Soccer 1:1

Parents & Friends,

I have a fantastic testimonial to share with you today from a parent whose daughter has been in our 1:1 training program since March.

Dear fellow soccer families,

Coach Patrick is an outstanding trainer! I have been very impressed with his ability to bring out the best in my daughter. We feel very lucky to have come across him. Here is a summary of our experience….

My 10-year-old daughter played in one of the big soccer clubs in San Francisco and wanted to get to a higher-level team. She was already one of the better players on the team, but wasn’t getting the skill-work she needed to improve. Lots of scrimmaging, but very little technique. I started looking for other options to get her the extra training she needed to be better prepared for the big tryout weekend in May and stumbled upon Coach Patrick.

My daughter began her training with Coach Patrick about 6 weeks before the tryouts. She was a bit apprehensive about 1:1 training and it took a...

Parents and Friends,

Most soccer experts and pundits had France making the final four in Russia but not getting past favorites Brazil.

That meeting never materialized.

Didier Deschamps’ team defeated South American giants Argentina and Uruguay in the knockout stages.

Then stopped Belgium in the semi-final.

Les Bleus weren’t a spectacular side but when it came to the crunch games they did what they had to do.

They were well deserved champions and will be strong favorites to win the European Championship in two years’ time.

Here are five reasons why they won the World Cup!

Getting the big calls right

First choice full-backs Benjamin Mendy and Djibril Sidibe had both suffered serious injuries last season.

Deschamps started Benjamin Pavard and Lucas Hernandez ahead of his two more experienced defenders. 

Pavard and Hernandez had only 11 international appearances between them but were two of the best full-backs in Russia.

They were equally effective going forward...

Parents and Friends,

Soccer fans love talking about the great teams, players, games and goals in history.

And what makes a goal great, is it the skill, technique, timing, or athleticism?

Where do team efforts rank such as Belgium’s deadly counterattack versus Japan?

There’s a lot of criteria to consider and it’s open to debate.

Some goals are so good though that the quality is universally acknowledged by the soccer public.

Gareth Bale’s bicycle kick in the Champions League final against Liverpool goes straight into that category.

Tremendous athleticism, technique and creativity.

That goal will always be remembered because it was on the big stage in a match of huge importance.

Russia of course was a big stage too and while we didn’t quite see a strike of Bale’s quality we did see some fantastic finishes.

There were 169 goals scored and these are my top five.

Benjamin Pavard (France vs. Argentina)

France were only behind for 9 minutes at the World...

Parents and Friends,

Following four fantastic quarter-final matches Belgium, Croatia, England and France are the remaining teams.

The semis will see France playing Belgium on Tuesday with Croatia facing England the following day.

Some of the big talking points from the last eight were…

• Brazil lost to Belgium and have been knocked out by a European side for the fourth time in a row (France 2006, Netherlands 2010, Germany 2014, Belgium 2018).
• The victory was a big win for Belgian player development: eight (35%) of their 23-man squad were educated at Anderlecht’s academy,
• France were victorious over Uruguay and became only the second team to beat three South American nations in a single World Cup. The Netherlands eliminated Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil at the 1974 tournament.
• England defeated Sweden and reached their first World Cup semi-final since 1990.
• The Three Lions have been set piece masters scoring five of their 11 goals from corners or free kicks.
• Croatia beat...

Parents and Friends,

The 2018 Men’s World Cup will start this week so get ready for a crazy month of soccer!

32 nations, will contest 64 games in twelve venues across Russia to become world champions.

2014 hosts Brazil and current champions Germany are favorites while powerhouses Spain, France, Portugal, England and Argentina are also in the running.  

The World Cup is an event of epic proportions and it’s absolutely guaranteed that there will be drama, excitement and fantastic goals and games. 

So if you invest some time and get the kids in front of the television too they’ll surely love it!

But if you’re still not convinced, here are my top 5 reasons to watch the tournament…

The USA is hosting 2026!

The top reason to watch this year’s tournament is we’ll be hosts in eight years.

FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, have announced today that the United (Canada–Mexico–USA) bid to host the 2026 Men’s World...