Some thoughts on one of the teams in futsal national league with wider implications for football.
Just what is going on up in Hamilton?!!
http://mattfutsalfejos.wordpress.com/
Player vs Team Success. Now vs Later. Development vs Results.
With the final round of the NZF Futsal National League this weekend, a quick look at the definition of success, with the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Futsal team as an example.
The question is this. Player development and team success. Are they the same? Is one now and the other later? Does the best team success mean the best development for the players?
Let’s take a look at WaiBOP Futsal’s results in the National League in New Zealand. This is an accumulated points table since they joined the National League last season.
If this was the definition of success, then they have failed.
But, lets look at the players, as opposed to the overall team outcomes at this stage:
–> 16 in the squad are 21 or younger, with 12 being only 18 or younger.
–> Two players represented their country last year at the OFC Championships, one while still in High School.
–> Beneath this, the U19s became national champions this year for the first time.
I was lucky enough to coach them for a round of the national league last year. What I saw was a group of players who were young and were learning alot about how to play, they just needed some self-belief. I first met them about an hour or two before kick-off in the hotel from memory. It meant we couldn’t do much tactically, they had been well prepared. It was more about self belief as a team, WaiBOP had never won a game in the national league. We broke through with two wins, the final coming against the team that came into that round on top of the table (Auckland) while we were bottom. The group deserved it 100% and it shows the potential that lies within them.
WaiBOP after their historic first win in the Futsal National League.
So where did some of these players come from?
St Pauls Collegiate is coached by Mike Groom, an ex All White who went to the World Cup. John Adshead, the coach of that team explained at the time that “technically Mike is the best player in the country”. They made the final of the National High School Championships this year, only to lose in extra time to my own St Pats Town in an epic battle.
He also has his own futsal school, Alegria School of Sala.
They teach not just futsal, but the movement, the music, the passion.
The love of the ball. Some of the players that have come through?
–> Chris Wood – Premier League debut at 17, and this year he captained his country at 22.
–> Michael Fitzgerald – also an All White and now playing
professionally in Japan (preventing him playing for his country
incidentally)
If we look wider than this, the Hamilton area have produced the core
of young talent, and a new technical, creative style of player that the
nation is pinning our hopes on for the road to the 2018 World Cup in
Russia.
–> Marco Rojas – 23. National mens team. Professional Vfb Stuttgart,
player of the season in the A-League. Here is a clip of him playing futsal in a school hall in Hamilton. Amazing tekkers.
–> Tyler Boyd – 19. National Mens team. Professional with Wellington Phoenix.
–> Ryan Thomas – 19. National Mens team. Professional with PEC Zwolle in Holland where he scored two goals in the Cup Final to beat Ajax.
–> Jesse Edge – 19. Professional with Vicenza Calcio in Italy’s Serie B.
–> Harry Edge – 20. National Mens team (wider squad). Professional at PEC Swolle Youth/Reserves.
For one federation of seven in the New Zealand Football structure, this part of the country has produced a staggering 75% of the attacking players in a recent New Zealand starting XI, and another two on the bench. Four of these five players are not recognised as adults in many countries, being under 21, yet hold the expectations and hopes of a nation’s football ambitions. But, like their nation, they are young, ambitious and fearless flying kiwis.
What can’t be ignored either is the influence of another former All White now coach, Declan Edge. He has played a first hand role in the development of a trio of youngsters who are now the core of the attacking players in the national team. Let’s look at a quote of his: “When we look at the New Zealand U-23s, U-20s, U-17s and the All Whites, what player do we want more of? Ryan Thomas, or somebody with a big engine and physical prowess?”. He is talking about results now vs future development. He now runs the Ole Football Academy in Wellington, a private academy.
But for all these players, what about team success? Edge first coached Waikato in the 2004/05 season to a best 3rd place finish. Since (and including his second season in charge) Waikato have not finished higher than 5th (which they did once) and have had a negative goal difference every season. Edge coached Waikato in the National League at the start of the 2012 season and was relieved of his duties four games into a winless season. Currently, Waikato are winless and three goals in the negative after three games. Below is an accumulate National League table where the only team that has existed for more than a season with less points is Southern United.
So, are they doing something differently in Hamilton? I don’t know. But it is important we look at the underlying ‘why’ and objectives when we are coaching. Especially at the youth level. Are we trying to win this one tournament now? Or are we trying to groom and teach players for a higher level in the future? (Both ability wise and the motivational climate to perservere).
I would argue these are two different things. Results at all cost to win this tournament now? Long balls, aggressive play, referee abuse and selecting the more physically developed players over technical ability (at youth level) might result if we want to win this one tournament now. But intelligent, aware, creative and technical players might have a better chance of being produced on environments with a different focus. Where the tournament now is not the end, but the start. This also ties in with the intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation, and mastery vs outcome focue in previous posts for more reading.
Especially at the youth level, this has been my philosophy. I can say it now that St Pats are National Champions and our Capital 12s, 14s and 16s and girls have all won national titles in the last 18 months. But my greater measure of success, my bigger outcome or goal, is to produce players that go on in the game. From their school teams, through the national league and into the national mens team, qualifying for Futsal World Cups.
Capital Futsal, on the surface of team success, have failed. Never won the league (By the time you are reading this, hopefully this will have changed).
Waikato, in futsal and football, have struggled near the bottom of both football and futsal national leagues. Yet a bunch of these kids are now becoming the best players in the country.
So is creating an environment where so many young players can currently develop, and having produced so many national Futsal Whites and All Whites, a greater success?…
It depends on your definition, and your objectives.
So, good luck to both WaiBOP Futsal and my beloved Capital this weekend. Both have a fantastic philosophy of bringing young players through for the future, rather than being too short-sighted and only focussing on the now. Espcially as we grow futsal, these are the organisations and objectives we need. I wish both every success in developing players, and Capital Futsal the bonus of winning the title for all their efforts and style :)
What is your definition of success as a coach?
And in life?
Futsal National League this weekend: live streaming on http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football
Top Five Posts:
–> The new wave of development in Manchester: Sala Soccer Schools.
–> St Patrick’s College Futsal 2014: NZ National Champions. Captain Clayton Lewis Interview.
–> Young, Kiwi, Single…and sober.
–> Who AM I?! – Personal Branding
–> Motivate me.