Playing Soccer in Buenos Aires

My son Nicholas and I arrived in Buenos Aires on a cold and rainy Saturday morning during the week of the World Cup Finals. We originally planned the trip with the hopes that Argentina would be in the semifinals and go on to win in the final. Everywhere we stopped people were talking soccer and lamenting the team’s elimination in the quarterfinals. The loss badly crushed the hopes of a nation looking to win another World Cup title.

Our two-week trip was planned with the idea to spend time visiting with family, friends (from my playing days) and talking soccer in a country that is soccer-crazy all the time, not just during the world’s biggest soccer tournament.

The next day we met for lunch with my long-time friend and former teammate, Angel Felix, who is now the Assistant Coach at Club River Plate (one of the most popular and well-known teams in the world). We spent several hours talking about the game of soccer around the world discussing the latest techniques in coaching and training for both youth and pro players. He invited us to attend a practice the next day. We were excited to be able to visit River’s famous “El Monumental” Stadium complex.

Later that afternoon we found ourselves watching the World Cup Final (Spain vs Netherlands) in the famous restaurant called “Locos por el Futbol” (Crazy about soccer). This restaurant features a dining hall where soccer fans can eat and watch soccer games from around the world on a giant screen. It was totally amazing to see the exuberant crowd of different nationalities cheering on the two teams.

At the end of the game thousands of Spanish descendants and supporters descended on the famous “Obelisco” (a smaller replica of the Washington Monument) in downtown Buenos Aires where they partied until the morning hours, celebrating Spain’s first-ever World Cup title.

On Monday morning, we got up early, breakfasted on a continental menu of delicious café con leche and medialunas (croissants) before leaving for the half hour taxi ride to River Plate.

On arrival, we met with Coach Angel Cappa (who is also another old friend from my playing days) and who is in his first season as River Plate’s head coach. We spent the next few hours observing the practice which included lots of technical work, small group possession games, and finally ended with a full-sided scrimmage game between the starters and the substitutes.

Afterward we toured the rest of the club facilities and saw their trophy case which was quite impressive. The stadium holds 65,645 people and gets quite noisy as it is sold out for all the team’s home games.

Our next destination was Bahia Blanca, a city of 500,000, located 600 kilometers (an 8-hour ride) south of Buenos Aires along the Atlantic Ocean. We traveled by car and had a lot of time to think about our next stop – Club Liniers, where I first started my career as a soccer player at the age of 12.

At Liniers we had the opportunity to be involved with the U-14/15 boys’ teams. We ran several practices and we spoke with the Director of Coaches, Guillermo Puliafito, who explained that the program identifies youth from around the southern part of the Argentina and brings them in to live and train at the club.

By mid-week, we visited Club Libertad, located in Villa Rosas where we met with Jorge Solari, a former Argentine National team player. He is now the Director of Club Renato Cesarini Soccer Academy and was running local tryouts, looking to discover and sign up talented young players. We met with Coach Solari several times both on and off the field and we learned a lot about his Academy and his training techniques and philosophy.

On our return to Buenos Aires we met with Vincente Cayetano Rodriguez who was an assistant coach to the famous World Cup Coach Cesar Mennotti (WC champion 1978). Mr. Cayetano is now Director of the Reserve Program for Club Independiente (National Div. 1 pro team). We spent hours discussing his successful training techniques and tactics and how he identifies players to enter the training program.

Our last stop was to meet with Julio Santella (a former teammate from Club Estudiantes de la Plata). Julio is now the Director of the Physical Trainers Program of the well-known BOCA Juniors Soccer Club. We met Santella at their training facilities near the airport and spent several hours discussing the important aspects of conditioning and fitness training (including speed training & weight training) for young players. It was Santella’s opinion that young players shouldn’t start weight training until about age 14-15 or until they’re physically ready. We were impressed with the scope of his knowledge and thankful that we had the chance to talk with him.

On our way to the Airport we stopped and visited the beautiful AFA (Argentina Futbol Association) training complex where the National Team practices on fields that are impeccably manicured and maintained year round. The facility is very modern with dorms, playgrounds, and picnic areas that serve team members and their families whenever the team is called up for national appearances.

Throughout our stay in Argentina we met with many excellent coaches and trainers and we traveled through small towns and larger cities where thousands of youngsters play the game day after day on dirt fields, without the latest soccer clothing or cleats, but always with the dream to become the next Leonel Messi (FIFA World Player of the Year, currently playing in Barcelona).

Our two weeks flew by quickly and with all that we did and saw there were many opportunities that time would not allow. Overall, we did have a fantastic trip and learned many new ideas while meeting lots of old and new friends who love the game of soccer as much as we do.

Looking back on our visit we are thankful for the opportunities we had to expand our soccer knowledge by meeting with the best coaches and trainers in the world. We are now looking forward to being able to share what we learned with other coaches and all our players here.

Since our return we’ve jumped right into what we like to do best – being out on the soccer fields working with boys and girls who love the game of soccer.

Jorge and Nicholas Severini are both Licensed National Coaches and EPYSA ODP Coaches. Jorge Severini coaches the Boys’ Varsity at Haverford H.S. and Nicholas Severini is the new Boys’ Varsity Coach at Lower Merion H.S.
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SOURCE:
“Severinis experience soccer in Argentina”
Thursday, August 19, 2010
By Jorge Severini
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http://www.delconewsnetwork.com/articles/2010/08/19/sports/doc4c6d66ba9ee6f611545877.txt