What we might learn.

Zinedine Zidane's Classic Soccer Move

Posted Jul 02, 2006

The pirouette is classic Zidane. He turns the attack forward at speed, hauls it to a stop, freezing defenders, then accelerates past. His control of the game led France to a 2006 quarterfinal victory over Brazil in the rematch of 1998's World Cup final.

2010 Spring Information

Welcome to the 2010 U-14 Spring Season! Practice begins on Tuesday, February 16, 2009.

We still need, and have room for, players. Our roster size is 18 and we still have room for five more players. We are looking for bigger, older U-14 players. Experience is not required. If you see a player we should have, but is not on the roster, e-mail me.

I have an exciting announcement. This spring, the players will be exposed to a professional trainer. I have retained Devin R., an experienced coach and soccer player who will be imposing a serious training regime on the players.

Devin is a college student who has played competition soccer at a very high level. He will be drilling the players on individual moves and tactics. At the start of the season, when there are no games, we will be having two practices per week, creating a structure to build upon during the game. Devon is also the coach of a Rockledge competition team, so we may not be able to have him at our games, but he will be with us when we need him most.

While the goal of our team remains to have fun; practice will not be the loosey-goosey experience we had in the fall; Devon will be expecting our player to be as motivated and intense as the other competition players he coaches. Players will need to come to practice fully equipped and ready to play. (Our kids need to dress for soccer (this means shin-guards) and bring their own water and ball.) Devon, has been fully educated in the Dutch Method of soccer instruction and has worked with the youth program of Amsterdam’s Ajax. Our plan is to start off strong with intense practices and ease off as the season move on. We intend to teach the kids some of the standard movements so that as they learn the faints and dribbles they can incorporate individual skills into group play. However, just because we are focusing on individual skills does not mean we have abandoned the idea of creative, attacking soccer. Serious soccer can still be fun!

This season communication between the parents and players and team management will also be different. I have organized an electronic bulletin board which will contain all the information on practices and games. Comments can be posted. (If you notice, there are no last names on the board; for security, I use first names and identifying initials.) On this site, there are three polls on the right side, just below the “welcome to Cocoa Beach” picture. I am collecting parent input on the date and time of practice. This is the place to enter your desires on practices. We are still two weeks away from the start of practice. I am thinking about Tuesday and Friday practices until games start and then moving to one practice on Tuesday night. Enter your input.

One last thought. The plan our soccer club developed last fall was not able to be accomplished and the core of experienced U-14 players has dropped from 10 to 4 (a very good quartet, but four non-the-less). We are taking a group of young players into their first season of 11 v. 11, full field soccer; please lower your expectations. If we win a single game, our season will be a success.

Tom Y.