CHAPTER 9Team Goals

IN 25 YEARS of coaching youth soccer, a coach gets to experience both the joy of watching children learning to play the game and the pain of dealing with the annoying behaviors of their parents. One particularly memorable season, a mother was paying her son to score goals. Her child was quite talented, and he was able upon occasion to dribble through an entire defense and score. Unfortunately, he was also willing to shoot from anywhere, and the rest of our team quickly learned that he was never going to pass the ball. In time, his teammates stopped getting in position to receive passes, and the entire offense was abysmal any time he was in the game, except for his occasional highlight-reel goal.

We eventually had to explain ...

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