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Posted - Dec 04 2002 : 3:04:08 PM
Some great quotes can be gleaned from this document
World Cup symposium staged at COE
10-Oct-2002
Knowledge is power! This is the main lesson learnt by coaches from the Caribbean, Central and North America at last weekend’s CONCACAF World Cup Symposium, hosted at the Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, Macoya.
Much credit must go to T&T’s own Richard Brathwaithe, who in his role as Director of Development at CONCACAF, masterminded this initiative to bring together the top technicians and coaches in the region, some of whom actually participated in the 2002 World Cup Tournament.
FIFA vice president and president of CONCACAF Jack Warner opened the two-day Symposium and pointed to the growing influence of the football coach in modern societies.
“In a world that is affected by a break-down in discipline among young people, the coach has been able to impose more discipline on players than even their parents in some cases.
“So important is football today that Dr. Chung Mong Joon, a FIFA Vice President, is going up as a candidate in the Korea Republic National Elections and we his colleagues in FIFA advised him that he only has to get Coach Gus Hiddink to appear on his platform and he will win the elections by a landslide.
“This is the power of football,” said Warner with reference to the way in which Korea revered the Dutch coach who took them to a historic semifinal berth in the 2002 World Cup.
US Coach Bruce Arena delivers.
Jean Paul Brigger, who was Head of the FIFA Technical Study Group in the 2002 World Cup, pointed out that the CONCACAF symposium was the first Confederation to receive the Technical Report of the 2002 Tournament after, only FIFA itself. In a short presentation he spoke about the participation of European teams in the tournament and showed video clips of the training methods used by these teams.
Then came T&T’s own Alvin Corneal, who was a member of the FIFA Technical Study Group for the tournament, with an analysis of the teams, placing more emphasis on the surprises of the tournament, which included those teams who were expected to do well and that did not live up to predictions like France, Argentina and Italy; and those teams that no one saw coming... like USA, Senegal and South Korea.
What made Corneal’s presentation brilliant was the fact that he never referred to any notes, slides or videos, but painted such a clear picture that one could easily visualise the information he shared.
His second presentation on Day Two was based on systems of play in the tournament, yet it was his constant reference to “the ability of the players to perform their roles is what makes the system work,” came out as a key factor for coaches in his message.
Another Trinidadian, Keith Look Loy, was not as lengthy, but his presentation was equally effective and just as brilliant. A former national youth coach of Trinidad and Tobago, Look Loy is now a FIFA Development Officer and in charge of the FIFA Goal Project in the CONCACAF region.
Using a slide presentation, Look Loy demonstrated the importance of planning and development as it relates to success in football at international level.
He used facts to explain the success of USA, Mexico and Costa Rica as CONCACAF representatives in the last World Cup and its relation to those countries’ qualifications at Youth World tournaments, in previous years.
“Their can be no success at senior level if the pattern of success is not developed by countries in youth level tournaments,” said Look Loy.
Hitting home at the Caribbean region, Look Loy’s most salient points were the need for the “broad based participation by the different sectors of the national football community, so as to achieve a consensus in developing a strategic long-term development plan for their football”.
Three-time African Player of the Year Abedi Pele tells the audience of the development of Africa’s football.
United States coach Bruce Arena made a forceful presentation as he brought out some secrets of his team’s successful run in the tournament.
“Know your team, know your culture, know your self and then make a plan,” he revealed as his approach with the USA squad for the last World Cup.
Asked mischievously by Tansley Thompson of Trinidad what he would do if he was appointed coach of Trinidad and Tobago, Arena responded: “I can only coach the United States. I do not know the culture of Trinidad and Tobago, I am American, I know the cultures and peculiarities of the American people, I cannot be coach of your country.”
This response received loud applause from the audience, which included experienced local coaches like Everald “Gally” Cummings, Edgar Vidale, Stuart Charles and younger coaches like Clayton Morris, Dexter Skeene, Dion La Foucade, Brian Williams, Marlon Charles and Ralph “Arab” Nelson.
Alexandre Guimares, who coached Costa Rica in the World Cup, spoke of his team’s play in the group with Turkey, China and Brazil. Asked why he played so open a game against Brazil when Costa Rica only needed a draw to go through to the second round, Guimares said: “We never expected to be two goals down after only 10 minutes and this forced us to play a more open game.”
In pointing to his team’s encouraging showing in the tournament where they beat China and drew with eventual third placed team Turkey, Guimares said: “We placed great emphasis on teamwork and team spirit, but we learnt that a proper attitude is more important than resources”.
Mexican goalkeeper/trainer, Alberto Mijes Aguilar, showed video clips of the Mexican team’s training methods and some new ideas they had for the training of goalkeepers.
Canada’s Dick Howard analysed the performances of the Asian teams in tournament and stunned the audience with the information that both Japan and Korea trained sometimes three times a day in preparation for the tournament.
“Hence the reason for their outstanding fitness,” said Howard.
CONCACAF Technical Director, Marcos Falopa, pointed to Brazil’s blueprint for success and a means to secure the future of football: “Coaches in the rest of the world must do like Brazil and let the young footballers play. “Let them play, let them play,” he repeated with his Portuguese accent, but encouraged participants not to over coach young kids.
To sum up proceedings none other than three-times African Player of the Year, Abedi Pele, spoke on the development of Africa’s football.
Abedi, who now works for FIFA and is Vice President of the Ghana Football Federation, credited the influence of European coaches for the discipline that has been added to the game of the African people.
“We in Africa always had talented footballers, but the discipline in our play was always lacking and I think European coaches helped us a lot in that department.
“Now we are better able to use our abundance of natural ability and I warn you if the FIFA World Cup is given to Africa to host in 2010 the world will see an African Champion of the World Cup”.
Each participant received a package, which contained a copy of the FIFA Technical Report, a videotape of all the goals in the tournament and a CD-rom of the tournament’s statistics. (Courtesy Trinidad Express)
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