An Interesting View of Ruud and Cobi

By: Laurie | December 15th, 2007

I’m not going to have a lot of time to post original stuff through the holidays (in-laws coming, happy joy), so for now I’ll give you something I posted on the Main Page. (Original source, Du Nord.)

This came from a BigSoccer post about a Dutch TV program that featured Ruud Gullit and Ronald Waterreus (former RBNY goalkeeper). The “Coby” referred to is obviously our CoJones.

One of my main page readers said that this is exactly what Ruud said, too. What do you think? Are soccer programs in the US really this bad?

Ruud added to that an experience he had with Coby(?). During a training session Coby did something and Ruud asked what he was doing. The practice was about defending. Coby kept the field coverage wide, and Ruud told him that that’s not the way to defend, in fact you cannot defend unless you compress the field. Coby reacted to that: G.dammit, I knew it I knew it but every coach told me otherwise.

These are observations by two men who have been playing at the highest levels and with superior coaches and the main deficiency they see in American soccer is the lack of tactical knowledge, at least at the levels we are accustomed to in the Netherlands.

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Category: Player News

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winrar

French for most beautiful football? Plllease.. FIRST its Spain SECOND its Portugal THIRD its France.
And for the real fight and involvement you have to watch matches between clubs who have history or issues... or are same town/city :)
bluemeanies

It's really disturbing if every coach Cobi has ever been under has not gotten a basic tactical understanding. You are talking about I believe Sigi Schmidt, Steve Sampson and Yallop with the galaxy (and Octavio Zambrono?), Steve Sampson & Bruce Arena with the nats (maybe Bora too- not sure when Cobi started). The list of coaches he's had at the highest level makes it scary if all of them were instructing backward. Or maybe some of these coaches knew this but never thought that they had to instruct Cobi and this is an indictment of youth coaching and not Sigi the Hut as much.
glen

it'll be interesting to see how Ruud does with the Galaxy. it'll be tough for him I'm sure with the player selection, but if he does succeed in teaching some tactical knowledge, maybe down the road this will trickle onto the national team level somewhere
Yankee Revolution

Tactics and technique are the two last bridges we need to gap. We're already some of the most physically fit players out there (just look at Eddie Johnson!), but we have no flair! We haven't a Totti or an Owen. We have Landon...

Let's see if Ruud can bring America into the 21st century tactically. And hopefully the next Billy Gonsalves is being born somewhere in the US.

I'd like to see us playing a short-passing game, with emphasis on skill upfront and on big punishing defenders in the back. (The old Danubio is a good example)
Laurie

Serie A? Please. For beautiful football, go French! ;-)

Actually, I love the continental European style, regardless of where it's played. One of the prettiest games I've ever seen stylistically was the UEFA Cup final last year between two Spanish teams. I want to say Sevilla and Espanyol, but don't quote me. Exquisite.

Yes, America has a lot to learn. We'll see if Ruud is the one to teach it.
charlesj27

I appreciate the fact that Ruud commented sincerely. I'm going to assume that in many ways and at many levels in the US Soccer game - that Ruud's comments are true. But, if we also take his comments knowing that in Europe, Soccer (Football/Futbol) is in many ways their national sport - we can come away understanding why. Soccer, in many other parts of the world, is played a lot more often with a lot more depth. If one is interested in seeing soccer played with depth and skill, I would suggest watching Italian Serie-A games, especially games by Juventus, AC Milan, and Fiorentina. And, what you should be looking for is the level of play, involvement, timing, and concentration of each of their 11 players when on the pitch. After a while, you will start to recognize that each player have their roles - and, their roles will flux as the opposing team reveals itself in strengths and weaknesses.

Love this game... PLAY HARD!
Dave Martinez

Very insightful. We have much to learn.