Ah, the big question that every coach has as he approaches a new season, how will the team look this year ?
If you follow hockey and the Montreal Canadians, you will assuredly know about the significant changes that the team went through with one major trade (Higgins for Gomez) and the signing of 6 free agents. This in conjunction with the players that left as free agents (Koivu, Kovalev, Komisarek to name a few) and this year's team will be quite different in style of play and identity (like who is going to be the captain ?) Why do I speak about the Canadians ? Well like them, the 2009 Stingers will show a certain amount of turnover from last year's squad. We are looking at anywhere from 9 to 12 potential new players on the team from the squad that suited up in the fall. If you have followed any of the soccer news on the Stingers website (or read some of my older blogs), you will know that we have 4 players who have signed Letters of Intent to Concordia so one can assume they 4 will be part of the roster. After that, we have another new player who participated with the team during the indoor season and will make solid contribution to the squad. Then beyond those 5, a number of spots will be open to competition during training camp. Like the Canadians, we will lose a few veteran players who have contributed in the past but luckily we retain a solid core that should all things being equal, be that much stronger this fall. With the influx of new players, the coaching staff is evaluating what system and style of play we will incorporate this fall and there are a few interesting options. Regardless of which style we adopt, there are going to be a number of starting positions up for grab and it will really come down to which players really step up and earn the positions. The main focus we primarly be on the offensive side of things. While there might be one starting spot available in the back and our midfield being fairly set, it is at the forward position where we are really going to be looking for options. From last year's group, we have lost 2 of the top forward statistically speaking and a 3rd is undecided about returning due to academic concerns, so this is an area where we are looking to the new players for options. We are also considering playing a 4-3-3 which would mean that the change of shape will required forwards who can adapt quickly to a new style. The other reality for our season is that coming off a season of 1 win and 2 ties, the obvious assumption we would like to make is that it can't get worse and there is tons of room for improvement. How much improvement and how competitive we can be this year vs. future years will also determine some of the choices we make for the team, for starting positions and playing time. Do we go with a younger team who can show improved results this fall but more importantly gain valuable experience which can helps us challenge for top spots down the road - or - do we count of more experienced players to get us as many points as possible and let the newer players learn on the fly watching and via practices? All these are interesting questions and questions that as a coach you can't help but enjoy... I woudl rather have to make tough choices than that have any at all.
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Hi there ! Well, the start of the 2009 training camp is just over 3 weeks away and like any coach, I find myself looking ahead trying to determine what kind of team we will field this season. Well the second week back and life has returned to somewhat normal. Not much soccer related stuff going on and hence the title of this blog. Stingers soccer starts in just over 3 weeks and I am in the midst of making some last minute preperations, getting our pre-season trip ready, planning training seasons, playing fantasy line up (well this just means trying to figure out what the squad might look like this fall), and touching base with returning and new incoming players with the goal of making sure they arrive in the right mind-set and level of fitness so that we give ourselves the best chance possible to have a succesful season. Which that being said, also means eveluating how I want to measure what will be a succesful season. Funny how soccer, which is supposed to be part time and seasonal seems to occupy a significant amount of time year round and even more on my thoughts. Hi Well a week has now passed since I have returned home and to be honest, getting back to reality wasn't all that easy. Hard to come off the high of such an intense life experience especially after having put so much time and effort into the planning and find that it is all over. Hi there, Hi there, well the soccer tournament part of the games is over as we played our final game this morning, winning in a penalty shoot out vs China. I will come back with some details but I have asked another one of the players to blog and in the interest of representing our bilingual nature, I have asked my new buddy Andreanne Gagne from University de Sherbrooke to post. It has been fun coaching her instead of coaching against her. She will be posting in french today. Ok so I have been a little behind in getting players to share their thoughts and views on the games so I have going to try and have a little blitz over the last few days of the games. This blog will be brought to you by Chelsea Stang of UBC who has had an outstanding tournament thus far. She was also the person who designed our logo seen on our t-shirts ( I hope to post some pics when I return to Montreal) Back again. As the title to this posting says, it appears that we are running out of steam. I think it traces back to our loss to France where we were so close to pulling off a win that would have pushed into the semi's that the let down is still felt. After having our game yesterday postponed following a severe storm that left the field flooded, we have to play our game versus Russia this morning. Due to the condition of fields at the different venues and in the interest of keeping them in shape for tomorrow's games, we have the chance to play at the training facility for Partizan Belgrade a local pro club. Their team was actually training at the same time in preperation for a champions league match next week. Our captain Des Scott and goalie Jackie Dunnet had been ruled out for the balance of the tournament but we were confident that Kristen Funk who had back stopped her Trinity team to a national championship would fill our just fine. Unfortunately, we had a terrible start defensively and left her all alone and we quickly found ourselves down 2-0. We were able to take a goal back following a penalty shot we were awarded but then again gave up a bad goal and went into half time trailing 3-1. At the point, it would have been easy to go through the motions and run out the time but the players stepped on the field and worked hard. We managed 2 goals and tied the game and seemed to have Russia on the run. We managed a few more chances but following a corner kick, Russia scored a 4th goal which turned out to be the winner. We still had 21 minutes to tie the game and felt that if we could tie and go into penalties (there is no overtime in this tournament), we liked our chances of winning. The rest of the game mirrored our tournament, hard work, determination, but some bad luck, tough calls against us and lack of ability to finish. Russia added a fifth goal in injury time. Tomorrow we play China again for 7th and 8th place and it will be tough to beat them again but I am sure we will get a great effort from the team as they have shown throughout the tournament. Seeing how close we can come in game, it makes one wonder how we could do as a team if we had just a little more time to prepare as a group.
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AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
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