Sunday 14 June 2009

The Boys Really Wants It....for me

Yesterday was my last game in charge with my U12 boys. Although we ended up as runners up, I am still very proud of my boys. They really really wanted to win the QiLin Cup for me especially knowing that was my last game with them. I have to tell you that I never felt this kind of sadness having to leave these boys.

When the match when into penalties, Nick kept asking me what if we lose...I told him, don't worry about it. What ever happens, I am still proud of you boys. What most important is all of you fight hard. I can see that all of them wants to win it. Not for themselves, but for me. Then I walked to Toby, our goalkeeper..and tell him " This is it Toby..Lets do this "...then i paused. There was this surge of emotion I have never felt before...I was choked and I can't continue my encouragement for Toby. It will be very weird for Toby to see his fiery coach suddenly in tears. I think reality hits me hard at that time, knowing that was my last match with the boys. Although I only have a brief stint with the U12 boys, but the attachment is so strong that it seems I have been with them forever.

I had my great times with the club..when we 1st started I coached the U12 boys back in 2006. We won the U12 division of Shanghai International Youth Football League unbeaten. Then I continue on with them in the U14..and again won the Shanghai International Youth Football League unbeaten as well. I wish I had more time with my current U12 boys as I am sure I will bring them championships. There are a lot of talents there..top boys in their age group.

I am pretty sure I am gonna miss the boys...miss the routine. And I do hope the boys will miss my " Come On boys..lets go!! " or " Where is the width and depth " or " Where is the shape "...

I wish all my boys good luck..and I won't be saying goodbye....I will say SEE YOU AGAIN

Monday 1 June 2009

Over rated & Over looked

ITs only 2 weeks left before the season ends. And also it may be an end of my stint here in Shanghai. Deep down I hope its not an end, maybe a brief break. During the past few years I'm here, I have encounter loads of over rated player and me myself as a coach have overlooked some players as well during trials.

Example, my U12 squad have about 50+ players. I have 1 top team consist of the best of the best, 2 teams in the 2nd tier and another 2 teams in the 3rd tier group.
I did pass on some players during trials and placed them in the 2nd tier or 3rd tier teams in that particular age group. But during the course of the season, I started to notice that some players in the 3rd tier group are good enough to play for the top team or the 2nd tier teams. These are overlooked players that I pass on during the trials. And to be honest 1 day trials or even 2 days trials is not the best thing we should do in order to select players.

During my time, I have attended numerous trials for the state team and its only lasted for a day or 2. Now I'm thinking, with a 2 days trials, will any State teams get the best players to play for them. Certainly not. Thats for sure. Definitely there is a flaw in our selection process. My Team FC did prove something by scouring the nation for players that have never played for the state and train them to play against our national team. It shows we did overlooked many many players. I wonder why My Team FC deviate from its original plan and starting to poach other state players to play for them ? Why not keep scouting for young talents ? A question I may not be able to answer

As for over rated players, I have seen a lot of it as well. For instance in my senior team, some players can perform really really well when we are up against weak opponents. You can see that player flying past 2 or 3 defenders, scoring spectacular goals, making all the correct movement. But then when we are up against strong opponents, that player disappear under the radar. Doing nothing for the whole match. If it happen once, then yeah these players might have an off day, but what if that happens every time when things get tough.

So I can conclude that trials is not the way to go. A proper club needs to have a big pool of players where players can move up and down the ranks. It may be hard for pro clubs to have a huge amount of players but my point is, why not start it at the youth level. If a club have a good youth set up, keeping the youth together and train them then they have a good pool of players to choose from in the youth department, I'm sure these players will move up the ranks and play for the senior team. This will give over looked players a chance to prove himself and also a chance for us the coaches to push the over rated player in order to get the best out of him

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QiLin FC Senior Team - End of the Season 2009