SoccerWise - Mailbag Edition: MLS Rule Changes & Miguel Lopes(Tactical Periodisation Vítor Frade)

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

A special episode of Soccerwise to close out a huge week of soccer coverage. Tommy Scoops stops by to lend David a hand on the mailbag talking potential MLS roster rule changes, San Diego FC roster build and much more. Then David chats with Portuguese u17 coach Miguel Lopes about Tactical Periodization, keys to success in youth development and what the North American soccer scene could become. If you want to learn more about Tactical Periodization and join their courses either online or in person in Dallas go to https://www.tacticalperiodisation.com/pt/ 4:43 Potential MLS Roster Rule Changes 6:45 San Diego FC Roster Build & Kevin De Bruyne Update 14:11 MLS Conference Or Division Alignment Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

What's up everybody welcome back to soccer wise our Friday edition that means mailbag that means interview we've got a special episode here today we've had some great interviews over the last few weeks if you haven't listened go back Tim Bezbachenko last week, that was fascinating. Haley Carter on the Orlando Pride's Shield winning team and their creation. Ben Pierman on what they've built with the Charleston Battery who are heading towards the postseason once again, continue to make records with their sales. Today we've got Miguel Lopez. He's a U17 coach over in Portugal. He's going to be talking about Vitor Fraud's tactical periodization organization. So Vitor Fraud is the one who created tactical periodization, which is a methodology that's used by Jose Mourinho, Andres Villabois, and all the coaches that have come down from Portugal since then. And they've got an in-person program that's coming to Dallas in January.

So he came on to talk a little bit about what it is, and then we talked to Youth Development. I know a lot of our fans are fascinated by this topic and the best practices and all of that. He has worked in some of the biggest clubs and the most successful clubs in Portugal that have done this. So we have that interview coming up for you in just a moment, but we've got an even bigger guest for the mailbag, Tommy Scoops himself. Tommy, you're doing an extra episode.

Look at me. I just put my pants on one leg at a time, just going above and beyond. It's no big deal. This is normal, right? Hashtag grind set, hashtag draft day, hashtag tunnel vision. It inspires me every day when you set your alarm for 4.15 to tweet rise and grind and then go back to sleep. That's how I get up in the morning.

I check to make sure it's there i assume as a big whatsapp international soccer guy you also wake up to like 37 whatsapps every day the dread that i feel turning my phone over when i wake up of like what is the next 10 minutes of my life going to be like immediately to start my day it's not not something that i love as a terrible texter I can tell you my friends who are overseas know the like, if you hit me in that window, probably between 3 and 5 a.m. Because before 3 a.m., there's a chance I wake up and look at my phone and open it and maybe even respond. And then post 6 a.m., I will probably respond.

It's that gap in the middle where I'll wake up, see it, put it away, and then forget that the message ever came or you won't get a response from me. We've got a great week coming up next week. MLS playoffs kick off this weekend. We're going to do our show on Monday instead of Tuesday so that we can get you all of your weekend recap coverage, and we're going to preview the final four series that all kick off, two on Monday night, two on Tuesday night.

So that's going to be a ton of fun. Myself and Jordan Angeli will be back. The U.S. Women's National Team knocking off Iceland last night. They've got another game on Sunday and another game next Wednesday in Louisville. So we'll have all of your coverage of that for you, as well as previews of the final weekend of the NWSL season as we head towards the playoffs. So that's going to be a ton of fun. Working on some more interviews to get some more interesting topics.

I think probably more MLS playoff focused next week as we go into that second week. And of course, me and Tom will be back with your second show to break it all down. If you haven't listened yet to this week's shows, we had the gang back on. We had Andrew Weeby and Matt Doyle on yesterday to do a playoff golden boot draft. It was a ton of fun. Felt great to be back with all of them. And I was on extra time yesterday as well to chat playoffs with them and help preview all the series. Of course, I thought it would be a segment. We thought it would be a full show. So we did an hour and a half talking MLS playoffs. And then we did it again here on this platform. But you're here for the mailbag. Tom, it's your first time. I just want to let you know how this works i incorrectly read

a username from discord then i read the question and then we just spout off and it's very simple and very easy but we have a wide range of questions today some playoff related some bigger mls structural things so i look forward to helping you burn every source you've ever had over the next 10 minutes you ready to roll i know like i wasn't until you explained to me what a mailbag meant i had no idea and i wasn't wasn't sure what i was getting into so thank god that that settled now we're out of the way and we can go but like it might take me a little while to like get the concept of like i just answer a question or do i ask a question i'm not entirely sure i think we'll find out uh we started watching nobody wants this on netflix last night have you

heard of this show with uh adam brody so he's a rabbi in it and starts dating kristin bell and at one point he's explaining something and megan goes you know he's explaining stuff the same way you do i go yeah it's jewish that's what we do so lock in tom because this is what you signed up for and this is how it works let's start with skin matt who says now with the regular season over is there any indication of bigger roster rule changes happening in the offseason i vaguely remember before the summer window changes happened that there were whispers mls would make more extensive changes in the offseason is that on the table or is this just it um massive changes yeah that was what um sources were telling me last winter that the disappointment of nothing really changing was hey next winter like that's what all of our conversations are on

they did move up again no brainer i think that they should have the fourth year 22 initiative slot and the kind of russer building uh paths that should have been um agreed to before the season started but they did in the summer and again paul tenorio the athletic put out his awesome report of like potentially changing the calendar in 2026 that's something i've heard i can confirm that like i know that those discussions and those thoughts are real and like that plan as paul laid it out was aligned with what i'd heard um so i know that that's a season away but we'll see what happens this winter again i hope that there are bigger changes like hopefully i'll be able to hear more as as board of governors where the mls owners

and the mls cso's and everybody meets during the playoffs and then um around mls cup and maybe we'll have a tangible update by then but for now all we have is hope my assumption would be the way this question was asked and sort of what's going on what we saw this summer and these rumors about the schedule are probably the two biggest things that are going to happen over the next two years. And so one got pushed into the summer, so it won't happen on an offseason the same way. But reminder, a lot of the numbers and the way that teams

are going to officially announce who they are, 2-4-2, 3-3, all of that, that's going to shift a little in the offseason. So the team's only got a million in allocation this year because it happened halfway through the year it'll be two million allocation coming up next year as well and as Tom said go to the athletic and read Paul Tenorio's article about the schedule we have a lot of schedule questions uh in our mailbag pretty consistently and Paul doing a good job uh covering them let's go to Jinji789 here who says who do you think will be the top Texas team next year and why?

Do you all think San Diego will make a St. Louis-like run or have more typical expansion team issues? And will Brad Stover ever get nominated to an all-star team? Let's start with the San Diego question, because that was what reminded me to reach out to you today, because you have a report already about San Diego and what the team could look like next year. So you're wrong. I don't what the team could look like next year. So you're wrong.

I don't think that this would take place next year. I'll go from the top line. San Diego FC have had talks with Kevin De Bruyne and his camp, and they are serious in that in the spring, Kevin De Bruyne's camp reached out and said, hey, would you be interested in De Bruyne if he wanted to come to MLS? Because they identified San Diego as somewhere he'd want to play. And they said, yeah, sure. Like, absent of any actual conversation, any numbers, like, yeah, of course, we'd be interested in Kevin De Bruyne. And then a day later, that was reported, that there was serious talks between San Diego and Kevin De Bruyne. So the feeling from the club was

like, oh, I guess that was just, you know, for leverage somewhere else. And then they've had some real talks since then. And sources tell me pretty strongly that he prefers MLS over Saudi Arabia. And the only MLS team I've heard connected with him and have these talks is San Diego FC. And again, that doesn't mean that I know everything in any other clubs, like every other club, if they have a chance, if he would be interested in going there, they should be trying. But for me, it's not advanced yet. And his contract, there's a little bit of a mystery around it. It's listed as expiring in 2025, but a source connected to Manchester City said that they don't announce options if there are options.

So they're not saying definitely there's an option, but kind of why bring that out? Regardless, City want De Bruyne to stay. They are not ready for him to go. options so they're not saying definitely there's an option but kind of why bring that out regardless city want the brain of this day they are not ready for him to go and if he does leave though um it seems mls is more likely much more likely than saudi arabia because of lifestyle family the same reasons that leonel messi came here instead of going to saudi arabia for more money um so that's that that doesn't really apply to next year I think it'd be too early to say for sure that I'd be shocked if this happens next summer, but I think I'd be shocked if this happened next summer.

So I don't think that this would impact their 2025. But I don't know that for sure. It's a lot of time. It is, but it changed my thinking because in answering this question, I was going to sort of say, we kind of think we know where San Diego is going to sit sit in the stratosphere of expansion teams it felt very clear that they were going to try and be youth heavy and system heavy outside of chucky lozano which was the one splash so to even hear that kevin de bruyne and them are still in a conversation and there's still a thought process there i think shifts my thinking about this team on the one hand if it isn't going

to be next year that probably means they're going to leave some level of a DP spot open or at least only have a player on a, you know, edge DP spot that they can move down or something like that. We saw Miami struggle pre-Messi because they were leaving the spot open for Messi, which makes it hard to compete in Major League Soccer.

I would, my guess would be KDB would have a player option, not a club option, because one of the things we hear discussed all the time is that MLS is the only league with team options and that they're somewhat illegal outside of North America in the soccer world. But yes, that is the gray space in the city football group where we all love to operate and be in and function. And, but I do think for San Diego, I think you're probably going to look at it. I mean, no one's going to, I don't think any expansion team is going to finish first in their conference anytime soon. I just think the league is in a place now where the top teams are already well

enough established that it's going to be hard. But I will say that I think a San Diego team that is going to rely on young players will struggle. I think in the ups and downs of a season, and I wouldn't be surprised if they compete for a playoff spot, I would be surprised if they were a team that was going to be a home, have a home playoff game early on, but the things they have going for them is they already have their stadium. So they're not going to have to do one of the crazy road trips to start as a

team. And a lot of things like that. Who do you think will be the top texas team next year i would lean houston because i'm pretty confident in houston right now but i do think dallas will bounce back to an extent i think there's enough talent there for them to not have to do a ton to be somewhat competitive and on the brad stuver question i'll give you this stephen fry was an all-star one time in his career sometimes when you get stuck in a spot you get stuck in a spot but i think a lot of people talk about him in a best 11 conversation i think he was on one of your teams right yes he was on my third team right so that's he should have been a finalist should have been a finalist for goalkeeper of the year like yes i would agree with that as well um let's move on to claydy troyer who says if by some

spectacular mls he reason we get an MLS Cup final without Miami, Columbus, with the L.A. teams, what potential matchup would you be most excited to watch? Columbus versus either L.A. team would be fun. And I do think Cincy versus either L.A. team would be fun as well. But this says without any L.A. teams. Did I just completely misread that then when you sent it to me in my bank account? Oh, Tom, let me explain how a mailbag works. They're going to ask a question.

They're going to answer it. But this question, I don't want to. It's basically outside the top four. Okay, yeah. I don't know what I want to bet, and I don't really want to be held to any bets. I'd put my kneecaps on the line that one of these four teams would be in the final. In answering this question, I cincinnati houston i think tql stadium would be an mls cup worthy environment that i would love to see and i'd love to experience and i both believe houston can get there and i think this houston team's a lot of fun and i

think that would be a good matchup so that was the the answer I went with. Feel good, Tom? Atlanta, Vancouver. Oh, chaos, baby. I gotta go to the standings and see who would host. I gotta know. 40 points for Atlanta, Vancouver on 47. Check the Supercross schedule. No, no, no. They have a Taylor Swift concert

that weekend. So they can't. Shut up. I swear to God. Shut up. That's different than Supercross. Taylor Swift concert should get priority over MLS Cup. But I'm just saying we could do this all over again. I think that's probably,

I think that's the last stop of the Airheads store of all time. Two years. So that's a big moment. Maybe MLS Cup can open for Taylor Swift. Seattle,

enjoy hosting MLS Cup between Vancouver and Atlanta. Back to Portland, are you kidding me? It feels like they have a home field advantage now. Yeah, it's a good home field advantage. Scotland Yard now.

Oh, wow. Did you just make that up? I stole it from Zody. He tweeted to me. Okay, that's a great nickname. Cooper here says, what the hell happened to Victor Wanyama? I was digging around the club roster builds. See, he's the only DP on their roster.

I go to the stats page to see the minutes he's played this year knowing it wasn't many he wasn't even listed under montreal's player stats page i would assume that that is a tech issue and not a reality because he is still on the roster uh talking to people around the club i have heard that he's you know he lost the step and he wasn't really capable of doing it anymore. I've heard he's been fine around the group. He hasn't made it difficult. But Victor Wanyama is not going to play in Major League Soccer anymore after this year. And it's unfortunate because he was awesome in the non-SAID teams, and he was the only guy who would come for a little while to that group,

and he was part of the unrebuild, and then he stuck around to be a part of things as they put things together. So it's unfortunate it's gone this way, but that's just the reality. Paul in Ohio here says now with 30 teams and MLS for the foreseeable future, will we see regimented schedules like with the NFL? I'd like to see divisions at some point to have a more balanced schedule, but I don't think there are the votes to do that with the Eastern conference

teams wanting messy home games. And some owners are willing to play a home game two and a half hours away to maximize messy. I don't know that the alignment of the league is set up around one player who's 35 and we don't know how long he'll be in the league, but I would assume that Paul's reporting on schedule would affect this in a way because you need Southern teams that you're playing at. In Paul's reporting, and again, this aligns with what I've heard as well, is the discussions would be around four divisions. And then you play everybody in your division twice.

And that was one of the ideas. That's not kind of set in stone or anything, but part of the overhaul of the schedule, they would probably realign to make four divisions is the strongest I've heard. But again, that's not something that's 100 i like the division setup um i've said it for a little while i think it's a good setup and i also think you could have fun playoff series where like your you don't go full

league playoff first almost like your play-ins are inside division for a little rivalry there and then you pop into the full thing um but you would assume those have to go north-south to an extent so that you can have southern teams that have better weather, which in theory you wouldn't have necessarily needed if you were putting together teams just based off geographical location and all of that. But that's what the NFL and everyone else does and all of that. Last one here, Callan K., who came in emotional yesterday

and said, short question, should Phil Neville keep his job? I am a Timbers fan And currently thinking no But I also think he will I get it It was a tough day It's been a tough week A 5-0 loss

Your star player Basically trashing the structure of your club On social media And you don't know what the future is I would say For myself I believe that the best thing for clubs is stability and long-term planning. Now, I'm not saying Phil Neville's going to be the

best coach. I did enjoy some of his inter-Miami teams. He's already shown he can be competitive in MLS. I'm actually, hence why I'm a little frustrated with the team we saw this year and their inability to play in any balanced way. But one year is not enough time. And if that was what was going to happen, then you'd have to make larger changes, I one year is not enough time. And if that was what was going to happen, then you'd have to make larger changes, I think, from top to bottom. I don't think swapping Phil Neville in and out of this group changes a whole lot, and I think it actually probably makes the club weaker for a little bit of time going forward.

Yeah, I'll start on the factual side. No, there's no chance that Phil Neville loses his job this offseason, so I don't want to give anybody any false hope, I guess, if they're hoping that there's a change, and two, if I was running the team, I'd keep Phil Neville, like, again, like, it was an awful end of the season, like, that's gonna sour everything, but, like, I still think it was a solid season, they had a lot of fun, they tried to play expansive, I know that that came with some naivete defensively, there is money being spent on the defense, there's several TAM players there. U22, like with Mosquera, right?

Like they need to find a balance better next year. And that'll be on Phil Neville and that'll be on additions, whether it's in defensive midfield as well and defensive depth. But there is room for improvement. But for me, I liked more of what I saw than dislike this year, if that makes sense.

Yeah, absolutely. So it'll be interesting to see what Portland does going forward. If you want all of the coverage of the Evander situation, go to the episode yesterday. If you haven't listened already, Tom came straight off the live reporting beat onto the show. We did it for the first 15 or so minutes to talk about what happened, what we could see the future play out and sort of what's going on in Portland with all of that. All right, Tom, thank you for joining me. This was fun. Let's go to our interview now with Miguel Lopez of the Vitor Fraud Organization about tactical periodization. Tom will be back, as I said, on Monday with me so that we can do our MLS playoff weekend recap and preview the final four series coming up. Well, a big part of this show is an opportunity to speak to some really interesting minds around

the sport, around the globe, around North America, but all around the world. Obviously, that's the beauty of this game is the global nature. And we've got a special opportunity right now. We're going to talk to Miguel Lopez, a professional youth soccer coach in Portugal and an instructor for the official School of Tactical Periodization by Vitor Fraud. Miguel, thanks for joining us. Yeah, you're welcome. It's always a pleasure to take some time to speak for people that share the same passion.

So thank you again also to you. So we are here because there is a program coming up at the end of January in Dallas by this official school of tactical periodization by Victor Fraud. For potential youth coaches, they can sign up and get involved. But let's start from the beginning here as we get into it. Let's start simple and sort of explain to us what is tactical periodization? Well, tactical periodization is a methodology that has been developed by Professor Vito Frad. We call him professor because in parallel with his career first as a player then as a as a as an assistant coach he was also

professor in the university where he had also contacted many many people and it was a methodology that was built on their on his own path taking some of the of the thoughts of the feelings he had first as a player, Professor Vito Frat, and then when he started as a coach, also he was already very enthusiastic with an area of knowledge, or if you want to say, or a different paradigm that was emerging during the 20th century where many, many branches of science started to make this shift from the analytical paradigm to a more holistic paradigm. So he was already into a lot of minds also like a he a body as I got more a as other people that started to make this shift for a more analytical reductionist

paradigm to so and he started to interconnect all these things with with football because he already put in question a lot of the things that were common, that was the mainstream of what was football training methodology at that time. And he started to develop his own way to approach training and fortunately he had the opportunity to do it at a very high, very top level. So FC Porto at that time where he spent most of his career. FC Porto is a big, big club here in Portugal. Always fighting for the titles, the club that won the most leagues here.

And also playing in European competitions so playing often in Champions League or in UEFA Cup so they had the opportunity through time things started to make more sense on a completely different approach so the core of the methodology is a different understanding

of specificity because in football we used to call, or in training methodology, it's assumed that specificity comes to do certain things that are alike the game. So, but it's not just train like the game. It's to train like a certain way to play the game. Because if you look at the team, if you look at any team in the world, Real Madrid or Liverpool or FC Porto

or Inter Miami or whatever the team is, you always recognize certain patterns. The patterns that has to do with the with the ideas of the coach with the characteristics of of the players uh with the culture of the club so uh at the moment you have a certain vision about what should be uh this team playing uh um in order to to to take the most possible from this squad, from this club, you have a certain vision. So all the process, all the process, I say all the process, from day one, it's to start to develop this, what is called the game model.

So this, it starts from a previous intention. So I think this is, it's the path. So all the things that you do, all the moments that you have in the training or before or after has to do with a certain way to play the game. Because otherwise, all the things that we do on a team collectively and also create a certain adaptability.

So I become better to do that. So if I just do drills or situations of football but that those type of drills of type of exercise doesn't have a connection with with with the pre-attention I have so with the learning process I want to become in order to play on a certain way that this lack of careers does take you in time to the outcome that you desire. So on tactical position from day one, all the things that you do, and it has to do with the game model. With the game model model you have certain principles offensively and defensively and they are called principles by reason it's not exactly something

caused we will do this in attack this or the positioning when the ball is here it's okay we have certain principles that are like a certain criterion for the way that we will defend an attack and from that you adjust to the different circumstances because the game it's chaotic it's always presents uh something as new so if i want to and the principles have to be interconnected with each other so okay it's very interesting the idea for example to press high in the opponent's half but you know that in terms of the the concentration in terms of the how you have to to adjust to press high when your defense it's like 50 meters from from his own goal it requires a lot a lot a lot of energy, a lot of concentration.

And in order to do that, often it's doable. If then, when you win the ball, you have a certain volume of possession in attack in order sometimes to rest with the ball. So in the moment that you lose the ball, you have the energy also to do it. Because if you are all the time winning and losing the ball, it's unbearable to be, for example, pressing all the field all the time. So the principles have to be interconnected between each other.

And it has to be interconnected with the culture of the club, obviously, with the characteristics of the players that you have available in your roster or your squad then it's something very complex but because football is complex a football team is a complex thing so you need also complex tools to deal with it

sometimes the process is not everything clean there's this very modern tendency to have everything clean of there's this very modern tendency to have everything clean, off the noise. Because sometimes you use this more analytical, this more fragmented tools, we split the game in tactical, in physical, in psychological and you know sometimes players not playing is doesn't have confidence okay this is a psychological problem maybe but maybe is not confident because the way that the team is

expecting to play it's not adjusting to his own characteristics so we are uh putting the player on on uh on the field maybe and with the relations uh that are not uh in favor uh to him so he's not playing good he's not playing good or he can't perform because it doesn't adjust to his own characteristics then obviously then uh maybe lack of confidence so is this psychological is this tactical there's no even border in between these things because the game is a whole and there's a very common concept that professor used to talk the unbreakable wholeness of the game so it's it's the things things that exist in reality together as a whole, you have to deal with them as a whole. Sometimes when you are trading,

you trade a part of the game because you want to put some emphasis here or there. But the essence of the game, this chaotic side, this complex side, this interconnection in between attack and defend has to be present all the time. And you do it how? Training the game. Problems that you create on the way you want to play, so the team can grow in time over that pattern.

It is fascinating. It makes a lot of sense the first time it was explained to me was in a psychological way or you know a way that affects all life right everything is connected and the way you learn and the way you interact with people it's not just about football and that's what i i've always found really interesting about this for a lot of people um you you mentioned vittorud who the professor who created this at in Porto and then worked with FC Porto when they hear Porto the first thing they think of is Jose Mourinho in the Champions League and then the growth from there and and it seems like in the history of tactical periodization the popularity of it Mourinho is a very large figure and there's

sort of a before and after him is what it seems like to me in terms of the the way that the methodology was spread like uh on a global scale yes uh obviously uh josé mourinho that at that time had uh that worked before in FC Porto with Vitor Frade, and then when he started his career as a head coach, Mourinho picked one of his students, Rui Faria, and obviously all the success that was apparently impossible to achieve in Europe, because to win in a row UEFA Cup and then Champions League

with a big Portuguese club was something that was very hard to imagine. And they made it. Obviously, when this happens, all the interest comes in, all people start to ask how. And obviously the the methodology was one of the was one of the elements that people realized that influenced the the success they had here and from that point on yes oh you yes all the interest came from all across the world

and yeah that was a crucial point in the in the for the methodology and to the possibility that people started to come all over the world here to be with the professor and that was

also the trigger to to tactical prioritization by V Frade as a brand, as a company because obviously professor was not it was impossible for him to attend to all the interest that came from all across the globe and yeah, it was the trigger so Mara Vieira um founded the the company as we know today talked a little bit about the organization and the program and what's coming up in dallas well um the the company has the full um rights rights over the brand of tactical prioritization.

And from the beginning, it was... So the mission was to be the extension of what was actually Professor Witterwaard's mission in terms of spread the word about the methodology, to put in question a lot of things that were assumed in this more conventional way, the way that we got used to train. If you look at the roots of training methodology, you soon realize that most sports, essentially collective sports, also have their roots on athletics. Because when people started to realize, oh, we need something more systematized. Who had already systematized the process of training?

People that work especially in athletics, also in gymnastics and maybe swimming. But these three areas were. So which one was more like football? For example, it was athletics. So all the systematization came from athletics. And one of the also important assumptions here in this methodology is the fact that we are not training athletes. Because that's the main paradigm that you see in sports science, in universities that are around sports science. Is that a little bit, okay, first you are an athlete and then you are a player and it's not okay uh athletes are

you find athletes in athletics as you find players and in football and rugby and uh in uh in basketball so they are players they are not athletes they are players okay because all the all the the way that you have to function to be a real player it's very difficult and actually much more complex than just running for example okay so all the preparation has to be completely different and he realized this and was one of the first persons that realized that maybe this was not the right path. And he was a major influence on the field, working on the field and also uh uh in the university where he has contact with uh not only his students but some students coaches some students players so as for you it started to make easily a lot more sense once you start to dig in once you start uh so the mission of the company it's it's to to be the extension of uh the legacy that uh vito frat already but we've been and i've been participating

in the so the core of the company obviously in this moment it's it's the the professional master where we have students, coaches from all over the world, very different contexts, professional coaches in major leagues, for example, in Europe, some other coaches also from the United States. Right now we have a lot of people from the United States. And then we have other courses and other activities like it will happen in Dallas where it will have also like a presidential part of this course we have more deep contact with the people, we go to the field, we make practical cases, we discuss, we share

so it's a lot of that also then it's interesting because with time we started to develop like a big community, right now we have like hundreds of coaches that had contact with us and we are like this big network we are sharing information all the time we are sharing visiting coaches

that are working other parts of the globe so it's like right now it's it's it's also a big community of coaches that share obviously these values in terms of what they believe that with the natural differences that might be between me and you

because we are different coaches each one preserves his uniqueness but in terms of what is the core of the ideas of what football uniqueness but in terms of what is the core of the ideas of what football should be in terms of training methodology we share those those values and we have this big community that is extending

every year more and more and more tacticalperiodization.com is where you can find it you can google Vitor Fraud V-I-T-O-R and the last name's F-R-A-D, but I'll put it all in the podcast information. I know there's a lot of young coaches that listen to this show.

I know there's a lot of not young coaches that listen to this show as well, as well as people that are just passionate about the sport and about the game. So you can go there if you're interested in getting involved. We talk a lot about youth development on this show it is one of the sort of stresses but also excitements i think a lot in the u.s and canada because there's been so much success but also it feels like there is a ceiling at times and you know the the obvious question you get from a lot of non-soccer fans is like when's the u.s going to develop messi or ronaldo and it's a bit of an annoying question but they they are these are i don't know what i don't know what is annoying uh

obviously uh it's not something you can do uh overnight exactly uh but we know but there's people that actually studied a lot about this that they know how how he's to uh obviously there's a mass effect here obviously if you have more more kids playing football so the possibility of someone extraordinary to come it's it's it's increased a lot but then obviously the the process being the the formal part of the process but also the informal part of the process because all of them started to play uh or in informal contexts or in the streets nowadays it's it's difficult to play the streets in the more uh western civilization especially it's more difficult that to happen but we have to bring those ingredients that for example on on on the early ages uh if we realize that why

uh street food was so important on the new development that brought so many extraordinary players that came came to the clubs at the age of 13 14 12 but when they arrived with 13 years old they already were oh wow wow wow and then if we manage to now in the clubs because we now receive the kids with

4, 5, 6 years old if we manage to understand which ingredients were present in street food that are absolutely crucial and certainly indispensable in the process manage to understand which ingredients were present in street football that are absolutely crucial and indispensable in the process we can maybe bring those ingredients to the training in the early ages and minimize the impact of the loss of street football. Actually, I've been through some processes in which we managed

to create the conditions. Obviously, this is not we made this player what he is, but obviously, when you find a club that delivers so much players to the elite, it's something that

must be there. Okay? And, yeah. If you want to aspire to be able to produce a great place, yes, you have to find the right ingredients and with the right environment, and it's just a matter of time. With the right ingredients and with the right environment, then it's just a matter of time. With the right environment, it's just a matter of time.

Obviously, it's hard to talk about Messi because it's won in a lifetime. Yeah, but if you take Barcelona, for example, you take Messicelona example okay you take messi out and you see how much extraordinary players they have been brought this this on this decade so something must be something must be there okay it's not just magic okay but one okay uh when it's's a lot. Something must be there. Well, my question was going to be, why do you think Portugal as a country is so successful?

Because you are one of the outliers, which is if you take sort of GDP and populations and all of that, and you put together the countries that choose to play, China, the US, Russia, it's not the biggest sport, large countries. But the countries that choose to play china the u.s russia it's not the biggest sport large countries but the countries that choose to play it often is very similar to the fifa rankings right france argentina brazil england portugal is a little bit of an outlier in that it is sort of this golden ability to with a smaller population and um you know not as much of a history in europe as a power in the last 100, 200 years.

It is this footballing sort of like golden zone. Is that what you think is sort of the reason, is the club's ability to move these players through? Yeah, I believe that the fact that because of people like Vito Frade who stepped forward before the other other nations so and maybe more than 20 years ago

that we had because of people like Vito Frade already a global awareness that okay train has to be much more about the game because you know if if you know I grew the 80s okay in the 80s it was if you if you watch like what my what my coaches, when I was in my hometown club, I used to talk, it's always all the same everywhere,

and all alike what was at that time a professional club. So no matter if you were 13 or 15, so what they call pre-season was to run, to make you an athlete. Right. And then after some weeks, you start to play. Training was like now technical training, now physical training.

And then if you were playing like Thursday to Sunday, Thursday it's game, okay? But all the rest of the, okay, you had to feel, because, you know, coaches are always very pragmatical. So, they easily understand that if you play Sunday to Sunday basis, okay, the day of the the week more or less middle week but yes so Thursday it will be this is to me this is to the coach and daddy they just managed to find people to fill up the rest of the week okay with technical stuff with physical stuff essentially and here we realized soon that training

could and maybe should be a completely different thing and we yeah we we step forward in that because more than 20 years ago people already realized or most of people realized that training should be much more about the game and we started to soon compensate that effect of loss of street football bringing much more the game to the training every day from day one obviously not everyone is aligned with tactical prioritization not everyone likes tactical prioritization not everyone really comprehends what it is but this acknowledgement that we should look at the game on a much more holistic was generalized, obviously because of the impact.

Because then about tactical optimization, some have more deep understanding than others. But this acknowledgement that the training should be essentially about playing allowed us to step forward soon. And yeah, it's right for a small country like us, with this tiny population of 10 million as we have, it's incredible the amount of players that we have with a successful career at the highest level uh you look at uh our national

team right now define uh you look at the the subs you know and i was gonna say too many players european cup in 2024 this this summer if you look at portugal portugal bench easily you have another team that can play the european cup so yeah that and one of the main reasons was yeah i believe it was that um so for everyone interested please go to the website um look it up i want to leave you with one last question this is something we've been talking about on this show a lot. And I know you've worked in professional clubs, both in Portugal and overseas. So you have experience seeing different ways. I'm curious your thoughts on pathway of moving players from the academy

into the first team and professional ranks. We've used this line, if you're good enough, you're old enough. And then we've had people debate that on this show and disagree. And I'm curious your thoughts of sort of an ability for a club to help a player or a club to push a player and sort of what you've seen as good practices or bad practices in that process. Well, there's some good good starting points i would say uh it's everything it's it's easy when you have passion when you have a culture where you have passion if of a culture like uh portuguese culture like brazilian culture like argentinian culture, like many, many countries, for example, in Africa, some have French influence, some other have Portuguese influence, some other have English. a great passion and what is this passion there's uh dreams and kids start to play how why just for passion just because they they dream to be like messy they dream to be like ronaldo uh so that's the original trigger, okay? Then to develop an environment on a club

where you want to provide a lot of players or consistently to bring players to the elite, you have to create the right environment. And the right environment should allow the player to maintain the passion through the process because the passion is in the engine. You have to also promote a way of playing because in football you always take part okay some like more like fast counter-attack way to play there was this I don't know, maybe... I'm not sure. All nations have this favorite goal.

You know, for a Dutch team, the dream goal is everyone just one touch, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, goal. For one Brazilian, it's one guy to dribble everyone and score a goal. That's about culture. But on a club you have to take part for one way to play the game. And if you want to bring players to the elite, you have to realize what is necessary.

So it has to be a rich idea in terms of what is the game model if if you just think about defend defend defend and don't take risks and try to to to win the game just not uh making any risks just then you go one or two times to their box and you score or make an on-set piece probably with you what you will develop in players will not be enough to play on the orito

it has to be a rich idea and you you have to inspire yourself, you need to have a vision, and say, okay, we believe this is for this culture, for this club, this is our way okay this is our way our game model, and from that, all

it's like the axis of something that then will evolve, inspire you have to understand what is some obviously some things are more uh important in the basis when they have four five six seven years old you have to be aware of what's essential at that time for example in terms of obviously what is the the ability the ability to make the ball almost like an extension of your own body, to be able to transform your intentions on execution.

It's not only with the ball, but to receive the ball, to anticipate, to be able to imagine what can happen. So that is absolutely crucial. It's absolutely crucial also to have the kids a lot of time, a lot of contact with the game. It's not possible to train, to play football twice a week and to go to that level. So nowadays the big clubs clubs the big academies what they are trying to to to

increase the number of hours of contact with with the game okay they play formal competition Saturday morning and Saturday the afternoon they go like to this futsal tournament where they play all the afternoon, they can express themselves, they can take risks, they can be creative, they can play collectively, they can understand what it is to be collective on our way. So, yeah, it always starts a little bit on this, to have a game model to make the right environment. And then, obviously, there's on further stages,

you have to conceive also the professional team in a way that there's room and space for those young players with 17, with 18, 19, to, as soon as possible, train and compete with the professionals. Because Pepa Islanders, that's now Red Bull Salzburg, once said publicly that young players, like 16, they don't need criticism they do they need good role models so as soon as you with 17 16 when they believe they are ready to as soon as you expose them to what is the reality with the professionals with the

professional mindset they already have with the intelligence they already have with experience they already have if you see for example on a country like argentina it's very easy to find a 16 year old white playing the first division 17 18. uh you see a lot a lot uh when they feel like they are ready to, they just, okay. Because they are, yeah, because also they need to. Argentina sells a lot of, Argentina Cubs sell a lot of, so they depend on that. So as soon as they can, they feel that they are ready to, yeah, go play.

Play, like, irresponsibly sometimes like just young 17 years old players can can play you imagine yourself what is to play like a river bocca with 17 years old if you are prepared to do that you can do everything you know so but yeah it's it's for me it's a lot about the cert the the right culture in terms of game in terms of what is the game on and the right environment environment where they can flourish when they can they because you know great players the type of player they were when they were like 10, 9, 10, it's the type of player, it's a pattern, it's

the way they see the game, the way they solve the problems of the game, it's always the same, then you just nurture them with game and game and game, sometimes the game more like this, some other things,

because you cannot be just training like game 11 to 11 okay uh then you have to to nurture the the the environment and if the environment is it's a huge piece in this puzzle because in all contexts as well or you have many many players that came to the to the professional team and were successful, for sure you have great talented coaches on the process, great talented people also finding the right players with the right potential. Some of them they don't even need to make reports they just with the ability they have with experience they have okay this one this one obviously they never they don't it's not a hundred percent always right but for sure there are some that have more eye than others and with the coaches is the

same so you have also to build a process with the coaches okay you have to create an armory a good a good environment also in between collaborative environment in the club because often you see this is this happens a little bit all across the globe you are more rewarded as more as older ages you you you coach okay so this all already created a certain mindset in which uh coaches coaches in order to be uh rewarded and feel recognized they want to go higher so and sometimes it's great on some clubs and non-collaborative yeah because it's very important for example uh in order to we have this under 14 uh player and uh it's my player i should knock the the the under 16 coach to say, listen, we have this boy, he's amazing, extremely talented.

I think for him, it would be great to face a different environment, more challenging to him. Would you be available to bring him to your training, to your games maybe? Okay?

So if I have this non-collaborative, I want to save the play for myself. Right, you want to win. I can win games, I want to save the play for myself. You want to win. I want to win. It's very important, this collaborative environment on the club, also between the technical staff,

so the players can forge. At least do it on a consistent basis, because to bring one, it's easy. To bring consistently every year, two, three, four players. That's a different thing. Yeah, yeah. The pathway is important.

And that's a lot of what we've been talking about. If you want to be one of those coaches, if you want to learn more about the game, go check out this program. Get involved and obviously continue to push your coaching career and learning. And that's what we do here at SoccerWise. We really enjoy it. So, Miguel Lopez, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. And we's what we do here at SoccerWise. We really enjoy it. So Miguel Lopez, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. And we'll have to do this again soon.

Yeah, you're welcome. And always, always good to talk about this, about football, about the passion we have about it. It's fantastic. Thank you, David, also so much. Thank you so much once again to Miguel Lopez for joining us. And we are ready for a big weekend of soccer here in North America the win for the U.S. Women's National Team already

last night the second game coming up on Sunday we will have all of your coverage of that next week as well as getting you ready for the final weekend of the NWSL regular season, reacting to the Summer Cup series that's coming up later tonight and getting you ready for the playoffs as well. On top of that, of course, we've got the MLS playoffs kicking off tonight, Inter-Miami in the first round. Myself and Tom will be back Monday to give you that show so we can get you the coverage of the games this weekend and preview the final four series that are going to kick off Monday and Tuesday night. And then we'll bring you our second show to review all of that and get ready for the second round of this potential three game series across the Eastern and Western Conference. It is, I think, the best time of the year. You still have a lot of teams

involved, a lot of hope, a lot of excitement, a lot of different styles of soccer that we're going to see on display and a lot of different legacies that are going to be written. I've mentioned that word a couple of times over the last few weeks. This is when you go back and think and course, how Seattle has created so many of these stars and their legacy, Toronto FC, Columbus, of course, over these last two spells under Caleb Porter and now Wilfred Nance. These are the moments that you think back on. These are the great goals. These are the things that create club legends, legacies, all of that. So I am so excited to be locked in for all of it.

You can be in our Discord. If you join as a Patreon, it gets you into the mailbag that I did earlier in the show, as well as a place to hang out and talk about all these games with other people who are passionate, who care, who have fun enjoying this sport and enjoying these leagues as well. So thank you to all of you for listening. Once again,

thank you to Miguel for joining us. We'll talk to you again very, very soon.