A few weeks back, in this column, Tab Ramos laid out his thoughts on coaching. What he had to say should be of vital interest to anyone involved in coaching, and in the development of the sport in this country. Yes, I am partisan on this issue, so let's get that out of the way immediately. I stand by what I said when I introduced the Ramos columns at the beginning of this month:

Great. No sooner do we move -- finally, after many a delay and much equivocation -- into the modern age with FIFA's approval of goal line technology (GLT, aka GDS or Goal Decision System) than we are plunged back into the dark ages with an utterly absurd decision over a disputed goal in Germany.

The situation in Toronto continues to fascinate me. They now have a new GM up there, Tim Bezbatchenko, who comes straight from the MLS administrative offices. He is the replacement for Kevin Payne, who got himself canned by the new CEO of owners Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.

I must say, for at least the 10,000th time, that it is a decided scandal that so few players are familiar with the rules of soccer. (I could add TV commentators to the culprits list, but most of those are ex-players, so their ignorance is to be expected).

A couple of days after writing my previous column -- in which I expressed strong dislike of British attitudes to the nature of soccer and how it should be played -- I went along to the "Leaders in Football" conference at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge stadium.

In my previous column I reported on a conversation with Tab Ramos in Q&A form. But the longer the conversation lasted, the clearer it became that my questions were not really adding much, and were merely getting in the way of Ramos' thought flow. So this time, Ramos does all the talking as he explains his methods in putting together the U.S. team for the 2012 U-20 World Cup, and his thoughts on coaching in general.

The 2011 appointment of Tab Ramos as the coach of the U.S. U-20 national team seems to me the most important move that has ever been made within the musty and -- before this -- largely unimaginative coaching world of the U.S. Soccer Federation.

LONDON -- One of last weekend's big soccer stories here -- or so it would seem from press coverage -- had to do with the reading out of Saturday's English soccer scores. On the radio.