Sad to see him go ...

Photo courtesy sporting-heroes.net

Brian McBride (background) has set his retirement at the end of the 2010 season.

I personally have had a number of interactions with Mr. McBride and they have always been tremendous. He is a first class person, who is also exceptionally talented.

While there is not enough ink in my proverbial pen to write about his accomplishments, a very nice synopsis can be found here, on the Chicago Fire web site.

He is in my opinion one of the modern greats. More professional athletes should comport themselves the way Mr. McBride has done throughout his career.

Developemnt Night at the Revolution - Total Success!

The MSRC hit the ball out of the park on the 28th at the Development Night at the Revolution!

In a tremendously creative approach, the SDI (Nigel Bright - a contributor here on Kicking Back) designed a recertification program to include not only observing and reporting on video clips, as is very often done, but extended this to the same on an actual professional match.

Classroom work was very well done with interactive portions along with the video clips. Also there was a surprise visit from the match officials who were gracious enough to take questions and hung around for about 15 minutes. The venue was tremendous. It was a first class event in a private section of the Fidelity Clubhouse at Gillette with a packed house of more than 200 people in attendance.

From there each referee had the assignment to observe the match, and report back via an online form, the incidents they observed and why they believe the referee took that action. These results will be gathered and compared to the comments of the assessors in attendance and published to that community to see how similar the observations were.

While unfortunately not a great night for the Revolution, it was for the 200+ referees in attendance.

I have been sworn to secrecy regarding my observations about the match, but it suffices to say I respectfully disagree with Mr. Nicol's opinion about the referee performance as he alluded to in the article today from Frank Dell'Apa.

Ready ... Steady ...

An old axiom often cited is that "Piss Poor Preparation Produces Piss Poor Performance". So in my preparing for the development night at the Revolution, (to avoid poor performance) following is a general template about how I would prepare for matches.

Please note, do what works for you. Some people would do more, some people would do less, and get the same result. Take this with a grain of salt and make it your own. Your mileage may vary.

Now the focus on this particular discussion is at the professional level, but many of the general points apply in local matches as well. Keep in mind too that some of these resources will not be available for the matches you are doing. Again, make this form work for you.

I generally begin by taking a self inventory and making sure that I am prepared for the match. I would wind down my training for the week and make sure to get some rest around match day minus 3. Lots of fluids, lots of rest. I would push this back if I had to travel to the match as travel itself can be tiring.

Have you made contact with your team? Have a ride? Need a ride? Local hotel? Flying in? Where are the teams staying?

I generally would look at the history of each team separately. Simple things like win/loss any roster changes of late, general news about the team, place in the standings, etc.. All to get a general idea what is going on and if there is anything at issue that this particular match turns on. An example would be playoff implications, a new (and famous) player joining the team, etc..

From there I generally look into the injuries on the team. Who is hurt, how they got hurt, and their status. A player nursing an injury can be a difficult management situation and to know this up front will help.

Still looking at the individual teams, I would then look at statistics. Some referees that I know don't like to do this as there is a concern that it taints the opinion. I respectfully disagree, but also am careful to not let the bias creep in. For example, lets take the Revolution (stats here). What is this page telling me?

• Schilawski and Perovic are the goal scorers and Dube is right there in assists. These are players that might be marked hard and should be protected.
• Niouky stands out as committing the most fouls, yet does not produce (no goals, 1 assists, and a handful of fouls suffered).
• Cautions ... Niouky tops the list.
• Send offs ... there were 3 ... and Niouky has one. (Ed note ... he is a midfielder too, not a pure defender).

So from this I am starting to paint a picture of who may be at issue, and what is at stake in the match. Who are the coaches? Trainers? Know their names? Are they a problem? How would you deal with it even before stepping into the field?

From there I move on to the opposing team, and take great note of who is playing where and what the venue is.

How big is the field? Altitude? Local traditions? (Have you ever heard the cannons fire in Raymond James stadium in Florida after a goal? - Scared the crap out of me the first time ... and every time after that). Weather? Field Surface!! (I got bit by that one in NY once ... cost me $100 for a new pair of Copa's 3 hours before the match) By the way, traveling teams expect a "better" that fair shake.

Same approach for the opposing team. General to the specific.

Now, I move to head to head. Have these teams played before? What was the result? Were there problems in the match? Is payback coming?

I may actually try to get my hands on the match if possible and review it once to get a flavor. Also I would check the Week In Review for that week and see what happened.

How about calling that referee? Why not!

I believe there are two main points to consider when doing such research:

1. Get all the information you can about the teams themselves, head to head, and the venue. Synthesize the match from this. Who are the goal scorers, bullies, what's at stake?
2. Don't be a slave to the information! You are just looking at a two dimensional picture. Adapt the knowledge to the reality of the match, which is played in 4 dimensions.

With all this info, and thinking about how to apply it, you will be ready for many things that get thrown at you, and can say you are well prepared for a match ... assuming the knowledge of the game and fitness pieces are there too, as without those pieces peril awaits at that level.

Hail to the Chief

See an entry from the Official White House blog, where President Obama met with the players of Real Salt Lake, and congratulated them on their first ever MLS Championship.