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Coach Tozer's Corner

Welcome!

Coach Keith Tozer is the former United States Men's Futsal National Team head coach and current USYF Technical Director. Since 1984 Tozer has become one of the most successful coaches in U.S. soccer history, and the all-time winningest coach in North America indoor soccer with over 700 wins, six league championships and eight "coach of the year awards.

Join Coach Tozer here with semi-monthly thoughts, tips, and industry updates.

You can also find Coach Tozer on his podcast World of Futsal available on all platforms.


The Latest From Coach

March 27, 2021

By Keith Tozer 03/27/2021, 3:30pm CDT

Houston Dynamo FC + Soccer Starts at Home + Futsal + Kipp Charter Schools

Ingredients for Success

Futsal has been growing here in the U.S. for the past 20 years, but nothing like the huge surge it is experiencing right now. More and more outdoor soccer clubs are now adding futsal to their youth development models, and many more futsal specific academies and clubs are emerging across the country. Futsal facilities are being built within many inner cities as well as urban areas during this recent growth. Some of the many contributors to this growth include the U.S. Soccer Foundation, Target Corporation who recently finished building 100 mini-pitches, and many other private and public institutions.

Additionally, futsal coaching education courses are beginning created. Most recently, the US Youth Futsal program has released its Level 1 & 2 Online Certification Courses. The response to these futsal specific coaching education courses have been well received, with many great testimonies for some of the top futsal leaders in the world. This prominent list includes Javier Lozano, two-time World Cup champion from Spain, Diego Giustozzi, the 2016 World Cup champion from Argentina, and Ali Targholizadeh, the Director of Futsal for the Asian Football Confederation, just to name a few.

What is also extremely exciting is what is transpiring in Houston, Texas. The Houston Dynamo FC of MLS have partnered with Tom Byer, who authored the book ‘Soccer Starts at Home’, which is the methodology of parents beginning the process of ball mastery with their children beginning at the entry level of Football, 2-7 years old. “The countries that develop the best players in the world win the battle at the entry level”, stated Byer. “The rest of the world tries to catch up at the Elite Level, but they lost that battle at the least expensive level and spend millions trying to catch up, but rarely do.”

Paul Holocher, Academy Director of the Houston Dynamo, reached out to Tom to bring his methodology to their academy. Tom (who lives in Japan) visited the Dynamo Academy several times and now has daily calls with Paul to continue implementing their program. They started by meeting with the academy parents to explain ball mastery at home and how to facilitate and nurture the program. From there they needed to train the Dynamo staff on how to teach the different exercises associated with ball mastery and manipulating the ball. However, their idea was far more reaching then just the Dynamo Academy as they contacted the Kipp Charter Schools to have the ability to reach greater numbers of youth soccer players in the Houston area. “We are extremely excited about the developments that are beginning to unfold at the younger ages. Ball Mastery and Futsal are staples of our philosophy and it’s exciting to take these steps to improve early age development in Houston,” stated Holocher.

I have personally known Tom Byer for over 35 years as we both grew up in New York and Tom came to try out for two of the professional indoor soccer teams I have previously coached, the Louisville Thunder of the AISA and the LA Lazers of the MISL. We have stayed friends ever since. Tom and Paul reached out to me regarding the next phase in a young players evolution and their idea was to add futsal to the program. I cannot tell you how excited I was when asked. This could be groundbreaking; not only for Kipp Charter Schools, the Dynamo’s Academy program, or even all the interested families in and around the Houston area. If done correctly this could be the start of every Kipp Charter School across the nation adopting the same methodology, as well as any other school system that may express interest. Wow! What a great way to create success at the entry level! My thought is, ball mastery creates painters, and futsal can be their canvas. This program could give so many young players a different pathway to build confidence and help to nurture and develop great players for futsal AND soccer here in the US. All while creating a fun and safe environment to grow within.

The next hurdle for the Kipp Futsal League program (that is what I passionately called it) was to cover the needed facilities and equipment. The courts were easy to come by, as most schools in the U.S. have basketball (futsal) courts and many have multiple courts including outdoor basketball and tennis courts. Kipp Charter Schools was no exception. To cover another hurdle, the Dynamo went out and purchased portable futsal goals and futsal balls for each school. So now all the Kipp Phy Ed teachers are in the process of going through the Ball Mastery Program, and then the Dynamo are also going to provide them with the USYF Online Coaching Education platform.

I must tip my hat to the Houston Dynamo for believing in Tom’s methodology and providing it to all the families in the Houston area. I also want to congratulate my great friend Tom Byer for developing his ‘Soccer Starts at Home’ program, as it has taken him many years to build his current following. And finally, a big thank you goes out to Akua Ywumasi, Regional Athletic Director of the Kipp Charter Schools for having the vision to provide these programs to all their students.

Great things are happening in futsal. This is just one small step for soccer, but one huge step for futsal!

Stay safe, stay well, and hopefully see you on the court very soon!

Keith Tozer

 

WORLD OF FUTSAL PODCAST 

Check out my latest show with my SoccerToday.com guest Tom Byer author of “Soccer Starts at Home” & Paul Holocher Academy Director of the Dynamo discussing the Kipp Charter School program!  

To hear all our past World of Futsal episodes, visit Apple Podcast or anywhere you get yours. To listen to today’s show, click on: https://bit.ly/2Qmgnuy 

February 1, 2021

By Keith Tozer - USYF Technical Director 02/01/2021, 2:30pm CST

JAVIER LOZANO

2 FIFA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

2 UEFA CHAMPIONSHIPS

PRESIDENT LNFS

 

I had the great pleasure of first meeting Javier in Taiwan before the 2004 FIFA Futsal World Cup started. We played Spain in a closed-door pre-tournament game for a warm-up. They were very gracious to play the United States even though they were considered one of the favorites to win the World Cup. Even though we lost it was a great tuneup game for us and I thought it was great preparation prior to us playing Argentina.

Javier since then has gone on to win two world championships and two UEFA championships and presently is the President of the most successful professional futsal  league in the world, LNFS.

 

Javier also has been one of the leading FIFA instructors helping to put together a FIFA futsal education program at all levels across the world. Several years ago in La Rosa outside of Madrid at the Spanish football complex I actually had the great pleasure of working with Javier at the first FIFA Futsal instructors course. There must’ve been 50 or 60 of us consisting of former and current national team coaches, current FIFA instructors as well as very highly qualified coaches from the outdoor game. Javier ran this course with the same professionalism he exhibits with his National Teams. He sweated the details, was extremely respectful to whoever was in the course and presented a format regarding the “Teach the Teacher” program that was fantastic.

 

It was an interesting mindset for me as someone who’s been in the indoor game and a national team coach for many years as the course was based on teaching instructors to teach other instructors. Not coaching players. It is a total different mindset and I found it very fascinating. Even though we had won several championships in indoor and two CONCACAF championships it was still very nerve-racking to have to be up in front of all these instructors from around the world and give a topic. I remember my topic in the first course was, kicki-in’s. I Remember going back to my room inside the Spanish football complex wondering how I’m going to do a session on kick in’s? After  much thought about how many kink-ins there are in a game and then cut the court into threes. Defensive third (possession orientated) middle third middle (possession orientated with attacking component), final third (attacking along with possession) The next day each instructor had to get up in front of his peers and present their topic in 10 minutes or less. Because I have been coaching for many years both professionally and with national teams my preparation really helped me. But I also give motivational talks for corporations. I really felt that being in front of 1000 people delivering a topic like team building or changes in the workplace really prepared me in order to present my topic. Even though I was nervous which is not a bad thing my public speaking experience  in front of people speaking really helped. We will be discussing in the Level 3 State Course about how important presentation and delivery is for coaches.

 

The second time at La Rosa they broke us up into groups of three and in that course I had the great pleasure to be with one of the best futsal minds in the world Mico Martic who presently is the head coach of Finland, has been a national team and professional futsal player and is considered one of the best UEFA and FIFA Futsal instructors in the world. The other person in my group was Scott Gilligan who’s been a national team coach for Australia and has traveled the world also as a FIFA instructor. I believe our topic was goalkeeper orientated in how to cut down angles. This time however being with Mico and Scott made it much easier as we could share our experiences and knowledge.

 

It is amazing for me as the Technical Director for USYF that someone of Javier stature would take the time out during a busy day and actually took a look at the course from the beginning to end. He was honest in his testimonial and I really love the fact that he felt that the way that we delivered it with methodology, training sessions, animation, and film was the way to go. To hear these words from him was extremely exciting as well as humbling.

 

I firmly believe that futsal has taking a huge step in our country in just the past 8 to 10 years. Coaches and leaders like Javier around the world believe that futsal in the United States is extremely important to the growth of the game around the world especially when the professional league starts. I am blessed to be a small part of that growth here and I look forward to the future of the game not only here in United States but around the world.

See you on the court!

 

Keith Tozer

Technical Director

USYF