Van Canna came up with a great idea for SummerFest this year. I suggested for our first match, lets pit the Canadian “Bears” against the USA “Pitbulls”. We can run the match on the Maritime Football field Friday evening after dinner. I asked Van if he would write something and perhaps help organize the match. Here is his response:
Sure, this should not really be a problem. What we want to get across is that this year we have in mind a novel idea for the usual evening sporting event that would consist of an international soccer game between US Uechi and Canada Uechi, with all potential players subject to draft from all volunteers in attendance at camp with a soccer background so as to put together two good teams.
So the call would go out to any Martial art discipline students attending camp and to anyone else from anywhere who has a passion for soccer, to show up at camp and be drafted into one of the two teams.
The call should also go out to anyone who has some experience in being a Referee and linesman to complete the set up. We can make do with only the Ref if linesmen are not available. But we want the game to be organized just right in order to make it interesting.
We should also suggest that any prospective player should come equipped with proper shoes_ a cup and shin guards. The ones who believe their shins are conditioned enough to get into a soccer game unprotected will be in for a rude awakening and serious injury. We want to keep it safe on the field.
The game is 90 minutes long, made up of a first and second half of 45 minutes _ each separated by a rest period of about 15 minutes or so.
Since this will be a recreation team, what I have in mind is to set up a simple 3-2-2-3 formation and style of play, with three full backs in front of the goalie, four midfielders, and three strikers up front, made up of a center forward and two wingers. This is in addition to the goalkeeper.
We see this formation here:
This is the best amateur “formation” to ensure “support”, “depth”, “width” & field coverage on both offense & defense and will give an idea and choice to some of the prospective players as to where they would fit best on the field.
The players would blend territories during attack and defense, but basically cover their assigned space.
I am sure we could motivate lots of ‘soccer minded’ guys to show up for this challenge.
[Be sure to e-mail George Mattson if you wish to participate. . . and on which team! ]