Want to know who to bet on for the next major international tournament?

Well here’s a tip… look at who is rested. Look at which teams contain the players that didn’t have long overly successful club seasons. Especially in big club tournaments like the Champions League where a lot of travel is required. The physical and mental strain catches up. International teams have top players from top clubs. Very little separates these players and any team can win on any day, but rested stars with the motivation to capture the glory they couldn’t achieve with their own club are the most dangerous.

This year Christiano Ronaldo and Man United won the English Premier League and continued late into May to win the Champions League. Ronaldo’s Portugal went out in the quarters to Germany. Germany’s stars largely come from Bayern Munich who walked to the league championship and didn’t compete in the Champions League. Their goalie Jens Lehman came from the same Arsenal team (that won nothing) as Cesc Fabregas who went on to win Euro 08 with Spain. David Villa had a tough season with Valencia even though they did manage the Copa del Rey. Fernando Torres’ Liverpool had little success in the Premier League although he individually did well. Many of the other Spanish stars coasted to the end of the Spanish season with Real Madrid easing to the title quite early.

When Italy won the World Cup in 2006 most of their stars were dealing with the news of match fixing in Serie A. They were desperate to prove they were indeed great players. Not just winners because of cheating.

Is it a coincidence that in the same year England didn’t qualify for the Euros, 3 out of the 4 semi-finalists in the Champions League were from the Premier League? I don’t think so. Those players were especially motivated to prove themselves and not looking ahead to a summer full of more competition.

Ventura County Fusion is going to Virginia

Yesterday, the VC Fusion Super-20 team (coached by yours truly) beat the Poway Vaqueros, 3-1, and qualified for the North American Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The team played great and managed to come back from a goal down. Poway is a strong tall team, but we were able to keep the ball on the ground, keep possession, and deny them too many set piece opportunities.

It’s been a fun season and I'm looking forward to seeing our team compete in Virginia. I'll let you know how it goes. Time to get a sponsor to help make these players' dreams come true.

Down to the last minutes

This has been an incredibly dramatic and exciting European Championship. It seems all the action goes down in the last 10 -20 minutes. Overtime, PKs, Dramatic Equalizers.

Why? Referees.

The referees in this tourney have been tight. I'm not sure if UEFA is telling them to call it that way so no one gets injured and the players can go back to their clubs without injuries - clubs demanding compensation - but the officiating is not "normal". Instant whistles, no advantages, not even a look to see if the fouled team can break. It kills the rhythm of the game allows defenses to organize and the spectator ends up with boredom until ... the end when the ref can't totally control it any longer and he lets the game unwind. It has been exploding into unbelievable drama.

Is it better this way? Do the refs know something we don't?

The Greater the Pressure, the Stronger the Diamond?

This is something I have been thinking about for the u9 and u10 players that I coach: Why do great players come from the streets of South America and Africa and not the Academies of Europe? I think it’s primarily because there is no hiding in street soccer. Your only hope is to get good at technique and be powerful enough to make things happen.

You can show a kid in an academy environment that “getting wide”, for example, helps the team be successful because it gives that player 2 or 3 extra seconds to handle the ball. This is not good if you want him to develop as an individual player. If he stays inside (where the defense is) he will have to immediately deal with the defender. This situation will teach him control of the ball better. Eventually when he is older and playing at higher levels the pressure will be all over the field anyway so why introduce hiding spaces now?

Is this a good idea? I don’t know. It is an experiment. What are your thoughts? I just want to combine all of the positives of coached soccer with all the positives of street soccer.

So I have not yet started asking the little guys to get wide and open up and it makes parents upset. All of that stuff might actually help the team win. I have just focused on teaching the skill necessary to deal with the ball under immense pressure from the other team. I want that pressure on these players - now. I want them to have to fight and come out stronger for it. I don’t want to show them the easy way out. I want the pressure to create the diamond.

What then do I do, you ask? I keep the parents away. I Introduce new turns, touches, moves in the beginning of practice and encourage the guys to try dribbling and to play selfishly without fear. I downplay the outcome and take the heat. Are we winning? Not a chance. Are we improving? Definitely. Will I be fired at the end of the year? Possibly.

MLS = Ordinary Joes + World Class Athletes

I missed the Galaxy’s first two games but I got the chance to watch them last Sunday at home v Toronto FC. Galaxy lost 3-2. Donovan scored two; Beckham could have had five assists. Toronto FC were lucky. Galaxy dominated, but gave up three counterattack goals.

MLS is a spectacle like no other. Ordinary Joes get to line up alongside World Class Athletes. I'm not going to name certain new players on LA, but doubt all of the players on the team understand how lucky they are to be in the same environment with Landon Donovan and David Beckham.

The combination of talent and hunger to earn everything you get puts these two in the same category as Tiger Woods. Even though (or maybe because) they are the highest paid and most talented, they are still the hardest working players on the field every game. They are never satisfied. It is this special blend of insecurities that makes them the outstanding competitors that they are.

David Beckham gets a lot of flak if the team loses, but man he kills himself out there. Up and down the wing, inside to cover, over to take free kicks and corners – perfectly crossed balls that don’t end up in the net. It has to be frustrating. But no yelling at teammates - just more hard work. What an example. He’s worth the cash even if he never wins a trophy. As long as his attitude on the pitch is mimicked by the top 10% of soccer players in this country, it will have been a great investment.

Champions to be ...

LA Galaxy will be 2008 MLS Cups Champs. That or 2008 Open Cup Champs. Or at least 2009 MLS Cup Champions. They have too much talent not to win a trophy. If there is one thing Ruud is guud at, it's Cups. He won’t drive them to the Supporters Shield for the best record regular season, but he will get them to the final like he did with Chelsea and Newcastle in the 97 and 99 FA Cups.

One hitch might be WC qualifying. If Becks has to fly back and forth for Capello's army it could cost the spoiled brats of the league, but they will win something. They have to.

Ruud has the cojones to push David Beckham out wide where he is the best in the world. All they need is a left midfielder with positional sense and that backup goalie to come of age and things should take care of themselves especially with Ruiz and Donovan up top.

I met Ruud Gullit at Wembley in May 1997 right after he became the first foreign manager to win the FA Cup. He was really cool and introduced me to Zola, Di Matteo, Juninho and the rest of the stars from that game so I’m going to do him a favor. I'm going to go around to some of the barrios here in SoCal and search the latino men's leagues for that left mid he needs and then drive him over and drop him off at the HDC. Trust me he's out there and he won’t push them over the salary cap. Only problem is after I leave he'll end up with Chivas because he's probably never heard of the Galaxy.

Knock-knock ...

Can you believe it? I am excited for the first game of MLS to get here. Then I’ll miss the next 30 games and get excited again towards the end about who will make the playoffs. I will watch the interesting 2 legs of the 1st round of the playoffs because it’s sort of like champions league and then forget about the rest (two 1-game semis at the higher seeds stadium and a final at a neutral ground) until someone passes on the news that it’s over.

I don’t understand why these brilliant financial minds at MLS can’t understand that what makes soccer irresistible is when there is something at stake - like a League Championship or promotion or relegation or qualification or just plain money.

Maybe they do know this already, but don’t want to put their investors into a situation where they have to deal with risk. That is probably smart from an MBA point of view, but from a fan's point it takes the fun out of it. Isn’t investing another word for risk taking with money? If you risk going down a division you will undoubtedly gain interest in the results. All of a sudden that corner or that turnover or that save matters and you can’t take your eyes off it. If the first game matters as much as the last, both will be sold out along with everyone in between. That’s why you buy a David Beckham -not because he's sexy, but because he might swerve in a corner or a free kick that might win you the league or keep you from relegation. If I thought my $15 for parking at the Home Depot Center went to bring in players to achieve these things then I would understand, but as it is now who cares? And why waste time and money and sit in traffic for something that doesn’t matter?

I hope soccer continues to grow and eventually the league gets this through their heads. We wouldn’t have to get satellite channels and rearrange schedules to watch interesting leagues in Europe. It would be taking place here. Would be exciting wouldn’t it?