Two days ago, I was undergoing some scouting work in a cup match, in Egypt, and at halftime (a 20 minute long one…) there was more than enough time to observe a happy group of kids having fun in the stadium with one ball and the goal. It took me back to halftime at my favourite Club’s (Clube Oriental de Lisboa) matches – whether it be youth or first team, we would gather with one ball and play about – in these instances 10 to 12 minutes halftime breaks.
Amid this a few thoughts came to mind… are the kids organizing themselves creating a way of playing?… Are they representing what they do in football schools?… Why?! I built some answers in response to these questions. As the video shows the ball is too large for the age group playing, perhaps why they are playing crosses with a double pass to create momentum and lift the ball, Or are they representing a routine that happened in a training sessions and that in this case “breaks” the chance of creativity, or maybe this is a cultural detail in this context where the children react easily to command rather than freedom of thinking…
Those conclusions came from a time of playing 1v1, 3v2, 3v3,… with stones, in doors and other spaces in the street. We played shooting at the wall and so on… So, it is observed in these breaks the same thing happening. We did shooting activities simulating dribbling or not and sometimes 1v6, 3v4,. mainly because we were used to creating it.
To summarise, this street free playing combined with good coaching opportunities (with a top national coaching education) was what has built the last 30 years of the Portuguese football generations and ultimately resulting in one of the reasons why our players have a higher level of expertise. Learning the game by exploring, making decisions and creating positive contexts will lead to a bigger ability to build elite players that can adapt to the current demands in Football.
