Give Us Back Our Game
Helena Costa, SL Benfica Soccer Schools:
“Integrated training methodology” 8
No. 34 – August / September 2009
Women In Portugal soccer is the main sport and its national team, clubs and players are some of the top in the world. However, when we talk about women’s soccer in Por tugal, the scenario is completely different. Still, names like Helena Costa, are revamping the Portuguese idea of soccer being a “men’s game”!
By: Hugo Vicente
Working at the SL Benfica Soccer Schools for over eleven years, Helena Costa earned the experience and the confidence that made her take the first steps into the adult game. She starting working with a men’s amateur team and Helena was quickly invited to the women’s Premier League. After just three seasons, she won the Portuguese National Championship and the Por tuguese Cup twice. The secret for Helena was that “training sessions can produce miracles”
The differences between men and women “There are the obvious scientific differences between men and women, especially in terms of pure speed and strength, but in the game, and we are talking about a soccer game, I don’t have a different approach on the way I work. What can make me change the approach and style of coaching are the player, team, the quality and personality of the player, but definitely not the gender. Still, after my experiences, I believe that women are more curious and so they ask many more questions because they really want to improve their game, while men are more willing to simply accept their tasks. So, I simply coach soccer, and according to my view, that process has to be based totally on the tactical side of the game and in the decision making process. I also give a lot of importance on the way my teams defend, because if we are good at defending, we have more than a 50% chance of winning the game. “
Zonal defending and Pressure “Usually all my exercises are totally game related and I don’t isolate any aspect, even though sometimes I can give more importance to a certain subject. For example, I can create exercises to work on zonal defense, especially in the beginning of the season and if I’m working with new players, but I believe, that if there is something that you really feel is very important in the way you play, that behavior has to be in every situation. In this example, even if I create an exercise where my focus is on attack, the zonal behaviors from the other team, still have to be there, because that has to be part of the game. So, for example, when I’m trying to work on my defensive organization, I try to create game situations where I always give superiority in terms of numbers of players to the attack, so they really have to put into practice all the defensive principles, according to our zonal organization. And this happens the same with the attack, if I want to work on the defensive principles of my attacking players, then the philosophy is exactly the same, and what I want to focus, on is always outnumbered, because if I make their life easier in the practice sessions, we will be only preparing the players to be successful in the exercises, not in the game, because in the game things aren’t easy. Still, the main characteristics of the exercises are that they all happen in game situations, where anything that can happen in the
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Women important to me than the tactical side of the game, and the decisions of the players. For me practicing how to play is practicing decision making according to the roles of the players and that will only be possible creating game like situations where unpredictability is there, opposition and a lot of other things that players cannot control, which will in turn condition their own actions and decisions. So for me, practice is nothing more than creating situations that make the players understand what his happening around then, the so called “reading the game”, and according to the strategy and game principles decided for the team, teaching them to select the best answers/decisions according to the different situations they face.
Preparing for a specific game So when you are preparing for a game against a specific opponent, you cannot simply isolate certain aspects just because they happen more often, but, instead of that, you have to create game like situations, where unexpected things can always happen, just like in a game - but also, create conditions for the main characteristics of your opponent to appear, and that is the only way that you can make your players face situations, understand them, and try to choose the best possible decisions to solve the problems they are facing, according to that game plan.
game exists, and transitions will have to always be there. And this is what I defend. Zonal Defense is all about organization, but also about the player’s behavior, and that has to be in ever y exercise. That is exactly the same with pressure. I can organize my team on where to pressure, more or less, and create exercises to stimulate more and more pressure, but the truth is, this is a behavior that has to exist every time a team is not in possession or every time a player loses a ball, so it is something that really has to be in every exercise, every moment of the practice when those things happen.
This is where the quality of the coach, analyzing the situations, and even more important, on the way we communicate with our players, in terms of feedbacks are very important. I am a very demanding as a coach, and I cannot simply let something go when I see something wrong. For that reason, especially at the beginning of the season, I really make their life hard, but as soon as things start to go according to my expectations, I drop the frequency of my interventions and start to be more worried in providing positive feedbacks to my players. Still, I don’t change the way I play because of an opponent. I believe in my strengths and I try to optimize them to the maximum, so usually, what we often do, is be more aware of the opponent
Attacking Organization and Decision Making According to how I see it, I don’t believe in working using shadow plays, without any opposition. Why? Because if I am working on the attack, I need to have defenders, and I want more defenders then attackers. And in that case, it would be useless to ask my players to pass the ball only there, and after that, only there, etc. in the way I work, that is not possible, because it has to be the game, for me, the game is the practice and the practice is the game. Obviously we have our own organization, our own principles, our own priority passing lines, but the final decision, is always with the player. Still, they have to follow our principles, and for example, I want my attackers to always create a passing line upfront, and that has to happen, what doesn’t have to happen is the ball going to him, because the game is constantly changing, and it might be a better option at that exact moment. So it is all about decisions, and this is why I said in the beginning, that nothing is more
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No. 34 – August / September 2009
Women strengths and behaviors, so we aren’t caught unaware, and that’s it. According to the system of play, I’m also one of the coaches that will tell you that it’s something that I am not too concerned about. To be honest, I usually prefer to play with two strikers, but for example this year, with a less experienced team, I played 4-5-1, because I wanted a better balance in terms of organization in the midfield, but its all about the characteristics of the players and the dynamics you can create with them, more then simply play in this or that system, so, I can play in whatever system I think the players fit best, but there is nothing more impor tant than making the players really believe in how they are playing.
‘I don’t believe in working using shadow plays, without any opposition’ Importance of technique and fitness I am a fan of the so called “integrated training methodology” because I don’t believe in doing things separately. If I don’t separate the game to work on cer tain aspects of it, I surely won’t do that to work something that doesn’t have anything to do with the game. Once again, I might want to improve the technique of a player, but I don’t believe in simply doing it in terms of the mechanics, for me that has to be developed in the game. I can create situations where for example I am working mainly on passing and receiving, or on a certain feint, but still, I don’t isolate
that aspect and work on it alone, I only believe in doing it in a game situation, where that aspect might happen, but several others will, and this is what makes you really improve your technique, because this is the game. Physically, I follow the same principles. As a coach, you have soccer exercises, not those that have a ball just to motivate players to work physically with more motivation, the perfect tools to work on the physical capabilities you want, and you feel are required and needed for the game, playing with time, space, number of players, rest and work ratio, etc. For that reason, I would rather spend my two hours of practice working on soccer, on the way we play, because I know that physically they will be fit. And a soccer game is something that people usually say is very unpredictable because of the variables that can exist, and that is why, the more time you spend on working on the game, the more predictable you can make it for your own team. So I always practice the whole game, and my concern is to try to enhance certain aspects that I feel the need to improve on, but that will always happen playing the game, with some conditioning, but where anything can happen, where decisions have to happen all the time and where intensity is always at a maximum. I don’t believe in creating exercises more relaxed because it’s Friday and we have a game Sunday. For example in that case, the exercise simply has less duration, but don’t ask me to drop the intensity. And why? Because the game is never relaxed. Intensity has to be there always, because I want my teams to always play at a high tempo.
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4v4 Organization: - Normal game of 4v4 - 3 goals on each side of the field; to create more opportunities and to learn to use the width of the field (creating a strong and a weak side). This ensures you have better attacking opportunities and clear defensive roles
Objective: The main objective is to organize the defending team, creating pyramids and diagonal lines based on the position of the ball and the player(s) defending it.
8v8 Organization: - Normal game of 8v8 - 3 goals on each side of the field; to create more opportunities and to learn to use the width of the field (creating a strong and a weak side). This ensures you have better attacking opportunities and clear defensive roles
Objective: The main objective is to organize the behaviors of the defending team, creating pyramids and diagonal lines based on the position of the ball and the player defending it, now with two defensive lines.
Progression: - Add a defender behind the goal on each team. The attacking team's defender can attack to create outnumbering situation - While in the defensive process, he has to be behind the goals, and the opponent is not allowed to score in the goal where the defender is standing - Trying to improve the transition
8v6 with goalkeepers Organization: Normal game, where white team can score on both goals defended by only one GK but only after crossing the line of markers
Objectives: team of 8 - Zonal defending - Switch to get away from pressure - Every time the GK has the ball, he has to pass to one of the defenders.
Objectives: team of 6 - Organized Pressure: When the ball reaches the right/left back, team pressures immediately with striker and winger on that side and the rest of the team readjust to zone pressing. - Transitions: fast break attack when ball is recovered
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No. 34 – August / September 2009
