I posted the “gameplan” below before the game. Let’s compare the strategy to the actual stats and see how well each succeeded (have to use my Barca commandments because we don’t know what Pep had). Posted on 12/9: Mourinho has come up with his ten commandments to beat Barca, but any list can’t beat the [...]

Remember the movie Monster’s Inc.? The Monsters generate their city’s power by scaring children, but in the end they find that children’s laughs provide 10x the power. Creativity is the same… it is powered by joy and passion. Scaring children as a means to get them to not make mistakes only kills the passion, enjoyment [...]

As a coach and a parent, I get constant feedback on what works with children when giving feedback to them for performance on the soccer field or their behavior at practices. Unfortunately, many coaches fail at their ability to properly motivate and balance their criticism. I’ve seen coaches who constantly criticize their players (U9s) to [...]

By Dev K. Mishra, M.D., President, Sideline Sports Doc To recap: I don’t think there’s any better playing surface than a well-maintained grass field, but I’d prefer one of the newer varieties of turf fields over a poorly-maintained grass field any day.  Some people have also suggested that the interaction between the athlete’s shoe and [...]

I recently read the below article in our local newspaper about an under 14 youth team. I’d like to commend the team mentioned on winning a tournament, but I want to highlight the article and what it says about the soccer being played. The article uses the following adjectives to describe the play of teams [...]

I read a lot of soccer blogs, news, and watch a lot of soccer… not only the news channels, but probably 2-3, or 4 games on TV a week. I coach 5-6 days a week, so I am pretty submerged in the beautiful game. One of the articles I recently read was posted on 3-4-3, [...]

While in TJ, the Xoloscuintles (say that 3 times), hosted the 1st ever CopaTijuana. The day was a double header of soccer with Monterrey and Puebla playing the first game and the Xolos (chollos) playing against San Luis for the second game. I, of course, required that the entire family join me for the festivities. [...]

I was in Mexico with the family for the Gold Cup final, so me, my wife, brother-in-law and my father-in-law went to a restaurant to watch the game. I, of course, was the only one supporting the U.S., so after the first two goals the waiters weren’t as friendly – my sangria seemed like it [...]