Soccer all around the world can be categorized into several headings. North and south hemisphere or temperate and tropical. There is also continental classifications like European football, African soccer and South American soccer. Within each continent regional and national styles of play also exist. In Europe for example British football can be characteristically distinguished, as can mediterranean football, and eastern european football. Corinthians of brazil, Asante Kotoko of Ghana, and Italy’s Inter Milan are three clubs that have very different objectives based who they are where they are and what they think they can get. Even individual players come with characteristics based on their strengths and what they love to do. At all the levels above their game describes who they are, where they are, and why they do it that way.

The Game as is played today has become very specialized. Roles and responsibilities of players are clearly defined and players show up to do just that. The well-rounded player used to be the most sort after, so that they could contribute in every aspect of the game. As teams continue in search of more effective and efficient ways to accomplish things on the field, the trend has now shifted from a jack of all trades to a master at one. That need for a well-rounded player is present, however, it is now the foundation of a player’s game. The well roundedness only demonstrates that a player knows the game. To play these days teams are looking for individuals with special skills and attributes that they can combine with others to break a game. Quickness, Speed, Exceptional ballhandling skills, outstanding technical ability. In more functional terms we speak of proficient goalscorers, playmakers, ball winners, freekick specialists, service providers and so on. The coach now blends all these different characteristics for the perfect team chemistry.

At the international level, this sort of specialization is very evident where even certain nations are known for developing certain types or kinds of players. Chile always produces good headers of the ball and so do the English, who are also wonderful at striking and serving balls. Brazil and Argentina are known for their highly skillful players (thus dribblers) who wreak havoc everywhere on a pitch. Italy is known for creating good defenders while the Dutch, because of their system of play which is highly dependent on teamwork usually has great technical players. Much of the Eastern European game is highly technical as well with an emphasis on team speed. German soccer is identified by its blue color, hard working/assembly line/ rugged attitude. African soccer as a whole is now making waves on the international scene with its highly skilled, fast and athletic players.

This is how even the socio-economic world seems to function, where the Arab nations focus on their oil, African nations focus on their minerals, Europe and USA focus on their technology and we all “come together” to trade and feed the world. No one has said that this is a perfect world by any means, but the nature of things has some sense to it. No individual has all that is needed to do everything by themselves thus, specialization. You specialize based on who you are where you are, what resources you have, and what you can do best.

This to me seems a sensible way to approach our developmental programs if we have any dreams of carving our niche in the vast and competitive world of soccer. Since we are coming from behind, we can learn from other nations to know which direction to take, what has worked and what has not. Copying other nations just because they won the last world cup though is not the answer. By defining ourselves, we can determine a brand of soccer that would suit us best, or one that we would like to play. From there we draw up the elements and characteristics that accompany that style and begin by TEACHING the HABITS that lead to the result, not by coaching the end result, as has been the case. As much as, teaching and coaching overlap at a point, in practical situations, the two terms describe two very different functions.

Teaching is giving to an individual or a group the skills needed to succeed in a field, e.g. soccer. Coaching on the other hand entails the bringing together of individual skills in a tactical combination to achieve a result. WIN!

The state of soccer (particularly player development) in America right now takes a shortcut by combining teaching and coaching, within a two-month season, in a scenario that prompts more coaching than teaching. Result? An inferior skill level, and a low level of tactical wit and sophistication to win matches.

Most nations of the world particularly Europe and South America have a long history and strong tradition in the game. Consequently, they enjoy the luxury of a national soccer fabric that is sewn into all aspects of their culture to teach and cultivate players. With such a system in place, many players arrive on a team having already acquired the skills necessary to play the game. This allows coaches to focus mainly on teamwork and tactics to win matches. A similar fabric exists here in the U.S. with baseball, basketball and football, but certainly not with soccer. This means we have to teach the skills of the game to our kids first, and then coach them to win matches. The U.S. is still at the teaching stages of the game, and thus what is needed are teaching manuals and teachers. Instead, we have focused most of our energy on attaining coaching manuals and coaches from soccer’s well-established countries to develop our players. These established countries are at the more advanced “coaching” stage of the game and are producing coaches and coaches manuals in excess supply. The problem here is that U.S demand for teachers is being met with an excess supply of coaches from the well-established countries. Hey, action/ reaction, supply/ demand- Nobody is to blame here- it’s just the nature of things. A natural cycle of economic exploration and exploitation by dumping a surplus supply of goods (coaches) on a foreign market that has the need and tons of money to spend, however is ignorant about how.

As a nation that only began playing the game some 20 years ago, and established a pro league only three years ago, we are quite young in the game. The sooner we realize that we first have to learn to crawl, then walk, before we start jumping up and down all over the place, the better off we will be. Unfortunately, our impatient nature and capitalistic attitude of wanting immediate returns on our investment, coupled with our preoccupation with 1001 coaching manuals and coaching methods has stifled our vision of who we are, where we are in the game and what we have to do to achieve our objectives. Take Africa for example, a continent that was exposed to the game during colonial times and as recently as 1974 was the laughing stock of international football. Representing Africa, Zaire was humiliated in that years world cup competition as they demonstrated their lack of understanding of the game. Since then, Africa embarked on a campaign to learn the game. They did not need Einstein to figure out that the BALL is the game. To understand the game meant first to understand the ball, which meant to master its handling and control. As kids got better at this the game grew and gained in popularity, weaving itself into the social culture of the people. Individuals who could do amazing things with the ball were instant stars and heroes. Those were the days- the sewing days, the cultivating days, the teaching period of their development. They focused on the task at hand and worked it to the envy of the world. (Thanks in part to the lack of financial opportunities in Africa. This meant that Africans were freed of 1001 coaching systems, methods, books and gimmicks, all on sale from “European masters” on how to build your program. Today African teams are dominating world football at the youth and junior levels, playing a brand of football that does not exist anywhere else. Built on the premise that the game is driven by the quality of individual relationships with the ball, African soccer has raised the bar on individual ball-handling ability by their combination of highly deceptive skills, lightning speed and quickness. These players can perform very advanced skills at pace with pace, and players of this caliber are highly sort after by professional clubs around the globe. Africa is now their #1 destination.

Africa however, has just graduated from the predominantly teaching stage of their development into the coaching stage and you can clearly see it in their game. Teams of outstanding individual abilities but lacking the tactical knowledge and experience to succeed at the high levels of play. Although youthful in their coaching and tactical awareness, a unified nationalistic and methodical approach to their development leads most people around the world to predict that an African nation will win the world cup in the next 10 - 15 years. When their coaching and tactical expertise would have matured.

So where does project 2010 fit in this worldwide trend of thought? Hmmm??? Perhaps Africa is a continent we should learn from. They just came from where we want to be. They might have a thing or two to teach us about development, particularly skills development.