Learn how a nation of about 16 million inhabitants can regularly produce world-class players or coaches like Johan Cruyff, Arjen Robben or Dick Advocaat and Louis van Gaal.

Train like the World Champions! Over the past few years, a new trend has become ever more prominent in the soccer world: passing often, fast, and including all players in the game. Combining this with their own personal style, we have seen teams reach new heights of success from FC Barcelona to Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund and, most recently, the German National Team at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. But what does it take to learn this ‘art’ of passing? What are the methodological and technical requirements for becoming the new Schweinsteiger, Messi, or Neuer? In this book, the only of its kind, two German League certified coaches have created the ultimate guide to passing. Using the “Hyballa-te Poel-Passing-Puzzle,” they present every type of pass there is in modern soccer, with lots of drills for each type. From the goalkeeper to the center forward, everyone can learn passing with these exercises.

From the FIFA World Cup to pick-up games at your local park, soccer is the closest thing in our world to a universal entertainment. Many writers use this global popularity to describe the game’s winners and losers, but what happens when we use social science to explore how soccer intersects with culture, society, and the self? This book provides a thinking fan’s guide to the world’s most popular game, proposing a way of engaging soccer that sparks intellectual curiosity and employs critical consciousness. Using stories and data, along with ideas from sociology, psychology, and across the social sciences, it provides readers with new ways of understanding fanaticism, peak performance, talent development, and more. Drawing on concepts ranging from cognitive bias to globalization, it illuminates meanings of the game for players and fans while investigating impacts on our lives and communities. While it considers soccer cultures across the globe, the book also analyzes what makes U.S. soccer culture special, including its embrace of the women’s game. As a scholar, former minor league player and coach, and fan, Andrew Guest offers a distinctive perspective on soccer in society. Whatever name you call it, and whatever your interest in it, Soccer in Mind will enrich your own view of the one truly global game.

This third volume in the best-selling "Dutch Soccer School Drills" series focuses on individual skill development, conditioning, and match situation training. These drills will improve your players in every facet of their games and make your practice sessions both stimulating and effective. Each drill features a clear diagram and description, an objective, coaching points, and possible variations.

The world’s best soccer players are incredibly fit, fast, lean, and strong. Achieving this level of athleticism requires a rigorous soccer fitness training program applying the most effective drills, exercises, and core training methods. In Soccer: Functional Fitness Training, the authors present numerous drills for this training. Based on the latest the findings in sports science and on the authors’ long-term coaching experience, they present an extensive practical guide to help you improve your team’s performance through core training, soccer specific exercises, and drills. The exercises can be used for amateurs and professional players, youth and adults alike. Your players can learn how to score the most exciting and acrobatic goals, how to tackle without fouling, and how to avoid injuries. The drills in the book create typical match situations to help your team prepare for the game and stay motivated. Many of the fitness exercises require no extra equipment and rely only on bodyweight, thus targeting many different muscles at once. The book is easy to use on the pitch and the ideal tool to turn youth players into the next Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, or Bastian Schweinsteiger.