Leszek (Shek) Borkowski

Both Dominican Republic and Guatemala were outmatched. Both matches were easy. They were easy physically, technically and tactically for the US.
Both Dominican Republic and Guatemala have 3-4 technically very good players, on par or even above the US players. However, the differences in strength, acceleration, change of speed, and general match fitness were as visible as they were expected.
In contrast, though, the US’s opponent’s tactical naiveté was surprising.
When facing the US, it is not just about playing well; teams have to play smarter. When facing superior opponents and unable to play attacking football, teams can compress space, and fight hard in their third. They can demonstrate tactical discipline all day long even against the number 1 team in the world.
There was no fight nor discipline in the Dominicans and Guatemalans.
Today, top level women’s football is a physical, intellectual and organizational challenge. The strategy and tactics required are dependent on fitness, technique, imagination and discipline (both mental and physical).
Developing and implementing successful strategy and tactics is the domain of head coaches and comes with experience. And coaching is where we find the biggest gap between the US and Dominican Republic, Guatemala and other CONCACAF nations.

Lacking the financial resources to have residency programs or long training camps, national federations must compensate by employing experienced coaches capable of getting their teams organized and instilling professional attitude in a short time.
Belief, the professional attitude, is about determination and not giving up in the face of adversity. Inexperienced teams and players, if their team goes a goal or two down, or they aren’t seeing much of the ball, will switch off. They don’t press as hard as they should. They don’t track back. Their concentration level dips and results in giveaways, poor positioning and slow reactions. They will, essentially, bow out of the fight.
Committed teams and players thrive in the face of such adversity. Going a goal or two down and being dominated, will just spur them on to at least work harder defensively. They relish the challenge. They close down space quicker and tackle a bit harder. It brings out the best of them in terms of putting in a performance.
Teams don’t have to be at the level of the US or Germany to have the collective professional attitude required to be competitive against them.

I am very leery of coaches who liberally use words ‘great’ or ‘phenomenal’ to describe players and or performances.
These adjectives should only be used in only the rarest of circumstances.
I have never seen a great youth, high school or college player, only players with good potential. If they were great or phenomenal, chances are high they would have professional contracts. Pele, Maradona were great. There are no great 15-year olds. Peter the Great wasn’t great at 15 and neither was Messi.
Your team may have had a good, very good or very productive training session. It is unlikely that it was great. Some of Barcelona’s match performances are great.
Its unlikely that your U15 team can match or exceed it.

What allows good players to successfully respond/react to a given situation?
What allows one player to calmly finish a goal-scoring opportunity and another to miss it? Training.
The objective of training is to develop techniques, the muscle memory, those instinctive values, to ingrain them into player’ muscles and minds, to develop the conditioned response.
It is a lot easier to train/program young players than it is to correct technical deficiencies in older players. The ability to make immediate decisions and execute techniques under pressure must be trained and developed during the early formative years.
The only way to train and develop quality players is to train not until they get things right but until they can’t get things wrong. Training the muscle memory and auto habits for those key, reactive moments which decide match outcomes in the future.
Coaches and players who are satisfied with 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 correct execution of exercises, will never reach full potential, and all of the bad habits/responses/reactions will lead to losses and talk of being “unlucky”.

Today, most coaches have been exposed to players who have played on the so-called elite youth teams. Some of them have been playing (playing not training and there is a huge difference) football a long time and have developed poor techniques and habits, which prevent them from being effective players at the next level.
There exists debilitating trend in youth soccer to offer variety in training, to focus on fun.
Fun should not be the objective of training, correct execution of techniques should. Fun should be a byproduct of exercises well executed. Most kids instinctively enjoy completing tasks and derive pleasure from correctly executing techniques.
Remember when you learned to read and to count? It wasn’t much fun. Lots of memorization and repetition. But this process of memorization and repetition is what eventually allows people to become successful teachers, businesswomen, doctors and players. In football, technical repetition is essential to development of the muscle memory for a conditioned reaction.
Our job as coaches is to develop proficient players and give them an opportunity to excel, not to be entertainers of kids.

In sports as in real life, the difference between wins and losses comes from training not luck. Success and failure depends on how well trained and how deeply fixed in your player’ subconscious the conditioning is. That well trained players and teams are more successful, is a given.

“We were unlucky today not to score.”
With tournament time for many college teams, I read, hear or see some coaches talk about being unlucky, about not finishing opportunities, about losing.
It’s not about luck.
The difference between winning and losing is first and foremost about individual training. Japan did not win the World Cup because they were lucky; they won because they were well trained.
In college, it comes down to good scouting and recruiting. It’s about identifying and getting the best-trained players.
The best trained players are not always the ones whose youth team won state cup every year since they were 12 years old, who attend well known college showcases, who spent an unbelievable amount of money to attend summer camps each year.
I have had a privilege of working with 40 national team players from 19 countries, including World Cup winner Mizuho Sakaguchi from Japan. All of them can execute the fundamental techniques perfectly every time. Under pressure receiving with both feet, passing with both feet, finishing with both feet. Those techniques are required for being a good and effective player.
Too many college coaches think that the ability to play is an inherent quality bestowed upon players just by virtue of the fact that they are 5’8” and can run very fast for 90 minutes. This is a fantasy, which has no basis in reality.
When a player is presented with a goal scoring opportunity, when the game and her team’s season are on the line, when she gets the accompanying instant overdose of adrenaline, her motor skills may decrease by as much as 50%.
In high-pressure situations proper execution of goal-scoring techniques are all done through psychomotor. They are done through programming. The conscious mind participates long enough to make the decision when and where to make a run, once the conscious mind makes the decision, the conscious mind is out of the game and the programming does the rest. The programming comes from constant practice. Similar to driving a car down the highway. You don’t have to consciously think about clutching, shifting, steering, it’s all handled by your subconscious mind.

I point this out to suggest that size and athleticism are not going to win difficult matches. One week of expensive summer camps or playing with elite youth clubs will not help players become successful college or pro players. If players want to perform at the highest level, they must train until these fundamental techniques become psychomotor skills just like driving a car. Wearing expensive gear and playing with high priced youth teams, doesn’t make one a player anymore than owning a piano makes you a concert pianist. If players do not train these techniques repetitively, to the point of transforming them into psychomotor skills, it is a high probability that when presented with a goal-scoring opportunity they will miss the shot.
Players lacking proper training will not rise to the occasion; they will default to their level of training.
It is important to train players and teams not until get things right but until they can’t get things wrong.
Those who don’t understand the difference, all the athleticism, speed and size won’t help them. Their teams will fail when the moment of truth comes.

Vanessa DiBernardo scored in extra time to give Illinois a confident win against Penn State in the Big Ten title match.
The success of Illinois was based on Jackie Guerra and DiBernardo applying a vice-like grip in midfield, and on a clever adjustment made by Janet Rayfield.
As the match went on Penn State’s increasingly stretched defense was further challenged, when by injury or design, Rayfield asked DiBernardo to operate further upfield.
Successful big match strategy needs to be built not by setting up ones team using conventional formations and tactics, but rather through accumulation of strength in areas where the opponent’s presence is weakest or weakening.
By pushing DiBernardo, Illinois’ most creative and technical player, forward, Rayfield presented Penn State’s tiring center backs with a new challenge; defending against a player who can get off quick accurate shots in tight spaces. DiBernardo’s goal was genius in its simplicity but credit to Rayfiled for making the adjustment.

Top players.
Penn State’s Hayes, Nairn, Schram. Illinois’s Guerra, DiBernardo, Mykines.
Disappointment.
Michigan State. This was a team demonstrating a lack of philosophy and style of play. Watching Michigan State was like watching a physically mature high school team.