Youth Soccer Drill

As Spain were crowned World Champions in Joburg, the curtain came down on the very first World Cup to be held in Africa. European teams accomplished a 1-2-3 with Spain defeating Holland in the World Cup final and Germany getting 3rd place with a 3-2 success against Uruguay.

This just goes to strengthen the discussion that European football is the strongest on earth and that the European Championships are a fabulous tournament. Qualifying matches for the Euro 2012 finals gets started in September and regardless of finishing 3rd, Germany are going to be among the favourites to lift the trophy. Their young side produced some incredible football during the World Cup with Thomas Muller winning lifting the Golden Boot with 5 goals and 3 assists. With the help of several other young stars like Ozil, Boateng and Kediera, Germany will be among the ones to beat.

As World and European champions, Spain will undoubtedly be a extremely tough rival. Almost all of their squad will still be young enough in 2012 to give tough opposition and they should be hoping to defend their title.

For once Netherlands managed to leave their personal egos at home at the World Cup tournament and as a result, the Dutch reached their 3rd World Cup final beating quite a few peoples favourite, Brazil, on the way. With more clinical finishing from Robben, Netherlands could possibly have won the competition instead of Spain and they will look to continue in the same vein throughout Euro 2012.

The typically strong teams of France, England and Italy all failed miserably in South Africa and consequently, the curtain will probably come down on plenty of of the older players careers. England have a host of exciting young players to deliver to the international stage and if they can imitate the German team, there will be increased hopes between the English fans.

The Euro 2012 host nations of Poland and Ukraine will both get tremendous support but ultimately, they certainly accomplish not have the quality to seriously challenge for the title.

The instant England departed these shores for South Africa a couple of weeks ago, there was much hope that finally, England could bring the trophy home. Yet, that dream was destroyed in no uncertain terms by the old enemy Germany in Bloemfontein as England crashed out of the finals losing 4-1. How might possibly such an experienced team who qualified so easily fail to perform? Not surprisingly, the English media has come up with no shortage of scape goats and causes for what was England’s heaviest defeat at a World Cup. There has been lots of talk about the Italian manager, formations and more but the troubles are much more serious.

Since its formation in 1992, the EPL has achieved fantastic success as an international brand. The price of this success has been felt by English football. Increased TV revenue has forced wages to rise. Consequently this has meant there has been a developing gulf between club and country. Clubs pay their footballers lots of money and are increasingly unwilling to let their players play for their countries.

In return, footballers get greatly rewarded by EPL clubs to the extent that success is categorized by getting rewarding contracts ınstead of anything they accomplish on the field. Typical players who rarely turn out for their teams are still millionaires and the moment these players put money ahead of playing games at club level, there is actually little doubt they don’t have the mental strength or hunger to play international football.

Traditionally, there was always a regional reserve league which ensured young footballers from smaller teams could possibly be guaranteed to play against decent reserve teams from more established teams like Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs and Manchester United. Of course, in recent years, the EPL has changed consequently they will only play against other Premiership reserve clubs. This means that Championship reserve teams no longer get to play versus Premier League sides. For teams like Ipswich Town, it means their reserve team now plays versus Stevenage as opposed to Tottenham and this drop in standard in opposition definitely has a negative effect on the learning curve of young players.

With so much wealth on the line, things are targeted at EPL survival. Teams spend large amounts of money securing supposedly superior foreign managers and players in a bid to hold on to their EPL status. The ambition of promoted clubs to the Premier League extends no further than finished 4th bottom. The Premiership cash bonanza means that Premier League clubs can offer £1-2m for young players at lower division teams. The players are eager to move and secure their financial futures but it could also signal the stop of their careers. The young Crystal Palace star signed for Tottenham but barely made an appearance and was last heard of on loan at Brentford, a division lower than when he was at Crystal Palace. From a football viewpoint, Bostock would have been best served staying at Palace and learning his trade. How many more young footballers careers are cut down like this chasing after the money rather than playing the game?  It’s difficult to blame the young players for taking the money.

Addititionally there is the common accusation that clubs play too many games in England and increasingly more managers want a winter break. Bear in mind, footballers don’t look to be tired once asked to fly off to the United States or Far East on pre-season tours. Or how about England’s friendly match next June away in Thailand?

There are way too numerous ready made excuses for failure that players are ready to accept. They live a life well away from real life with their mansions, luxury cars and trophy wives. Quite simply, there is not enough hunger or desire.

The game in Thailand also highlights another issue. Along with the Premier League being an international brand, so are the England team. Folks want to view the big Premier League stars play for England and in friendly matches like this, those stars will be expected, if not contracted, to turn out.  Having said that, it is not the case that the recommended 11 footballers make the very best team. Too quite a few footballers are in the team based on reputable name rather than performances. Young players should be promoted into the senior squad sooner.

For the impending Euro 2012 campaign, England should dispense with the services of all footballers aged 30 or over. None of them have played to their ability in South Africa therefore why should England persist with them. It would be more practical to promote younger footballers who may still be hungry for success. All the same, while the worshiping of the Premiership remains, things are probably not going to get better anytime very quickly.

The old Wembley Stadium was opened up in 1923 and had a good reputation for having one of the highest quality playing surfaces in England. Its wide open spaces would sap the strength from the legs of even the fittest players. When the Empire Stadium eventually closed its doors in 2000, the outstanding playing surface was torn up along with the entire stadium.

England supporters had to wait 7 more years until the new Wembley Stadium opened its doors. The new 90,000 seater stadium was categorised by UEFA as a 5* Elite Stadium and is the second biggest in Europe after the Nou Camp in Barcelona. The first full international took place versus Brazil on 1st June 2007.

The building of the arena was late and way over budget but the difficulties failed to stop there. Operational difficulties such as faulty escalators on match days were encountered but there is a continuing situation that until now has not be sufficiently dealt with – the pitch.

Pitches at brand new stadiums regularly require adequate time to settle down but at Wembley the playing surface is a challenge and is without doubt one of the worst around. It cuts up far too easily and players slip over too often. In a recent FA Cup semi final, at least one of the goals was put down to a defender slipping at a critical moment as the pitch gave way. By the close of the 2009/2010 season, the turf had been relaid 10 times at a price of a million pounds and the stadium hadn’t even been in operation for 3 years.

All the same, relaying the pitch every 3 months just isn’t the answer. The structure of the arena prevents the natural conditions of light and wind can’t get to the playing surface to encourage the playing surface to grow. A few stadia similar to the one in Gelsenkirchen in Germany is on rollers so between games, the full playing surface is shifted outside the stadium. Other stadiums have enough ventilation in the stands to allow the wind to move around and it is possible to use artificial lights to aid the turf to develop.

Regrettably, there are still challenges and a fix needs to be found. In September 2010, England launch their qualification for Euro 2012 and they are definitely the top team in their group. The one thing England do not need, is their opponents aided by a poor quality Wembley playing surface. The matches at Wembley are supposed to give England home advantage.

The UEFA Euro 2012 Championships  will be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The event is the last one to be 16 teams as the following one in 2016 will expand to twenty four teams. Poland and Ukraine overcome Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to hold the tournament.

The matches will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish cities to host games will be Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. The Ukrainian cities will be Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.

The final will take place in Kiev which will also hold a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after construction will be one of the premier stadia and sporting complexes across the globe. The new venue in Warsaw is also under construction and guarantees to be a state of the art arena.

The draw for the competition has already been made and qualifying fixtures will get started following the World Cup in South Africa. Each of the 9 group winners and the best runner-up will obtain direct entry into the competition. Following that the remaining 8 runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.

From Group A you would consider Germany and Turkey would be too good with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.

Group B looks to be a 3 way competition with Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.

In Group C it looks like it will be no problem for Italy and Serbia. France is the most likely from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take runner-up.

There is a northern European vibe to Group E where it should be Netherlands and Sweden.

Croatia and Greece are the likely challengers with regards to Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.

From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and last of all from Group I it would appear to be Spain and the Czech Republic.

Qualifying ends in October 2011 by which time excitement and expectancy for the UEFA Euro 2012 Championships will be well and truly underway.