Welcome to the GP Soccer Podcast! (S14 E18)

                       Welcome to the GP Soccer Podcast!  (S14 E18)

                                    Bonus World Cup Coverage!

Proud member of the Sports History Network and endorsed by the National                                                  Soccer Coaches Association of Canada.     

Welcome to this special edition of the GP Soccer Podcast! Listeners of the show can now enjoy bonus content featuring- "Stories from The World Cup". Host Giovanni Pacini each week will highlight World Cup stories that typically don't get front page coverage but are interesting and fascinating nonetheless!

The GP Soccer Podcast features new shows every Wednesday and can be found anywhere you listen to your podcasts. Listeners are encouraged to "Like" and "Subscribe" the GP Soccer Podcast and share the show amongst those within their social media network! Those interested in advertising on the show can contact host Giovanni Pacini at gp4soccer@yahoo.com. And be sure to check out the show website at www.gpsoccerpodcast.com. 

                    GP Soccer Podcast enjoys continued support from-
United Goalkeeping Alliance - Music Meets Sports - National Soccer Coaches Association of Canada - The Sports History Network - Feedspot.com - GP Voice Over Services - Zone 14 Coaching

Host Giovanni Pacini's new book- "The Importance of Unstructured Free Play: Coaching with a Street Soccer Mentality is now available on Amazon!

GP Soccer Podcast welcomes a new sponsor- Zone 14 Coaching! Check it out at Zone14coaching.com. Use promo code GP20 for 20% off!

To purchase a signed copy of Dr. Joe Machnik's book- "From the Sandlots to the World Cup: 7 Decades of American Soccer", e-mail "Dr. Joe" at joemachnik@no1soccercamps.com. Be sure to mention the GP Soccer Podcast!

Enjoy the show!

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 1:21

Well, hey there, everyone. Giovanni Pacini here, your host of the GP Soccer Podcast. This is the special edition, special content of the GP Soccer Podcast, because we are in the midst of the World Cup. And just to give you a kind of a point of reference in my recording time here, I've just finished watching the Paraguay Germany game. And as you listen to this, you'll all know the result. And I know I'm going to I I promise to kind of stay away from analysis and make this about stories from the World Cup. But my goodness gracious me, if there was ever a match or the type of match that exemplifies the beauty, the wonder, the magnificence, the drama of the World Cup, well, it was the match between Paraguay and Germany. Paraguay moving on to the next round in winning in penalties, and there was nothing, again, nothing short of drama. But again, as I noted uh last week, we're going to kind of stay away from that kind of stuff in terms of conversation. You can get that all over social media, all over um all over the uh uh the news, wherever you happen to get get your uh your your information about about the World Cup. But we're gonna stick to the uh stories from the World Cup. I got three stories lined up for you today. And again, uh if you didn't tune in last week, I've I've decided to take a little different twist with the GP Soccer Podcast uh during this uh World Cup special editions um that we'll be uh we'll be playing for the course of the tournament and I'm trying to share with you stories that typically don't make the headlines. That typically aren't put out there. They're not sexy, but they're interesting. They are interesting. So with that said, we're gonna break for a commercial message, and on the other side we'll get back and we'll start with uh uh story. And uh stories from um the World Cup. Don't you dare. Good anywhere. Youth soccer has changed. Expectations are higher, but systems haven't kept up. Coaches juggle endless tasks, players chase progress they can't measure, and clubs struggle to create consistency across teams. Zone 14 Coaching was built for this moment. A company built by coaches or coaches, Zone 14 coaching next generation journals of coaches and players help plan every practice, reflect on what worked, and track progress all season long. Built on intentional coaching and backed by neuroscience, Zone 14 coaching brings structure and purpose to your training. The founders of Zone 14 Coaching watched in awe as some of the game's best tacticians and mentors spent every precious moment with a simple pen and paper, meticulously sketching, writing, and planning in a journal. It was a powerful and humbling sight. The foundation of great coaching was a commitment to preparation and a passion for player development. This simple observation sparked a question What if we could give every coach, from the passionate parent of the recreational level to the club coaching director, access to the same level of structured, thoughtful planning? Zone 14 Coaching is the answer. Visit zone14coaching.com and use the promo code GP20 for 20% off. And if you want to outfit your entire organization or even just one team, contact Zone 14 Coaching at Zone14Coaching.com for bulk pricing. Zone 14 Coaching, where high-level soccer knowledge and structured planning is accessible and simple.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Hey, I'm Kylie Roberts. I'm the communications coordinator for the New England Revolution, and you're listening to the GP's Doctor podcast with host Giovanni Pacini.

SPEAKER_04 5:03

So our first story this week comes from the Boston Sunday Globe, dated June the 21st, and it is uh written by uh Hannah Gecki. If I'm pronouncing her name correctly, and uh it goes something like this The headline is Italian fans turn cup disappointment into excitement. Soccer fans have taken over the North End. From small coffee shops to grocery stores to large restaurants on a recent day, the World Cup was on every television screen screen. Fans of Scotland, Norway, Brazil, and Argentina, among other teams, cheered and cursed the ebb and flow of the action, their eyes fixed on every moment. But for those behind the counter and many residents in the Italian neighborhood, their team was nowhere to be seen. Italy has won the World Cup four times, trailing only Brazil. But it did not qualify this year, missing the tournament for a third time in a row, much to the chagrin of its supporters. It was very disappointing to see them not qualify for the third time, said Milvin Spencer, president and general manager of Cafe Dello Sports. It sucks because I really enjoy the atmosphere when Italy plays, and it obviously hurts my pockets. Cafe Delo Sport has been a a streaming soccer games on Hanover Street for thirty-eight years, according to Spencer, who grew up in the neighborhood. With Italy on the sidelines, most of its fans are rooting for the United States, he said. I am a US supporter, you know? I live here. I was born here, I was raised here. It would be silly for me not to support them, said Spencer, thirty-seven years old. It would be nice to see them, see them because they have never won. A few doors down at Spagnolo's restaurant, owner Claudia Spagnolo said USA all the way, while sharing the city's growing infatuation with the tartan army. And I wish all the other foreign countries the best of luck. We had all the Scottish people here in the North End, and the men were such gentlemen, she said, they should come more often to America. They loved it here too. Now Damien Dipala, 64, the executive chief at Cadmelinas, said the Europeans who have grown tired of all the McDonald's and fried chicken have been descending on the North End in search of a peace of home. A lot of foreigners come here because you still get a little taste of Italy in the North End. It's almost like being in the same little village in Italy watching the World Cup, you say. The North End is open to everyone. We've always been very tied in with the World Cup from the from the small, tiny black TVs back in the nineteen eighties to these big, beautiful big TVs that we have now. This year, there's not so much he can do but think about the good old days. We're talking 1982, I believe it was Mayor Kevin White, who put the big screen TV right on Hanover Street for every game. So everybody's in the coffee shops watching on the TVs, and Italy's beating all of the good teams that year. And then after Italy won, everybody was in the street streets screaming. It was packed. Now in 2006, the North End went crazy again when Italy defeated France to win another World Cup, Dupala said. Paolo is rooting for the US first, with Argentina and Mexico so close behind. It's funny because the Italians in this country share more culture with Latin Americans than with Spaniards. The languages are very similar. And then there was an influx of Italians in South American countries, but places I had no idea that Italians went to, Dupalo said. And there's a lot of young Latino people working in the North End as servers and cooks, so they're sharing jars with the Italians. Spencer said he has been quietly cheering on the small na for the small nations that made the tournament for the first time this year. I have customers and friends from all over the world. As much as I want to see my Spanish friends enjoy Spain winning a game, I love to see them see them tie with Cape Bird, he said. And from the Boston Globe, once again, dated June the twenty first by journalist Chris Seras. It is entitled A World Cup Dividend, Pocket Size Pitches. Goes as follows. At ten years old, on a summer trip to visit his relatives in Timoteo, Brazil, Felipe Pinto discovered a simple truth about soccer. The game requires very little to flourish. The Brockton native fell in love with the beautiful game on what soccer matter Brazilians call a quadra, a fenced-in expanse no bigger than two tennis courts tucked between the city's apartment blocks. With just a few players on each side, they played with whatever they could find. Sandals and backpacks served as goalposts, and for the ball was often nothing more than a mismatched socks stuffed and stuffed inside with one another and bound with rubber bands. Free from parents, coaches, or referees, they kicked until dusk and ran until their feet blistered, Pinto recalled. When you're a child, that cramped space can feel like a giant stadium, like thousands of people are cheering you on, Pinto said. It was just us kids having fun. Now 25, Pinto was at the forefront of an ambitious effort to bring such a soccer to the masses here in the New England area through a network of smaller soccer courts known as Mini Pitches. In the frantic run-up to the World Cup, local organizers and soccer nonprofits scoured the regions for abandoned lots and forgotten public spaces, any corner just large enough for a game. By year's end, with money from the U.S. Soccer Foundation, and corporate sponsors of Boston's World Cup host committee, they plan to transfer seventeen of these overlooked sites into a vibrant hardcore pitchers stretching from Brockton to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, among one thousand beginning being installed by the U.S. Soccer Foundation this year. It's been a project decades in the making, a slow but steady effort to rival the passions of so for soccer in the United States uh with the rest of the world, starting with the World Cup tournament here in 1994 and the growth of Major League Soccer ever since. Now, by stripping soccer back to its essential roots, organizers hope to build a deeper, cross-generational passion for the sport across the region that will fuel its growth for years to come. The mini pitches pitches are relatively simple to install, using interlocking acrylic tiles laid directly over existing concrete or asphalt surfaces. At roughly $100,000 each, they are a bargain compared to full-size grass or turf fields, which can run anywhere from $1 million to $4 million. All told, the 17 pitches planned for New England will cost $1.7 million in private funding, a rounding error compared to the massive public and private spectacle of the World Cup unfolding at Gillette Stadium and across Boston. Now the origins of the mini pitching initiative date back to the 1994 World Cup. At the time, organizers saw the event as a rare opportunity to grow the game, and they used $50 million in proceeds from the tournament to create the U.S. Soccer Foundation. Its plan at the time was to develop hundreds of soccer fields in underserved neighborhoods. However, that quickly ran into logistical and financial hurdles. Buying up large acreage, grading land, and maintaining grass fields in urban neighborhoods was often cost prohibitive. Yet organizers realized America was daughter with underused spaces, including cracked asphalt schoolyards, abandoned tennis courts, and vacant lots, tennis courts as well, that they all could be converted into smaller soccer pitches for less than one-tenth the cost of a full-size field. The Brockt Mini pitch never would have happened without Pinto, the son of Brazilian immigrants, a soccer coach, and founder of a sports drink business and youth sports foundation. For as long as Pinto can remember, soccer has been the sanctuary. Those four corners have always been my safe place, said Pinto, who also played soccer while studying business management at Wentworth Institute of Technology, becoming the first in his family to graduate from college. No matter what the craziness was happening in the world, I could always find a sense of community and pride on the pitch. Fittingly, the idea for the Brockton mini pitch was born on a soccer field. During a club match last fall, an opposing coach told Pinto about Project Goal, a providence-based nonprofit working with the U.S. Soccer Foundation to build mini pitches across Rhode Island. The conversation struck a chord. Pinto immediately flashed back to his childhood in Brazil, remembering the endless hours he spent playing with relatives on the quadra. Now, as for Pinto, he occasionally drops by Mulberry Street Mulberry Street mini pitch on evenings. So far he is heartened by what he sees. Diverse groups of children playing a free-flowing game that vividly reminds him of the spontaneous pickup matches he played as a child. Sometimes Pinto can't resist lacing up the shoes to join them. Out there, we all speak the same language, he said. The ball is our language. And we're going to take a brief commercial break here, and we'll come back with our third and final stories from the World Cup. It is time to bring back the game that teaches players how to think. Modern youth soccer is more organized than ever, yet many young players are missing one of the most powerful development tools in the game: unstructured free play. The importance of unstructured free play, coaching with a street soccer mentality, challenges coaches, parents, and player development leaders to rethink how young athletes learn. Drawing from decades of coaching experience, child development principles, and the timeless lessons of street soccer, author Giovanni Piccini shows why creativity, decision making, resilience, joy, and soccer IQ grow when players are given space to explore the game. The importance of unstructured free play, coaching with a street soccer mentality, is a book for grassroots coaches, youth soccer directors, parents, educators, and anyone who believes that player development should produce more than organized drill followers. It offers a practical approach for balancing structure with freedom using guided learning, constraints, small set of games, reflection, and activity designs that let the game be the ultimate teacher. Order your copy of The Importance of Unstructured Free Play, Coaching with a Street Soccer Mentality on Amazon today.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

Hey, this is Tim Caralexis, head soccer coach at Holberg Middle High School, and you're listening to the GP Soccer Podcast with Giovanni Pacini.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

And lastly, from the June 21st edition of the Boston Globe, this is written by sports media columnist Chad Finn, does a terrific job writing about sports media on a regular basis for the Boston Globe. This article is entitled Fox Teammates Not Hiding Lawless Annoyance. Goes like this. Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn't, but it is true that I took a swipe or fired off a grip about Fox's decision to include perma smug Alexi Lawless on its main studio program in every story I've written about the World Cup so far. Well, I'm here to offer sort of a meia culpa for that for now. Lawless stint, which may be over or at least abbreviated, has been highly entertaining for one reason that has nothing to do with his analysis. His more accomplished fellow analysts, France's legend Terrion Ree, and comically blunt Swedish icons, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, have been just as annoyed with Lawless's hot takes, how he basked in agitating people, and his delight in sucking the air out of the room. Best of all, they do not hide it. The most obvious example occurred on Tuesday following France's victory over Senegal. During the match, in-game analyst Landon Dunavan said France had been sluggish in the first half. Lawl took it a step further in the postgame, calling France arrogant. That brought a rebuttal from Ibrahimovich that cut down Lawless and left Henri staring straight ahead wide-eyed. Would have loved to have heard his internal monologue at that moment. It's not arrogance, said Ibrahimovich. It's confidence. Ignorant people will say it's arrogance. Intelligent people will say it's confidence. Back to you, Rebecca. Actually, perhaps that aforementioned reference is how Ibrahimovich and Henri don't hide the disdain for Lawless, should be amended and did not hide it. When Fox's World Cup Today studio show came up came on in advance of the United States men's national team's match Friday with Australia, Henri, Ibrahimovich, and Rebecca Lowe were on set. Lawless was not. Said Lowe, a truly superb host, who has been adept at keeping a poker face even when Lawless launched in his peak condescension mode. Chaps, Alexi left us. Then added, Alexi will be back. Alexei will be back. Your plan works, said Henri, smiling. Don't you bring me into this, he said. No, she said, no chance. Then Ibrahimovich, whose own self self regard is so massive that it's amusing, got to the heart of the matter. America, he said, you're welcome. Lawless was still part of the broadcast, just from a safe distance. He was on the site at the match in Seattle, along with fellow former Revolution star Clint Dempsey and former U.S. national team stalwart Carly Lloyd. No specifics were offered on if or when Lawless might return to the studio show. It's certainly not necessary. Henri is genuinely out an outstanding analyst who chooses to the can the truth over placating egos. That was just that was best evidence on Wednesday when he was blunt in his annoyance with Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo's decision to try to score a goal himself rather than make the obvious correct play during a 1-1 tie with Congo. The team needs to score. You, you, not you need to score, Henri said. With low at the helm, Henri providing astute analysis and Ibrahimovich there. Whether he knows it or not, as cocky comic relief, Fox actually has an excellent studio program. It does not need Lawless. With the World Cup of the United States, it's understandable why an American would want to be part of the lead studio team. I think it's fair to say Fox favors the type, certain type of American in that role. Lawless, who makes his political affiliates clear and probably owns an ugly red ball cap or two fits the suit. Contrary to my feelings before and at the start of the World Cup, I won't mind if he if he comes, I won't mind if he comes back. Presuming a return isn't accompanied by a management mandate for Henri and Ibrahimovich to be nicer to him. Lawless has dished it off for a long time. If he can't take it, well, what's the word we're looking for? Snowflake? Yes, I think that's it. And just a little bit of commentary on that last story. Um I've had Alexi Lawless on my show here in the GP Soccer Podcast and um can share with all of you. I I have I found him to be gracious and professional and engaging. We had a uh spirited conversation about uh pay-to-play and that type of thing. And uh, you know, I I get what he he does on uh on Fox and when he's on a a national, international broadcast, he's you know, he's supposed to uh get ratings and get people to tune in and get people to talk and get people to argue. And um, he knows how to do it, and he does it very, very, very well. So uh I give him all kinds of credit for what he's uh able to do um during these World Cup broadcasts. But again, here in the GP Soccer Podcast, we had a um a wonderful conversation. I would encourage all of you to go back um in the GP Soccer Archives and check out that conversation. Well, that's our show for today: Stories from the World Cup. If you like what you hear, please tell everyone. And remember, those likes matter, those subscribes matter, keep hitting all those buttons. Those are super, super important. You can follow the GPSoccer podcast. All of our social media and new episodes are available every Wednesday morning. Now, don't forget to check out my website at GPSoccerPodcast.com. And if you're interested in advertising on the show, then email me at GP4Soccer, and that's the number four at Yahoo.com. This is your host, Giovanni Piccini, and I will catch you later.