How Thomas Rongen develops U.S. talent
Brent Latham
ESPN Insider
He's lived in the U.S. since the days of the NASL, but American under-20 national team coach Thomas Rongen is still Dutch through and through. For proof, try asking him about the virtues of the quintessentially Dutch 4-3-3 formation he prefers.
"It's not that I think the Dutch know it all," said Rongen, in Guatemala as the Americans prepare to take on Suriname Tuesday night in their first match of the regional under-20 World Cup qualifying tournament. "But we've done a pretty good job at playing within that system. You've got to have guys that can play high when you have the ball, but get something going forward, guys that are comfortable in the final third but can help out on defense in the middle third, guys that want to go to goal and are comfortable taking on players one on one."
Rongen can go on about the 4-3-3 for quite some time. By the time he finally stops to take a breath, at least one thing is abundantly clear: The coach believes the formation is the best choice to further his young players' development into complete soccer talents.
<OFFER>While American fans haven't always been satisfied with Rongen's on-the-field results, player development is something he undoubtedly knows plenty about. He took the job in 2001, stepped away briefly in 2005 to become the first-ever coach at Chivas USA, then returned to the team later that year, and has developed a number of contributors to the full team.
Over the past few years, the U-20s have begun to springboard players to the full men's national team more quickly and in greater numbers than ever. Even the last cycle -- a team that underwhelmed with a group stage exit at the 2009 U-20 World Cup -- has already been represented on the full team by players including Brek Shea, Gale Agbossoumonde, and Mikkel Diskerud.
That trend is likely to grow stronger in coming years, as Rongen works with an improving talent pool, continuing his quest to instill a more evolved approach in American youth soccer. Rongen's goal is to move his team away from the stereotype of the athletic, but less technical American side.
"Our attitude is attacking, attractive, technical skill, result-oriented football," he said. "Our intent is to play and get our better attacking players up the field where they can be more aggressive."
To do that, Rongen leans heavily on his Dutch roots. He spent his formative years as a player with Ajax in the late 70s, before moving to the U.S. to join the NASL's Los Angeles Aztecs. Though the coach has spent most of the three decades since in the U.S., that Dutch soccer heritage has remained deeply ingrained. Thirty-two years after leaving Holland, Rongen still instructs his young Americans based on the Dutch system of numbered positions.
"If you walk in the Ajax locker room in the past, when I grew up, it was one through 11," he said. "Every number is associated with a position and every position is associated with the four components: technically, tactically, physically and emotionally. Every young player, as you grew up, you knew what it meant."
"We talk to the players in terms of those numbers. They all understand that now and kind of get a kick out of it, when we put numbers on the board and they all understand what that means in terms of what they need to do. So I'm educating them a little bit and going back to my roots, but I firmly believe it's a good system to play in terms of development."
His theory will be further tested in the coming months, as what the coach has called his deepest and most talented team ever progresses towards July's U-20 World Cup in Colombia. But no matter the results there, the early returns in terms of player development are good -- one case in point being Juan Agudelo's precocious move to the full national team.
Notably, Agudelo's upward move also meant a shift to a striker position on top of Bob Bradley's 4-4-2, rather than the wing of the 4-3-3 he frequented under Rongen. That forced positional readjustment to the full international game exemplifies the main problem with playing a different system at the two different national team levels, begging the question if it might be better for Rongen to instead emulate the system used by Bradley.
"Some national teams do that," Rongen said. "If a national team plays a certain way, all the youth teams do as well. There are some benefits to that, maybe more benefits than negatives. I don't think it's a prerequisite for success, but we're getting closer and closer to at least to have a dialogue about if it would be a little bit better if they are familiar with positions and systems that would make it a natural flow. When it's all said and done that's something that's being discussed right now from Bob Bradley down."
But for the time being at least, each system clearly has its place. The 4-3-3 helps Rongen develop younger players and get more attacking talent on the field at the U-20 level. The results oriented 4-4-2 may work better for Bradley at the full national team level.
Things may soon change, though. If Rongen's young team can continue to execute in the more tactical 4-3-3, taking the game to their opponents with technical expertise rather than falling back on athleticism, the day may also be approaching when the more technical formation becomes the optimal system for the full national team as well.
So the 4-3-3 may yet force its way up the rungs of American soccer, rather than being pushed out from the top down. No doubt such a turn of events would greatly please the ever-present Dutchman in Rongen.
Brent Latham
ESPN Insider
He's lived in the U.S. since the days of the NASL, but American under-20 national team coach Thomas Rongen is still Dutch through and through. For proof, try asking him about the virtues of the quintessentially Dutch 4-3-3 formation he prefers.
"It's not that I think the Dutch know it all," said Rongen, in Guatemala as the Americans prepare to take on Suriname Tuesday night in their first match of the regional under-20 World Cup qualifying tournament. "But we've done a pretty good job at playing within that system. You've got to have guys that can play high when you have the ball, but get something going forward, guys that are comfortable in the final third but can help out on defense in the middle third, guys that want to go to goal and are comfortable taking on players one on one."
Rongen can go on about the 4-3-3 for quite some time. By the time he finally stops to take a breath, at least one thing is abundantly clear: The coach believes the formation is the best choice to further his young players' development into complete soccer talents.
<OFFER>While American fans haven't always been satisfied with Rongen's on-the-field results, player development is something he undoubtedly knows plenty about. He took the job in 2001, stepped away briefly in 2005 to become the first-ever coach at Chivas USA, then returned to the team later that year, and has developed a number of contributors to the full team.
Over the past few years, the U-20s have begun to springboard players to the full men's national team more quickly and in greater numbers than ever. Even the last cycle -- a team that underwhelmed with a group stage exit at the 2009 U-20 World Cup -- has already been represented on the full team by players including Brek Shea, Gale Agbossoumonde, and Mikkel Diskerud.
That trend is likely to grow stronger in coming years, as Rongen works with an improving talent pool, continuing his quest to instill a more evolved approach in American youth soccer. Rongen's goal is to move his team away from the stereotype of the athletic, but less technical American side.
"Our attitude is attacking, attractive, technical skill, result-oriented football," he said. "Our intent is to play and get our better attacking players up the field where they can be more aggressive."
To do that, Rongen leans heavily on his Dutch roots. He spent his formative years as a player with Ajax in the late 70s, before moving to the U.S. to join the NASL's Los Angeles Aztecs. Though the coach has spent most of the three decades since in the U.S., that Dutch soccer heritage has remained deeply ingrained. Thirty-two years after leaving Holland, Rongen still instructs his young Americans based on the Dutch system of numbered positions.
"If you walk in the Ajax locker room in the past, when I grew up, it was one through 11," he said. "Every number is associated with a position and every position is associated with the four components: technically, tactically, physically and emotionally. Every young player, as you grew up, you knew what it meant."
"We talk to the players in terms of those numbers. They all understand that now and kind of get a kick out of it, when we put numbers on the board and they all understand what that means in terms of what they need to do. So I'm educating them a little bit and going back to my roots, but I firmly believe it's a good system to play in terms of development."
His theory will be further tested in the coming months, as what the coach has called his deepest and most talented team ever progresses towards July's U-20 World Cup in Colombia. But no matter the results there, the early returns in terms of player development are good -- one case in point being Juan Agudelo's precocious move to the full national team.
Notably, Agudelo's upward move also meant a shift to a striker position on top of Bob Bradley's 4-4-2, rather than the wing of the 4-3-3 he frequented under Rongen. That forced positional readjustment to the full international game exemplifies the main problem with playing a different system at the two different national team levels, begging the question if it might be better for Rongen to instead emulate the system used by Bradley.
"Some national teams do that," Rongen said. "If a national team plays a certain way, all the youth teams do as well. There are some benefits to that, maybe more benefits than negatives. I don't think it's a prerequisite for success, but we're getting closer and closer to at least to have a dialogue about if it would be a little bit better if they are familiar with positions and systems that would make it a natural flow. When it's all said and done that's something that's being discussed right now from Bob Bradley down."
But for the time being at least, each system clearly has its place. The 4-3-3 helps Rongen develop younger players and get more attacking talent on the field at the U-20 level. The results oriented 4-4-2 may work better for Bradley at the full national team level.
Things may soon change, though. If Rongen's young team can continue to execute in the more tactical 4-3-3, taking the game to their opponents with technical expertise rather than falling back on athleticism, the day may also be approaching when the more technical formation becomes the optimal system for the full national team as well.
So the 4-3-3 may yet force its way up the rungs of American soccer, rather than being pushed out from the top down. No doubt such a turn of events would greatly please the ever-present Dutchman in Rongen.
