| Gabe Rood - European Soccer Blog #8 |
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| on 07 Oct 2009 | |
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Blog # 8 The last five days I had the opportunity to get an inside look at the FC Porto Youth Academy. I was fortunate enough to talk with the youth director, director of education, various coaches (u9-u19), psychologists, managers, players, and the head of the casa de dragao. Pepijn set these meetings up for me and I was able to interview all the above people. In addition, to talking with these people, I was able to see their two training grounds, stadium, watch trainings, games, and watch their 1st team play in the champions league against Atletico Madrid. I have all the interviews, but I am unable to post them because of the fear that their information would be leaked or the press would get a hold of the information and print it. So instead of showing you the interview, I will tell you about FC Porto from my experience. Enjoy! FC Porto realized they needed to change their youth education program a few years ago. They looked at the players they were producing and they were not satisfied with the type of player that was coming out of their youth program. Many players would get to the u19 age group and not be able to make the jump to the first team. They would go away and maybe 2-3 year later come back to FC Porto. They also realized they were producing players that were athletes and not necessarily the best soccer players. In evaluating their own club, the players that they were producing and they style of play, the club decided to come up with a project called 611. The project was a 5 year plan. The project started in 2006 and is going to be re-evaluated in 2011. The first thing the club did was decide where they want to be in the future and then devised a plan to reach the goal. The club wanted to produce players that were of exceptional technical quality that could make the jump from their formation to the 1st team. These players needed to be top individual players, yet at the same time playing collectively in the FC Porto philosophy. They want their teams to play attractive, attacking soccer. They want to have 65-70% of the ball possession. In essence they want to play similar to how Barcelona plays. They realized in order to do this, it would take an education program that taught the players from a young age, to have the individual technical ability, yet at the same time the ability to play collectively (the way they want). On top of all this they would have to keep the FC Porto identity and culture. The two youth directors of FC Porto are Luis Castro and Victor Frade (“the professor”). They along with other members of the club were responsible for implementing a plan to achieve these goals. They needed to do a lot of things, so they devised a plan to achieve their goals. In year one, they evaluated/observed all areas of their club to get an understanding of where they truly were as a club. They looked at how the club operated, how the club worked, who their coaches were, etc... In year two, they started to make changes by bringing in new coaches, whom could help them achieve their plan. In year three, they continued to bring in new coaches whom believed in the philosophy and got rid of staff members that did not. By year three, a lot had changed. There were many new training ideas, new programs, and a new curriculum that were put in place. In year 4 & 5 they plan to stabilize what they have done in the first three years. They have moved very fast in a short amount of time and they need to structure everything so what they have created can be repeated. In the next couple of years they are not looking to make drastic changes, but they are always looking at how they can make things better. The club is always trying to move forward, as they never think things are good enough. The whole time they have been video taping (everything) all the games and practices. They have 7 assistant coaches whom cut the video and present what is needed to the head coaches. They do this in the morning (edit video) and they were made professionals coaches by the club. There were many challenges in trying to make these changes. They had to change the philosophy of many of the staff members. Many staff members had their own philosophy and did not buy into the new philosophy, so the club had to get rid of them. Some of the major soccer changes were to the curriculum. They wanted players that could dominate the ball and the opponent, so they brought in Pepijn Lijnders from PSV. Pepijn is a skills coach and the directors saw right away the positive impact he had on the players. After a year, they extended his contract. The rest of Portugal is starting to take notice as FC Porto’s youth teams are starting to dominate their opponents (they beat their opponents in the past, but not always in the best style. Sporting of Portugal has been known to produce many players as well as Benfica. Sporting and Benfica still have top youth programs). Pepijn’s u13 team played Sporting on live tv (championship game of a tournament) and dominated them 4-0. The commentators, opposing coach (from Sporting, and Benfica) are on tape (I saw the tape) saying FC Porto was the top team in the tournament because the style of play and individual technical quality of the players. Another challenge was FC Porto noticed that the society in Portugal was changing. The players were no longer playing street soccer. They realized in order to have the creative players, the players need to play street soccer. So two times a week they devoted to letting the kids play (u9-u13). In addition to this, they realized they were not getting enough quality competition, so they created an in-house league called “the dragon league.” They also started an in-house recreation program called “dragon force.” Structure of Portugal Portugal is a country of around 10 million people. It is a fairly small country in terms of geography. The Portuguese Soccer Federation has created 18 districts. These districts are based around populated areas. For the u9-u13 age group, the teams only play within their district. The idea is to keep the players close to home, so they don’t have to travel. Another reason could be, is this was set up a long time ago and the roads were not good to travel on. However, it creates a major problem for the top competitive teams because they can not get the proper competition. They play most of their teams up an age group (in some cases 2), but they still beat team 8-0 (Sporting & Benfica are in different district- they are in Lisbon). This is a major problem, so this is one of the reasons they created the in-house league. At the u14/u15 & u16/u17 age group, the league is a two year age group. At the u15 age group it is the first year the league is a national league. The league is divided into 6 regions with 12 teams in each region. At the end of the season, 4 groups of 4 are created. The top 4 teams from each group, play into another group of 4. They play 6 games, home and away to determine whom the winner is. The u17 age group has 4 regions of 12 teams. It is the same format as the u15’s at the end of the season (4 groups of 4 are created). The u19 age group has two regions of 16 teams each. At the end of the season the top 2 teams from the North and the South create a group of 4 teams. These 4 teams play home and away to determine a champion. The professional league in Portugal has 2 divisions of play. Each division of play has 16 teams and there is promotion and relegation (3 teams up and 3 teams down). There is no reserve league for the professional teams. They used to have one, but the problem was not enough teams had them and it was not cost effective. The third division then has 3 regions, with the fourth division being split into 9 regions (3 regions from the 3 regions in division three). From here it goes all the way down to the 7th division of play. You can’t be relegated below the 7th division. One thing to note, there is promotion and relegation in the youth and adult. For example: if a team playing in the 7th division won the league championship 6 years in a row, they could play into the top division (if met minimum requirements, example-stadium, etc…). Also, just because your name is FC Porto does not guarantee to play in the top division. If they perform badly, they could be relegated. Where you play is based on how you perform on the field. It is also easy to start a club in Portugal. All that is needed is to fill out proper paperwork to the federation, have a facility (rent or owned), and pay a little money. The identification for the national team starts at the u16 age group (note this just changed, it used to be u15). At the u15 age group there is a tournament in June with the best players attending. This format also just changed. Basically, there are 22 districts (note above I mentioned their were 18 districts. The reason for the 22 is there are islands that are a apart of Portugal and they are districts for this purpose). In the past, all 22 districts met, but it was difficult to identify players when 1 district would beat another 8-0. So they changed the format. Basically, they have 22 districts, but there is a regional tournament before the national tournament in June. They created 3 regions: 2 with 8 teams and 1 region with 6 teams. The top 2 teams from each region go to the national identification tournament and each region sends 1 more team made up of the best player from the rest of the teams that lost for a total of 9 teams. About FC Porto Objective of the youth program is to get players into the first team. They also want their player to be highly technical and they want their teams to play an attractive style by keeping the ball. They have to do this, while also winning, as the culture of FC Porto demands it. Facilities: Vitalis Park- 1 full size artificial field,1 small field (artificial), and off the wall facility. This facility has locker rooms, training room, etc… This is in the middle of the city. Ovalis- This is the main facility and is heavily guarded. It is in the mountains about 5-10 minutes outside of Porto. This facility is immaculate. 3 beautiful grass fields, 1 artificial field, 1 stadium field. Everything you can think of: lockers, offices, ect… Estadio Do Dragao- 50,000+ seat stadium. Very modern. Structure: U7- 4 players U8-5 players U9-15 players U10- 2 teams U11- 2 teams U12-2 teams U13-2 teams U14- 2 teams U15- 1 team U16- 1 team ? U17- 1 team ? U19- 1 team? 1st team All teams have the following staff: 1- Head Coach 2- Assistant Coaches 1- GK coach 1- team manager 1- skills coach 1- psychologist 2- equipment managers 1- foot doctor 1- physical therapist How many games a team plays varies on how well they do in their league. In general, it is somewhere around 22- 32 league games. The teams then participate in around 4-5 tournaments. U9-U10-U11- train 3 times a week, 1 game on the weekend, 1 dragon league U12-???? U13- 4 trainings, 1 game, 1 dragon league U14- 4 trainings, 1 game U15- 4 trainings, 1 game U16- ??? U17- 5-7 trainings U19- 5-7 trainings All teams have to play in the FC Porto style of play. They have 5 principles on offense and 5 principles on defense that all teams have to follow. Many of the head coaches are also assistant coaches on another team, so they learn how to lead and also follow. They have a curriculum that they have to follow, with certain objectives for each age group. For the most part the u9-u13’s main objective is to become masters of the ball. Half the practice session is dedicated to technique with the other half some sort of game. The u14’s is a bit of a transition year, but technique is still a high priority. The are also teaching the basic team tactics at these ages, but it is not the main priority. More detail of the u10/u11: Technique is the top priority with both age groups (coordination with the ball). In general, half the session is devoted to technique and the other half to games. An important thing to note with technique is each player has their own style. There are dribbling players, connection players, and defending players. It is very important to train players in their style. You can’t turn a connection player into a dribbling player. So it is important to give the players the opportunity to shine in their style. At the same time they want to give all players the capacity to be good at everything, but they need to give them a chance to be special as a dribbler (if this is what they are good at). They teach them every day to look where the other team is positioned on the field. Example: As a dribbling player, the player needs to recognize if there are 3 players on him, there are free players somewhere else on the field. This is the first step. The second step is to teach the players to bring (CALL) players to a certain part of the field (middle or sides) to create space somewhere else on the field. The u11’s are more advanced than the u10’s and can do more collectively. They control their technical style. At this age the players play 7v7, so they teach the very basic principals within the team. For example, they will teach build up. (Note: I saw the coach run a session with the u11’s in build up. It was very simple. 1 gk, 2 defenders, and 1 target player vs 2 opponents- to two goals). They give each player three different types of balls to play with. The idea is to give them a different feel for the ball and better touch. But most of all they are trying to create more passion for the game. They encourage them to do the moves The players practice in a series of moves- 1 move right after the other as homework. The boys also play a lot of 2v2 in the locker room and soccer tennis (in the locker room), to show them they can play anywhere and to adapt to different locations. They are trying to develop all types of players: GK, defenders, midfielders, and forwards. They have to develop players in their own style, as each player is unique. They need to give them an opportunity to specialize in their style, EVERY DAY and not forcing them to be something they are not (turn a defensive minded player into a dribbler). Every player has different characteristics based on various factors: speed, personality, mentality, etc… In training, they teach all the players within their style and they teach them within FC Porto’s style of play. They have 5 principles in offense and 5 principles in defense. In developing their players, it is important for all the players to know what they have to play within FC Porto’s philosophy of play. Every exercise, every game, everything is based on the principals and way of playing. The principals push them to work as technical as possible. For example: When their team has the ball, they want to make the field big. They need depth and width. They want to keep the ball on the opponent’s side of the field and if they lose the ball they want to get it back in 5 seconds. When they have the ball, they are always preparing to not get counter attacked on. All the players know this and every exercise brings this out. The teams play 1-4-3-3 (in the u12’s and above) because they feel this system is best for developing players, in their style of play. With the 1-4-3-3 it is the easiest way to teach their players the principles of play that they want their players to learn. It allows them to have good field occupation. The oldest teams (u17 and u19) also play other systems (1-4-4-2) to fully develop all the players in different situations. However, they play 1-4-3-3 eighty (80%) percent of the time. With the u9, u10 & u11 they play (7v7) 1-2-3-1 (most the time) or 1-3-1-2 (a bit more difficult). The 1-2-3-1 is easier because we have players where we want them. However, it is more difficult in the build up, because we only have two defenders. The 1-3-1-2 is a bit more difficult because players have to look for the space to run in, in order to play in our philosophy. With the u8’s they play 4v4. A more in depth look at the u15’s: The objective for the u15 age group at FC Porto is the first year they start collectively working with the team. Up to u14 the main focus is on the technical work and insuring that each player has the ability to do what they want with the ball at a high level. At the u14 level they have two teams at FC Porto and when they move to U15 they only have 1 team. The job of the coach is to create the team and to teach the players the collective game. He does this by teaching in the 4 moments of the game: we have the ball, they have the ball, transition from we to they, and they to we. They train 4 times a week and have a game on Sundays. They generally train around 75-90 minutes per session. The general schedule looks like this: Sunday- Game Monday- off Tuesday- technical training Wednesday-small situations, 2v2, 3v3 4v4 in the moments of the game Thursday-Collective (team training) bigger situations, larger numbers. Friday- Fast situations- shooting, free kicks, corner kicks Saturday-off U17/19 continue with the collective game and try to perfect the individual so they can make the jump to the first team. A very interesting thing about FC Porto is they have sports psychologists for the teams. I was able to talk with them and see what their responsibilities are. They work with coaches and the players to try to improve them. The coaches are leaders, so they try to make them better leaders and coaches, by observing what they do and how they do it. Many times coaches coach on emotion and they try to help them control this emotion. By doing this, hopefully the relationship between the coach and player can improve. The coach has to realize every player is different and he has to act and treat every player differently. An example: 1 player you may need to be very direct and can yell to get your point across. But another play, if you do the same way can destroy the player. The coach needs to adapt to each player, because he is the leader (not the player to the coach). The sports psychologist I spoke to believe that talent is born, but it needs to be nurtured and developed. If talent is not developed correctly it can be destroyed. In many situations a coach can kill creativity and the player. By the things that a coach says to a player and how they say it can make a big difference on the player. A coach has to realize they don’t need to control everything and that it is impossible to control everything. The sports psychologists go to every training and game and observes what the coach does at the training or game. They then write down what they saw and the next day discuss with the coach. They work full time for the club and each team has 1 sports psychologists. I wish I could share the interviews, but I need to respect FC Porto’s wishes. Hopefully, you can take some of the information I presented and make it your own. We have to realize we all have a different situation, but I believe we can learn a lot by seeing what others do. I have not talked much about the players, but to give you an idea of the technique, I think our best players in Northern California would struggle at FC Porto. The younger the age, the more players could do it (u9-u12). But by u13 or u14, I’m not sure how many would make it if given the chance. In my observation, the main difference in the players is the technique and the game awareness. I’m a true believer we need to continue to focus on the individual technique of the players in the United States at the youngest ages. From my observation in seeing many games across the United States at these ages, the focus has shifted at too early an age to the tactics and the style of play that many teams are playing is not conducive to developing players. I hope you enjoyed this inside look at FC Porto as I certainly did. Gabe Rood |
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