U9 FUNIÑO PLAYER DEVELOPMENT TEAM Decatur Soccer is home not only to great soccer complexes and “The game starts in the head, flows through the heart, and beautiful fields, but also to developing intelligent young soccer finishes with your feet,” is the idea Horst Wein communicated when players. The Decatur Soccer U9 Funiño Player Development team he developed the internationally popular game and methodology. As is comprised of 7- and 8-year-old boys who starting training with 6- and 7-year-olds, the young players trained on a small-sided 4-goal Funiño curriculum at age six. The entire team chose to forgo the U8 field for half the season, then switched to playing versus older U10 4v4 recreation setup, to start training on a field with four goals — two teams with U10 rules the second half of the season. The results were scoring goals on each end. Funiño training places a premium on amazing. After playing on a compressed field and being forced to make decision making, while complementing this with skills and tactical decisions in tight spaces, the players executed excellent decision training all within the game itself. making when given the extra time and space on the big field.
Coaches, from left: Ramon Delgado and Jason Spivey. Players standing, from left: Tyler Davis, Deep Patel, Jonathan Funes, Noe Tabares, Angel Lagunas. Sitting, from left: Oscar Delgado, Edwin Delgado, Justin Romero, Rhett Spivey.
“As coaches, we hoped the training would show up, at least a little, and hopefully we could ‘hang’ with the older, bigger and faster kids. What we witnessed was superior passing, spacing and moving without the ball, not to mention goals. Lots of goals. Our 6- and 7-year-olds displayed what soccer should look like at that age,” enthused Coach Spivey. The U9 team continually trains with this small-sided-4-goal game and its variations, competes with club teams and older rec teams, and competes in one to two local tournaments per season. Earlier this month, they won their first tournament championship in the U9 bracket of HFC’s Spring Classic. Coaches Jason Spivey and Ramon Delgado praise the player’s parents for their willingness to try a new way to learn the game of soccer and claim this is why they are special. “Many families are not cut out for club soccer, with the expense, time commitment, and weekend travel, but many players and their parents want to learn soccer and have fun doing it,” says Coach Ramon.