Manchester United Practice at Gillette Stadium, 7.12.11 (And Rooney Pic!)

What follows is a description of drills conducted by Manchester United at Gillette stadium on the eve of their friendly against the New England Revolution. The post may be of limited interest, even by the standards of an MLS-related blog, because it describes a practice. Then again, most people don’t get a chance to see an elite soccer team in training. I attended the practice for that reason and to get drill ideas for coaching at the youth level.

I talked to a very knowledgeable friend of mine about the practice, and he said he was familiar with all the drills I described, in fact told me that they constituted a typical pre-game-day training session. Besides being news to me, this fact might say something about soccer culture and how its traditions have been codified over the years. This established way of conducting practices stands in contrast to the NFL, where I’ve heard there are major differences in practice routines. For example, some teams practice in pads and hit hard, while others (like the old 49ers teams under Bill Walsh) forgo hitting in favor of working on the precision of their passing plays, etc.

My knowledgeable friend also told me—somehow managing to keep exasperation out of his tone—not to waste my time using Manchester United’s pre-game-day drills on a youth-league team, presumably because the drills are too demanding and don’t get the youth-league players enough touches on the ball over the course of an hour. Clearly, my friend should be writing a soccer blog, maybe this blog. Unfortunately, as of now he is not, so here, for soccer posterity, is my description of Manchester United’s training session.

Some additional preliminary notes: The team’s three goalkeepers practiced on their own for much of the hour, and I didn’t pay much attention to them. All the drills lasted ten minutes or so, and there were one or two breaks for water. Before practice, the players jogged around the field as a group and thoroughly stretched their legs. My probably wildly inaccurate guess is that there were four thousand specators spread out in the first ten or so rows on one side of the stadium. Needless to say, many spectators wore Manchester United jerseys. One such guy kept getting up and blaring out those team chants to the players, who were just yards away from us. It was a little surreal. The chants are meant to be shouted by many intoxicated fans, not a single sober one, and I felt embarrassed for this guy’s wife and children, who sat nearby but never joined in.

·      Drill 1: 7 v. 2 Keep-Away. Two sets of nine players ran through this drill. It took place inside a ten-by-ten-yard box marked off by cones. Seven players spread along the perimeter and passed the ball to each other while keeping it away from two defenders inside the box. If a defender was successful, he joined the players with the ball and the player who’d been dispossessed went inside the square to defend. I did pick up one training tip or procedure in this drill that can be used regardless of the players’ ages; it’s so simple and efficient I was surprised I’d never come across it before. Anyway, instead of going through the rigmarole of putting on and taking off pinnies, the defenders simply held the pinnies in their hands, then handed them over when they joined the “offense.” As for the quality of the passing and trapping by the players, it was amazingly high, especially given the tight spaces and speed of the drill. At times, though, even these players’ touches betrayed them, and they looked surprisingly, refreshingly human. Being a human myself, I often trained my eyes on the biggest celebrity of the bunch, Wayne Rooney. More than once he actually “went to ground” when playing defense in an effort to get the ball back. I believe he was the only player to do that during the drill, and I was thoroughly impressed by his competitiveness. It radiated off him even during the first drill of the season.

·      Drill 2: 9 v. 9 Keep-Away. The non-goalkeepers divided into two teams, one team wearing yellow pinnies. Each team tried to maintain possession inside a fifty-by-fifty-yard area. Players looked to make long passes as well as short ones. I think one of the biggest differences between the best teams in the world and the merely good ones is the ability to send fifty- and sixty-yard passes out to the wings and still seemingly effortlessly maintain possession. There are few things more impressive to me in soccer than a pinpoint pass over that distance to a winger who settles the ball while standing on or even over the sideline. Clearly, this drill was meant to work on that kind of thing, as well as on quick runs and passes in tight spaces.

·      Drill 3: Shooting and Crossing Drill. This drill looked fun to participate in, though I despair of describing it accurately. Basically, it took place on one side of the field, using one goal. Three groups of offensive players faced the goal—one group in the center, the other two on the wings. Two defenders in pinnies played in front of the goal, which had a keeper. The offensive player in the center started by passing to one of the defenders, who passed it back. The striker then took a shot on goal, presumably to work on his shot and on the keeper's skills. Then the offense worked the sides of the field, sending the ball from the center to the wings, where a triangle of players then passed the ball in a (to me) cryptic pattern, one player eventually dribbling towards the flag and crossing the ball to his teammates, who then tried to score on the defenders and keeper.

·      Drill 4: 10 v. 10 Scrimmage, including Keepers. The players scrimmaged on a short field, the staff leaving one goal on the end line and moving one up to the midfield stripe. The sideline cones were moved in maybe ten yards from the normal sidelines.

The two players that most impressed me during the practice were Patrice Evra—who lit up the field with his speed and quickness—and Rooney. Rooney impressed me not only with his foot skills and hustle, but also by taking shots on goal during one of the water breaks. He was the only guy working and not hydrating at that point. This may have been because he turned an ankle during one early drill and wanted to test that it was okay, but it also may be because he’s the hardest worker on the team. Finally, Rooney was the last guy out there signing autographs, almost an hour after practice ended, and seemed exceedingly gracious in the face of a bunch of rude Americans screaming "Rooney!" in his direction. The guy I went to the practice with brought his son, who got half a dozen autographs on a Manchester United scarf, including Rooney's and Ryan Giggs's. I got a picture of Rooney signing, and I’ve pasted it below. It’s this blog’s first photo, taken with my cheap but reliable Sony cyber-shot. I like the picture’s borderline artsy or aqueous quality, which does nothing to obscure the identity of the renowned subject.