Correct preparation for WC2014?

T runner

We have all seen the affects of the conditions on many of the players late in matches in hot weather at this world cup.
After 70-80 minutes players are looking as they might after 110 minutes in other world cups.
Late subs are having a huge impact, scoring freely against mentally and physically fatigued defenders. Clearly energetic forwards who get on the ball often and run at defenders, and playmakers who can up tempo (as Sweinsteiger showed against Ghana) will have most impact.

Its clear why European teams have failed to win in SA before.
(Different now with the main SA protagonistsm players based entirely in Europe)

But how could teams have prepared better given the conditions?
Should teams have packed the squads more heavily with impact subs and midfilders to win the games late on?

And what about training? In hindsight would coachs opt for more endurance work (speed, strength etc)?

This would mean players would last further into games, able to make telling runs far later than there opponents and also allowing Substitutes to have even more impact.

Any thoughts on this and how training/preparation might be adapted to prepare specifically for these conditions?

What are the best tactics now for teams to win matches in light of conditions?

Richard Hillman

I know that the Costa Rica management team did heavy fitness training before the Cup. It was something along the lines of 2x2 heavy training sessions per day. There was another team that did something similar and did well but cannot remember who they were.

Muff_Daddy

Some drills on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean, where pitches are the size of small car parks and are rock hard. Maybe our assistant manager could check one of these locations out should we make it to the next world cup

T runner

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I know that the Costa Rica management team did heavy fitness training before the Cup. It was something along the lines of 2x2 heavy training sessions per day. There was another team that did something similar and did well but cannot remember who they were.

That's interesting. First training sessions to tire the body out. The evening ones to specifically adapt to playing when heavily fatigued.

Speed endurance in the morning and evening.

You wont be able to do that volume flat out so you'll actually lose a little top end speed, but it matters not when you're twice as fast as fatigued opponent late in the game.

I don't think the attacks need to be that sophisticated either against fatigued defences which are slow and therefore poor. You'd just need to train the front 6 to be able to break at speed from midfield. If the team are physically conditioned for the specific conditions in Brazil then you could use all subs as impact attackers up front and in midfield late in the game.

The earlier part of the game would be for keeping it tight until your opponents got fatigued.

A mediocre top 16 team could go all the way to the final with such preparation and a couple of reasonable finishers.

If Brazil still had half decent players to pick from a local league...they would win this easily.

Iused2likebusts

I think the whole heat/humidity thing has been overplayed a fair bit. Granted all games in manaus and a few in the northeast have been horrible conditions for football but most of the games have been played in conditions close enough and in a lot of cases cooler than your typical european world cup. I was in natal for the 4 games up there 2 kicked off at 7pm when it was dark and a nice temperature the games where played at a high tempo throughout. The two 1 pm kick offs were also fine non stop rain during 1 of them. A lot of the games in recife had rain throughout which makes it easier and also the fact it gets dark in brazil at about 5pm limits the effect. I was also in Rio where there would be no issue with playing football as temperatures in the early to mid 20's and Id no problem jogging on the beach. The likes of sao paulo and porto alegre most days would be cooler than here. All in all Id say approx 8-10 games will have been played in conditions that are tougher than a european world cup. The manaus games, some of the fortaleza ones, 1 pm kick offs in the likes of salvador.