ilovetheoption
Helluva Engineer
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- 2,803
Hey all, just stopping in to let you guys know why I think your fanbase should pay attention to and enjoy the United States Mens National Soccer Team, and their new coach, Gregg Berhalter. For short, I'll call them Gregg's Team (GT).
So GT has a new coach, and for some reason I cannot put my finger on, he really appeals to me.
As a little bit of background, he came up as a defensive guy. While he was thinking about defense, the thing that really stuck in his head was the kind of offenses that he found hardest to defend, and he vowed that if he was ever in a position to coach the offense, he would do the things on offense that he found the hardest to deal with on defense. What this ended up being was an intricate system of ball movement that created a series of numerical advantages (3 on 2, 2 on 1) that allows the offense to aggressively move the ball down the field, forcing the defense to make decisions, and ensuring that they are always wrong, no matter what they choose. Their intricate offense was the talk of the league, as player after player produced far more points than they would likely have elsewhere, year after year.
He's not the flashiest personality in the world, and the hiring didn't set the world on fire, but he came from a situation where his teams were not the most talented, but consistently produced results far above what you would expect, given how their players were rated.
Why I think it's interesting for the US is that we are sort of going to get the players we're going to get. We are never going to be able to recruit the elite players to recruit for us (they're all playing for Brazil, or England, or Germany, the futol factories), and I think it would be fun to watch GT use intricacy, and clever movement to maximize it's chances against the powerhouse.
Watch the following video, and listen to the kind of things he talks about:
Things like he liked defending simple, and had trouble with complex schemes. Things like creating numbers advantages. Things like forcing the defense to react. Things like controlling the flow of the game through scheme. Things like coming up with counters for counters.
I don't know, for me, I find it vaguely familiar in a way I enjoy, and for whatever reason thought you guys might, as well.
So GT has a new coach, and for some reason I cannot put my finger on, he really appeals to me.
As a little bit of background, he came up as a defensive guy. While he was thinking about defense, the thing that really stuck in his head was the kind of offenses that he found hardest to defend, and he vowed that if he was ever in a position to coach the offense, he would do the things on offense that he found the hardest to deal with on defense. What this ended up being was an intricate system of ball movement that created a series of numerical advantages (3 on 2, 2 on 1) that allows the offense to aggressively move the ball down the field, forcing the defense to make decisions, and ensuring that they are always wrong, no matter what they choose. Their intricate offense was the talk of the league, as player after player produced far more points than they would likely have elsewhere, year after year.
He's not the flashiest personality in the world, and the hiring didn't set the world on fire, but he came from a situation where his teams were not the most talented, but consistently produced results far above what you would expect, given how their players were rated.
Why I think it's interesting for the US is that we are sort of going to get the players we're going to get. We are never going to be able to recruit the elite players to recruit for us (they're all playing for Brazil, or England, or Germany, the futol factories), and I think it would be fun to watch GT use intricacy, and clever movement to maximize it's chances against the powerhouse.
Watch the following video, and listen to the kind of things he talks about:
Things like he liked defending simple, and had trouble with complex schemes. Things like creating numbers advantages. Things like forcing the defense to react. Things like controlling the flow of the game through scheme. Things like coming up with counters for counters.
I don't know, for me, I find it vaguely familiar in a way I enjoy, and for whatever reason thought you guys might, as well.
