Our Canadian Men’s National Soccer Team recently concluded the second of two FIFA World Cup qualification matches versus Mexico, in the 2nd stage of CONCACAF qualification, last week. Unfortunately, we lost both of those matches, by a score of 3-0 in the first match and 2-0 in the second. Canada's hopes of progression to the [...]
In its simplest form, ball possession in soccer is typically approached in one of two ways. A team will either look to maintain possession of the ball often with the intent of unbalancing the opposing defence through passing and movement, until a space is created through which to penetrate, or a team will look to [...]
Hi everyone, Welcome to the next edition of the Soccer Fitness Gols Video Blog. In this Blog, we will be providing weekly video content relating to all things soccer and fitness. In this edition, we discuss the importance of watching high level soccer (such as the UEFA Champions League) for aspiring young soccer players. I [...]
Last week, in Part 1 of this article, I discussed the principle of specificity as it relates to fitness training for soccer players, and also presented a brief chart with examples of how to train the main athletic qualities in soccer, in a soccer-specific way. This week, in part 2, I will be following up [...]
This summer I took a trip to Montreal, to watch both a Women’s World Cup match, as well as a Major League Soccer match between the Montreal Impact and Orlando City FC. During this time I also got to visit and catch up with an old friend, Palo Pacione, who is the Fitness Coach of [...]
Below is a link to a very interesting article written by Tryggvi Kristjansson, that was posted last week on www.thesefootballtimes.co, an international soccer specific website/blog. The article describes the ascension of Iceland - a country which, with a population of just over 300,000 is one of the smallest European member nations in UEFA - as a [...]
Below is a link to a very interesting article written by Bill Haisley and posted on www.screamer.deadspin.com last week. The article immediately caught my eye, not just because of its seemingly contradictory title, but also because I have always been a big fan of U.S. Soccer and of the work they have done growing and [...]
Last night I attended the Pan-American Games Women's Soccer match between our Canadian Women's National Team, and Brazil, at a packed Tim Horton's Stadium in Hamilton, Ontario. The match was exciting, and although Canada lost 2-0, there were some positives to take away from the contest for the home team. After having worked directly with [...]
Last night I experienced a "first" in my career. I got to work my first ever senior international soccer game as a fitness coach, with the Canadian National Women's Team at their first match of the 2015 Pan-American Games tournament, versus Ecuador, which Canada won by a score of 5 to 2. The experience was [...]
Below is a link to a fantastic article written by Brian Bickerstaff and posed on vicesports.com last week. This article discusses a company called Double Pass, which is a football consulting firm based out of Brussels, Belgium. I was very impressed after reading about what this company does. Here is a quote from the article: [...]