GB I watched an interesting thing on one of the Super Sport channels on why SA soccer is not succeeding. The common consensus was this concept of expressing yourself. There is no team mentality, its all tricks and bullshit, yet it has been proven over and over by the likes of Barca and the Euro style of play that one touch passing wins games. SAFA has identified this crissis in our style of play and are trying to wean our players off of this express yourself play. I hope they succeed.
I still (at 37) play socially and I Chair a soccer club down our way. Mixed bunch of guys from 18 to 40+. There are some of our players who should really be playng at the top level. They have the ball skills that are second to none. Some of the trickery and skill would rival some of the the best around but put them in a match and the trickery ultimate costs us goals and sometimes games.
SAFA has the right approach, it's a developmental thing. I played soccer as a junior and one of the things that stood out is that the black players never trained with goals. It was all about tricks and ball retention, but not ball retention in th traditional sense but individuals trying to retain the ball. The other thing is that they would rather pass a ball to a marked man (who they rate as skilled) than play a ball to a player they didnt respect (skill wise) in space.
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