19 January 2024. San Salvador. The Cuscatlán Stadium is practically full to see the national team play its first match of the year… And to see Messi! Inter Miami, in preparation for the 2024 season, has designed a pre-season that takes them to the capital of the Central American country on a tour of matches across the American continent.
There is huge excitement to see the best player in the world for the first time on Cuscatlecan soil. But I don’t have time for celebrations or festivities: I was introduced ten days ago, I was able to train with the local players for two days in the first week, and prior to the match in which I make my debut as national coach in front of my people, against Messi, Suárez, Busquets, Alba and company led by Tata Martino, I have only been able to do three sessions with the players I have been able to recover from the total available.
El Salvador 0-Inter Miami 0, and the match ended with a ball hitting the crossbar of the American team’s goal. The express preparation for the match, which a national team requires, has worked (not because of the result, as we could have won): in five sessions, the team has managed to achieve what it set out to do. How do you do that?
Last week, I talked to you about the three key points for starting a sports project on the right foot, applied to the reality of competition. Today, we’re going to dive a little deeper into specific match preparation. The keys to arriving at the match in a position to compete and overcome your opponent.
The system for selecting players.
One of the things I wanted to change in El Salvador was to create a comprehensive database of all eligible players. My previous experience in selecting players to accompany me, for example, with the Panama national team in 2022 at the Maurice Revello Tournament, made me aware of the difficulty of reaching all players across the country.
My complicated manual work of searching for the best Panamanian under-21 players, combined with the day-to-day work with the senior national team with the same difficulties, made it clear to me that when I returned to a national team, the creation of the database would be the first step in the project. And so I did.
In less than a month, together with my team of IT specialists and my own scout, we had reached all professional Salvadoran players, most players up to the age of 14, and a group of players with the option of becoming naturalised. This list became part of a database that fed into software for data management, the creation of monthly follow-up lists, reports on scouted players, and the organisation of call-up lists. With all this information, classified by ratings and colours, the selection process could be more or less successful depending on personal preferences, but it had a solid foundation: all potentially eligible players had been evaluated. In order to prepare for the match, it is necessary to select the players who will form the best possible team.
Call-up models where selection takes priority.
At the risk of repeating myself, as this was one of the key points last week, I believe it is essential to take this into account when preparing for matches. I want to make this clear because taking advantage of this structural feature is vital to gaining an edge.
Between the November and March windows, the international calendar does not include national team matches. As the vast majority of El Salvador’s national team players were in the local league, using three to six weeks of training between January and March to practise the playing system and interactions within the model was a major step forward. FIFA weeks last 10 days, and players who play abroad usually take time to arrive (with some exceptions); if they have also played the previous day in their league, the first three days are practically lost. Arriving with the locals with their homework done helps those from abroad to join in more easily, as it is more practical for ten to follow fifteen in familiar tasks and objectives than for almost thirty to arrive without having been able to train and with new concepts to explain and apply.
As national team periods usually involve two matches, the slower adaptation of the away players is compensated for if those who are familiar with the model play in the first match, leaving the second for the newcomers. Planning is essential and translates into optimal periodisation (clearly marking the competitive ‘periods’ of the calendar year, five in my view) and specific programming (each microcycle of each period must address as much as possible the determining factors in preparing the team to compete, avoiding innocuous or filler work that does not add minutes of play). It is in the microcycle where the concrete materialises.
The microcycle
I defend the microcycle as the cornerstone of the process. Because planning puts the overall perspective of the year on the table and the periods set partial objectives. But what you want from the team can only be achieved through training, and microcycles are the tool for that. In this case, in the local microcycles, we welcomed the players once the league match day was over (Sunday night) and trained from Monday to Wednesday, returning to their clubs on Wednesday. Recovery by applying tactical ideas from the previous call-up, mainly through video and light tasks on the pitch, for Mondays; defensive aspects on Tuesdays and attacking aspects on Wednesdays, with 11-a-side or a friendly match being the way to organise these local meetings.
For FIFA windows, the start was the same but usually included an official match in the middle of the week (Wednesday or Thursday) and a match at the end (between Saturday and Monday), before returning the players to their clubs. Keep these ideas in mind: maximum specificity, 11-a-side for as long as possible and organisation without the ball, with the ball and in set pieces based on our idea, and repeat to reinforce, with a clear understanding of how our game can hurt the opponent in the weak points we know.
Information for the player: clear and concise. Transfer to the game: completely specific. Improvement: through repetition of tasks and goal-oriented work, transforming conscious behaviours into habits.
