What's The Score?!

Footiecall faithful, it’s been a while.

We have been sorting out our new website et al and any other excuse you want to think up, for us not writing.

Anyway…

Today I’d like to look at a very concerning part of local football. Our inability to score goals!

If we cast our eyes across the ‘Top Scorers Lists’ around Europe, we’ll notice that our local front men are really not hitting the target [in more ways than one].

Suarez with 22goals [29 EPL games] 0.76 goal ratio

Cavani with 20goals [29 Serie A games] 0.69 goal ratio

Lewandowski with 19goals [26 Bundesliga games] 0.73 goal ratio

Ibrahimovic with 25goals [29 Ligue 1 games] 0.86 goal ratio

Bony with 26goals [27 Eredivisie games] 0.96 goal ratio

And of course the anomaly which is Lionel Messi, we’ll not take into consideration here, because he is hardly human. [42goals in 28games] 1.5 goal ratio

Our top marksman in the PSL is Parker with 10goals [22games] 0.45 goal ratio, a rather embarrassing statistic, especially as he is playing for current league leaders Kaizer Chiefs.

_______________________________________

Having a look at the goals to games ratio of our top [used rather loosely] marksmen at international level, the picture is not much different.

McCarthy 32goals [80games] 0.4 goal ratio

Bartlett 28goals [74games] 0.38 goal ratio

Mphela 23goals [53games] 0.43 goal ratio

Quick comparison against strikers from Africa’s top ranked countries:

Didier Drogba 60goals [95games for Cote D’Ivoire] 0.63 goal ratio

Asamoah Gyan 31goals [67games for Ghana] 0.46 goal ratio [currently still playing]

Now to have a look at the TOP ranked countries globally and how their frontmen are faring:

David Villa 53goals [86games for Spain] 0.62 goal ratio

Miroslav Klose 67goals [126games for Germany] 0.53 goal ratio [currently playing]

I recall in a presser with Solomon Luvhengo, one media representative asked what he was doing to change the players’ inability to score.

He responded [correctly]: “This is not my job, this sort of thing should be taught at grassroots level” [I paraphrase]

You see, this problem happens at amateur club level already…and it stems from inadequate coaching. Simple!

Amateur clubs, for the best part, get some parent to coach the kids, who has no clue about football coaching and every session ends in a tackle-for-a-goal spree. I’m sure we can see the irony in that.

Of course this is both easy for the ‘coach’ and the ‘players’ as there’s no difficult drills to get through.

How many clubs train the same system from U7 level right through to their top side?

Probably Ajax Cape Town, if they’re following the Dutch method and maybe a few more. My point is this, if we’re inconsistent at the start, it’s difficult to un-train those bad habits later on.

Is this a problem in Africa?

I’m not sure it is. Look how the likes of Samuel Eto’o, Didier Drogba have dominated goal scoring charts, playing among Europe’s elite. Of course, we can again look at the coaching/attention to detail received at these clubs, compared to that being offered on home soil.

Say no more…

So next time you watch a PSL game or go and watch Bafana Bafana…maybe try and find out where that striker cut his teeth, before we blame 1) the player 2) the current coach.

Thanks for joining us here at Footiecall.