Keeping Possession

I guess I never really understood what my son’s coach meant when he said “winning in soccer is all about possession”. I had thought it meant the team should try to prevent the other team from getting the ball, but that didn’t seem to fit well with his tactic of hoofing it up the field and hoping that by some miracle it might land at the feet of one of our kids who makes a habit of loitering without any intent. Of course, the chance of them then actually doing anything with it when we all disarm them by hollering “shoot!” at the top of our voices always seemed equally remote. Even the coach’s ‘safety first’ approach of defending every ball by knocking it out of play at the earliest opportunity always seemed to give possession to the other team, but I always thought that was because a silly girlie mother like me didn’t really understand the nuances of the game the way these highly educated chaps do.

But I think I might be starting to work it out. I was asking him why he kept a roster of 22 players even though he could only dress 18 and rarely let the subs play anyway. I wondered if some of those kids wouldn’t be better off starting with another club instead of riding the pine with us or playing on our B, C or D teams. But maybe it is a game of possession after all? If we use our reputation to possess all the best players and prevent them playing against us then we should be on the way to another relentless procession towards this year’s Hollow Victory State Cup!