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Over here in the US of A - no matter what the sport - whenever anyone is motivated to
give the offensive players a marked advantage over the defensive players, the first thing
which comes to mind is a quick rules change to outlaw the zone defense. I've experienced
this practice first hand when coaching my daughter in the local city basketball league, when
the father of an undersized point guard selflessly volunteered his spare time to serve on the
rules committee, then immediately pushed through a rules change to outlaw the zone defense.
Eliminating the zone defense is not what soccer needs. While it would provide for higher
scoring games, and maybe even more entertaining soccer, the matches would be too difficult
to officiate. And sadly, the game of soccer would change from a "player's game" to a
"coach's game."
Worse still, under one on one soccer the players players would become more of like cross
country runners than a soccer players. Sure, we've already seen a little of this happen to
soccer over the past few decades. For verification of this you need only read the following
quote from Keir Radnedge's writings in World Soccer Magazine (December 1999, p. 68):
"The work ethic took over and fitness levels were forced up and up to serve it. Technique and entertainment suffered. The face of the game changed irrevocably."
But rest assured that elimination of the zone defense in soccer would bring about the need
for practice sessions which would give nightmares to my track and field hero Dave Bedford.
In "one-on-one" soccer, physical fitness would be more important than skill, as many coaches
would adapt a "John Havlicek" type approach where perpetual motion is used to simply
run the marking players into the ground. It would be like "Total Soccer on Cocaine."
Frankly, I'd feel sorry for the players under such a "one-on-one" game of soccer.
Mike Kimbro
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