On the 23rd April 2013, europe's finest reputation altered some what. Some 12 months ago Barcelona were 'top dog' and the most feared team in Europe with reputation along the lines of 'greatest ever team' with their sublime footballing techniques making them an all round sensation. That last night changed as they travelled to the Allianz Arena to face Bayern Munich in the first leg semi-final clash, Bayern a born-again side that has seen them over the last decade go through managerial swaps and even Uefa Cup football (now known as the Europa League) europe's second class competition. All past aside, Bayern was a breath of fresh air from the unamusing likes of Lionel Messi, Andreas Iniesta and Xavi that have dominated player of the year awards at every level participated. The germans simply blew the Catalans away as if something new in the air was brewing, the german might that has long been praised yet not have since one a major European Competiton since 2001. The total possesion football that has seen Barcelona dominate both domestic and european competitions over the last four or so years had no effect on Bayern last night as their own style of football came through, showcasing the attacking likes of Arjen Robben and Thomas Mueller, shelving the name of Lionel Messi, if only for 90 minutes, something that just dosent happen very often, if ever. So is this the end of Barcelona domination and in its place the domination of the Germans? (I like many others start to think this as more a reality as Borrusia Dortmund and Robert Lewandowski puts away the 4th goal making it 4-1 on the night against Real Madrid). Never before has there been an all-German final, now ever the reality as the two teams containing the "best two players in the world" respectively, look set to crash out convincingly.
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No-one minded at the start of the spain national and barcelona club domination. It was refreshing to see quick one touch footie and obviously technical football. But a boring few tournies for spain using tiki-taka in a defensive method ruined it for me and probably many others.
Some coaches have worked it out and the german way, as klopp says transition football, seems perfectly suited. Now if barca had a ledoendowski or ever its spelt and a fit messi and some wingers...maybe they would have scored! At some point in a month of sundays.....
I like the way munich play they remind me of the invincibles arsenal side with men queing up to stick pull backs into an empty net.
There are well over 100 footballing coaching centres across the nation and DFB mandated every Bundesliga club to have a youth team system. Starting at about 9 or 10 the players are being taught technical skills in small games with about 6 or 7 a side and then gradually as they move up the age groups the size of the teams increases they get to 11 a side. Rather than being reliant on strength and stamina this system teaches them technical skills and the idea is to allow a stream of talented players who are comfortable holding and passing the ball to develop, ironiaclly a lot like Barcelona except possibly playing at a faster tempo. Also if a player doesn't get into the first team in his late teens/early twenties in Germany he's not a failure as he would be in England.
Plus the German licensing system forces the clubs to use home grown talent so they can stay in budget and scour overseas leagues for cheap talent like Dzeko and Lewandowski.
A large percentage of the players that play in the first teams of the Bundesliga are actually GERMAN!
Now have a look at the ENGLISH premier league.
For this reason,internationally we will not be able to hold a light to them.
Looks awesome. I want one of them in my living room.
Football is crazy.
I have also seen from his Sunday team that there is a bigger emphasis put on workrate and competing than there is on skill. If he wasn't a keeper I would have ensured he started playing Sunday Football later.
Good point about how our kids have their hopes built up only to have them shot down by our clubs where as the Germans are not so fast to label them as failures. Our clubs trawl for talent and throw most away. You only have to look at the pitiful percentages of kids in academies who make it to a decent level to identify there is a problem. So whilst we have adopted some of the systems, the underlying attitudes required in the game are not widespread enough for it to have the same effect as it has had elsewhere.
We need more NEW coaches, and they have to be enlightened ones. And we have to get the dinosaurs out of the game. That is not as easy as it sounds because a dinosaur a) doesn't realise he is a dinosaur and b) is usually well established as a coach.
I though I would ask as I know a lot of you work up in town.
Thanks.
I refereed a match for one of my mates kids' teams and was shocked at how much the skill level in the majority and the mentality was exactly the same as it was when I was 8/9 I thought the grass roots emphasis had been put on skill and ball retention etc? I told the manager of my mates boys team to either stop trying to get them to expect me to officiate his lads trying to set an offside trap with no linesman. It was all proper kick and rush stuff and if young kids are being mde to play like that and buying into that belief English football will only fall further behind
I did look there first, but there is a quote on WembleyStadium.com and TripAdvisor supposedly from UEFA:
"There will be no public screening of the UEFA Champions League final at the UEFA Champions Festival or in London and fans without tickets should not travel"
Bizarre that the Festival is not showing the match!
It is a proven fact that a kid that doesn't have the core skills at 13 won't ever develop them to the required level - but coaches in our game focus on being competitive, sliding tackles and fitness above skill! They want 11 and 12 year olds to play on full size pitches with full size goals - like I said it, if they don't get it, they never will. And we won't produce the numbers of talented kids we need for our game to reach the heights others have.
Will be a blinding sat