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photos: jornal SPORTING/Pedro Cruz

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When we look at the top Portuguese

players like Luis Figo, Cristiano
Ronaldo, Simo Sabrosa, Ricardo
Quaresma, Hugo Viana, and many
others, they all have one thing in
common: they all grew up in Sporting
Lisbon! SoccerCoachingInternational
visited the Academia of Sporting
Clube de Portugal, and talked to Luis
Martins, head coach of the U19 team,
who told us the secrets of the best
Portuguese youth soccer school.
By: Hugo Vicente

Luis Martins, U19 coach

Sporting Lisbon:

The secrets of the

academy
Luis Martins began at Sporting Lisbon at the age of 8 years old
as a player, but he was unable to make it to the top. After graduating in sports, he began his coaching career with the U16s
at Odivelas FC, a modest team from the Lisbon area where he
played until the age of 18. Not surprisingly, he went to
Belenenses, a team from the Portuguese 1 Liga, where he
coached all youth ages. After some adventures with senior
teams in the 3rd division, he was invited to join Sporting
Lisbon were he has now been for 6 years, coaching the youth
teams. He was also Jos Peseiros assistant coach for the
senior team, during the season when they ended up as runners-up in the UEFA Cup final, 3 years ago.

The demands of a top club

At Sporting Lisbon, the youth are always very important, and
they continue to have a big role in the clubs future. Without the
winning at all cost philosophy, Sporting Lisbon assures that all
kids have other priorities that go hand in hand with soccer.
Besides the high demands of playing at a top club, with all the
inherent expectations, they also have to achieve good results at
school, and good social behavior is not required it is demanded.

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A complete soccer coaching experience

Currently there are 47 kids from six youth teams and different
age groups living at the Academia full time. They have the
facilities to house more kids, but they prefer to keep the players
in their natural environment with their families in order to lessen
the impact that playing at a top club can have on a childs life.
They prefer to keep the number of full-time players restricted to
some special situations, also in order to avoid conflicts that
can happen more easily when living together with other kids.
With excellent conditions and facilities the new Sporting
Academia is the most successful in creating top soccer players for the Portuguese professional scene and obviously for
their A team, their main goal. Another season has passed, and
Sporting achieved the champions title in all youth categories,
which gives you an insight into the quality of their work
throughout the club.

The role of the coach

The coach has an important role in this project, but he is conditioned in some areas. An internal program guides the coach
through the formation process that has to be followed. Luis

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Martins considers this a great tool in his coaching work; because it ensures that each age has the required complexity in their
work according to his capabilities. With this program, Sporting
Lisbon can guarantee that the development of the player does
not depend solely on the quality of the coach and his ideas,
but on the program followed by the coach, which can provide a
constant evolution in the formation of the player, adding more
contents and complexity in a progressive and pedagogic way in
the process of teaching the game. That is why many players
who reach Sporting Lisbons A team or transfer to other 1 Liga
teams, are always able to answer to the demands of professional soccer.

The systems and style of play

In Sporting Lisbon, all youth teams play in a 4-3-3 formation
and when they reach the U17 they also start to practice in a 44-2 formation. More important then the system of play used, is
the capacity of the players to play according to the game principles; exploring, creating and filling up spaces that are important in the attacking process and in the defensive process. An
attacking mentality is always present at all ages and because
almost all their opponents, even at lower ages, play very defensively, this gives them the initiative in the game. With many players behind the line of the ball, they usually play an organized
attack, with lots of passing and moving, and with the accent on
exploring the sidelines, usually the only place available to find
spaces to attack against a massed defense.

loose possession and start to defend. That is why it is important to create intelligent players that can read and understand
the game, so they can communicate and organize themselves
and start their aggressive pressure in the field, with a high,
middle or lower block, according to their actual organization.

The U19 team

With the elimination of Sporting Lisbons B team, the U19s
are now seen as the reserve squad of the A team, so there
is a huge demand on the players, but, like the coach Luis
Martins says, we cannot and will not forget that despite all the
demands and expectations, this is still a stage in their development process as players. At Sporting Clube de Portugal, there
is also a big concern in making the players see that they are
part of a team, of a big club, and they are only as good as the
team. The group is above everything, and players have to think
as a team and add quality and something more to the squad.
After reaching the championship title this year, the team will
now see some of their players promoted to the professional
team of Sporting Lisbon with high expectations on them, and
they will have to answer to the demands of a club that competes to win competitions, in their country, and outdoors!
And this is the goal of the Sporting Lisbon academia, to create top players for their professional team. And if we look at the
names they have already produced, we definitely think they
are heading in the right direction!

The practice sessions

From their first day at the club all individual data on each player
is registered, both inside and outside of the club (international
call for practices and games) in order to follow the development of the player closely with constant evaluation according to
the expectations of that player. At Sporting Lisbon, pleasure in
playing the game is the key to learn soccer, so all exercises try
to have a good balance between the contents of the game principles and the fun of practicing them. The complexity and
demands of the exercises increase as the age and experience
of the players increase. Like this, every coach at Sporting
Lisbon can be more then sure, that when a player is promoted
for example from U14 to U16, he already has a good knowledge of the game, and the exercises that he will face are a
constant and logical evolution of what he did before, only in a
much more challenging way! At Sporting Lisbon, huge importance is given to the way a player and the team, manage the
ball in possession, so they work a lot on tactical circulations,
focusing on the movements of support to the player with the
ball, usually with constant changes from side to side, exploring
the sidelines, trying to create spaces on the opponent defensive system.

The defensive process

At Sporting Lisbon, all teams have an offensive attitude but it is
very important to have a solid defense as well. For example, the
U19 team defends with zonal pressure; in a high or low block
depending on how the team is organized at the moment they

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Ball possession
Progression:
- Free touches, 3 touches and 2 touches maximum

Space:
- 25m x 25m
- 5 "small goals" around the field

Players: 5 x 5
Scoring: Sucessfull passes between the small goals to other
team mates without the opponents intercepting
Progression: Score an extra goal if there is combintation play
between 3 players, for example, one passes, the other receives without interception on the other side of the small goal
and this one imediately passes in one touch to a 3rd suppor
player.

Ball possession directed to specific areas Depth

Progression:
- Free touches, 3 touches and 2 touches maximum

Space:
- 20m x 35m + 2 (5m x 20m)

Players:
- GK or Neutral +5 x 5+GK or Neutral

Scoring:
- X number of passing sequences using the neutral players
x times

Ball possession directed to specific areas Width

Progression:
- Free touches, 3 touches and 2 touches maximum

Space:
- 20m x 35m
- 3 small goals at the end of each line

Players:
- GK or Neutral +5 x 5+GK or Neutral

Scoring:
- Goal in any small goal

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Ball possession directed to specific areas Width and depth

Progression:
- Free touches, 3 touches and 2 touches maximum

Space:
- 20m x 35m
- 3 small goals at the end of each line + 2 small goals in
the middle of the field

Players:
- GK or Neutral + 5 x 5 + GK or Neutral

Scoring:
- Goal in any small goal in the end line and goals in the
small goals only in the direction of the attack

Ball possession + Fast attacks against defensive positioning (Zone Defense)

Progression:
- Free touches, 3 touches and 2 touches maximum

Space:
- 1/2 Field + ball possession areas (25mx25m)

Players:
- 2 neutrals +7 x 4 + GK

Scoring:
- 5 followed passes without opponents interception, with
fast break to attack changing the side of the field using the
neutral players

Building the attack after a throw in

Progression:
- Free touches, 3 touches and 2 touches maximum

Space:
- 1/2 field

Players:
- 1 thrower that joins the attacking team + 1 neutral player
+ 4/5 x 4/5 + GK

Scoring:
- After the throw in, attack the goal to score

Obs:
- Play one time for each side and change the throwers
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