Sticking to the game plan
Raffi Kazandjian grew up playing soccer in Dollard-des-Ormeaux and has now followed his children into the sport as a coach. He was on the soccer pitch seven days a week for most of the summer as head coach of one daughter’s team and as an assistant coach with his two younger kids’ teams. The U-11 AA squad he leads recorded a perfect 16-0 regular season while outscoring its opposition 95-8. The team is now in Lac St-Louis cup play. Why did you become a coach? My daughter was U-5 and they needed an assistant coach. It was recreational, so I volunteered my time. When she made it to U-8, which was more competitive at that point, they were also looking for competitive coaches. Phillip Dos Santos, (Lakeshore Soccer Club’s) technical director, asked me if I was interested to coach one of the U-8 teams. I said OK, let me try it out and see if I like it. I’ve been hooked in and I’ve been coaching since then.
How do you prepare your team?
You need to have a game plan going into the game. I try to implement that plan and teach the girls that is what we are going to be working on today. Be- fore every game we try to given them offensive and defensive objectives and we try to ensure they apply those things in the game.
Describe your coaching style.
We try to make it fun for the girls. For me, to make it fun means having a very offensiveminded style. Ball possession for us is very important. We always try to tell the girls that if the other team doesn’t have the ball, they can’t score. If you have possession of the ball, your chances of winning are a lot higher. We also encourage the girls to take a lot of risks, to be very aggressive, especially in the offensive part of the field.
What are the challenges of coaching intercity?
One of the toughest aspects of coaching competitive soccer is that not every kid is going to make the team. This year we had to select 16 girls for our roster. At Lakeshore, it’s a fairly big territory, so obviously you have to select girls. The toughest part of coaching is when you have to tell a 10- or 11-yearold girl that, “sorry you did not make the team” and that you will be playing for the A team not AA. It’s not easy.
How was the transition this season to 11-a-side soccer from seven a side?
It was a big adjustment for them this year. It’s the end of the season, they are starting to get the hang of it now. They are starting to push the ball from one side to another a lot more. We try to work a lot on possession drills during training sessions so they girls learn to play the ball wide, or play the ball long. Some are just turning 11, so it’s not easy for them.
The Quebec Soccer Federation is actually changing the format as of next year so the U-11s that are coming now from U-10 will actually play ninea-side soccer in the summer. Which I think is actually a lot better than playing 11 a side. We played 11 a side this year. It’s a big distance to cover.