Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Dance with the one...

...that brought you. Personally, I don't think you should ever make coaching decisions because a trite phrase happens to ring true for a particular situation. However, I would really hesitate as a coach to trade out my starting goalie and put in a new goalie as I head into the semifinals of the biggest soccer tournament in the world against a team that comes from Brazil.

In fact, I was in a tournament last weekend and our opponent subbed in a new goalie during sudden death overtime. I instructed my team to shoot at will, because in my mind, the other coach just switched in a player who was not mentally involved in the pace or rhythm of the game. Less then one minute in, we took a shot from 35 yards out that slipped under the goalie and hit the side netting. Unfortunately, it was the outside of the side netting and the shot was off target. But it certainly made me feel like the decision to switch in that goalie was questionable. In the end, my team lost and that keeper stopped a key penalty kick against us...so maybe I am just plain wrong about this one.

Headed into the game tomorrow, the US national team coach pulled the trigger and switched out his starting goalie. That guy has cojones and has just set himself up to be heralded as a master tactician or a lowly goat.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hopefully he shows to be a master-tactitian. I'll be up at 7:00 to find out.

Unknown said...

Verdicts in: Goat.