Playing against PROFESSIONALS

So I'm writing this post as we ride back from Sao Francisco do Conde in the bus from our game agaisnt Seleceao San Francisco do Conde.  I’m sitting in the front seat of the bus on the left hand side, the west side.  The sun is setting in cloudy skies over this rolling forested area of Brazil.  Pasture land seems to be the dominant purpose of the expansive hillsides containing predominantly cows, but horses and the occasional goat for variety.  A barbed wire fence snakes alongside us just off the roadside.  The fence changes every mile or two, but it always uses four or five strands of barbed wire attached to broken stick stakes of a remarkably consistent shape, color, and height of about 3 feet.

We’ve just lost our second game of the tournament.  Yesterday’s loss was a 15-0 beating, although we kept it at 1-0 until the 24^th minute, when we then gave up 4 in 6 minutes.  And today was better by comparison at 10-0.  But the team took today’s loss much harder than yesterday.  I see this as a positive development.  I think the reason they are angrier and more hurt by today’s loss is because they felt at times that they could really play with this team.  We started brightly as I asked them to high pressure for the first 5 minutes; and because it was working, I didn’t call them off until almost 10 minutes had passed because holes in our midfield were beginning to open up.  We held them scoreless until the 20^th minute.  But then, yesterday’s demons reared their ugly heads again.  We allowed two more goals in the next 5 minutes, putting us in a deep hole that we couldn’t recover from.   Two more goals before halftime and five more spread out through the second half finished it off.  We had a couple opportunities late in the game to get our first goal.  A break down the left hand side with an open player in the middle of the box just needed a quality final pass to get a 1v1 with do Conde’s goalkeeper.  And a freekick from just outside the box in the 78^th minute allowed us to get numbers forward, but the service didn’t put the goalkeeper under enough pressure.

So, we sit with 2 lopsided losses, but there are reasons to be positive about the direction we are headed.  I just have to get the players to see them.  We might have just played the two best teams in our group.  Sao Francisco beat Cruzeiro last year and won yesterday as well, and Cruzeiro has one of the best first division sides in Brazil.  So, one can expect that these two teams might be the best we play.  If our team keeps their heads in the game and vows to learn from their mistakes, we will continue to learn and improve.  What we cannot allow to happen is for these 2 games to prevent us from competing in the next 3.

As I learn more about the Brazilian game, I am more and more struck by how pervasive and integrated the professional network really is.  This team we just played was formed out of only homegrown players from that town of roughly 35,000.  Every single one of those players is paid to play.

I met a Cruzeiro official today in the hotel.  His name is Pedro Moreira.  He used soccer to get a scholarship to go to the US, but then ended up dropping soccer and finished his degree from Appalachian State University in North Carolina.  He is now a manager for International Business Development for the club.  He told me that their players are training 8 times a week, and that’s not counting weightlifting sessions.  They are allowed to begin training players that stay at their “campus”, as he called it, at age 13.  Even at that age, the players are training 6 times a week with a couple weightlifting sessions a week.  Their campus is filled with nutritionists, physical therapists, psychologists, fitness coaches that design personalized training regimens, not to mention the presence of an opthamologist, a dentist, and the ability to call in any other specialist right there on the campus.

When players of such young ages are receiving such high amounts of individualized training and professional attention, it’s no wonder that they will produce what they are looking for, PROFESSIONAL athletes.

Why does the US win so many gold medals?  It’s not because we have the fastest people on the planet.  Jamaica has proven that.  It’s not because we have the strongest people on the planet.  We don’t win many medals in weightlifting.  We win medals because the support, the organization, and the money that comes from the US Olympic Committee allows many of our athletes to train year round for an event that doesn’t generate enough revenue to be self-sustaining.  I am not asking the USOC to raise more money and use it on soccer, that won’t work.  But we do have to find a way to allow money to become an integral part of the youth development system.  Only by aligning the interests of player, team, club, and the US Soccer Federation can we hope to produce teams that can compete.  The club and team need to be financially rewarded for developing good players and teams, so that they will then try to produce those players and have the resources to do so.

You should have seen the look on Pedro Moreira’s face when I told him that I’m actually a doctor in engineering and I only get paid $400 a month to do this whole soccer thing.  When every single player we compete against at this tournament is getting paid more than our entire team, we have to recognize that we are facing an uphill battle.  Still, no excuses.  Our mistakes are recognizable.  We have to fix them and move on.  It’s not a question of what happened, but where are we now, and what are we going to do about it.

But enough of that talk.  The weather here continues to be amazing.  If I wanted to complain about it I could point out that today was a little cloudy in the morning and during the game.  The more bothersome thing is the early setting of the sun.  It is winter here, and so, they are not on daylight savings time, if they ever have it I don’t know.  The result is that the sun is completely gone by 6 pm, which it is just now.  The nearly full moon is out now and doing it’s best to shine through the clouds and banish the darkness.

All the people here have been nice.  After the game last night our bus was stopped so that a large man in a stained polo shirt with no official insignia, torn khaki shorts and sandals could talk to us.  After Anderson gave him a t-shirt I figured I’d go see what was up.  Ronald translated for me as this man welcomed me and asked me if there was anything he could do to help us.  Turns out, he was the mayor of the town we were in, Sao Francisco do Conde, and president of the club of the same name, the team we played tonight. They had played before us that night and beaten Ypiranga.

Everyone I have talked to has continued to treat us well and with respect despite the scorelines.  I could be cynical and think that it must be because when they look at such a group of Americans that they can’t help but see dollar signs where our faces should be.  But I think they see it more as being a good host.  We are their guests and they will never dare mistreat or disrespect us.  I am hoping that when we return to the hotel tonight we will be able to watch the Euro final as a team and with the Cruzeiro team there as well.  Our American boys have done a great job befriending the Brazilians we have added to our team.  While it must be said that the majority of the bonding has come over learning profanity and insults to use on each other, it is heartening to see them communicating and sharing laughs together.  I would love for the Brazilians on our team to serve as a communication bridge between our boys and the Cruzeiro team.   Any relationships they can form could really help them develop as both players and men.

Well, we are arriving at the hotel now, so I will sign off.  I’ll try to add some pictures from the field and post this later tonight.

PS.  Tonight's dinner was the best yet.  A spicy grilled chicken with tomatoes and a sausage and beef stew were the highlights.