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| YOUTH | DRILLS | PLAYER SEARCH | PSYCHOLOGY | INTERVIEWS | LINKS |
| An Interview with................................. |
Curt Onalfo |
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| Q1.
Which Major Changes do you feel have taken place in English football over
the past 10 years? |
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Our player pool (US Men’s National Team) has increased significantly over the past 10 years because of MLS, now in its 10th season and our youth academy in Bradenton Florida that has helped us produce young star players such as Landon Donovan and Demarkus Beasley. |
| Q2.
What do you think our young players should work on, to develop in the game
today? |
| I think the biggest misconception people have in youth soccer is that the more training sessions the better. One, two or three sessions are fine as a team but I really believe if you want to become a player at a high level, you aren’t necessarily developed on the training field with your coach and team. You separate yourselves from the rest by what you do between your team’s training sessions. I used to juggle in my back yard, organized and played small sided games in my neighborhood with my brother and friends, shot against a wall/goal at my high school, in my basement (My mom wasn’t crazy about that) and in my back yard. The bottom line is that the touches players get between their training sessions help them to obtain that special skill that we all need to have success at the higher levels of soccer and separate ourselves from our peers. |
| Q3.
Do you have a preferred playing system? |
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Yes. I love the 4-4-2 with a diamond in the midfield but I strongly believe your players should dictate your system of play at the professional level. At the end of the day it is 11 v 11 and too many people get caught up in formations rather than studying how the players move within the field on both sides of the ball |
| Q4.
Have you been influenced in your coaching career? |
| Yes, I am a combination of all the coaches that have coached me in the past. I made a decision a long time ago that I wanted to be a coach and I have observed and studied much of each of my past coaches. The most influential person in developing my coaching philosophy has been Bruce Arena. However, I have learned so much from men like Bob Gansler, Al Diniz (my high school coach), Lothar Osiender, Glenn Myernick and Thomas Rongen. |
| Q5.
Has this changed your philosophy on playing the game? |
| YES |
| Q6. What is your philosophy on playing the game? |
| Attack, attack, attack!! Be the aggressors and put your opponent on their heels!!! |
| As a coach of professional players, I have come to realize it is different strokes for different folks. You cannot treat all players the same because they are all different. Some players need a kick in the _ _ _!!! Others need lots of encouragement but all take the time to get themselves ready mentally to optimize their performance. Some players need hours others need minutes. With the National Team we always give our starting line-up a day before the game to assure players can begin their physical and mental preparation 24 hours prior to kick-off. In terms of using a sports psychologist to help us prepare we use them on a very limited basis. |
| Q8.
Who is the most talented player you have coached and why? |
| Probably at this point Landon Donovan. His speed of thought is equally as fast as his physical speed. He has a great touch, vision, and feel for the game. He has been a pleasure to coach and I look forward to see how he deals with his new surroundings in Germany. |
| Q9.
What is your worry, if any, on football today? |
| That MLS stays around for the long haul. I feel better today than I did five years ago but we still have a long way to go before the league is here for life! |
| Q10.
If football vanished, what would you become? |
| I would slip into deep depression and admit myself into a mental hospital. Life without soccer is not worth living!!!!! |
| Q11. What are your three favorite practices that you use with your players? |
| I like to make my sessions game related and competitive. My favorite practice starts with a very dynamic and good warm-up of 15 minutes. Proper warm-ups get players prepared for a good session. The warm up is followed by some technical work that gets the players ready for the game related portion of the training session. I like to make the technical session short and sharp (10 minutes) then get into some kind of a possession activity that gets players thinking and moving quickly. I always end it going to some sort of direction and keep score to make it competitive. (Duration 15-20) Then play a winger game where you play 6 v 6 plus 6 with goalies to big goals. The field is 44 x 60 yards. Neutral players in the wide channel have two touches and the neutral end-line players have one touch. Play golden goal or 4 minutes games and keep track of how many wins each team has. Be sure to have a final. An important component to successful and competitive training sessions is assuring teams are equal and well balanced with the same amount of defenders, midfielders and forwards. |
| Thank you so much Curt. I look forward to working more with you in the future. Good Luck |
