video

Players

Meet Brett Christensen, The Coach Behind Guershom Sylvain, The Rush Player Of The Moment

Michigan Rush’s coach Brett Christensen has obviously had an impact in Guershom Sylvain’s development, coaching him for the last four years. In this article, Brett shares his coaching approach and thoughts on player development. Meet the coach behind Guershom Sylvain.

Guershom Sylvain is the Rush Player of the moment. Owner of a spectacular and inspiring story, the Michigan Rush ’04 striker received a full scholarship to continue his soccer (and education) development at Combine Academy.

Brett Christensen, Guershom’s coach, kindly answered our questions. Born and raised in Idaho, Brett also coached in Alaska before arriving to Michigan to obtain his PhD in Sports Psychology. And, as Guershom, he showed humility when asked for the player’s evolution: “I don’t know if I would say I am behind Guershom’s success as he was responsible for most of it, but I have helped him along the way”.

“Guershom came to our club after being noticed playing at a local indoor place. One of our coaches noticed him and talked him into coming out to a couple of training sessions. From there we noticed how athletic he was and got him to join our club. I did not coach him right away but I have coached him now for the last four years and he has grown a lot during that time because of his tremendous work ethic and how responsible he is as a person off the field“, he added.

What do you think was the key aspect for success in your relationship with Guershom?

“I think the key aspect was developing trust between us. We have not always seen eye to eye, but as he learned I had his best interests in mind and he got more comfortable talking with me then things took off from there. He knows that if he does not understand what I am saying or if he thinks a different way that I will explain it to him so he understands why I am asking for certain things. That does not mean I do not listen or value what he says, I do because that trust goes both ways. He has a different perspective on the field than what I do as a coach so we can often have good discussions about how we play. I don’t think he would be where he is now if I just told him as a coach that I expect things a certain way but I never explain why that is important and how it relates to the game. It could be as little as why we play a certain foot in a situation to as big as the system we are playing as a team. When I coach, I want all the players to have that understanding. He knows in every game and training session there is a team aspect that is important, but so is his individual contribution to the team and his individual development and that all these things work together”.

Was Guershom way above the rest? If so, how did you handle that situation?

“He has always been more athletic, but not always above everyone else. I have been lucky enough to coach a number of players that have been very good. It is having this experience of coaching these players that helped me develop my coaching style and ability to work with top players in my teams. I know I have to be prepared to adjust sessions to a level that the top players are adequately challenged, but without losing the bottom half of the group. Giving individual goals in addition to the team goals in a training session really helps balance a session and keep everyone developing”.

Brett adapts his coaching approach based on the group he is coaching and how they respond to his coaching style. But he always focuses on the mental side of the game and encourages decision-making from the players: “I use games that require the players to figure it out while playing instead of giving them a pattern or letting them just run through the motions. I like the players I coach to be adaptable and be able to think for themselves. I want them to know that mistakes are okay but only if they learn from them. I want them to really try to push themselves to be better every time they are on the field”.

“I also use an individual approach to coaching. I will give things to the players as we are training to make things more challenging or more game like for their specific position. It requires a lot of planning on my part to have my training sessions adaptable for each player, but I feel the players understand the game better and what is expected out of the training session. It is also a great way to push your top players. Giving them more to do, or additional things to focus on during training helps them deal with the pressures of the game and be more effective when teams set up to stop them”, he stated.

“If I am looking at players that are trying out for my team, I look for coachability, work ethic, and then technique and athleticism in that order. I want players who are hungry to learn and push themselves to get better”
Brett Christensen.

“If you look at it from a Rush perspective, I want players that embody the core values. I want those players that don’t have to work at those values, they live them every day because that is who they are as a player and as a person”.

Open space, Brett. What would you want to tell the thousand of Rush coaches reading this article?

“If I could give some advice to coaches it would be to do what is best for your players and the team in that order. I see coaches all the time that set a team up around what is best for the coach but puts the team and players at a disadvantage. A coach is there to develop players. If you do your job well then the team results will come but having a player’s first attitude to development will reap the biggest rewards. This is at all the levels and age groups. It does not matter if it is 3 year olds playing fun silly games, or academy level players. Focus on the players. The biggest compliment a coach can get is other teams wanting your players.

Last thing, players being uncomfortable and even a little frustrated at times is a good thing for them and the team. It shows they are growing and having to adapt. This is what you should strive for in your sessions. You want them to really work to get what you want out of a session because it won’t come easy in a game. I once had a friend of mine say that training sessions should be harder than your games because then the games are easy. This is the mindset I want from my players. I get at players in training and push them, but in games I want it to be about them. I want them to enjoy what their hard work has got them”.

Thank you, Brett!

April 8, 2021

Coaching

What We Learned About Designing Player Centered Sessions

After a month of much discussion and analysis on how to design Player Centered Sessions, we found several valuable concepts that can be incorporated to the way we design sessions.

In simple words, if we want to discuss designing player centered sessions, we need to start by answering two questions: What’s a player centered approach? And why is it important?

What’s A Player Centered Approach?

In words of Juan Gonzalez Mendia, Director of Sudamerica Coaching (watch the full webinar here):

A player centered approach is about putting the participant at the center of the learning process. It’s about the decision making. Most of the environments in sports in the last 20 years have been related to education, and in the last 50 or 60 years (if not more) education has been related to somebody on a step, literally, telling the participants what they need to learn. If they were lucky, they would also hear ‘why’ they need to learn it. A participant centered approach is the opposite. This is a real story that serves as an example. I started teaching at a school years ago, in 2008, and the classroom had a step, so in my first week I turned that step into a stage. I moved my desk to the back of the room, and we turned the step into a stage in which the student would perform, express himself/herself, or present”.

As you can infer from this passage, in a participant centered approach the role of the teacher (coach) relates more to facilitating than it does to instructing.

Why Is It Important?

A Player Centered Approach is vital for us in it’s alignment with our core belief that the game is the teacher (or the best learning environment), and therefore the coach works as a facilitator. Quoting The Heart Of The Rush:

At Rush Soccer, we believe that the game is the teacher. It is in the complexity of the game where skills and creativity arise and develop, not in isolated, mechanized situations. These last can introduce a concept or a technique but can never be the core or the proposed channel for learning. It is in the game that the player discovers solutions and creativity arises, and it is the role of the coach to facilitate that environment and guide, when needed, through that discovery. It’s participant centered, not coach centered.

Building off of that base, the question that arises is how the Rush Way materializes this player centered approach.

The answer relies in the application of The Rush Blue Thread, a set of eight connected principles pursued in every session to ensure a top player centered learning environment is facilitated. That’s what was discussed by a panel on March 11th, when Pablo Toledo, Rush Soccer’s Coach & Player Development Director, was joined by several Rush Technical Directors including President Tim Schulz, Coach Education Consultant Megan McCormick, and Rush Canada’s Technical Director Slobodan Pavlovic, among others (Click HERE to Watch!).

“The question we were asking ourselves was: Knowing and respecting that every Rush club works on a different landscape and we are 100 clubs, how can we still be 1 and provide a similar player centered learning experience? That’s how and why we thought of these eight principles to design and execute training sessions that we call The Rush Blue Thread”, Pablo explained.

The Rush Blue Thread principles are:

“If we could get every Rush coach to do this, we would be miles ahead of any other club, maybe in the world”
Megan McCormick, Rush Soccer’s Coach Education Consultant.

OTHER LEASONS LEARNED ABOUT DESIGNING PLAYER CENTERED TRAINING SESSIONS:

1) Design Activities with Intentional Feedback: “It seems obvious that learning requires clear (and accurate) feedback. We knowing nod our heads when we hear that the more quickly the feedback is given after a decision, the more likely it will “stick”. Many coaches’ first instinct is to begin planning and considering coaching points and verbal information they will give during a session. However, the most consistent and immediate feedback in a training session comes directly from the activities (the game). Thoughtful session planning allows a coach to carefully tune the feedback loop for players, to ensure that the information is clear, accurate, and timely, even when the coach doesn’t verbally reinforce it”, Megan explained in her wonderful article ‘Key Considerations’ (Click HERE to read!).

2) When designing a session, ask yourself: Would I enjoy this? This might seem simple but it roots down to the core of learning. As Juan Gonzalez Mendia said in his last webinar: “For the longest time we thought that fun was important for learning, that if you enjoyed what you were doing you’d learn more and faster. We were suspicious about this, now science has proven it”. If you want to keep your players ‘engaged’ with the topic, observe if the session is enjoyable. Scott Mills spoke about this as well (Click HERE to Watch): “I think that the players respond to that and something they enjoyed it’s also teaching them. That’s the best part”, Scott stated. “We’ve all been kids and -I guess- we all love playing soccer, so imagine for a second that you will be part of the activity and self-reflect on how that session would be enjoyable”.

Russell Earnshaw linked many of these concepts as well in what he summarizes as seeing the session from children’s eyes. Rusty’s story about how he spent a day shadowing a child to understand their perception and feelings around the daily activities he participated in, to conclude that it was a really, really boring day added a bit of humor. “If we are really player centered, then why aren’t the children running lessons and sessions or at least being part of it?”, he wondered during his interview with Chris P. (Click HERE to Watch).

3) Ask players to provide their own objectives/goals for a game, or coach providing objectives: We took this one from Scott Mills, and I struggle to find an even more participant centered idea: “Each of our players have a pentavalent plan and define objectives for short, medium and long term for them. You (coaches) then help them, for example, if one player said ‘I really want to improve my speed and agility’, we will see the design of sessions that suits that goal. We also ask them to set an objective for the match, so we’ll ask them ‘how are you going to achieve that?'”.

4) Plan Your Response to Failure: It’s normal for players to struggle in training. In fact, we expect (and want) some failure to take place. Quoting Juan Mendia again: “If I watched a session and the players were always succeeding, I’d invite the coach to review that session, because something is not working”. The question that really matters is: What will my specific and purposeful response be when the player(s) makes this particular mistake?

5) External Focus of Attention: Megan highlighted this one (note how important we think it is that it is part of the Rush Blue Thread). This is about visual cues. It is our responsibility as coaches to make sure players have the tools to evaluate their own success or failure by observing the external outcome. Without thoughtful guidance, players might rely solely on the final score of the game to judge their performance. As coaches, we are constantly taking in so many visual cues and often leave them out of our verbal feedback. Taking the time to plan how you will help players watch for the things you see as a coach can pay tremendous dividends.

Please note that we are talking about literal things to observe, the focus is in what you can SEE. “Great pressure! Did you see how the attacker kept her head down and wasn’t able to look up?” That could be a great way to teach a young player about distances for the pressuring defender, or “she was able to pick her head up and survey the field which means you need to close more space”. These simple phrases will help the player self-evaluate her action every time she is required to provide pressure.

Using two simple questions before training can help make sure we are aligning a player’s external focus with our own: What actions/behaviors am I trying to teach? And, What specific things can a player SEE if they do this well? If they fail to do this well?

6) Building Mental Engagement & Planning The Conversation (Click HERE to read): Updated coaching education programs have introduced us to guided discovery and the use of questions to share our coaching points. However, the skill (or lack thereof) of crafting and asking questions can dramatically increase (or decrease) player engagement. If we are interested in putting the player at the center of the session, it’s time we all revisit the way we use questions. The goal is to have EVERY player in the session thinking deeply about EVERY question you ask as a coach. A loft goal to be sure but one well within our grasp with the right techniques.

Check the Chart below:

7) Random vs Block Training: We stated at the beginning of this post that a Player Centered Approach has it’s roots in decision making. Sean Connors, our Goalkeeping Global Director, presented as well about how this approach materializes within Goalkeeping specific training. That’s what the Random vs Block Training Webinar was about.

“Block Training is a traditional approach, it’s what you’ll see in most fields. A defined number of repetitions, repeating them over and over, so that the focus is on the execution”, Sean explained (Watch it HERE!). “Random, on the other hand, means different activities, don’t do the same thing twice, and the key is to read the situation, plan the situation and then do. Adding those two steps (reading & planning) is the main difference between Random and Block Training. Random not only focuses on technical execution”, he added.

Below, a brief and informative example of both types of GK training:

“So often we think about ourselves as Goalkeeper coaches training technique and execution, that tends to be the focus. But it doesn’t matter if you can catch a ball if you are not in the right place, if you haven’t made the right choice to catch the ball. That situation has got to become the focus”, Sean stated.

A lot to digest coach, we hope you enjoyed the learning this month. Stay tuned for April’s!

March 30, 2021

Coaching

Player Centered Session Design: Planning the Conversation

This article was written by Megan McCormick, Rush Soccer’s Coach Education Consultant and Lead on the Rush Female Coaches Alliance.

As coaches, we recognize the importance of designing activities that replicate the game and “paint pictures” to help players translate technical skills into well timed actions on the field. I would propose that the planning of “the conversation” between coach and players throughout the session is of equal value. Updated coaching education programs have introduced us to guided discovery and the use of questions to share our coaching points. However, the skill (or lack thereof) of crafting and asking questions can dramatically increase (or decrease) player engagement. If we are interested in putting the player at the center of the session, it’s time we all revisit the way we use questions.

Education expert, Doug Lemov, skillfully explains how to harness the power of questions to increase engagement (and learning) during a session. His blog post on the subject is well worth the 7 minutes of your time.

CLICK TO READ: Building Mental Engagement Among Athletes Through Questioning

The video Lemov highlights in the post above shows a coach well versed in using questions to keep players highly engaged. He is also a coach who clearly planned the questions he would ask and participation techniques he would employ. The goal is to have EVERY player in the session thinking deeply about EVERY question you ask as a coach. A loft goal to be sure but one well within our grasp with the right techniques. The chart below can serve as an introduction to some easy ways to implement these ideas into your own sessions. I would encourage you to choose one or two and give them a try this week in training.

Click HERE to Download the Full Scale Chart.

March 25, 2021

Goalkeeping

Goalkeeper Session Design Approaches: Random vs Block Training

Sean Connors, Rush Soccer’s Global Goalkeeping Director, hosted a very pragmatic and informative Webinar in which he discussed common approaches used by GK Coaches to run their sessions, analyzing Random vs Block in detail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzPvOb4acQI&ab_channel=RushSoccer

What do we mean by ‘Player Centered Session Design’? This month’s Educational Campaign focuses on designing sessions based on a player centered development approach. How is that done for goalkeeping training?

In this webinar, Sean Connors, Rush Soccer’s Global Goalkeeping Director, explained and compared the two most common approaches utilized for goalkeeping session designs: Random vs Block Training.

“Random, on the other hand, means different activities, don’t do the same thing twice, and the key is to read the situation, plan the situation and then do. Adding those two steps (reading & planning) is the main difference between Random and Block Training. Random not only focuses on technical execution“, he added.

Below, a brief and informative example of both types of GK training:

“So often we think about ourselves as Goalkeeper coaches training technique and execution, that tends to be the focus. But it doesn’t matter if you can catch a ball if you are not in the right place, if you haven’t made the right choice to catch the ball. That situation has got to become the focus”
Sean Connors

Pablo Toledo, Coach & Player Development Director, joined the discussion and inquired how a goalkeeping session would normally progress within a random approach. The answer came right away: Simple to Complex is fine, but always keeping the decision making aspect included. “I think it allows you to build your warm up as well, because we usually have a limited amount of time. We don’t see the kids every day, so you’ve got to maximize the efficiency when you have the opportunity, but you have to get to a place where they can make decisions, because when you run an activity with decisions, that’s where the communication relationship between a GK Coach and a player can build. If you run a static drill, you don’t ever have the player asking ‘should I’ve stepped forward?’. And when you run an activity with multiple layers, that level of communication is going to spark”, Sean stated.

March 23, 2021

Coaching

Leadership Lessons from a Dynasty

This article was written by Megan McCormick, Rush Soccer’s Coach Education Consultant, for January’s Educational Campaign on Leadership.

New Zealand’s national rugby team, the All Blacks, have long been touted as one of the most successful organizations in the history of team sports. The subject of James Kerr’s book Legacy and Amazon Prime’s “All or Nothing” series, the All Blacks offer lessons in leadership that translate well beyond the rugby pitch. Both the book and docuseries offer intimate and rare looks at the inner workings of a team that has historically been incredibly secretive.

In his book, Kerr outlines 15 leadership lessons that he calls “The First XV” which summarize the culture of guiding principles in the All Black’s organization. There are some that many might find obvious including “Embrace Expectations: Aim for the highest cloud” and “Sacrifice: Find something you would die for and give your life to it”. In the clip below, Kerr summarizes some of the key messages from his book.

Among so many great lessons and guiding principles, there is one that really stands out to me as I reflect on 2020 and look to all the potential of 2021. Lesson XIV: Be a Good Ancestor: Plant trees you’ll never see. At the core of the All Blacks culture is the importance and sanctity of the jersey. Kerr explains that each player “is called to ‘leave the jersey in a better place…To ‘leave the jersey in a better place’ means to work incrementally towards a better collective outcome. It means to be a custodian of the future, an architect of tomorrow, a steward of society. It means to live with respect, humility and excellence.”

Amazon Prime’s binge worthy “All or Nothing” series brings the leadership lessons in Legacy to life. In the clip, Rieko Ioane explains dreaming of someday wearing the jersey and the honor that accompanies the opportunity. You can sense the reverence in his voice and almost feel the weight of responsibility that comes with wearing the jersey.

Kerr summarizes it so eloquently, “You don’t have to be an All Black, you don’t have to be Māori, to understand that, as a leader, you can carry the ball forward and pass it on to the next generation.” What a great thing to contemplate as we put 2020 in the rearview: how will my leadership this year leave the players, club, and game in a better place for the next generation?

“The First XV: Lessons in Leadership”

From Legacy by James Kerr:

I Sweep the Sheds: Never be too big to do the small things that need to be done.

II Go for the Gap: When you’re on top of your game, change your game.

III Play with Purpose: Ask “Why?”.

IV Pass the Ball: Leaders create leaders.

V Create a Learning Environment: Leaders are teachers.

VI No Dickheads: Follow the spearhead.

VII Embrace Expectations: Aim for the highest cloud.

VIII Train to Win: Practise under pressure.

IX Keep a Blue Head: Control your attention.

X Know Thyself: Keep it real.

XI Sacrifice: Find something you would die for and give your life to it.

XII Invent a Language: Sing your world into existence.

XIII Ritualize the Actualize: Create a culture.

XIV Be a Good Ancestor: Plant trees you’ll never see.

XV Write Your Legacy: This is your time.

Excerpts From: James Kerr. “Legacy.” Apple Books.

January 13, 2021

Webinars

Webinar – Jonty Skinner: Leading Through A Holistic Approach

We kicked-off our Monthly Educational Campaign on Leadership with a new episode of our Webinar Series. Chris P., Rush Soccer’s Developmental Director, discussed Leading The Person with our guest, Jonty Skinner, four-decade experienced coach, having worked as USA Swimming’s Director of National Team Technical Support, and International Swimming Hall Of Fame member.

Leading The Person:

“You have to understand that things that you’ve learned from playing the game and training to get better, are things that will carry you through all your life. So, I think is really important for coaches to find ways of taking teaching moments in the training sessions, and helping kids understand that what they are doing on the pitch, helps them become a better person.”

One of the coaching aspects that Jonty highlights is the necessity of having a holistic approach:

“If you can improve the holistic side of your athletes on the field, they are going to perform better on the tactical and technical level. It doesn’t matter what sport you are in, if you focus a lot more on the holistic side, I think everyone gets better.” – Jonty Skinner.

What’s fundamental on a holistic coaching approach?

“You must have conversations with the athlete that have nothing to do with the sport. You have to know the athlete; you begin to understand him or her. Getting to know the athlete and letting the athlete know you as a human being, sets the groundwork to this relationship. You have to find time to interact with your athletes on a personal, one-on-one level. If you don’t create that foundation, everything that comes beyond isn’t as valuable for both of you.”

Missed it? Don’t worry, we recorded it!

January 4, 2021

Webinars

Kris Van Der Haegen & Pete Sturgess on What, Why and How To Teach U6-U8 Groups

Chris P., Rush Soccer’s Developmental Director, was joined by our stellar guests on a brand new Webinar to discuss the coaching path at this age and stage of a child’s development.

As part of November’s Educational Campaign, Coaching The Micro Division (U6-U8), Rush’s Webinar Series had an amazing new episode with two stellar guests.

Kris Van Der Haegen, Director of Coaching Education at the Royal Belgian FA, and Pete Sturgess, FA Foundation Phase leader & Advanced Youth Award’s designer, joined Chris P., Rush’s Developmental Director, to discuss the ways and content to teach at this age.

Our guests walked us through the priorities that coaches should have with U6-U8 kids -“sensitivity and personality are massive, as well as being very cognizant with what we have in front of us”- and self reflection concepts arised. Just to mention a few:

How important is the emotional connection at this stage of a child’s development?
When coaching the Micro Division, do we look at soccer through the 5 year-old eyes or with the adult eyes?
If the game is the teacher at this level, which is the coaches’ role?

A true master class given by two experts that left us many and very interesting reflections to take into account. Don’t miss the Webinar!

November 16, 2020

Tactical

Dos & Don’ts When Up A Goal Or Down A Goal – By The Coach Development Department

Reaching the final moments of a match can be a team’s relief… or its worst nightmare. Whether winning or losing by a goal, there are aspects of the game that are essential to face the last minutes and succeed.

As you know, it is part of the Rush curriculum to coach our players on adopting different behaviors when the game is coming to its end and the team is up a goal or down a goal. In this article we are going to cover some of the aspects that could help a team kill the game, manage a heroic comeback, or all the opposite…

Dos When Winning & Some Good Examples:

The objective is NOT to waste time, but to not letting the opponent get into a rhythm or flow. Team sports often have patterns, so we want to recognize when the opponent is ‘in the zone’, and try to disrupt their rhythm.

Tip #1: Always sustain a +1 situation in the back. This does not necessarily mean defending next to the goalkeeper but making sure we are outnumbering the opponent in dangerous spaces.

Tip #2: It’s an obvious statement, but we want to keep possession, preferably in the opponent’s half.

Tip #3: If you lose the ball far from your goal, try to kill the counter right away. If the counterpress works, that’s great. If it doesn’t, consider a tactical foul.

Tip #4: Sense the rival’s desperation and use it on your favor. At times, the final minutes might find you defending deeper, protecting the lead, and your team’s transition to attack might translate onto you or a teammate dribbling the ball forward with little support. Smart players recognize this immediately and try to make the most out of it. Going to the corner flag with the ball and shielding (especially in the last five minutes), can be worth gold for your team. The defenders’ will possibly find this obnoxious and as they get desperate commit a goofy foul. That’s the best thing that can happen to you. Stay on the ground for longer than usual and take your time to restart play. Those seconds are priceless for your team.

See how Belgium made a perfect sum up of these concepts and others (start watching on minute 1:06:00): keeping possession, accumulating players behind the ball line, playing set pieces slowly, taking the ball to the corner, kicking it onto the defenders legs on purpose to get the corner, and then playing it short. You can also see how they made an early foul to stop the counter right away (De Bruyne – minute 1:13:40), or how they tried to get fouled on the offensive transition (Hazard – minute 1:11:00), all of it to hold the score and defeat Brazil (2-1) in the last World Cup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5tIs9HH7FQ

Tip #5: When injured, please do not struggle to get up, stay on the ground. The same applies for substitutions, don’t rush yourself.

Tip #6: As a Goalkeeper, use your feet on weak shots to save 6 sec. and avoid an early distribution.

Let’s travel to Argentina for a good example of this and watch the ‘Superclásico’ from last year’s Semifinal in Copa Libertadores. River Plate won 2-0 the first leg and was losing 0-1 the second leg, so they needed to hold the score as it was (a 1 goal lead overall).

In only 8 minutes you can see how Franco Armani, River Plate’s GK, stays a long time on the floor twice after easy headers. You can also see how Lucas Pratto, River’s striker, smartly let’s himself fall as soon as he feels a defender touch him, knowing the Ref would call the foul. His teammates took almost a minute to restart play and did the same a few seconds later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDaPZXRL5Jo

Don’ts When Winning & Some Bad Examples:

Rushing set pieces, such as throw ins, corners, goal kicks, free kicks, etc, will allow the rival getting in a direct, fast rhythm that may decide the match. When killing the game, you need an organized defense, that prevents quick kicks, and protects dangerous spaces. Safety first.

As you’ll see in the next example, it seems like Panama did not attend the Up A Goal, Down A Goal practice…

Just 5 minutes away from qualifying to 2014 World Cup, they managed to blow up a 2-1 lead over the USA. Disorganized in defense, they never killed the US rhythm nor protected dangerous spaces, and paid for it. USA scored twice after the ninetieth minute and won 3-2 (watch from minute 32):

Dos when losing & Some Good Examples:

Tip #1: Mentality is key, it is imperative that you stay focused. The opponent will do everything in its power to disrupt your rhythm. Stay in tune with the game. All you can do is control the controllable – yourself. Focus on how you can help your team get a goal back. When scoring is your dominant thought, the opposition’s antics become meaningless.

Tip #2: Adjust system but carefully: You don’t want to be down in numbers for the rival’s counter. Consider the risk of modifying the +1 in the back to equal numbers. \

Tip #3: Play more direct (patient but urgent).

Tip #4: Quick set pieces in mid and back third’s, don’t waste them however, and get numbers forward on them.

Tip #5: Play the Offside Trap. DO NOT underestimate this item, strikers aren’t always as aware as you think. This can be the solution. The GK becomes almost a sweeper.

Tip #6: Ask for time to be added, please! Never in soccer history was a player sent off for this.

Of course, some of the actions mentioned are risky, that’s why it matters to train them.

Let’s move onto the examples. FC Barcelona made one of the most memorable comebacks in the 2017 Champions League against Paris Saint Germain. Just a goal down after recovering from a 0-4 on the first leg, midfielder Sergi Roberto went to the box as a striker and scored the winning goal in added time.

But before that, Barcelona did a lot. Watch the next video and notice set pieces did not lose time when the ball went out of bounds, while Luis Suárez tried to force the rival GK to hurry by counting the seconds he lost since he grabbed the ball.

Later, when PSG had a goal kick, Gerard Piqué took the ball and put it inside the box so no time was wasted. And Ter Stegen became a sweeper to recover possession and win the foul from which came the epic sixth goal.

Tip #7: Switch to High Pressure. Defenders are generally the weakest line in technical terms and when holding a 1 goal lead in the last couple of minutes, they’ll be nervous. Take advantage of that, force them to be scared of even receiving the ball!

Tip #8: If your team is fouled, stay up, play advantage.

Tip #9: When possession is lost get it back quick!

Tip #10: Keep ball in play, no fouls, and tackle in vs out. This last tip has the most perfect example in Wayne Rooney’s epic ball recovery for DC United’s victory against Orlando. He tackled his rival keeping in mind that the ball should stay inside the field and literally won the match because of this. Watch this masterpiece below.

Don’ts When Losing & Some Bad Examples:

First, desperation will not take you anywhere good. Remember to stay focus on the mission: scoring, that’s all that matters.

Your team will take some extra risks like we mentioned above, but careful, you don’t want the search of a goal into securing your team’s defeat. Below, a bad example from the great Germany, during the last World Cup.

Germany was down a goal against South Korea and their participation in Russia was almost over, so the 2014 World Champions took desperate measures: they sent eight players inside South Korea’s box and left two players plus Neuer in midfield to serve long balls. The team lost its focus, Neuer ended up pressing up high with his two teammates behind him, and none of them actually marked the Korean striker. What happened? One long clearance and the Asian team scored again, surprising Germany, and showing us what NOT to do when losing.

Last but not least, find below a great example of both ‘Up a Goal and Down a Goal’. Watch these 8-minute video on Argentina vs Brasil (American Cup 2004), in which we can see ‘two matches in one’:

– Argentina scores and leads 2-1, just 3 minutes before the end and triggers some good examples: The goalkeeper Abbondanzieri takes a few seconds on each move, keeping the ball on his feet. Carlos Tevez stays in the floor after a foul and protects the ball with Andrés D’Alessandro (meanwhile, a Brazilian journalist talks about Argentina’s proficiency to kill the game).

A confused Brazil wakes up when the ref shows the aggregate time.

– From that moment, both teams changed their tactics: Brazil stops fouling and starts attacking directly. Marcelo Bielsa’s team gets nervous, loses the ball easily, and the coach decides to make a defensive substitution – Tevez comes out, Quiroga comes in, a forward out in exchange of an additional center back. Right before the final whistle Adriano scores the equalizer for the Brazilian side and the final goes to a penalty shootout.

And guess what? Brazil won the American Cup. What a way to highlight the importance of coaching that Up A Goal, Down A Goal, wouldn’t you agree?