The Evolving Game (50th Issue)

E M A G G N I V L O THE EV June 2020

Issue 50 Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Coaching Newsletter

50

Thanks for paying attention

The Evolving Game has been read in almost every country in the world! We would like to thank the artists, writers, photographers, computer geeks, soccer nerds, editor and most importantly our readers! Here is to the next 50 issues of The Evolving Game!

Issue

Meet the coaches players & teams

Gary Stephenson

Director of Soccer

Development &

Performance

th

Inside: Soccer is back Thanks Germany

US Soccer Education License Pathway (In Person Courses) suspended until July

Online Licenses Open to Registration Game Watcher NATIONAL WOMEN’S SOCCER LEAGUE

EPL

June 27th NWSL Challenge Cup Schedule to be announced

June 17th Schedule to be announced

LALIGA

SERIE A

June 13th, 7:00am Espanyol v Alaves

June 13th, 2:45pm CUP Juventus v Milan

June 13th, 4:00pm R Mallorca v Barcalona

June 22nd, 9:00am Atalanta v Lazio [!2]

BUNDESLIGA

June 6th, 9:30am Leverkusen v Bayern M June 20th, 9:30am RB Leipzig v Dortmund

MLS

Started small group training

MEET THE COACH - 65 COACHES IN 50 ISSUES Great insights into the game Mike Barr Kelly Connor Simon Robertson Iain Munro April Kater Toril Hinchman Eric McAleer Keith Tabatznik Sue Barr Eric Wagner Dan Mannella Seamus Donnelly Dave Chesler Tom Sermanni Bob Gansler Steve Sampson Bruce Arena Gary Stephenson Jurgen Klinsmann Trevor Tierney Ciaran Dalton Jay Hoffman Frank Olszewski Jill Ellis Vince Ganzberg John Hackworth U17 USMNT Mike Rigney Steve Klein Tommy Wilson Sean McCafferty

Thanks for your support

MEET THE COACH - 65 COACHES IN 50 ISSUES Great insights into the game Karl Reddick Gregg Ramos John Oberholzer Fernando Carrizo Mike Moyer Chris Branscome Meridith Crowell Brad Sorkin Brian Hearn Eddie Leigh Dave McWilliams Jorge Severini Erica Walsh JT Dorsey Don Brady Troy Snyder Sue Barr Brendan Burke Biff Sturla Brent Jacquette Stephen Hogan Jeremiah White Russel Payne James Chamber Aaron Jones Kim Casey Ed Hart Sam Griggs Jamie Scott Steve Moore Zac Crawford Richard Chinapoo Ray Miller Teresa Rook

Thanks for your support

Digital and video formats released to aid and assist new and experienced coaches

Kwikgoal Clipboard (featuring Mike Barr)

Once a week an exercise is presented by Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer's Technical Director Mike Barr. The exercise targets coaches who are starting down their coaching pathway or experienced coaches looking for fresh or new ideas.

Coach Barr gives you the information to set up the training environment and also his insight on how he uses the exercise and how it can be tweaked to tailor to your needs.

Definitely worth a watch and should increase your coaching toolbox! \

FSE Series (Fun Soccer Exercise)

Once a week an exercise is broken down by Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer's Grass Roots Manager JT Dorsey. Coach Dorsey works with Mike Barr and the Education Department to develop each exercise. The exercise is for inexperienced or even knowledgeable coaches looking for new ideas when working with Recreation and/or Intramural Programs. Definitely worth a watch to find a new go to exercise! [!5]

Return to Routine, if not Normalcy Let’s get this out of the way.

Despite what brands want us to believe, every “time” is unprecedented and uncertain.

The current conditions merely remind us of that more than anything else. Is this pandemic a severe disruption to what we considered normal? Yes. And it’s been humbling, a lear ning experience, disheartening, tragic, and if we seek out stories of hope, inspiring.

The return of soccer covers all of those bases and re-emphasizes the abnormality of the worldwide situation. Look no further than B o r u s s i a D o r t m u n d ’s Westfalenstadion, an eerily vacant reminder of what the sport can look like at its raucous, most vibrant best.

The Yellow Wall loomed large as Dortmund hosted their archrivals, Schalke, in the first Bundesliga match in months. In any other season, this would’ve been the biggest match in Germany. Now it was the biggest match in the world. After some, yes, uncertainty pre-kickoff, worldclass soccer appeared on the screen, a point punctuated more on close-ups than on wide-shots from the empty stadium.

Then we got an almost perfect goal: Beautiful build-up play that saw Dortmund, a club that’s earned its reputation as an eyepleaser for casual viewers, go from its own half to the attacking third in two passes; the kind of

cross that wing players dream of; a clinical finish where the ball seemed to have every intention of ending up in the goal, and the forward’s job was simply to guide it there.

It was a team goal finished by a player for whom scoring is routine: Erling Braut Haaland, who’s found the back of the net 41 times in his last 36 appearances in club soccer (Dortmund and Red Bull Salzburg).

Bagging goals is clockwork for him, and it looked it on that Saturday morning. Haaland and setup man Thorgan Hazard showed they were in late-season form, even with this pause, and that the quality and semblance of normalcy remain.

But then the socially distant goal celebration came. The banners didn’t wave. And we were back to reality.

We need those reminders just as some of us need sports. The former keeps us grounded--we can think of the hard work of scientists and health professionals to get us to this point and, hopefully soon, through it--the latter provides a source of entertainment.

But it’s more than the enjoyment of the game that was a welcome distraction. It was the routine of it. We wake up with soccer on Saturday and Sunday mornings from August until [!6]May. For many

of us, it’s a ritual we share with friends and family near and far.

When else, and to whom else, can you send a 7:30 a.m. text and know you’ll get a response?

As much as we missed the games themselves, we missed the routine in these last few months. And it won’t be normal going forward.

But we’ll be glad we have something to discuss, new great goals, breathtaking saves, and stunning upsets to analyze.

Dortmund-Schalke wasn’t that.

Dortmund, second in the league, rolled over their opponents in a 4-0 victory. They won’t all be great games, and that’s okay.

The emotional investment is rooted in uncertainty.

Besides, there will be more games soon, more chances for classics. We can even allow the thought that we might be lucky enough--and, please, healthy enough--to take the field, too.

Dortmund-Schalke seemed like the first step there, because soccer was firmly in our lives again as it always has been.

By Dillon Friday

[!7]

[!8]

[!9]

[!10]

[!11]