There were a lot of ingredients that went into France’s second World Cup championship. There was preparation and coaching — here’s a clip of head coach Didier Deschamps talking at halftime of thefinal about how to shut down Croatia after a difficult first half — and there was luck — calls on France’s first two […]
Off The Post
Posted inStory
Women's World Cup legacy in France? It's complicated
The late Louis Nicollin — “Loulou” to his friends — was theepitome of a French club president from another era. On match days, you could find most presidents, a cigarette hanging out of their mouth, huddled on the team bench next to theircoach. Like most club presidents, Loulou was a self-made man — he made […]
Posted inOff The Post, Story
USMNT and the development of elite players — Professional Leagues (Part 1)
In my November article, I discussed the importance of youth clubs in our system of elite player development as one of the areas to be enhanced. This month we will talk about the Professional Leagues in our soccer landscape and their impact on elite player development. In the first article, we will have a 30,000 […]
Posted inOff The Post, Story
USMNT and the development of elite players — what's next?
About a month ago, I wrote an article about the current roster of the USMNT and its implications. To narrow the gap between the leading MNTs of the planet and to play a semifinal in the World Cup 2026, I suggested the following based on my analysis of the recent USMNT roster. Naturally, I assumed […]
Posted inOff The Post, Story
USMNT and the development of elite players
When I do a sequel to an article, I usually do it in a few weeks. This time, this is a sequel to an article I wrote in April. In that article I compared the roster of the USMNT preparing for its March friendlies to the roster of the Turkish MNT. Six months has passed […]
Posted inOff The Post, Story
Soccer's unwritten LOTG, like it or not, they are here to stay
You might wonder ‘What are the unwritten Laws of the Game (LOTG)?” You might think that maybe I am referring to Law 18 Common Sense – the unwritten Law of the Game. Well not really, although Law 18 might add a flavor to my explanation. Basically, the unwritten LOTG is the result of “what football […]
Posted inOff The Post, Story
Officiating in Euro 2020: an expert's view
You might think that this article is a bit late. I agree, but I had to do some research before I can put out this article down for the readers of Soccer America. There had been a lot of praise for the officiating during Euro 2020. Let us not forget that every performance is relative. […]
Posted inOff The Post, Story
Refereeing education: The present and the future (Part 2)
In the first part of this sequel, I tried to give the message to the refereeing world about the importance of educating our referees the spirit of the Laws of the Game (LOTG) and “what would football want/expect?” as well as the letter of the LOTG. At the grassroots level, the referees should learn the […]
Posted inOff The Post, Story
Refereeing education: The present and future (Part 1)
“IFAB, FIFA, Confederations and the Leagues should focus on the “spirit of the Game “and “what football expects” as much as spending time and effort to create criteria to standardize calls. The readers will have to wait for a few weeks to follow what I mean by modifying the approach to modern professional refereeing education.” […]
Posted inOff The Post, Story
Standardizing subjective decisions
Please note that everything I am writing about today is mostly about professional soccer refereeing. I have written on several occasions that we must have two sets of rules for our game: One for the grassroots and one for the professional game. The Law makers on the other side of the Atlantic seem to be […]