Summer Coaching Symposium: Day 2
While the first day of the NorCal Premier Soccer Summer Coaching Symposium kicked things off, day two was the day where it really got started as over 300 coaches converged on the campus of Stanford for the first full slate of action.
It all started with one of the headliners: German National Team Assistant Coach Marcus Sorg, who described the German Way to a packed house in Maples Arena.
While Sorg detailed many principles and concepts for each age group, his main idea concerned accelerating learning to which he said, “the beginning of acceleration is to start it.”
So after referencing all the great accomplishments of his program, from 1954 and on, Sorg then headed to the field for a session aptly titled, “Accelerate Your Game.”
Following that widely-popular lesson was a star-studded panel discussion that included Roberto Niccolai (Inter Milan), Jesse Fioranelli (San Jose Earthquakes), Ricard Segarra Aragay (FC Barcelona), Nico Jungkind (DFB), and the well-travelled and well-received Frans Hoek.
But it was moderator and Earthquakes play-by-play man Ted Ramey who kicked things off by describing the impending San Jose Earthquakes – LA Galaxy game that each participant would be attending later that night.
“We’re going to see 50,000 people in the stadium today and that’s pretty incredible for a country where people said that soccer couldn’t work,” Ramey said.
From there, a series of questions were asked to each clinician, with the DFB’s Jungkind first explaining that the reason for working in the U.S. full time was to help his program go and that they have already started collaborating with Google, the Golden State Warriors, and exploring machine learning as well as the local pro soccer club.
“The location was strategically chosen, we came from the East Coast first, but a major role was the partnership that we have with the Earthquakes,” Jungkind said.
To which Fioranelli replied: “We are a fairly young organization when compared to everyone globally and we understand where we are in the hierarchy, but we want to be able to challenge ourselves and be able to learn how other organizations work. Every single week and month, we have conversations with the German federation and other clubs and coaches to learn how we can improve.”
After that, San Jose Earthquakes youth coach Luciano Fusco and Aragay both led joint field sessions while Niccolai went over Inter Milan’s training method in the classroom.
The lessons then ended with the ever-popular Hoek, who explained his ideas on game analysis to another packed crowd.
The lecture started with a simple clip of a moment in an international match between Switzerland and Hungary and after the 15 seconds or so elapsed, Hoek immediately began asking for opinions and got five different ones from five different answers.
“Everyone has their own way of looking at the game and evaluate it,” Hoek said. “Two people can have a different opinion about the same situation.”
For those in attendance, it was just another in the line of chances to improve what they do with such a collection of talented thinkers packed together in one location.
“It’s a great opportunity to see the elite coaches, not just see what they do with their club but see how they implement it in practice,” said Fremont Youth Soccer Club DOC Dai Redwood. “It gives us a great opportunity to see what we could be doing as coaches.”
“I think the event has been unreal,” he added. “The organization, the way everything has been set up is absolutely brilliant.”
Afterwards, each coach headed to Stanford Stadium for the California Classico in which the San Jose Earthquakes defeated rivals the LA Galaxy 3-0 with NorCal PDP alums Tommy Thompson and Sebastian Lletget both starting ahead of the third and final day of the symposium.
