Last Sunday, my under 14 girls faced a momentous task. With a squad of sixteen and running right on the brink of finals contention, we played the team directly above us on the ladder.
During the week, we learned of some absences.
Three of my top five players were unavailable and two other reliable performers were away on holidays.
On game day, illness prevented another player from taking her place. Down to ten, we looked doomed.
I woke at 4.37am and decided to ‘park the bus’. The courage to implement the strategy and the ability of my fledgling team to execute the tactic saw me unable to get back to sleep. I felt guilty, dirty and cheap.
‘Park the bus’ is one of my favourite sayings in football. It is so categorical.
The notion of positioning a fortress in front of goal and blunting any attack is a romantic one. Perhaps negative, but still romantic.
To stand resolute and stoic as attack after attack is thrust in your direction, refusing to allow your goal to be penetrated, is stuff of football folklore.
Asking a group of fourteen year old girls to take on this challenge was madness.
The pre-game warm up was varied, little hard running and a focus on fun before the girls were asked to follow the manager down to the creek adjacent to the pitch.
A full explanation of the ‘bus parking’ that was about to occur was delivered. The players were instructed to launch the ball as far as possible when using their sideline and clearing.
The ‘keeper was instructed to use every second available and the entire team made well aware that there was no hurry in gathering the ball and rushing to the sideline to get it back into play.
Tactically, it was either brilliant or a completely disgraceful display of unsportsmanlike conduct that didn’t befit the beautiful game of football.
Truthfully, I leaned toward the latter as the game unfolded.
In the first half, we did it easy. The ‘Rovers’ had a couple of chances, but once we slipped into a defensive rhythm, repelling their attacks looked quite comfortable.
Players strolled to the ball before taking throw-ins, the ‘keeper was in no hurry to launch the ball back into play and defenders followed the game plan perfectly by clearing the ball across the side-line and down the two metre slope.
As the ball continuously trickled down the descent and the opposition parents chased it furiously, desperately sensing that their girls should be applying scoreboard pressure to an under resourced squad, the lure of the half time break had me believing that the task was not beyond the girls.
Plenty of vitamin C and a few Natural Confectionary Company snakes saw the girls back in the driver’s seat of the bus. With only ten bodies and a consistent rotation from the opposition, fatigue would surely be an issue.
As they took the field, they assured me they were fresh legged and were up to the challenge. The game did open up and their legs did fail somewhat.
Jose, a true bus parker. (Image via Tsutomu Takasu, Wikimedia Commons)
Two excellent wingers started to make inroads down the flanks and the wide backs were under all sorts of pressure. Without a key forward blessed with the ability to finish in the box, many of the attacks were blunted by our excellent centre backs, who were instructed to clear the ball at all costs.
While grappling with the ethics and sportspersonship of the tactic employed, it would be unfair to suggest that we didn’t find a few attacking opportunities of our own. In fact the best chance of the second half came our way.
The coach felt far less daggers in his back whenever the team moved forward. He couldn’t help but feel the families cared little about the result and more about playing positively and in the spirit of the contest.
Such negative tactics would surely draw the ire of the parents. Registration fees are high and sport is about participation and enjoyment, not about some sort of convoluted, professional strategy, designed to stifle rather than score.
As we held on, longer and longer with tired legs beginning to hamper the effort, the task appeared within our reach. We surged forward late in the game yet failed to score and an enormous roar followed the final whistle.
The girls trudged to the sideline utterly exhausted, not quite comprehending their amazing achievement. Some were unsure of the value of the point they had gained, which set them up for the last two weeks of the competition and their assault on the finals.
To my astonishment the parents were all smiles. They claimed it was one of the girls’ best performances. The comments were universal, ‘what a great game’, ‘we could have won if we had just taken that chance.’
In a game where I had asked the girls to do nothing more than focus on preventing the opposition from scoring and use every tactic possible to slow down the game, some opportunistic attacking chances had arisen.
It all made me question the ‘parking of the bus’. Usually seen as such a defensive and negative tactic, designed to do nothing more that stifle, blunt and frustrate, the ‘bus’ had proven entertaining and inspiring.
Ten young women had run themselves off their feet, created numerous chances and earned a point despite their limited resources.
I told them after the game that they defended like Italians. Remembering the days of the miserly defensive efforts of the national and Serie A teams. The ‘great wall of Italia’ was alive and well.
It wasn’t meant as an insult. The parking of the bus is a part of football to be celebrated and not denigrated.
Many casual observers of the beautiful game might not quite grasp the elegance of the tactic and we probably would all prefer to see multiple goals in the average game of football.
However, every now and then, in certain circumstances, a mighty big bus needs to be parked in front of goal and after all, a point is a point.
pacman
Guest
I am in late here due to being absent for a few days, but well done Stuart. You are, as I understand it, coaching a recreational team of U/14 girls. At this level, I believe it is all about personal development, and learning how to cope with adversities in a team environment. You had two options. Throw caution to the wind and attack, or grimly defend, as your girls did. From many similar experiences, I can assure you that you made the correct call. A draw, against all the odds! Almost better than a victory. You taught your players a valuable life lesson - do not give up! Your second option was to have your girls play in a "noble" spirit, in say a 3-4-2 formation, with the likelihood of getting absolutely hammered. A, in my opinion, very dumb option with the only likely result being a demoralizing loss that would have been in the back of your players' minds for many weeks to come. So again, well done Stuart, and well done to your girls!
md
Guest
Great article and you should sleep soundly. 14 year old players (boys or girls) should learn to execute a variety of styles and find the joy in doing so. That's football and good coaches bring that out in their players. I will bet the natural defenders in that team loved every moment and the natural attackers got their chances as the game went on and came off happy as well. You're in a strong position on the table and your team know that the team above them is beatable. Great outcomes. Sounds like next week you will be asking those defenders to play the ball out quickly and the attackers to run freely. I know it's a soooo un-PC to say so, but winning is fun - even when winning means taking a draw. Keep doing it.
jupiter53
Roar Pro
Not 7, we had 9 [only missing the 2 flank attackers from 4-3-3]. We were at the point in development where our striker had a good sense of how to drop off her marker to link up with the midfielders as they came forward, and it all flowed from there. Mind you, I coached an under 18 boys team who won an away game with only 8 players. However, that was no coaching triumph; it was 8.30 on a Sunday morning and the opposition came straight from an all nighter 18th birthday party. Our players' main challenge was playing around the vomit.
Midfielder
Guest
Stuart Further to my post ... winning is important but by far the more important thing at the teams age is to have fun... I also gave every player regardless of skill level similar game time [except for the keeper] but understood never to have more than two of the weakest say four players on the field for any length of time if the game was close...
Midfielder
Guest
Sturat I played for many years in a very successful over 35 side, and we defended in 4-5-1 and attached in mostly 4-4-2. I played either a wide right mid or a DM a 6.... The trick if its worths anything was we had develop a serious of triangles for ball movement... The back 4 included a sweeper, and a stopper sorta playing in front of the sweeper with two wide backs close in when defending and spreading wide when attacking... The midfield the same a DM a 6 or 8 with a 10 in front and two wide mids who would fall back when defending and run the inside channel when in attack allowing the wide backs the outside channel... When defending a sorta false 9 would drop back to mark any area not protected by the mids with the 9 roaming up front and showing for the ball.. However the success in the system was in getting as many to show for the ball giving whoever had the ball options, easy passes that were never that long. Essentially we constantly formed triangles and often two triangles around the person who had the ball.. The system itself developed these triangles naturally ... TWAS the same system used with a team I took over in U 10 Div 16 I think and in U 15 we made it to the second last round of champions of champions ... The biggest hint I can give a coach of young players is to get the team to understand other players limitations and play to there skill set ... so if player X needed heaps of space to pass a ball then show with heaps of space and don't go were player X will struggle to get the ball to you... whereas player Y may have great passing skills so you can show in more difficult positions...
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Thanks Mid, Different problem this week as we need three points. Not one, two but three. Perhaps a 5-2-3? Never played it before. Strong inpenetrable back five. Two workhorse mids and three guns up front? Thoughts? Dangers?
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Thanks Jupiter, I really enjoyed your comments. How you won a game with seven is beyond me. Well done. I had some of my best players out and felt we had little hope. 4-5-1 has got me thinking for our final game, which we need to win, before a bye in the last round. Coaching is so frustrating yet so rewarding at the same time.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Ouch, sorry.
jupiter53
Roar Pro
Don't beat yourself up, Stuart. "Parking the bus" is a pejorative phrase that is all too often unfairly applied. To my understanding it strictly means only where a capable team that should be able to attack decides to frustrate the opposition by unremitting defence and trying to score only on breakaways.. All you can do as player or coach is deal with things as you find them, and sometimes that means you have to defend, defend, and defend again. If it looks like "parking the bus", too bad. A few personal examples: 1 - I am a 20 year old centre back for an All Age team in 1973. We are 2nd from bottom, about to play the undefeated leaders who clobbered us in round 1 when we had a go at them. Before the game we decide to play 4-5-1. We throw ourselves in front of everything, our keeper stops anything that gets past us, and with 15 minutes to go our lone striker is put through and scores. Are we ashamed of what looks like "parking the bus" [prior to the invention of the phrase, of course]? Are you kidding? Game of the season for us, and the only time the opposition were beaten over the whole year. 2 - I am coaching an under 12 girl's team. We are the weakest in the division. I am trying to coach them to keep the ball, pass to each other, and push forward to attack whenever we can. However forays across the halfway line are rare, and the girls just about faint in the rarified atmosphere when they get there. But they improve as the season goes on, and after an unbroken series of defeats, they are 0-0 at half time in the final game. They do go 1-0 down after a few minutes of the 2nd half, but then everything they have been working on comes together, and after a series of shots they score an equaliser with 10 minutes to go. At the end they celebrate as if they had won the league. Every game looked like they were "parking the bus", but not at all; the team were just not good enough to attack as they had been training to and wanted to. 3 - I am coaching an under 16 girl's team. We are having a good season and in second place. However in the school holidays we have 9 players available of our squad of 16; the opposition have 14. I decide that we will defend, but try to be positive. I set up the team up as 4-3-1, but put our fittest players on the flanks, and instruct the flank midfielders to push all the way up into attack when we have the ball, the full backs to push into midfield, but all get the hell back if we lose the ball. At the end we have conceded 2, but scored 6. That was definitely "parking the bus", but with attacking intent, so does that count? I am really enjoying this occasional series derived from your coaching experiences, keep them coming, and good luck for the rest of the season.
scouser4life
Roar Rookie
Stuart - i too share the heavy heart of Stevo. Timewasting is not part of the spirit of the game in my opinion and should not be encouraged. Setting up to be very defensive is a tactic that you may wish to execute. Having coached a side with 9 players in one instance i set up to defend narrowly rather than park the bus - somehow we managed to win the game. I would agree with Stevo on attacking as a better tactic.
Marcus
Guest
Very unAustralian Stuart.
Midfielder
Guest
Nice read Stuart tis always difficult, the decision you had to make. The growth in Football in Australia is in part because, winning as you have indicated, is not seen as the be all and end all.... whereas in other codes it very often is. Often doing your best is reward enough for most... thats in part why we have so many divisions... and the beauty is most teams and clubs feel the same way and promote play over results.... Most clubs too have Kids with illnesses where we always find a spot for them to play, and the results are meaningless because a young child is enjoying themselves. I have been around junior Rugby and league teams and the desire to win by the coaches and parents I find disturbing at times. I agree with your decision as you showed the team, how they could succeed by using the skills they have and that is a good lesson in life but not the be all and end all. Many many moons ago a team I had for a number of years had been promoted year on year and we finished in U 15 Div 1, and somehow won the premiership and went on to Champions of Champions... with a large bit of luck we had got to the final 16 and we were draw against Marconi .... We won and then lost in the next round, however what everyone players parents commented on was how seriously Marconi [Then a major NSL and leading Australian club] took the game. Twas almost as if these kids were being driven to win over enjoying themselves, their parents reminded me very much of Rugby parents at my local club who wanted their kids to break into the rep teams. To me you made a good call.
Lionheart
Guest
my ideas won't help I'm afraid Stuart just keep them keen, and remind them that even great defenders score goals and play the ball forward
Stuart Thomas
Expert
You are a very smart man RBB, you have tuned into my dilemma. We all take our managerial/coaching commitments very seriously and I asked myself a few questions, 'Am I doing this so I feel better and avoid a loss that would be a stain on me as a coach?' Do the girls really understand what we are doing?' 'Do the parents think this is unsporting?' Is this teaching the girls a poor message about football?' I seriously grappled with all of this. In the end, it is done. Do I feel bad? Not really. It was an exciting match with chances at both ends and I guess defence is a key part of football. At a higher level I wouldn't have thought twice, yet with younger players I would hate to ingrain negativity and anything that might breed cynicism or poor sportspersonship. I'm probably over thinking all this. Most of the girls potentially moved on to far more important things in their lives almost immediately. If a shootout was the end result in a big final it would provide the full experience. Not something I ever want to do but you never know. ta
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Not that far from the truth Lionheart. We average less than a goal a game and have had four scoreless draws. In saying that, not a lot of natural goal sniffing talent. They all want to be defenders. We can match any team but need to score. Any ideas?
Stuart Thomas
Expert
I played with my absolute beginner up front. Kept my back four solid. One of my centre backs is probably as good as any in the competition so I wasn't tempted to switch to five. Played four mids with one sitting in front of back four and the other sitting higher like a true mid. That created a chain through two competent centre backs, a def mid sitting just in front and a more natural mid. I played two on the flanks and had them chase hard and try and lock the ball in the corners when we managed to push forward. This created opportunities from a square ball after a throw in and a quick shot from the top of the box. Unfortunately, a quick turn-over and we were in trouble. The opposition didn't stretch us. They should have played wider and got in behind. It was probably a 4-1-3-1
RBBAnonymous
Guest
Stuart I know you have probably been wrestling with your decision, but I wouldn't worry, going by your previous articles your heart is in the right place, especially when it concerns the coaching of your daughter and her teammates. For me at the heart of the matter it should always be about the players, especially when they are at the ages of 12-14. It should be about teamwork, having fun, winning but always with the right spirit and with good sportsmanship. The question I will ask you was the decision to go parking the bus for your benefit, the girls benefit or for the benefit of the team. My guess is that it was probably a bit of all those things. In the end I am pleased in a way that it caused you some headache because that tells me that you care about the game and also the people closest to you who play it. We need more coaches like that so I am more than ok with your decision.
Lionheart
Guest
Ricki Herbert of the inner west girls league
Caltex Ten & SBS support Australian Football
Guest
Just to add, if you were down a man (10) I'd play it like this 1-4-3-1 playing with one striker and a sweeper.
Caltex Ten & SBS support Australian Football
Guest
Stuart - In the teams I played "parking the bus" we played with a sweeper behind a back four. 1-4-3-2 against a team that were favourites to win the title, and we forced two draws against them on both occasions (home and away). How did you set out your gals?