 |
Training
Championship Players and Teams
Anson Dorrance
Tape 1.
The Competitive Cauldron
Tape 2.
Small Group Tactics
Tape 3.
The North Carolina System
Well made series of training sessions that could be used at all levels by players over 10 years old. They are performed to perfection by the UNC players, and put to shame many of the other training tapes with their explanation and practical demonstration. Dorrance's unique ability to take a playing situation, dissect it, analyze and create a practical drill for women soccer players is well presented here. Just watching these tapes will excite and motivate players young and old. Full of action and as an added bonus a chance to watch some of their favorite role models.
The most competently produced training tapes that WSW has seen to date.
© WSW November/December 1998
Skill Development for Women's Soccer
Tapes 1. and 2.
Former Arsenal player and English FA coach Paul Davis takes the Arsenal women's team players through a series of coaching sessions.
A useful set of lessons for teaching the basic technical skills of soccer including some match play examples. Helpful for beginning players as well as more experienced teenagers. Unfortunately the practical application of the techniques is stilted and lacking energy, and the timing of the sequences uneven. For those players who might be intimidated by the UNC tapes, these demonstrations are performed by players still struggling themselves with technique. A better script and smoother production would have improved these tapes.© WSW November/December 1998
VIDEO
REVIEW: 1996 WOMEN'S OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL GAME
Superb Game / Mediocre Packaging
Reviewed by Teddy Roe
If you can afford to buy this video, $29.95 plus shipping, by all means get it. You'll be treated to a truly historic event in the history of women's soccer. Before 76,481 enthusiastic fans, the vast bulk of them Americans of the grassroots soccer type, the U.S. National Team defeated China to win the first-ever Olympic championship of women's soccer.
The run of play is sublime. Employing similar styles, both squads use the opening minutes to calm their butterflies and sort out a winning strategy. Neither appear bothered by the 78 degree heat and humidity of the August night game in Athens, Georgia. They pressurize everywhere and constantly, always going forward, never letting up until the final whistle. The result is an entertaining game deserving of even wider viewership.
Several players stand out on the U.S. Side. Mia Hamm stars in spite of a sore ankle. Her outside-of-the-foot blast that leads to Shannon MacMillan's first-half goal is a joy to behold. Defender Joy Fawcett makes several stellar saves and penetrating runs plus the hard-earned assist on the winning goal. Kristine Lilly is, as usual, a perpetual-motion machine playing end-to-end, disrupting the Chinese all over the field and making several dangerous drives toward goal. The Portland University offensive duo of MacMillan and Tiffeny Milbrett are ever-dangerous with the two U.S. goals, and midfielder Julie Foudy makes a solid contribution. On the Chinese side, Wen Sun's clever first-half lob over U.S. goalie Brianna Scurry for a goal is right out of the textbook.
However, the viewer should not expect much help in putting the game into an Olympic or patriotic context. For reasons which can only feed the cynicism of long-suffering fans of women's soccer toward the Olympic Committee and NBC (the exclusive Olympic broadcaster for the U.S.) not even a hint of the pageantry surrounding the event is revealed on this video.
The action opens abruptly with shots of both squads filing onto the field, then a quick pan by the camera of both teams standing, finally of the captains attending the coin flip at center circle and the kick-off by China. Precisely a half-game later, the cameral clicks off and after a pause of a few seconds clicks back on to start the second half. Another half-game later, and the tape abruptly ends. That's it. No victory lap. No euphoria of the crowd. No medal ceremony. No atmosphere. Just a brutal click precisely when the viewer wants to share the historic moment with the players.
Bad as that is, though, it somehow pales in comparison with the poor quality of the verbal commentary accompanying the action. Commentator Dave Johnson subscribes to the all-too-prevalent theory of American play-by-play soccer announcers that his or her true role is to be a second color commentator. Even though Johnson had at his side the intelligent and insightful critique of Shannon Higgins Cirovski, a former national team star, he substitutes constant chatter for the one thing that would truly benefit the viewer: a description of the play as it happens.
Instead of following the professional example of Hispanic announcer Andres Canto, who identifies the player on virtually every touch of the ball, Johnson feeds the Olympic audience generalities. For the benefit of viewers unable to identify the tiny white-suited figures moving around on their TV screen, he substitutes bland generics for descriptions of truly exciting plays: "Oh, the ball is forward. Oops, it is offside." "Goal kick taken by the United States." "The United States was not ready for that situation." "The U.S. is trying to force the turnover in midfield." "China is trying to counterattack." "Once again, China has the ball in the middle." "And now...going forward. Uh-oh, the flag is up." All these and many, many more without identifying the players involved.
Frustrated at the difficulty in identifying the participants of this very exciting contest, your reviewer ran a cursory count of Johnson's "mentions" of players actually involved in a current play. Johnson was given the benefit of the doubt on fully one-fourth of the plays where the camera did his work by zooming in on the player's jersey, revealing name and uniform number. Even at that, "mentions" totaled barely 150 for an exciting, action-packed contest of many hundreds of touches - or a rate of about one-and-a-half per minute!
It took 30 seconds to identify Julie Foudy as she participated in the pre-game coin flip. At the one-minute mark, he noted that Hamm had taken a shot on goal. At the two-minute mark, defender Fawcett was credited with clearing a dangerous ball from the box. The final 15 minutes of the first half yield only 18 "mentions," despite the fact that the U.S. lost its 1-0 lead during that period. The second half was more of the same. Tension mounted after Milbrett scored the winning goal in the 68th minute, especially as the game wound down and China pressed. Cirovski called it a "nail biter," and it was. Yet the last five minutes of the first-ever Olympic championship game yielded a mere eight identifications.
Few cameras were used to film this video. Mostly, the viewer is limited to a single long-range, wide-angle shot from high in the stadium. The players - all heroes for potentially millions of little girls (and boys and women and men) - are unknowable without the assistance of the play-by-play commentator. It is accepted practice for a fan in a stadium to turn to a colleague and say, "Wow, who made that terrific play?" It is not accceptable for a viewer of a professional video to need to ask the same question throughout the game. Until play-by-play action is truly reported, soccer fans will continue to be losers.
© WSW November/December 1997
Dynasty
$49.95
A two tape (120 minutes total) program following the University of North Carolina's women soccer program from 1985 to 1994. It includes game highlights, interviews with Hamm, Venturini, Lilly, Overbeck and Gebauer as well as player development discussions with Anson Dorrance.
An edited 60 minute version was shown on North Carolina's Public Television. If you want to keep or increase your daughters interest in college soccer, or if you hear them muttering' Mia, Mia , Mia" in their sleep at night this is the tape for them. Not terribly good for coaching but great for motivating your team, and possibly even yourself. The 60 minute version may still be available.
© WSW November/December 1997
|