Without possession, for the sake of possession, there's going to be nothing in terms of advancing the ball with style, with confidence, with purpose, with anything. Call the proper authorities, send out the clergy, it's over. Without dedicating every possible moment to creative possession, you're left with nothing. Each moment dedicated to this purpose should be done artistically, that is to say without blame from others for mistakes. Mistakes should be expected and embraced as part of the artistic venture "around" the field, possessing the ball. Which, by the way, is probably the most difficult thing to do within the game. Individual skill aside, possession, as a team requires so many things...it first requires individual skill from each player, including juggling, trapping, dribbling, passing in all forms and shooting; furthermore, each player should be skilled dribblers. What's more, each player must have an understanding of and the knowledge of the game (which is hard to come by). This has to do with feeling out a moment, sensing when to dribble, when not to, or when to retreat, or when to offensively dribble versus defensively dribbling. Once all those things are present, it is still difficult to field a group of ten players. Look at any professional side - many of them have a difficult time with it. Particularly, at the World Cup level, many teams have no clue about good possession. Usually these teams are left behind in qualification rounds.
"Around" the field is key. Possessing the ball in a forward sense, or quite literally just going forward, is the wrong way to look at it. In fact, the paradox is that going backward will often get you forward in a much better way. Furthermore, going across the field is essential to controlling the game. After all, when you have the opponent in their own half and you're trying to play a "half court possession game" against them, the only way to do it is to go across the field. And, the best way to accomplish this is to instill the two-man game whenever possible. It is paramount to implement the two-man game. Without this, it's back to calling the proper authorities and the clergy. No better example of these points can be expressed than by Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Brazil. Argentina in 2006, with Riquelme in the middle, was another great example of this style. Hopefully, for the US's sake, this can improve by October 10th, against Mexico, and, if not, for the near future in World Cup qualifications.
"Around" the field is key. Possessing the ball in a forward sense, or quite literally just going forward, is the wrong way to look at it. In fact, the paradox is that going backward will often get you forward in a much better way. Furthermore, going across the field is essential to controlling the game. After all, when you have the opponent in their own half and you're trying to play a "half court possession game" against them, the only way to do it is to go across the field. And, the best way to accomplish this is to instill the two-man game whenever possible. It is paramount to implement the two-man game. Without this, it's back to calling the proper authorities and the clergy. No better example of these points can be expressed than by Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Brazil. Argentina in 2006, with Riquelme in the middle, was another great example of this style. Hopefully, for the US's sake, this can improve by October 10th, against Mexico, and, if not, for the near future in World Cup qualifications.
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