this area” was her first impression. She never noticed them before, as she was deeply attached to …that…g..u..y…what is his name again?

A new charmer around the corner smiled at her. She smiled back, picked her phone, called her dearest friends. Out of Sudden she is in the mood to go out and party, tonight.

More about the football clubs who were the Eva-s of 2009 after the break:

Before jumping into the Cases of summer 2009, it’s important to note that Season 2009 was introduced by the departure of Ronaldinho from Catalonia to Milan. He was another crack that held Barcelona on his back leading the club from declination to glory on all aspects.

A supernatural package of skills and drills that if you are not Luis Fernandez, there is no doubt that you had a crush on him while watching his show each and every time he stepped into the pitch. Football wise, he drove a team with fragile defense and thin depth to win two domestic titles and a Champions’ league. Marketing wise he used his football spells to charm the world, generating fans for Barcelona from pole to pole. Not even Kobe Bryant had enough immunity to overcome that Blugrana flue. Through his image financial return, he didn’t only finance his own contract, but also Txiki ties, Rijkaard suits and Messi Pokémon collection. There was a plan to build him a statue of the same size as the Camp Nou, but egoistic handsome Laporta demanded a bigger statue for himself in return, so the whole project collapsed.

Then, Ronaldinho spells backfired on the club. Barcelona football dynamics became completely dependent on a player who is no more dependent on football for pleasure. His electric legs found on the dancing floors of Barcelona super night clubs a more amusing place than football field to show his magic. He was no more a footballer.

Barcelona had to make a decision. A decision that won them a treble. This summer, three more teams had to face the loss of their key players as well. Ibrahimovic moved out of Inter Milan to land in Barcelona. Kaka and C.ronaldo left Milan and Manchester united to Real Madrid. And even though the three players were not underperforming in their former clubs, but still an inevitable question ring an alert:

Will the loss of the mentioned players made their former teams terrible or closer to win a treble?

To be continued…

Aim
 

To develop players' ability (midfielders) to support the striker after a pass (long ball).

The training is divided into two parts.

First part:

● 3 teams of 3 players (9 players in total).

● Blue versus red and yellow to start.

● This part of the game will take place in an area of 20 x 10 metres divided into two squares of 10 x 10 metres each.

● Both teams play from square to square.

● Each player can only touch the ball once.

● The player is only allowed to run in the other square when the ball is played to the striker.

● Teams change roles after a rest period of one minute.

Second part:

● 3 teams of 3 players and 2 goalkeepers (11 players in total).

● The team in possession can use the yellow players for support - one beside each goal and one in midfield.

● This part of the training will be situated in an area between the touchline and the halfway line. The exact size of the field depends on the requested intensity.

● Each player can only touch the ball once.

● Teams change roles after a rest period of one minute.

Time

First part:

● About 20 minutes overall. 4 or 5 sessions of 3-4 minutes with 1 minute rest (depending on the fitness of the players). The players train with heart rate monitors.

Second part:

● About 20 minutes overall with the same time sequence.

Development

● Positioning of the players in a 5 against 3 situation in one square.

● Choosing the right moment to play the ball to the other square.

● Running action from midfielders.

● Positioning of the player receiving the ball.

● Keeping possession of the ball.

Case Analysis

Training methods: Euro 2008.

Source: "The Technician" , UEFA Newsletter.

THE 16 TEAMS WHICH TOOK PART IN EURO 2008 HAD TWO AND A HALF WEEKS

TO PREPARE BEFORE THE OPENING MATCH. DURING THAT PERIOD A VARIETY OF METHODS WERE USED

TO IMPROVE FITNESS (RECOVERY AND REGENERATION WAS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT),

TACTICAL KNOW-HOW, INDIVIDUAL TOUCH AND TEAM COORDINATION.

SOME TEAMS ACTUALLY PERSONALISED PRE-TOURNAMENT TRAINING SCHEDULES BASED

ON THE INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS' WORKLOAD DURING THE SEASON.

The Portuguese played full-scale (11 v 11) practice matches - 12,000 fans watched them in Neuchâtel, with Luiz Felipe Scolari, the boss, acting as referee and coach. The emphasis for Portugal was on possession play, counter-attacking and set plays (many repeated before the practice game restarted). Guus Hiddink, the head coach of Russia used an 11 v 11 game, on a shortened pitch (goals on the 16 metre line at each end), to prepare for the semi-final match against Spain. The Dutch maestro worked on fast transitions, incisive play and good delivery from the flanks.

Fatih Terim was one of the coaches who employed specialised fitness trainers - he engaged the same US company that Jürgen Klinsmann worked with during 2006 World Cup in Germany. The fitness team used heart monitors to control the intensity of the training, with information displayed on the computer screen in real time. In the build-up to the tournament, Fatih focussed on patterns of play through midfield - first with shadow play and then in a controlled 11 v 11.

The Dutch trained the way they played, and high intensity pressure and fast switching of play were emphasised in conditioned games during the preparation phase. They showed their readiness when they produced their sensational counterattacking moves against Italy in their first game in Berne. The Oranje players' willingness to support the fast breaks was already evident in training.

The Spanish were less dynamic in the preparation drills and practice routines, but the quality of their combination play at training, through central areas and on the flanks, was impressive. An important request from the Spanish was to have the stadium pitches watered in order to facilitate their slick passing movements and penetration play.

Austria have had a football/fitness trainer (Roger Spry) on their coaching staff for some time. With some support from UEFA, the Austrians (under the control of their technical director, Willi Ruttensteiner) produced a DVD of their conditioning training at EURO 2008, and this will be used as a teaching aid in the ÖFB's development programme.

The training process is largely hidden from the public gaze, but the results are there for all to see when the matches are played. The quality of football at EURO 2008 was ample proof that the technical teams did a great job in preparing their national squads for competitive action.

GREAT HEADLINE, ISN'T IT? THERE WAS CERTAINLY NO LACK OF INTEREST WHEN CARLOS ALBERTO

PARREIRA, WORLD CHAMPION WITH BRAZIL IN 1994, JUMPED ON THE STAGE AT THE UEFA NATIONAL

TEAM COACHES CONFERENCE IN VIENNA TO MAKE A PRESENTATION BEARING THAT RIVETING

TITLE TO AN AUDIENCE OF COACHES WHO ARE NOW ACCELERATING THEIR TEAMS INTO THE FINAL LAPS

IN THE RACE TO QUALIFY FOR THE 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP FINALS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Carlos certainly knows his way around the world of national team football. Apart from Brazil, he's taken charge in Ghana, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. And, as he was quick to point out, he's learned that there's no secret formula, no magic potion and that the title of the presentation he has now allowed UEFA to publish on our website might easily be "How To Have a Half-Decent Chance of Winning the World Cup". Let's face it, if you ask the winners of World Cups, EUROs or UEFA Champions Leagues to name a key factor, they might well mention "a smile from Lady Luck in a penalty shoot-out."

Indeed, the list of past winners reveals that there's no common denominator in terms of personality. How do you compare Sir Alf Ramsey with César Luís Menotti; Enzo Bearzot with Franz Beckenbauer? On the other hand, it is interesting to look for traits that Carlos has shared with Aimé Jacquet, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Marcello Lippi, the technicians who have followed him to the top of the world podium.

Carlos expresses admiration for Germany's 1954 champion Sepp Herberger, who developed tactical discipline along with physical and mental strength, aiming to attack and defend with maximum efficiency. Carlos admits to finding inspiration in some of Sepp Herberger's strikingly simple statements such as "the ball is round" and "the game lasts 90 minutes" because those stripped-down concepts are an invitation to reflect on what the game of football is about.

Flicking through the pages of World Cup history, Carlos traces trends through the winners: the birth of 'art football' in 1958 based on the Brazilians' outstanding technical ability, the play-and-don't- let-them-play philosophy of Sir Alf Ramsey's winger-less England in 1966, the quality and team balance of Brazil in 1970, the compact German unit which overcame Total Football in 1974, the different styles which took Argentina to the summit in 1978 and 1986, and the tactical, counter-attacking excellencies of the Italian sides which triumphed in 1982 and 2006.

The question is whether today's ambitious national team coach needs a compendium of all those qualities or whether a winning team can be built on a small number of them, yet be prepared to cope with opponents who base their footballing cuisine on different ingredients. Carlos believes that a successful team needs to be built on the foundations of the country's culture, history and traditions. He quotes César Luís Menotti: "You have to understand that, if you are a musician and you don't know who Beethoven was, you are lost. If I ignore my past, I cannot plan my present or my future." On the other hand, Argentine football has, in recent times, diverged into two schools of thought spearheaded by their two World Cup winners - and Carlos Bilardo maintains "there is no Argentine style: to win is the only thing that matters."

In modern-day Europe, the theme is by no means irrelevant. Many of the nations who have expanded UEFA's membership from 31 to 53 in a short space of time may face a need to rediscover their footballing genes. Carlos, of course, is steeped in Brazilian culture and philosophy. And he points to Mario Zagallo, four-time World Cup winner as player and coach, as the man who managed to combine method with the Brazilians' traditional fantasy by focusing on off-the-pitch facets. His revolution in 1970 was based on a meticulously planned training programme along with a totally new team infrastructure in which the technical staff was increased from 4 to 12. Although science and technology have been increasingly applied to the game in the last half-century, Carlos admits that it's difficult to equal the 1958 experience in terms of preparation time. "In those days," he remarks, "the Brazlians were in Brazil, so preparations started in February. These days, that is simply impossible."

The challenge facing today's national team coach is that cultures, philosophies and playing concepts need to be implanted in short periods of time and, in many cases, among footballers who, since adolescence, have been playing the game against completely different cultural backdrops. Technology can assist the modern national team coach in terms of, for example, logging each player's training and match-play workloads via internet, but technology cannot provide national character or team unity.

Carlos therefore maintains that a key element in the coach's work is to evaluate and assess the players who are available and to select those who, in his opinion, can interpret his philosophy. Again, Carlos likes to quote César Luís Menotti: "You need to look for quality and for team players. A good squad is like a symphonic orchestra. You can't manage with violins. You also need pianos, basses, wind instruments and a good maestro."

"The music keeps changing," Carlos reflects. "If you go back to Brazil in 1958, it was essentially a 4-2-4 but Mario Zagallo's ability to attack and defend made it more or less a 4-3-3. When Brazil won it again in 1970, you could say it was with a 4-5-1 formation. But the five consisted of Clodoaldo and Gerson in the holding roles with Jairzinho, Pelé and Rivelino operating behind Tostão." In 1994, Arrigo Sacchi described Carlos's Brazilian team as "the most organised in their history". It was based on a flat, zonal back four and, as Carlos recalls, "a positional passing game with fast counters and changes of rhythm. It was about zero mistakes and maximum efficiency."

Playing styles come and go - Carlos points out that, at the 1990 finals, 14 of the 24 teams operated with a three-man defence. In 2006, 5 out of 32 used three at the back - a trend underlined at EURO 2008, where only Austria and Greece sporadically opted for this shape. But Carlos insists that the characteristics required by the coach who aspires to win a World Cup have remained fundamentally unchanged. He needs a solid track record, a real football background, along with enough top-level experience to earn credibility in the dressing room. He requires a coherent playing philosophy which he can communicate to the players. His leadership qualities must be channelled into creating a positive ambience. He must always be prepared to, as Carlos puts it, "defend the tribe". He needs to remain composed, focused and graceful under extreme pressure. And he needs to be relaxed and purposeful in his relationships with the media, "even when you get the feeling that it's you versus the rest of the world. There were times, I admit, when I asked myself if it was really worth it. You need to be Robocop..."

Carlos also maintains that, apart from outstanding players, a team capable of winning the World Cup needs "to win outside the field of play. You need a mission, a vision, a target. You need to defend the myths and legends of the country."

Who will successfully do this in South Africa?

"IF I WAS ASKED TO FIND ONE WORD TO DESCRIBE ONE OF THE MAIN DIFFERENCES I HAVE NOTICED IN 25 YEARS OF COACHING," GÉRARD HOULLIER REMARKED AT THIS YEAR'S ELITE

CLUB COACHES FORUM,

"THE WORD WOULD PROBABLY BE 'WHY'? TODAY'S PLAYERS WANT TO KNOW THE REASONS BEHIND EACH SESSION ON THE TRAINING GROUND - AND, OF COURSE,

YOU HAVE TO BE READY TO GIVE THEM A GOOD ANSWER."

At today's multilingual professional club, this can become even more demanding - which is why some technicians, 'Takis' Lemonis among them, now open the proceedings with an explanatory talk, either on the training pitch or in the dressing room. Pragmatisms apart, the coaches at the forum emphasised that modern footballers tend to be top-level students of the game and, in order to attain maximum levels of motivation, need to feel involved and, to a degree, responsible for the shape of training exercises. José Mourinho voiced the opinion of many coaches when he said he encourages feedback from his players and prefers to implement a 'guided discovery' strategy on the training ground. "Sometimes an exercise starts in one way and finishes in a totally different way," he commented.

Everybody has his or her modus operandi but the clear message was that the days of "just do what I say" are past history.

It was a theme which cropped up again at the UEFA Coach Education Symposium in London, attended by representatives from all 53 member associations and, in addition, colleagues from FIFA and the other confederations. There was a clear consensus that, in today's dressing-room climate, the technician is required to devise training exercises which are motivating, interesting and totally relevant to matchplay.

"The important thing is to start with clear objectives that you can explain to the players," José Mourinho commented in Nyon. "And then you design the exercise to attain those objectives. But you want input from the players and, like matches, exercises can start in one way and end in a different way. But everything must be game-related. The game is the end, so it should also be the beginning."

"I use a global method," he told Andy Roxburgh during a recent interview. "I use direct methods when preparing our organisation but I also use guided discovery where I create the practice, dictate the aim and then invite the

players to come up with different solutions. My practices are aimed at developing an aspect of my team's play- they are specific for my style of football. Sometimes I decide I won't use a certain practice again because I am sure I can devise a better one with this specific outcome in mind."

During his time at Chelsea FC, José enjoyed the luxury of brand-new training facilities at Cobham - and one of the features he regarded as basic was the ability to conduct training sessions on two adjacent pitches. "This allows you to prepare exercises in advance without having to stop working to move cones or change goals. Players can simply switch from one pitch to the other, taking some fluid in the meantime, and that allows you to conduct a 95-minute session with match- like intensity. That has a big influence on the players' levels of concentration."

Some would argue that a peak-of-the- pyramid club like Chelsea are not the perfect example in that many of the players have been acquired rather than developed. Zico, who was poised to make his UEFA Champions League debut with Fenerbahçe SK, admitted that his training programme focuses as much on the development of the individual as on the construction of a winning team. "It's important to go back regularly to basics and to make the player feel responsible for his actions," he said. Claude Puel endorsed his viewpoint. "When you have a young squad like we have at Lille," he explained, "there is a need to develop players. Training therefore becomes an educational process as well as the means of preparing for a specific game. This is why competing in the Champions League was important. It helped us to raise standards."

"I think this is why many of us complain that we don't have enough time," FC Porto's Jesualdo Ferreira added. "Today's fixture list barely leaves us enough training time to prepare for matches, let alone work on player development. In my average week, the emphasis is firmly on team tactical work rather than anything else."

"The objectives are usually tactical variations for a specific game," Ottmar Hitzfeld agreed. "If you have time, you work on attacking and defensive patterns, passing options and transition. And to make training sessions successful, you need a fitness trainer who has hundreds and thousands of exercises!"

The role of the fitness coach was a theme which cropped up again in London. "Top-level football is so important," Gérard Houllier commented with a smile, "that we have to be careful about how much we leave to the fitness coach..."

For Gérard, the training ground is one of the places where the personality of the coach - as well as his methods -become highly relevant. "Today's play ers are usually top-level students of the game. They want to ask questions about what happens when we meet opponents who do this or do that. And the training ground is where the coach's philosophy and enthusiasm are passed on to the players."

At the symposium in London, Gérard stressed the importance of building your entire season as a coherent training project aimed at raising the level of competence, building confidence and mutual trust among the players and establishing a culture of constant progress and improvement. Both he and Ottmar Hitzfeld also highlighted the need for training sessions to combine fun and efficiency.

But what is efficiency? Is it simply measured by the next result? These are two of the many questions posed in Nyon by Arsène Wenger, a restless mind if ever there was one. "It's correct to say that we have limited time in comparison with other sports. So what is the most efficient way of using, for example, a one-hour session? Sometimes I think that a training session has been good. But that's a subjective assessment. How can we objectively measure the effectiveness of a session? What is the best way for us, as coaches, to work on aspects such as vision or reading the game? I still cannot unravel the mystery of exactly what makes a player suddenly improve and develop."

Sir Alex Ferguson maintains "a top coach needs an imagination - we all want to be the coach that created the perfect goal". Arsène would surely love to be the coach who created the perfect training session...