Winter Blue Book Sessions Continue

Former MLS Players (and current Rush coaches) Dayton O'Brien and Andy Metcalf lead an incredible Blue Book session to help players critically watch a soccer game.  They showed the players a game between Barcelona and Real Madrid from this past August and dissected it, both for our younger players and older players. "We really made a point to show how the player movement off the ball affected the game," says Metcalf.  "The runs off the ball gave the player with the ball many options, creating space for teammates, dragging defenders out of position, etc." 

The session focused on the speed of players' runs, and the coaches pointed out where players made definitive runs at speed which allowed them to not only create space for themselves, but for other players as well. "We also focused on the simplicity at this level," says O'Brien. "Very rarely did you see a player take more than 2 touches. We pointed situations where you might need to dribble, but for the most part though, players at the highest level let the ball do the work."