• Home
  • SOCRATES’ THINKING
    • News and comment
    • Editorial
  • About
  • US
    • Sportsocratic team
    • Contributors
  • Reviews
    • Adventures
    • Books
    • Places
  • Contributions
  • Advertise
  • Contact

Sportsocratic

Thoughts, ideas, opinions and postulations on sport and adventuring

  • Sport & society
    • Ethics & Values
    • History
    • Favourite photos
    • Cultural and social issues
    • Politics
    • Big questions
    • Sport fashion
      • Sartorialism and style
  • Wild sports
  • Silly stuff
  • Sports science
    • Research
    • Coaching
    • Innovation
    • HEALTH
  • The things that made me
  • Stories
    • General sporting stories
    • Waves of Pain
      • No Respect!
      • Death Wish at Fairy Bower
      • Fried nuts
      • The ocean is a trickster… especially Hawaii’s North Shore – Gas chambers bites the unwary!
      • Titus Kinimaka’s nightmare Christmas
      • Dix dumped – the trials of a self-confessed elite body surfer
      • The little surf that nearly ruined a promising career…
      • Rabbit killer – a master takes a caning at pipeline!
      • Death Wish at Fairy Bower
      • Easternmost memory – surfing in the wild at the end of the continent
      • Nothing ruins a good surf like a couple of blokes with automatic assault rifles…
      • Agony for Miki Dora
      • Smashed at Gas Chambers
      • Who was Europe’s first surfing woman? Introducing the wonderful Witch of Newbury.
      • A bad day at Palmy – surfies and clubbies at war!
      • When being a proven waterman is not enough!
      • The highs and lows of surfing Sunset Beach while competing at the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational
      • An American midnight surf – that goes very wrong!
  • What does it mean?
    • What is a snake?
    • What does “shag” mean?
    • What does “Freddy Jones” mean?
    • What does “hook and ladder” mean?
    • What does back walk-over mean?
  • Philosophers Sport Bar
    • Socrates and Aristotle debate football defence
    • Michel de Montaigne on coaching sports
    • Ancient philosophers discuss what makes the beautiful game beautiful! Laozi and Socrates get technical.

Whats wrong with the Matildas?

March 11, 2020 By TIMOTHY EDWARDS Leave a Comment Filed Under: News and comment

Socrates is worried! Here is a lament from the idiot sports philosopher who has coached multiple sports for multiple years but has recently forsaken his earlier loves for Rugby, Rugby League and Basketball for “the beautiful game.” Some people who have only ever loved soccer will argue that he is not a real football person and that he doesn’t know what he is talking about. They are probably right. No doubt he still has a lot to learn about soccer. But his heart is aching. Maybe he has nothing to worry about because his fears are based on ignorance. Even so, he needs to get it off his chest. Here Socrates cries out “What’s wrong with the Matildas?”

I hate the feeling of watching your favourite sports team and, even when they are winning, thinking that they are just not playing that well. That’s how I feel about the Matildas. What’s worse is that I have been feeling that way for ages. I remember, a couple of years back, thinking that, in time, they would be unbeatable. Thinking that they had the potential to smash France, England and even the United States. In early 2018 I was certain that they had a chance at winning the 2019 World Cup. Maybe I was naïve. Maybe I was just a biased Matilda lover. But when I looked at players like Foord, Kerr, De Vanna and Simon… and the young Raso and Carpenter who were beginning to show their potential, I really thought that they had a shot. But since 2018, they just haven’t looked right.

Kyah Simon and Emily Van Egmond create a miracle goal in extra time to save the Matilda’s hide. Celebrations all round!

Don’t get me wrong. I still believe in the players! If I were selecting a World 11, I would have Kerr and Foord in my starting line-up right now! I would also find a spot on the bench for Carpenter, Raso and Simon too! These women are world class. The rest of the crew are strong, tough, dedicated and technically adept as well. As a team, the Matildas should be near the top of the world rankings. But they are not. And when they are on the field, they don’t look anything like a top-ranked team. There is a problem.

Kiah Simon announced publicly before the first Olympic Games qualifier against Vietnam, a while back, that she believed that the team had now reached a “new level.” I trust Kiah Simon. She knows her stuff. She is a gun player and an intelligent analyst. I believed her. I was encouraged. Excited. But after the 5 – 0 victory over the Vietnamese in Australia and an even closer match-up in the away game, I am not so sure. The team that I love still looked out of touch.

China unlucky to not beat Matildas

Its true that they were better than they had been earlier against China (in the qualifying tournament), but, for me, only marginally so. But, in truth, the Vietnamese, while plucky, were not the same “in your face” threat that the Steel Roses had been. It seems to me that the Matildas can turn on goals (even when they are not playing particularly well) against lesser opponents but look all at sea against teams that can not only play a bit but are willing to match the Matilda’s aggression. China were unlucky to not win against the Matildas. They were the better team.

Matildas have the players! Two of the stars. Kerr and Williams.

The disconnection between the forwards and the backs, for the Matildas, in the China game was excruciating. I hope Kellond-Knight’s relegation to the bench for the first Vietnam game was injury related rather than the result of her perceived poor performance. While it’s true that KK struggled against the Chinese, her problems seemed less about her form than about a lack of effective team strategy for the Matildas. Whether you play basketball, hockey, soccer, water polo or any other sport (where it is common for defending teams to employ a “high press”) trying to employ one single strategy for the entire game to beat the press is never going to work if the defending team have been well coached and can execute the press effectively.

The Chinese were brutal against Kellond-Knight, Kennedy and Polkinghorne. Maybe I am wrong, but it seems likely to me that the reason why they continued to do what was blatantly not working, was because that was what they were instructed to do. It was expected that the Steel Roses defence would “run out of steam” in the second half and then the Matildas would spring into action. Only one problem. The Chinese did not “run out of steam.” They were magnificent. I do hope that KK was not thrown under the bus after her team’s lack-lustre performance because, for me, it wasn’t her fault. She and her mate Aivi Luik (on the bench) are still the team’s two best passers.

Other than the goal that saved Australia’s skin in the dying moments of the game, the best moment for the Matildas came in the second half when Kerr took the bull by the horns, swapped places with Foord, and then tracked back from the wing to provide some support to the holding mid field. She quickly scored a turnover then executed some mid-field passing magic with Foord that nearly resulted in a goal. Kerr’s decision to break out of the mindless maintaining of a rigid structure that wasn’t working nearly broke the game wide open. There should have been so much more of it!

Poor passing game

Then there were the Vietnam games. Yeah, we scored five goals, in the first game. Yeah, the attacking mid-fielders supported the holding mid-fielder much more when bringing the ball up-field, thus, opening passing lanes to all points further forward. Yeah, the team had their moments and a couple of the goals were crackers. But did we look great? Not for me.

Simon and Raso. World class individuals.

On numerous occasions the television commentator lamented the poor passing between the players. He kinda had a point in the sense that the passing game looked out of kilter but his inference that it was the passer’s fault was not always correct.

Passing is a dynamic, organic, multi-person team skill. Passers and receivers both have a role to play. There should be a chemistry between them. On numerous occasions against the Vietnamese, passers placed intelligent balls into vacant spaces where team-mates should have been but the pass receiver through lack of awareness, slowness or flat-footedness was often unable to react in time enabling Vietnamese defenders to sweep and steal possession. Yes. There were plenty of bad passes in the Vietnam games… but there were also lots of occasions when potential pass receivers were standing around statically pretending that the passer’s job was to somehow magically get the ball to them!

Our passing game against the Vietnamese also seemed predictable. Ninety-nine percent of the time passes went to people who everyone on the field (both teams), everyone in the stands and everyone watching the game on television knew exactly who it was going to. Slow, deliberate, lateral and back passing to an obvious receiver might make possession stats look good but its not going to provide too many challenges to the defenders. Holy cow. I think it was half-way into the first half before I saw a player execute a skip-pass (cut-out pass) to a wide team-mate.

Shoot!

The passing ills seem to be particularly problematic in the mid field. While our forwards have not been setting the world on fire lately, in their defence, it is difficult for forwards to work offensive magic when the limited possession you are receiving comes slowly and in a disorganized manner.

Matildas in training

Matildas shooting against the Vietnamese also seemed off song. Off target shots that should have found the back of the net can be excused. That happens. But failure to take open shots when the opportunity arises is more problematic. Insistence on working the ball to close range might seem a good strategy when you have terrific forwards, but that is not always going to work when defending teams have jammed the box full of defenders. When you have a team with lethal long-range shooters like Kennedy, Van Egmond, Simon, Foord and others it is sinful to not take shot opportunities when they are offered up. Taking shot opportunities from range also has the effect of forcing defenders to close out on potential shooters thus creating space for the forwards closer to the goal.

With the Olympic Games coming up, I am worried. I can’t recall the Matildas playing sublime football against high end opposition in ages. But, perhaps the delay in the tournament will work in the Matildas favour. Extra preparation time might give them the chance to work out the bugs. They can beat anyone! They have the players!

To win at the Olympics in 2021 they are going to need to beat the best. To beat the best, they are not only going to have to find a fast, smart and visionary passing game but they are going to have to find strategic wisdom and flexibility. They are so good I am confident that they can do it. But they have some work to do!

Someone who knows a bit about passing shows how its done.

TIMOTHY EDWARDS

Tim Edwards has had a completely rubbish sporting career so it is odd that he seems so obsessed with sport and adventuring. As a basketball shooting guard he had an okay jump shot but couldn't do anything else. As a rugby hooker he spent more time puking then actually playing. As a runner he won an awful lot of consolation prize chocolates for coming fourth but almost never won a ribbon. Despite his inadequacies he still loves sport and has opinions on almost any sporting subject. Tim has spent large parts of his working life in publishing and writing roles and has even done his share of teaching sport management to Uni students. He has coached more sports teams than he cares to remember. Tim is an awful surfer and skier but his lack of competence does not bother him one little bit!

Support Sportsocratic

Thanks for reading this story! We appreciate your visit to Sportsocratic… and love providing alternative information, opinions and angles from the sporting world. The world of sport is so full of the same old stuff from the same old sources that it drives us nuts… and it makes our day giving voice to less orthodox views. If you appreciate our free service, give some thought to helping us out. It costs us big bucks to keep Sportsocratic going but, if our readers support us, our future is much more secure.

Help us to keep you entertained and informed… and enable Socrates to keep asking those big philosophical sporting questions.

Support Sportsocratic for as little as a $1 and we would love you to bits. It only takes a few seconds!

Support Us

Tagged With: Caitlin Foord, China, coaching, defence, ellie carpenter, football, hayley raso, kyah simon, Matildas, offence, olympic games, passing, sam kerr, soccer, strategy, vietnam, World Cup

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

SOCRATES’ RECENT TWEETS

Tweets by Sportsocratic

Rugby Trivia

Olympics Rugby Teams – Who are the greatest?

April 23, 2020 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment

The rugby trivia question for the century! Which national rugby union team holds the record for the most Olympic gold medals in Rugby Union (the full-team fifteen a side game)?

Ethics and fairplay

Never cheated in my life!

November 19, 2020 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment

What is cheating? Is cheating a black and white moral issue… or are there shades of gray. Socrates spent twenty years in the engine room of the beautiful game of rugby… the scrum. He loved being a rugby hooker. He reckons that being slap bang in the middle of sixteen enormous, sweating blokes desperate to secure possession of the ball for their team taught him quite a bit about the fine art of cheating… what it is… and what it isn’t…. and how it can be done. Here Socrates lifts the veil on aspects of the workings of the 1970’s and 80’s amateur rugby scrum revealing some of its secrets. In so doing he shows that cheating is not a simple moral issue. he also claims to haver never deliberately cheated. Do you believe him?

Sport and the question of ethics

November 13, 2020 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment

“Come on. Get over it. Move on. It’s just a game!”

Most sports lovers have, at some stage of their sporting lives, experienced what they perceived to be a significant sporting injustice and had their complaints answered with just such a response. But is it “just a game?” Do injustices within the sporting realm have the potential to do real damage to individuals and to society. Socrates heard a story about a local sporting team who felt that they had been dudded by the organizers of their regional competition and he wondered whether their concerns about the perceived lack of fairness in their case and the potential consequences for all involved had any merit.

When Socrates heard former rugby referee and philosopher, Dr Simon Longstaff (Executive Director of The Ethics Centre), discussing the importance of ethics with great eloquence and passion on the radio he thought that he might be a good person to ask about whether ethics applies in sport and whether there are potential consequences for society when fair play in sport is sidestepped.

Simon was kind enough to agree to a chat. Click the pic to read the good stuff.

matildas

Aivi Luik interview – Matilda unsung hero

February 6, 2020 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment

In pub discussions about the Australian women’s football team’s most remarkable player the name Aivi Luik is not often the first one to come up. Socrates thinks that this might be a mistake and that the value of this remarkable athlete might be under-recognized. Check out her record of achievment in almost every corner of the football world. USA, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Spain, Australia. MVP awards. Championships. All star team selections. She has had a remarkable career by anyone’s standards and is still playing at her best at 34! With Luik and her fellow Matildas in camp preparing for their Olympic Games qualifying series matches against China, Thailand and Taiwan this week Socrates was grateful that she found time to answer some questions about her footballing life. Press here for the Aivi Luik interview – a must for all sports fans, especially ambitious young athletes considering overseas careers.

Outstanding achievement

Outstanding (but not well-known) sporting achievement

September 19, 2019 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment

Everyone has heard of Kelly Slater and his bucket load of world surfing titles. Michael Jordan and his multitude of NBA titles are pretty common knowledge too. Michael Schumacher’s six world driver’s championships are pretty well known as well. Here is a sporting achievement all three would be jealous of. Manly surfer Greg Mossop has a sporting achievement that these three champions could only dream of and Mossop believes that, with a bit of luck, he could have done even better!

New surfing podcast

One of Australia’s greatest ever surfers – one of surfing’s greatest story tellers – “Rabbit” Bartholomew – talks to award winning journalist Tim Baker about life, surfing and stuff. Perfect listening for lockdown entertainment.

professionalism

Priorities in times of Covid-19

April 14, 2020 By SOCRATES NEWS DESK Leave a Comment

Here is a story about a new kid in town who suddenly, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, has to worry about how she will survive. At the same time, sports celebrities implore “loyal fans” to keep supporting their clubs financially. This kid…. and millions of others (many of them new kids in town) just WANT THEIR MONEY BACK. They need it! The elite sports leaders and many average punters come from totally different worlds. When someone asks the ones without jobs about how important the survival of professional sports teams is, I doubt that they have even given it any thought. They have more important things on their minds.

wisdom

Its just a job. Grass grows. Birds fly. Waves pound the sand. I beat people up. – Muhammad Ali

sport at mardi gras

Athletes in the LGBTQI Mardi Gras

March 12, 2019 By SOCRATES 2 Comments

Twenty-one different sports teams marched in this years Sydney Mardi Gras. That’s twenty-one groups of out and proud queer athletes. The LGBTQI community need to be “fearless” and queer athletes are no exception. Check out these fearless sporting clubs living it up on their night of night!

A life with horses

A life with horses – or Lulu in wonderland

August 8, 2018 By TIMOTHY EDWARDS Leave a Comment

It’s well known that playing sport can be a life-changing experience. For one mum, adventurer and businessperson, having a sporty pastime was more than life-changing. Lulu’s friendship with her horses has touched her and her daughter’s lives in a million ways and created a whole new life in an ever-changing wonderland for them both. But don’t think for a moment that their horses are the purpose built catalysts for their ideal lives! Its way more complex than that… and more respectful. Read on! It’s worth it!

wisdom

“Pressure? Pressure is a Messerschmidt up your arse. Playing cricket is not!”

Keith Miller

One of the greatest cricket “all-rounders” of all time, Keith Miller was not only an exceptional performer in multiple elements of test cricketing (batting, bowling and fielding) but he was also gifted in numerous other aspects of his life. Witty, entertaining, handsome, a renowned war time pilot and gifted Australian Rules Footballer, Miller was famed for calling a spade a spade and acknowledging that there was much more to life than elite sports. Having flown fighter bombers in the Second World War under life threatening circumstances he was not one to take the “pressure” of high level sport too seriously!

trivia

Here is a cracker of a trivia question.

Who was the college recruiting scout talking about when he said the following to his head coach.

“I’ve just seen a fat guy… who can play like the wind!”

Yup. The same guy who told people that just because they had shoes like his, it didn’t make them like him in any other way. Charles Wade Barkley.

Etymology

Where did the word canter come from?

August 8, 2018 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment

A bit more horsey stuff for people who liked the story next door. Here is a cracker bit of etymology for all you word lovers (and horse lovers) out there. Where does the word canter come from? You’ll never guess in a million years! Click here to find out. It’s a beauty!

What does it mean?

What is Elvis leg?

Admit it. You’ve never heard of “Elvis leg,” have you? What the blazes is “Elvis leg?” As is the case with every other “What does it mean…” story we have ever posted, the answer is not directly related to the name itself. It is indirectly related to Elvis, though. Have a guess what the relationship is… then click here and check out whether your were correct. Find out for certain which sport uses this term and what it means.

What is a liberator?

Of course most you aviation buffs will think that a liberator is an American WW2 heavy bomber. Fair enough. But in a sporting context does it have a completely different meaning? Indeed it does. You are going to have to click here to find out what a liberator is and does in the world of sport.

Aphorisms, insights and wisdom

“The thing that’s depressing about tennis is that no matter how good I get I will never be as good as a wall.”

More perceptive sporting analysis from Mitch Hedberg, comic genius.

 

ebook

Phillip has returned to the south of India after eighteen years. But who is the young girl staying in his hotel? And what will he learn about his estranged brother through Inez, the Spanish backpacker?

To buy The Bangalore Test, John Campbell’s new ebook novella, just click the link.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

©2019 Sportsocratic