One of our nearby associations, Triangle United (formerly Chapel Hill United), started hosting a 3v3 tournament last summer to raise money for field renovations.  They play 3v3 games on 30yd x 40yd fields with age divisions starting at U6 and going to over 40.  Most of their fields were fescue (which means mostly clover) and they are raising money to turf them.  They’ve done a few and they’ve done an amazing job - the pitches are flat as a board - the grass is VERY short and thick and the fields drain VERY well.  I watched the contractor one time - he had a laser level receiver on his box blade and went around in circles until he had the field was completely flat (with a slight incline for drainage of course)  But I digress. The good part is the tournament is held on the new fields which are fun to play on.

Last year a few other MYSA coaches and I took 4 teams to this tournament.  Two in U6 and two in U8.  We found out about the tournament late so we only had a couple weeks to practice the new format.  The kids tried to grasp the 3v3 setup but its hard after playing larger games during their regular season.  In 3v3, passing is key since you have little room to maneuver.  It is also important to be able to play one on one and also try to keep a triangle formation when attacking.  But we went anyway, and got pounded in our morning matches.  But it was great to see our kids quickly get ahold of the 3v3 concept and in the afternoon matches, they put up a good fight.  But everyone had a LOT of fun.  We had matches where we lost 17-1, but the kids didn’t want to stop playing and didn’t get discouraged.  They had fun with this format.  Needless to say we raved about it to the rest of the coaches and I think participating played a large role in getting our U6 division down to small side levels (and hopefully that will extend to our other divisions this summer)

So this year, we’re looking at taking 7 or 8 teams to the tournament from U6 through U12.  Folks are really excited this year just because everyone, the players, parents, and coaches, had so much fun last year.  But I’m wondering if these types of tournaments are widespread in youth soccer.  I know 3v3 basketball and the like are common.  But do many associations to 3v3 or small side tournaments for older age groups?  We all need a break from soccer during the Summer, of course, and sumer camps seem to sprout like wildflowers each year, but are these types of exhibition or fundraiser type events widespread?  Guess I’m just curious. I’ll post an update on how our teams did next week.

No more default WordPress theme! Nothing against Kubrick, its actually quite nice. But I wanted something somewhat unique for this blog and I found it while browsing through the various WordPress Themes over at Alex King’s site. Its based on Benevolence which was created by Theron Parlin. I’ve made some changes like including the calendar and tweaking a few things (mostly hidden stuff that makes administering the blog easier) I’ve tried to test out most functionality and I haven’t run into anything weird, but if you stumble across something that just doesn’t look right format wise, let me know! But now On The Pitch has grass! Of course it should be mowed, but…

Steve Gilliard points to the latest in the saga of Malcom Glazer’s attempts to buy Manchester United. Attempts nothing - he’s already got control of the club and everyone is scared to death about what he might do, though I think some astute folks posting comments got it right saying MU dug their own grave by going public in the first place. But in reading the comment section of Steve’s post and the usual ‘I hate soccer, football all the way, etc.’, it got me motivated to write about something that’s been nagging at me for a while.

When people talk about why soccer has such a dismal following in the United States, you always hear how its the ‘lack of scoring’ and ‘its boring’. For a time I thought that made sense. But how do you explain the popularity of baseball, or golf for that matter? I know this will earn me scorn, but baseball is BORING. My god - pitch, throw back, pitch swing, miss, throw back, pitch, HIT, fly ball. But people love it. Same thing for golf - they spend 70% of the time walking, 25% of the time eyeing the shot, and 5% actually doing something. I’m not belittling the game or players - its an impossible game and the tension that builds from the time the club hits the ball to when it stops on the grass can be interesting. I don’t play golf because I’d wrap my clubs around the nearest tree within an hour. But its still not something many people would say is ‘exciting’ … on TV. So why do people flock to watch them live and on TV? » Read the rest of this post…

Late last year during a friendly match between Spain and England, the Spanish fans exhibited what many feel was some of the most blatant and wide spread racist behavior seen at a match in some time.  As expected there was little official action by the governing boards. Most folks in the US likely never even heard about it unless they regularly read SoccerNet.

Via Steve Gilliard, The Observer has an excellent article on the subject of racism in European Football.

The events at the Bernabéu have poisoned the atmosphere not only in football but also in the wider society. This is the price now being paid for the RFEF’s support for Aragonés’s racism and their refusal to condemn the racist behaviour that scarred the England game. Even the Spanish government has moved reluctantly, promising action while doing virtually nothing. Extraordinarily, the Anti-Violence Commission - which was established in response to the violence at football grounds, some of it racially inspired - has not a single representative from the ethnic minorities.

Read the entire article. It is very well written and thoughtful. I long for the days when American media spent the time to explore the wide reaching implications of topics in American society.  Most Americans, when you ask about European football problems, will respond about the English hooligans.  But racism is a real problem that needs to be dealt with in European society (and others like our own of course) and as the writer points out - football is very indicative of where European society is because it’s so ingrained in their culture.  While soccer only seems to be deeply ingrained in our youth activity culture here in the US, professional soccer is making inroads (notice how most satellite companies are carrying more and more matches?).  Lets hope we can rise above this type of racism on our domestic pitches.

Over the past few years we’ve had a variety of end of season parties for our U6 and U8 teams. We’ve gone to a local Pizza restaurant, the local swimming pool (has a cover in the winter/spring), and rooms at our local community center. But they normally have been separate. Well the soccer moms on the three teams I’m involved in coaching (as a head or asst coach) have become friends over the past couple years and they decided to have one big party for all three teams.  » Read the rest of this post…

We had our usual post season officers meeting tonight to talk about what worked and what didn’t over the course of the past year so we could discuss possible rule changes, improvements, etc.  For the most part this past season went VERY well, with just a few minor problems.  But one of the problems that came up was the difficulty in getting the refs attention when you needed to get subs into the match.  Its not easy to scream louder than the soccer parents on the other end of the field during a throw in to try and get subs in.  So I’m curious how other leagues handle it. » Read the rest of this post…

Well the season is over.  This was our longest Spring season so far (we usually finished up by early or mid April) and yet it was worth it.  Everyone really enjoyed the tournament. For those of you still playing, the reason we end so early is we use the baseball fields in town to play and once Little League starts in late March, we can’t practice during the week and the weekends get busier (with baseball tournaments, Spring events, etc)  So we start practicing in late January and play through April.  When our new fields are done I expect our schedule will shift. But the end of the season is always a mix of relief and regret. » Read the rest of this post…

I’ve become accustomed to the weather forecasts being wrong and thankfully it was wrong for our tournament yesterday.  As I had noted earlier, the forecast was pretty scary.  When we got to the fields, the clouds were very dark, the wind was blowing and rain was falling on and off.  I had a small weather radio with me listening non stop to NOAA radio and it was very handy.  We were able to listen as the storms moved south and as they ended up canceling the Severe Thunderstorm Warning for our area.  So we dodged the bullet for sure.  The weather was still very cloudy and we never really knew if we would avoid further rain.  But by the time the championship matches started at 5PM, things were clearing up a bit and the fields were dry.  It was still cloudy, but it was clear we wouldn’t get any more rain.  It quickly became clear the excitement would be on the field. » Read the rest of this post…

One of the seemingly troublesome sides of having a single elimination tournament at the end of the season is the kids, and especially the parents, tend to get caught up in it and the pressure builds. Even the 6 and 7 year olds know that the regular season games and tournament games are different. On the surface it can seem like a bad thing, and it can be if the parents don’t handle it well (and in every league a few don’t but for us most have handled it fine) But I’ve found that tournaments are very good for teaching kids how to handle pressure and also losing. The winning part is easy. » Read the rest of this post…