Coach's Log>>

Eyes on the ball

By Kris Traykov

Now an assistant coach at Humber, I was born in Bulgaria and I played and coached soccer at various levels, in several countries throughout my career.

Playing and coaching are very different. As a player it was all about emotion, while coaching is about understanding your players, their positions and making sure they know what they have to do.

When I came to Canada, I noticed some fundamental differences between the Canadian and European soccer cultures. It is these differences, I think, that prevent Canada from realizing its full potential on the international stage.

There are two main ones that stand out.

The first is the fact that soccer is not the number one sport here. It’s hockey.

In Europe, soccer is almost a religion; it’s even bigger there than hockey is here.

The second is the coaching strategy. Young players are not receiving the same level of training kids are getting in Europe. In hockey they get started at a very young age, but not as much in soccer. There is a great focus on teaching skating skills, even as young as three or four.

In Europe there is an abundance of professional players who teach tactics and technique, two areas that are lacking here. Physically, the youth are just as good. They may have the talent to be good soccer players, but unless they learn technical skills early on, they will not be as good. There are not enough good coaches with professional soccer experience.

There is too much focus here on playing games rather than practice. In Europe, a player must prove himself in training, and show me what he can do before I let him out on the field.

A Canadian national league would go a long way to helping that problem. We could train our own players and then they would go on to train our kids to play better. In Europe there are at least two or three divisions in practically every country. Kids grow up looking up to these soccer stars; they like to play soccer and they see a future in it.

Here there are limited options once a player reaches the age of 18. They can go to Europe, or the United States, but there is nothing at home. The Toronto FC is the first step towards advancing soccer in Canada and I hope there will be more Canadian teams coming to big cities such as Montreal or Vancouver.