Thoughts on Men's Soccer at Williams

Peter Gordon '09

The Williams College men's soccer program has as its main objective the same commitment to excellence that exemplifies all aspects of the institution. Through the use of the most modern methods of training and one of the best soccer facilities in the country, as well a formidable New England schedule, the coaching staff strives to assist each player in attaining his maximum physical, technical, and tactical potential and learning to use his individual ability to develop total team harmony.

Technical and tactical training at Williams are an integral part of practice. Small-sided games and a heavy emphasis on functional training are employed to assist each player in fulfilling his soccer potential. Most fitness training is done with the ball, emphasizing endurance and speed.

Williams soccer features a quick, interpassing, attacking game. The team uses constructive and creative play in the attacking half of the field to generate goal-scoring opportunities. On defense high and delayed pressure are employed.

The game of soccer has become firmly entrenched in this country, and we at Williams are committed to furthering its growth by playing beautiful, attacking soccer while maintaining the high standards of spirit and integrity, which are intrinsic to the game.

We have a varsity and a reserve team. Our reserve team is predominantly comprised of First-Years with a few upperclassmen. They play a strong schedule and practice as a group separate from the varsity. I coordinate reserve team training sessions so that we present a progressive curriculum to our players.

Soccer at all levels is best played on grass fields. Williams College possesses one of the best soccer facilities in the country, as the fields are impeccably manicured grass surfaces situated in a beautiful locale surrounded by mountains.

The game field is 120 yards long by 80 yards wide and is used exclusively for matches. Williams has three other regulation soccer fields for practices and games. There are numerous spaces used for grids, pendulum balls, and a kick board.

Coach Russo and the Eph bench

The beauty of the game of soccer is that during a match it cannot be coach-dominated like so many other sports. Because soccer is a player's game, it is most important that players be thoroughly prepared in training. The main goal of our coaching staff is to provide training experiences that will enable a player to attain his potential in every aspect of the game. We want our players to have total mastery of the ball, vision of the entire field, composure, and creativity in decision-making. To accomplish these concepts, most of our technical and tactical training is done under pressure of one or more defenders to enable a player to experience the presence of an opponent even though the pressure might be passive at first.

Since mental attitude is so important in soccer we spend time improving a player's leadership ability as well as his ability to relax and concentrate through visualization training. Competitiveness is constantly developed through various competitions. It is our belief that proper training will improve each player's technical, tactical, fitness and psychological level of performance and thus total team performance will be enhanced.

We will vary our system of play depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent. We have played 4-3-3 with wingers, with one winger and two strikers; we have used 4-4-2 and 3-4-3 systems as well. We favor an attacking style of play with main emphasis on keeping possession while going forward. In the attacking third we take risks with much positional interchange and player movement. Creativity is encouraged with the priority being to create goal-scoring opportunities. On defense we play both high pressure and delayed pressure depending on circumstances and use a zone defense.

In the off-season players are involved in individual strength programs and play four times a week.

Williams is a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) along with Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts and Wesleyan. Along with our Little Three games versus Amherst and Wesleyan we also play perennial New England powers such as Babson, Keene State, Western New England College and Springfield College.