was watching regional trials for girls U13 in this city (by accident, went to a swim meet at that sport complex). Some of the best U13 footballers I have ever seen, this was only regionals, not provincial. There were 24 trialists. It was cold, 1 F, and wet..and these girls were running and playing a brand I rarely ever observed at that level..and what brought the trials to my attention most, out in that foul nasty weather, there were about 100-150 spectators (friends & family, I guess), quiet and nervous. Standing in the cold & wet, hoping their trialist make this 1st step team from the regional club team, then they go through it again for provincials, and then Nationals...from so young....you think them kids coming to walk ball around a field, in front all their support, making this sacrifice, and not make team or even play with their all...and when they make team, woe who have to play them, and didn't go through half the preparation or sacrifices.
You think the coaches and organizers here ,won't be motivated, encouraged and therefore pushed to be innovative, with such committed players, parents, friends and eyes pointed in their direction...Guess where maybe half the funding for these tryouts and sport organizations at this amateur level come from ? At 1st the regional level, guess ? Stay dey and feel is all about putting team on field with good coach, and winning games..
btw: just as an aside, at our minor swim meet, there were 897 competitors (4789 individual entries) - football has more participants. How can you NOT find a few potential provincial & possibly National swimmers from such a pool. Yet in football in our province, like in Hockey, many regions don't.
You are over simplifying things and laying blame squarely at the feet of the girls. Yes a part of it is the players, granted. However, coaches must know what he/she is working with and how to develop tactics and strategies to enable whatever players SELECTED to be successful. This is not an individual sport and will-power can only get you so far.
In today's game, administration plays a huge part in the success of players on the field. You can see when the girls take the field that the tactics and strategies employed set them up for failure. You think our girls are not committed. Come on man get real. So you are only committed when there is success? If you go through some of the hurdles these girls have to go through just to be at practice it will be different. You think there parents not supporting them or don't want to give them every opportunity to be successful?
You conveniently flip the script and say how the efforts of the players motivate the organizers. That is first class really it is. Organizers and administrators provide the environment that allows players to be motivated to do their best. Come on man be real. You think organizers sit there and say okay lets wait and see how motivated these players are and then we will start working hard?
Let's be real for a minute, I know you all will say this is not valid, but I believe it really is
T&T population - 1.2 Million
Women
Girls
Girls who 17 years or younger
Girls who are 17 years or younger and play soccer
It will always be difficult to sustain a long term program in places like T&T. That however does not mean we should look as bad as we did. These girls are much better than they showed........FACT. However, they wasn't put in a situation to bring out that ability. Our girls met up the day before their first game. The US u17 team had been together since January. The USA team spent the week before leaving at IMG playing against their U18 women's team. Where did this organization come from? The players or the administration?
The T&T team tried to get a game from JA in JA a couple days before their first game, but it did not work out.
Our FA is in shambles, yet we always expect the players to be ready and be at their best. Not realistic. In today's game it takes much more than Pride, Passion and Hard Work. It takes proper preparation. Piss Poor Preparation Leads to Piss Poor Performance.
Look at the goal that defeated Haiti in the CFU finals. The level of opponent is not important as the technical ability and level of difficulty to accomplish that goal was very high.
You completely misunderstood what I was saying..
I will now simplify
I do not at all blame the girls..I understand, we do not have the same pool of soccer players to choose from, and in many cases these larger countries have the choice of cross-trined athletes, who are not just about football, but are really good. no matter what sport they choose. I do not doubt the commitment of the athletes, however, with a choice from 100,000 commited athletes , even if a bad selection is made, you won't be far off from selecting a team that will better any country with a smaller pool..
If I must cast any blame, it would be on the Adminstrators,coaches/selectors, yet even them cannot afford to make mistakes, and given the level and type of tournament, may not even realize if you are not making the right choices..especially when you are winning in your previous regional games...the mistake being, way before the tournament start, adminstrators should have arranged practice games, against the top regional teams they will be playing against. Like Canada & USA...even clubs in those regions, some of them with some incentive will even pay their way to come play us.. A trip to Columbia, or Brazil, will not prepare you to play against Scotland..it may prepare to play against Argentina doh.
in addition..
I have been around Elite athletes all my life in Trinidad & Canada, and their is a mindset that an elite athlete has...not refering to starboy mentality or such...something else..can't put my finger on it exactly..something like a fear of losing, therefore must win, and being embarrased in NOT an option, a belief that even if you are not having your best day, you will GIVE your all to win this thing, even if it doesn't show the turmoil inside of trying to attain these levels...I have experimented with such on the senior women soccer level,drafting and playing elite University basketball players (including my sis, who also played Netball for Canada at worlds, and 2 provincial team basketballers) in a soccer club,in between I had selected excellent Junior players, 5 of them playing up - seniors, and 2 triathletes, i happened to see training while i was driving to practice and by end of season, was able to lose on penalty kicks against the later Provincial and National champions - they had 7 Provincial players, 2 National players.
Why ? not because I was a great coach, I was still learning, not because, we had great players..but a combination of many other things, some of which were, they were Elite athletes, even if they were'nt soccer players, they were not always winners, they played and competed enough, to know what losing was like, and were of the belief it was not an option, even if this was not their sport. We (not just me- them too) employed strategy that was able to utilize their strengths, i gave clear and specific instructions, that the non-players could execute, the expert junior players were aware of the strengths and defiencies of each other, and especially the non-players, and aware of the instructions. We had a season of games, one a week, and 2 practices, 2 of the University girls were the athletic therapist, one was studying sport management & Nutrition, i myself was in Exercise science. No one was paid, Our final games were advertised by the area we represented, only the Junior players were from there.. The parents of these girls(3 of these were Unilingual french) did after practice get together every 3 weeks..as they were excited their younger daughters could not just play, but be mentored by the University girls on the team, which bonded them even more..I did not try to control them, everything came from them. They were a unit, a team. Every goal scored on us, each individual blamed themselves..even when we lost, cause I didn't practice penalties...didn't think we would have too..they took the blame...when the goalie let in a soft goal over her head, she was 5 foot nothing...even up to the centre forward was taking the blame..."I missed that shot 10 minutes before)...
No...I blame the selectors...and maybe with all being said, the selectors will make the same choices, and choose the same girls, because that is the best available to them, and the girls really are, then the coach is the one who has to get them prepared and ready..and if they lose, then they lose as ready as they have possibly been, but if they reach the final and get killed, as these girls were, then obviously something broke or wasn't done properly, and a mistake was made in preparation..not necessarily somebody didn't do their job, but somebody had the wrong plan..and at least the adminstrators, directors or more senior officials should recognize this and re-access said program/plan..or expect the same result.