SOCCER BLOG

The only stat that I ever cared about was how many games I played. How many games I was starting and finishing. Proper games. From day one I always focused on getting my name on the starting eleven team sheet. Before you even start thinking about percentages, speeds, and xG stats, ask yourself: how many games are you actually playing?  If you are not consistently playing, you are not developing. To make it even worse, someone else is  developing instead of you. Soccer is a ze

I never paid too much attention or thought to the downsides of being the captain. It was always a goal. It was a mission. Not a realistic one, but one that is important to have. Why wouldn’t I make it my goal? It was based on a competition between players being themselves. There was never a cost to nominate yourself. I knew it was an honor. Supposedly an award for being the best player on your team. It was attractive and cool. I didn’t know anyone who didn’t want it even thou

There is a phenomenon that people with bad eyesight report, one where when testing their vision without their corrective lenses, they notice that for a split second they could crystal-clearly see . I have had that experience. I saw it with my own eyes but never reported it to anyone besides my dad. No one would have believed me anyway. It was a sliver of evidence that somehow behind all the malfunctions of my eyes, they still inherently had the ability to see.  The same thing

U13 was our last year playing on half-sized pitches. At U14 we would start playing eleven-a-side like the professionals. Naturally, it was also a big cut-off year. The first leap was made from playing U9 non-league soccer to U10 league football, cutting out the kids who truly had no clue, but still making room on the team, and even some playing time, for kids who were still trying to figure it out. That was the Hapoel Raanana (my first club) standard. More politically correct