Chicago Bulls full court press, the gift Ghana soccer offer the US National Team
The hidden gift to American soccer in the Ghana defeat
Within the defeat of Ghana’s World Cup campaign and the record breaking goal by the Brazilian star, Ronaldo, is the mask of a much more important 1992 New York Giants football team Super Bowl victory story. The key to the Ghanaian near defeat of Brazil, as with the New York Giant victory, was ball control and time management. Ghana’s total commitment to the use of the long ball, i.e. deep penetrating counter attacking outlet passes to get behind the Brazilian forward defense put the Ghanaians Black Stars in more and better scoring opportunities than the defending World Cup Champs.
This attack strategy allowed Ghana to control and wear down Brazil’s offense throughout the whole game.
Time and time again, the Black Stars from Ghana were able to overwhelm the much better Brazilian defenders by creating mismatches deep in the rear of Brazil zone. While Brazil won the game in term of goals scored, Ghana lost because they failed to finish the many scoring opportunities that any top team would have done. Watching the Ghana misses was like watching the New York Knicks missing wide opening lay-ups playing the Chicago Bulls.
The score could have easily been 5-2 Ghana over Brazil.
Ghana’s long-ball strategy allows for super field position most of the game. This positioning was based on players’ multi-tasking and using the goalie as an aggressive and active element of the forward positioned defense system that allows Ghana to keep more players and pressure in the attack zone. The brilliance of Ghana’s long-ball attack was it is basing on aggressive multi-field defenders stopping Brazil traditional lines of attack. The Ghana attack was really a Chicago Bull full court press designed to trigger a rapid transition from defense to deep penetrating counter-attacks.
Unfortunately for Ghana, their “Jordan” was suspended for the game. The Ghanaians were still able in their carefully designed collective counter attack to make up for major differences in skill levels of the Brazilian players in situational play. The key was the soft interior passes inside the Brazilian defensive near the goal after the long-ball. Ghana was able to break Brazil down like few teams ever do as long as they remained committed to the long-ball counterattacks, forward defense and ball control that created the mismatches down field.
The Ghanaian collective approach to counterattack with long ball style offers the United States World Cup management a clear road map to selection and construction of a new style of America based on speed, aggression, multi-tasking players and long-ball and soft passes. The Ghanaian system is a direct application of the Brazilian system that emphasizes the strengths within the limited Ghanaian soccer culture and talent pool. The Ghanaian system is not coach centric. The keys to the Ghanaian system for US application is a new commitment to selection and development of players able to function in a demanding Ghanaian system based on transitional speed and player multi-tasking and standardized soccer systems like the West Coast offense in the NFL.
The NCAA system is too slow and limited in its way of attacking. The players are single tasked offense or defense, like American football. Very little attention is paid to the best transitional or multi-task players or systems in the NCAA centric soccer culture. The Ghanaian application of the Brazilian long-ball is not new either; what is new is the multi-tasking of the African players, new emphasis on physical bodying up of other players, and specifically beating the higher skilled Brazilians down the field with raw speed, over and over and over again. Finally, the Ghanaian system attempts to match the Brazilian pin point interior and long-ball passes to trigger the counterattack and to wear the slower teams down.
The most critical aspect of the Ghanaian system is their youth teams are already playing and beating the Brazilian under age 20 teams. While Ghana will never have the talent pool of Brazil because Ghana is 6 times smaller and lacks the massive human and physical soccer infrastructure, their national teams at all levels are being selected, designed and constructed to defeat the fielded Brazilian team on a given day.
The players are already in America who are able to operate within the Ghanaian system. Many are currently playing soccer, and others are playing other sports. The inner city talent pool of working class and African American players are waiting for the Ghanaian system. Many of these players reject the NCAA Euro centric style and have dropped out the sport after high school. The challenge to the Americna program is to follow Ghana and other African and South American countries and design a system to beat Brazil, not just play them. They select the type of player to function in the system and make it a national style not specific to a coach.
No American basketball coach on any level would not use transitional and fast break strategies in a game. The lack of this long-ball counterattack style keeps American soccer a second-class citizen in the United States. So where is the long-ball in the NCAA? It’s time to ask the American working classes to go to war and save the day for United States national soccer vs. the NCAA.
Dr. J the basketball super star once said, you never just show up and beat a great team. Rather you design a plan, get the players to fix the strategy weeks before you play a great team. The real game is nothing more than the execution of the plan that becomes the game plan you win.
Within the defeat of Ghana’s World Cup campaign and the record breaking goal by the Brazilian star, Ronaldo, is the mask of a much more important 1992 New York Giants football team Super Bowl victory story. The key to the Ghanaian near defeat of Brazil, as with the New York Giant victory, was ball control and time management. Ghana’s total commitment to the use of the long ball, i.e. deep penetrating counter attacking outlet passes to get behind the Brazilian forward defense put the Ghanaians Black Stars in more and better scoring opportunities than the defending World Cup Champs.
This attack strategy allowed Ghana to control and wear down Brazil’s offense throughout the whole game.
Time and time again, the Black Stars from Ghana were able to overwhelm the much better Brazilian defenders by creating mismatches deep in the rear of Brazil zone. While Brazil won the game in term of goals scored, Ghana lost because they failed to finish the many scoring opportunities that any top team would have done. Watching the Ghana misses was like watching the New York Knicks missing wide opening lay-ups playing the Chicago Bulls.
The score could have easily been 5-2 Ghana over Brazil.
Ghana’s long-ball strategy allows for super field position most of the game. This positioning was based on players’ multi-tasking and using the goalie as an aggressive and active element of the forward positioned defense system that allows Ghana to keep more players and pressure in the attack zone. The brilliance of Ghana’s long-ball attack was it is basing on aggressive multi-field defenders stopping Brazil traditional lines of attack. The Ghana attack was really a Chicago Bull full court press designed to trigger a rapid transition from defense to deep penetrating counter-attacks.
Unfortunately for Ghana, their “Jordan” was suspended for the game. The Ghanaians were still able in their carefully designed collective counter attack to make up for major differences in skill levels of the Brazilian players in situational play. The key was the soft interior passes inside the Brazilian defensive near the goal after the long-ball. Ghana was able to break Brazil down like few teams ever do as long as they remained committed to the long-ball counterattacks, forward defense and ball control that created the mismatches down field.
The Ghanaian collective approach to counterattack with long ball style offers the United States World Cup management a clear road map to selection and construction of a new style of America based on speed, aggression, multi-tasking players and long-ball and soft passes. The Ghanaian system is a direct application of the Brazilian system that emphasizes the strengths within the limited Ghanaian soccer culture and talent pool. The Ghanaian system is not coach centric. The keys to the Ghanaian system for US application is a new commitment to selection and development of players able to function in a demanding Ghanaian system based on transitional speed and player multi-tasking and standardized soccer systems like the West Coast offense in the NFL.
The NCAA system is too slow and limited in its way of attacking. The players are single tasked offense or defense, like American football. Very little attention is paid to the best transitional or multi-task players or systems in the NCAA centric soccer culture. The Ghanaian application of the Brazilian long-ball is not new either; what is new is the multi-tasking of the African players, new emphasis on physical bodying up of other players, and specifically beating the higher skilled Brazilians down the field with raw speed, over and over and over again. Finally, the Ghanaian system attempts to match the Brazilian pin point interior and long-ball passes to trigger the counterattack and to wear the slower teams down.
The most critical aspect of the Ghanaian system is their youth teams are already playing and beating the Brazilian under age 20 teams. While Ghana will never have the talent pool of Brazil because Ghana is 6 times smaller and lacks the massive human and physical soccer infrastructure, their national teams at all levels are being selected, designed and constructed to defeat the fielded Brazilian team on a given day.
The players are already in America who are able to operate within the Ghanaian system. Many are currently playing soccer, and others are playing other sports. The inner city talent pool of working class and African American players are waiting for the Ghanaian system. Many of these players reject the NCAA Euro centric style and have dropped out the sport after high school. The challenge to the Americna program is to follow Ghana and other African and South American countries and design a system to beat Brazil, not just play them. They select the type of player to function in the system and make it a national style not specific to a coach.
No American basketball coach on any level would not use transitional and fast break strategies in a game. The lack of this long-ball counterattack style keeps American soccer a second-class citizen in the United States. So where is the long-ball in the NCAA? It’s time to ask the American working classes to go to war and save the day for United States national soccer vs. the NCAA.
Dr. J the basketball super star once said, you never just show up and beat a great team. Rather you design a plan, get the players to fix the strategy weeks before you play a great team. The real game is nothing more than the execution of the plan that becomes the game plan you win.
posted by Nubianobserver at 12:22 PM
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