In my opinion, this was the most fun (men’s) England team to watch within my lifetime, when we were confident and focused on getting forward it was exciting football ⚽️🏴
Fair play to Argentina, they’ve scored two good goals without referee decisions being a part of it. It will be a great final to watch!
It has to be said, Tuchel got his strategy wrong in the end, when you invite pressure on with such a clinical team you’re going to pay..
makes sense when you’re down to 10 men and holding on but can’t rely on that play every time. I thought he set them up so well with the 11 he chose so fair play on that. Then again, mistakes happen and we can only learn from them.
Hear me out: player goes down with “injury” supposedly so bad that they hit/slap the ground repeatedly…. make a rule that doing so signals for an immediate trainer to enter the field of play no q’s asked the moment play stops, and player must then go off the field for treatment
Just like that, spring season practices come to an end! 🌸⚽️
All the work, all the moments—now it’s game time.
See you Saturday at 11am 😎🫶😁#BetterTogether
Rachel Daly said something to me recently that I haven't stopped thinking about.
We were talking about development. The differences between the US, England, where the gaps actually come from. She mentioned growing up in Yorkshire, how after school there was always a game somewhere. A wall. A park. A cage. Pickup that nobody organised and nobody coached. Just kids with a ball for two, three hours every evening.
She wasn't describing training. She was describing touches.
Here's the number that matters. Most youth players in the US get six to eight hours of structured training a week. That sounds like a lot. In England, when Rachel was growing up, kids were getting ten or more additional hours of unstructured ball work on top of whatever their clubs gave them.
That is not a talent gap. That is a touches gap.
And here is what nobody wants to say out loud. You cannot buy your way out of it. A new club does not fix it. A $200 private session is one hour. One hour. What are you doing the other 23?
The players who close the gap are not the ones with the best coaches or the most expensive programmes. They are the ones who find a wall and use it. Every day. Not when they feel like it. Every day.
Thirty minutes against a wall will give you more quality touches than most players get in a full week. It trains both feet. It trains first touch under repetition. It builds the muscle memory that shows up when the game speeds up and you do not have time to think.
Rachel Daly did not get to where she is because she had better resources than everyone else. She got there because she put in the work that most players skip because nobody made them do it.
The wall is free. The ball you already have. The thirty minutes is a choice.
The question is whether you are making it.
I get I’m an NUFC fan and biased… but before the PK I still thought ref had a shocker. Yellow’s Tonali for far less than plenty others that were more excessive. PK 16 seconds above the 4 additional mins… you can’t make it up. NUFC the better team and robbed of a win there!
We still have a couple of roster spots available this fall, specifically still looking for a GK. If you know anybody, please have them reach out to head coach Emma Morris at [email protected]#RollCougs#BetterTogether
Happy June! What do you have in store for the month? Playing soccer? ⚽️ Swipe to see where Coach Emma and Coach Colin will be and send us an email with schedules! #RollCougs#BetterTogether 🤩