Working the Sidelines--Taiwanese Soccer Finds Foreign Coaches

Number 23 eyes the goal as he prepares to take a shot that will bring glory to his person. But as he does so, he carries on his shoulders the hopes of the many Taiwanese who have for decades been dreaming that interest in the sport will spread across the island and that Taiwan will one day be able to slaughter opponents on the pitch.

With complex emotions rippling through him, Max jogs slowly, accelerates, and kicks the ball hard. But the ball just dribbles forward, rolling slowly across the wooden floor of the indoor pitch and past the side of the undefended mini goal. Disappointed, the eight-year-old Max walks back to his teammates. As he takes these first steps towards hoped-for greatness, his teammates, his coach, and his parents sitting in the stands are his most important supporters.

We're watching a shooting drill during a Sunday class run by the Master Football Academy. Though the company's website states that it hopes that Taiwan will one day participate in the World Cup, its students are young children who are still growing both physically and emotionally. Head coach Daniel Calvert is well aware that they must begin with the basics.

What are "the basics"? "The most basic of basics," explains Calvert, an Englishman from Cambridge, "include getting them out of the habit of hitting the ball with their hands, for example." For the next drill, he sets up two rows of cones, placing each about two meters from the next. He then divides the children into two teams to practice dribbling: they are to use their feet to weave the ball through three cones, then return to their starting point, where they will pass the ball to the next child in line.

Eight-year-old Andrew makes it through two of the cones, then begins to lose control of the ball. When he unconsciously bends down to steady the ball with his hand, Calvert blows his whistle and sends Andrew back to the start. His teammates stamp their feet in frustration--Andrew's error has cost them time and the lead.

"We keep learning about football fun with games and competitions," explains Calvert.

Coaches from Europe, Asia, Africa and the US have gathered in Taiwan, where the game of soccer is becoming a medium for international exchange.

A work in progress

Of course it's fun! Calvert, who started kicking a ball with his father in the backyard at the age of four, knows very well how much fun soccer is. His early interest in the sport grew into a passion that drove him to avoid tobacco, beer and marijuana even during his rebellious teen years. He even went to bed by 11 every night for the express purpose of staying fit enough to play the physically demanding position of forward.

His passion led him to Argentina, where he played club soccer after playing for a League Two professional team's youth team in Britain. A footballer's playing years are brief, and after laying aside his uniform, Calvert found himself in Taiwan. "The most intense games I've played in during the last two years have been as a member of the Taipei Animals, when we've served as the scrimmage squad for the ROC national team," says Calvert. "The last time we played them was last month in Kaohsiung. We lost so badly there (4-0) that I just don't want to talk about it."

The Animals are a strong team, made up of foreigners residing in Taiwan. "Our only problem," says Calvert's 30-year-old French teammate David Camhi, "is that we don't have endurance. We're all old. Compared to everyone else, I'm in pretty good shape. Most of the rest have had knee surgery, and have only a little bit of cartilage left in the joint." When Calvert and Camhi met in Taipei in 2003, they agreed that Taiwan was a virtual soccer desert and that a soccer academy might therefore do very well. They very quickly assembled a five-member coaching staff, invested NT$2 million, and established the Master Football Academy.

Including themselves, there are currently 20 foreign nationals providing basic soccer training in Taiwan. The involvement of these individuals, who hail from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, makes soccer the most international sport in Taiwan.

Internationally, the cross-border pursuit of talent on the soccer field predates that of the tech industry. Aware of this fact, the governing body of Taiwanese soccer--the Chinese Taipei Football Association--last year began developing a Sino-Japanese soccer exchange program and hired Toshiaki Imai, a former coach of the Japan League's Kawasaki Frontale team, as a visiting coach for Taiwan's national team.

Ghana native Mohammed Ibrahim Donkor is far more experienced a soccer player than most in Taiwan, The children under his tutelage are showing clear improvements in basic ball control skills.

Baptism on the field

"When my friends heard we wanted to start a football school, they all said it would never happen," says Michael Chandler, another of Master's British coaches. "They said it would be like growing flowers in the desert."

But in 2003, they began offering one class a week on the athletic field of Neihu's Sanmin Junior High School. Now that Master has reached its target of 500 students (up from its initial group of 40) and has opened a branch academy in Tanshui, it looks as if a small green shoot may indeed be poking up through the desert sands. "Our Tainan and Taichung academies will be recruiting students by the end of the year," says Calvert. "At that point, we'll no longer need to teach English on the side; we'll be able to devote ourselves to football fulltime."

Though they began the venture as a part-time endeavor, they took their preparations very seriously. Before opening their first academy, Calvert contacted a number of professional soccer teams, including Britain's Leicester City FC, to observe their training programs for children and to establish channels for communication.

"I learned a lot of little things, including things about the lanes on the field and communicating with children," says Calvert. He then went on to earn an FA Level 1 Club Coach certificate from England's Football Association.

The frequent collisions that occur in soccer result in a high rate of injuries for players. For this reason, Calvert and the other coaches at Master also earned licenses to treat sports-related injuries in children. This ensures that if any children get hurt in the heat of competition, the coaches can provide immediate first aid.

"We also make use of an age-grouping system long in use in England," explains Chandler. "U7 is for children seven years of age and under. U9 is for children nine and under.... Each age group has its own educational focus. With children at U11, for example, the training becomes more spirited and competitive."

"In addition to footwork, the U7s focus on the lanes we just talked about," says Camhi. He explains that when young children first begin to play, they all run for the ball wherever it is. They have no sense of space. "How you go about instilling in children a concept of space on the soccer pitch has a huge influence on how well they later play."

This year, Master was responsible for another first--Taiwan's first-ever FA training course for coaches. The Kent Football Association provided coordination for the January workshop, and brought in two coaches from England's West Ham United FC to run the FA Level 1 Certificate in Coaching Football course, which attracted 45 participants from Taiwan and abroad.

Ghana native Mohammed Ibrahim Donkor is far more experienced a soccer player than most in Taiwan, The children under his tutelage are showing clear improvements in basic ball control skills.

Culture the determining factor

"In terms of talent," says Calvert, "I think that Taiwanese children are no different from those in England or South America." To him, the difference isn't physical. "Suppose a kid falls down. A Taipei kid won't get up on his own. Instead, he'll sit there looking wide-eyed at his parents. They're really spoiled," he says.

"If it drizzles even the least bit when they're playing outside," laughs Chandler, "the kids will stop the game on their own and try to get out of the rain. Getting a little wet and rolling around in the mud is no big deal. It strengthens your immune system, right?"

What about kids who've been training for a long time?

"I think that Taiwanese kids generally don't have enough drive," says Mohammed Ibrahim Donkor, who helped lead Ilan's Chungtao High School soccer team to fifth place in the nation when he was teaching there. "Players at a competitive level have to give 100% physically and be 100% focused whether running, passing, or shooting."

"As long as you don't intentionally injure someone, pushing, crowding and stealing the ball are all part of the game," emphasizes Donkor, who hails from Ghana, Africa's emergent soccer powerhouse. Donkor has quite a resume--he was a member of the Ghanaian national youth team at the age of 17, and later played for Germany's 1. FC Koln and in Malaysia's professional league.

Ghana native Mohammed Ibrahim Donkor is far more experienced a soccer player than most in Taiwan, The children under his tutelage are showing clear improvements in basic ball control skills.

On the sidelines

"Overall, culture is the biggest obstacle to the development of Taiwanese football," says Calvert. "On TV, it's all baseball, basketball, or pool. The people kids recognize just come from these sports." Take, for example, the sparsely attended 2004 FIFA Futsal World Championships that Taiwan hosted, and the just-completed Asian Cup qualifier between Taiwan and Korea. These were huge events for soccer-playing nations. "Korea alone has sent more than 20 reporters to cover the game in Taiwan," says Chandler, at the Zhongshan Soccer Stadium with two other Master coaches for the game. Pointing to the empty seats, he asks, "How many locals do you see in the stadium?"

"A football culture requires a broad swath of fertile soil," says Camhi. "Such soil will produce good players, referees, and coaches at all levels of the game. It will also grow an audience that understands the game and who will devote themselves to it over the long term. But when you don't have it... you can't grow a football powerhouse from nothing."

But, before that, Camhi says you have to make it fun for the kids. "Like we're doing."

The serious talk comes to a close just as the weekend practice is about to wrap up. Camhi and Calvert chat about for a bit, then return to the subject of soccer, comparing the French and English teams at this year's World Cup. "The French team had only one player who was purely Gallic," remarks Calvert.

"You're right. Our team was stronger than yours because it integrated people of many races," responds Camhi. "How long has it been since you've won the World Cup....?"

Ghana native Mohammed Ibrahim Donkor is far more experienced a soccer player than most in Taiwan, The children under his tutelage are showing clear improvements in basic ball control skills.

Ghana native Mohammed Ibrahim Donkor is far more experienced a soccer player than most in Taiwan, The children under his tutelage are showing clear improvements in basic ball control skills.