First off I'd like to apologize to my readers for the lack of stories
this past week. I was dealing with some personal issues and I have had
to take a mini break from my posts. None the less I am back and I look
forward to continuing this blog.
Here is a post I meant to publish a couple of weeks ago. I will also post this week's post soon.
This weekend (10/6) IMS made a huge statement to the rest of the conference by defeating Fairfield 4-2.
Coming in to the game we had another roller coaster week that involved us defeating Monmouth, only to lose the following Wednesday to WVU (I talked about this stretch in a previous post). This time, however, the team had acted as if it had a new lease on life. Practice had a different atmosphere surrounding it.
After the WVU loss assistant coach Marcos Monteagudo stated, "Obviously I care about this loss but, we are heading into MAAC play now, where we are 0-0. Our season is just beginning."
This really stuck with the players. you could tell that they had become more focused on the task at hand. All of the set backs we endured had now been put in the past. The main goal of this season had now come to the table.
Coming into the season Fairfield was voted by the rest of the conference to finish 1st in the conference, one of the few preseason accolades we weren't given going into this season. Something that I believe will prove to be a blessing in disguise.
Us not being picked to win the conference not only made us feel under appreciated in our own conference but, it also reminded us that we should have won the MAAC tournament last year. It added fuel to the inner fire that we believe this year we are going to win this trophy and end the notion that Iona always chokes at the finish line.
Going into that Fairfield game the team was focused and looked ready to make a statement. Even conceding an early goal didn't shake the team as it had in previous games this year. The team bounced right back and scored two goals to lead at halftime.
Our halftime message was to remain focused and that we did. Two goals scored less than a minute a part in the second half made the statement that Iona is in the fact that the team that most thought we were coming into the year.
We now must remain focused and continue to make the statement that IMS is the best team in the conference and that this is the year we will shake that notion of always coming up short.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Monday, October 1, 2012
Jimmy Bullard Retires
It is with great regret that After The Full 90 has learned that Jimmy Bullard has announced his retirement from professional soccer.
It may not be the biggest news today in the soccer world but for me it's quite sad. Jimmy Bullard is one of the funniest players to have played the game. He truly enjoyed playing the game he loved.
Here is a video of some of his hilarious moments both on and off the pitch.
We wish him the best and hope he is successful in whatever he decides to be involved with now.
It may not be the biggest news today in the soccer world but for me it's quite sad. Jimmy Bullard is one of the funniest players to have played the game. He truly enjoyed playing the game he loved.
Here is a video of some of his hilarious moments both on and off the pitch.
We wish him the best and hope he is successful in whatever he decides to be involved with now.
Responding Under Pressure
I am not going to fool you guys. Though I intend on this being a non-biased soccer blog I do support one team more than any other, and that team is Manchester United. I do intend to have other contributors so that when I do begin my match day reports it's not all red devils related.
However the subject of this post does take place at Old Trafford but the subject isn't Sir Alex, Wayne Rooney or the rest of the team, but rather André Villas Boas (or AVB for short) the coach of Tottenham, who played United this weekend.
AVB responded to the pressure that has always seemed to mount upon him ever since he arrived in EPL last year, when he became the coach of Chelsea FC, after his extremely successful stint with FC Porto in Portugal. Two days ago he ended Tottenham's 23 year win-less streak against United with a 3-2 victory over the red devils.
The young Portuguese manager seems to have had pressure placed on him from the moment he arrived in England. Some of which was understandably placed on him, because of his age and the size of the club he was taking the reins of, but there is a substantial amount of pressure place on him through the media that is clearly placed on him to stir up controversy, and it clearly ruffled his feathers last year and led to his eventual sacking by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.
When he replaced Harry Redknapp as the Tottenham manager this summer many opinions we thrown around as to whether he was the right man to lead this club to the success it seems have been on the verge of achieving for quite some time now.
A slow start to the season, especially some last minute defensive lapses, had only added to his ever growing pressure. In addition, during the transfer deadline, Tottenham purchased a world class goal keeper and France National team captain Hugo Lloris. This created a bit of a goalie controversy when AVB announced that 41 year old American Brad Friedel would remain the team's starting goal keeper.
Many 'reports' were published about Lloris' displeasure with not being the number one goalie and even former French goal keeper to criticize Tottenham's decision to keep Friedel as their starting goal keeper.
However it seems that this time around AVB is more comfortable in dealing with the pressure thrown his way by the British media, most recently on the Lloris topic heading into his teams big game against United.
His ability to lead his team and come out with an attacking approach against Manchester United, at Old Trafford none the less, was amazing. Bringing the left back (Vertonghen) up into the attack with the ever-dangerous Gareth Bale worked wonders right off the bat with an eight minute goal for Vertonghen. United were looked shocked and slow to react to such an aggressive early approach, and Tottenham scored another before halftime, this time by way of Gareth Bale.
Though United responded in the second half, with both teams producing and exciting opening 15 minutes, with three goals scored in that span (2 by united, 1 by Tottenham). Tottenham hung on to win, despite being absolutely pinned in there own half for the final 25 minutes.
The team was clearly working as a unit, and though United did hit the post twice, Tottenham stood strong and their coach made the right adjustments to the team to give them the belief that they could pull off that victory. You could see how much it meant to AVB to be able to finally respond to the pressure place on him with a huge victory.
As stated in previous posts in this blog it is my dream/mission to become an elite professional coach in this sport, and examples of young managers, like AVB, rising above the pressure placed on them is not only a pleasure to see but also a learning experience for me that I hope to emulate, even if the lesson I learn comes against my club.
However the subject of this post does take place at Old Trafford but the subject isn't Sir Alex, Wayne Rooney or the rest of the team, but rather André Villas Boas (or AVB for short) the coach of Tottenham, who played United this weekend.
AVB responded to the pressure that has always seemed to mount upon him ever since he arrived in EPL last year, when he became the coach of Chelsea FC, after his extremely successful stint with FC Porto in Portugal. Two days ago he ended Tottenham's 23 year win-less streak against United with a 3-2 victory over the red devils.
The young Portuguese manager seems to have had pressure placed on him from the moment he arrived in England. Some of which was understandably placed on him, because of his age and the size of the club he was taking the reins of, but there is a substantial amount of pressure place on him through the media that is clearly placed on him to stir up controversy, and it clearly ruffled his feathers last year and led to his eventual sacking by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.
When he replaced Harry Redknapp as the Tottenham manager this summer many opinions we thrown around as to whether he was the right man to lead this club to the success it seems have been on the verge of achieving for quite some time now.
A slow start to the season, especially some last minute defensive lapses, had only added to his ever growing pressure. In addition, during the transfer deadline, Tottenham purchased a world class goal keeper and France National team captain Hugo Lloris. This created a bit of a goalie controversy when AVB announced that 41 year old American Brad Friedel would remain the team's starting goal keeper.
Many 'reports' were published about Lloris' displeasure with not being the number one goalie and even former French goal keeper to criticize Tottenham's decision to keep Friedel as their starting goal keeper.
However it seems that this time around AVB is more comfortable in dealing with the pressure thrown his way by the British media, most recently on the Lloris topic heading into his teams big game against United.
His ability to lead his team and come out with an attacking approach against Manchester United, at Old Trafford none the less, was amazing. Bringing the left back (Vertonghen) up into the attack with the ever-dangerous Gareth Bale worked wonders right off the bat with an eight minute goal for Vertonghen. United were looked shocked and slow to react to such an aggressive early approach, and Tottenham scored another before halftime, this time by way of Gareth Bale.
 |
| AVB responds to the pressure |
Though United responded in the second half, with both teams producing and exciting opening 15 minutes, with three goals scored in that span (2 by united, 1 by Tottenham). Tottenham hung on to win, despite being absolutely pinned in there own half for the final 25 minutes.
The team was clearly working as a unit, and though United did hit the post twice, Tottenham stood strong and their coach made the right adjustments to the team to give them the belief that they could pull off that victory. You could see how much it meant to AVB to be able to finally respond to the pressure place on him with a huge victory.
As stated in previous posts in this blog it is my dream/mission to become an elite professional coach in this sport, and examples of young managers, like AVB, rising above the pressure placed on them is not only a pleasure to see but also a learning experience for me that I hope to emulate, even if the lesson I learn comes against my club.
One Step Forward Two Steps Back
The last week has been a roller coaster experience for IMS (Iona Men's Soccer). We started off this weekend with a convincing 3-1 victory against Monmouth, who were ranked 25th in the nation at the time, Only to fall to 16th ranked West Virginia University 3-1.
Going into the game against Monmouth it was hard to find a clear indication of the team's moral, something that had become more prevalent within the team as the loosing streak continued. There were still the usual moral/confidence boosters who would speak up at the end of practices, however, going into the game against Monmouth it was unclear to me how the team felt as a whole.
Maybe it was a silent confidence that I couldn't pick up, but whatever it was, it was the right mentality. For the first time the team wasn't shaken after conceding the opening goal. The mind set of, "here we go again" never arose. Instead we broke down the team and adjusted our tactics to absolutely exploit their weaknesses, especially with weak-side diagonal long balls that were the source of two of our three goals.
After the game moral was clearly high. You could feel as if this was the step we needed to finally get out of our slump. The rest of the weekend, and days leading up to the game against WVU, we seemed to get a bit of the confidence that hadn't showed itself since pre-season.
Unfortunately, the game against WVU didn't go as planned. The game started out well for us, especially after we took the lead after just 11 minutes with a goal from Ansger Otto. Our game plan of switching the point of attack was working brilliantly against their high pressure system. However, as this team has become all too familiar with this year, a lapse in defensive concentration lead to WVU tying up the score at 1-1.
Their tying goal came from a set-piece and our marking was just inexcusable. After the initial header sent the ball to the far side of the box, IMS players just left their marks assuming the ball would be cleared. Thus leaving three (yes THREE) WVU players completely wide open within the six yard box. All it took was one sloppy centering pass to come across goal and, in almost complete synchronization, the three unmarked players began their striking motion, and one of them buried it into the net.
Watching from above it was difficult to see how the team was reacting. Part of felt there was no reason to worry. We had gone down against Monmouth and responded brilliantly. Yet, there was something missing this time and I couldn't quite place it. The momentum was clearly beginning to shift, and as a coach, moments like this can cause you fighting between over analyzing a situation and fearing that too many changes (or changes at all) will make the situation worse.
The sides went into halftime all square and the run of play was still pretty even, despite WVU getting back into the game with their goal and hitting the post at the end of the half. Coach Barboto gave his halftime speech and told the team to concentrate on our game plan and to not fall victim to another lapse in defensive judgement.
The second half began pretty even, but another defensive hesitation led to us conceding a second goal 15 minutes into the half. This ultimately led us to try and force the issue, which led to our back four being exposed on too many occasions, and they ultimately scored their third goal to put final nail in the coffin for us.
Watching it all self-implode in the second half never gets easier. It's something that I know all too well from this season. Just like in everyday life, bad habits that we have gotten ourselves into don't just simply go away, you have to concentrate on not committing them, as oppose to, ignoring them and hoping that not thinking about them will reduce your chances of committing them again.
After the game we circled up and spoke about how despite this tough non-conference schedule we need to take the positives from it, learn from our mistakes and prepare for conference play, which begins this Saturday against our top rival for the title; Fairfield. We wanted to challenge ourselves with this tough schedule so that we could be prepared for anything that the MAAC (our conference) throws at us.
It is now time to see if this program is ready to take the next step and fulfill our potential. We have been waiting since our conference tournament loss in November to respond, and what better way to do so than by making a statement against the conference favorite in the first game of conference play.
Going into the game against Monmouth it was hard to find a clear indication of the team's moral, something that had become more prevalent within the team as the loosing streak continued. There were still the usual moral/confidence boosters who would speak up at the end of practices, however, going into the game against Monmouth it was unclear to me how the team felt as a whole.
Maybe it was a silent confidence that I couldn't pick up, but whatever it was, it was the right mentality. For the first time the team wasn't shaken after conceding the opening goal. The mind set of, "here we go again" never arose. Instead we broke down the team and adjusted our tactics to absolutely exploit their weaknesses, especially with weak-side diagonal long balls that were the source of two of our three goals.
After the game moral was clearly high. You could feel as if this was the step we needed to finally get out of our slump. The rest of the weekend, and days leading up to the game against WVU, we seemed to get a bit of the confidence that hadn't showed itself since pre-season.
Unfortunately, the game against WVU didn't go as planned. The game started out well for us, especially after we took the lead after just 11 minutes with a goal from Ansger Otto. Our game plan of switching the point of attack was working brilliantly against their high pressure system. However, as this team has become all too familiar with this year, a lapse in defensive concentration lead to WVU tying up the score at 1-1.
Their tying goal came from a set-piece and our marking was just inexcusable. After the initial header sent the ball to the far side of the box, IMS players just left their marks assuming the ball would be cleared. Thus leaving three (yes THREE) WVU players completely wide open within the six yard box. All it took was one sloppy centering pass to come across goal and, in almost complete synchronization, the three unmarked players began their striking motion, and one of them buried it into the net.
Watching from above it was difficult to see how the team was reacting. Part of felt there was no reason to worry. We had gone down against Monmouth and responded brilliantly. Yet, there was something missing this time and I couldn't quite place it. The momentum was clearly beginning to shift, and as a coach, moments like this can cause you fighting between over analyzing a situation and fearing that too many changes (or changes at all) will make the situation worse.
The sides went into halftime all square and the run of play was still pretty even, despite WVU getting back into the game with their goal and hitting the post at the end of the half. Coach Barboto gave his halftime speech and told the team to concentrate on our game plan and to not fall victim to another lapse in defensive judgement.
The second half began pretty even, but another defensive hesitation led to us conceding a second goal 15 minutes into the half. This ultimately led us to try and force the issue, which led to our back four being exposed on too many occasions, and they ultimately scored their third goal to put final nail in the coffin for us.
Watching it all self-implode in the second half never gets easier. It's something that I know all too well from this season. Just like in everyday life, bad habits that we have gotten ourselves into don't just simply go away, you have to concentrate on not committing them, as oppose to, ignoring them and hoping that not thinking about them will reduce your chances of committing them again.
After the game we circled up and spoke about how despite this tough non-conference schedule we need to take the positives from it, learn from our mistakes and prepare for conference play, which begins this Saturday against our top rival for the title; Fairfield. We wanted to challenge ourselves with this tough schedule so that we could be prepared for anything that the MAAC (our conference) throws at us.
It is now time to see if this program is ready to take the next step and fulfill our potential. We have been waiting since our conference tournament loss in November to respond, and what better way to do so than by making a statement against the conference favorite in the first game of conference play.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)