It’s still early in preseason, but the Impact’s coaching staff has a well-defined game plan on what it is they want to implement within the group in the first week of training.
“Our objective is to be more precise with what we wanted from this group offensively this week,” said Wilfried Nancy, one of the new assistant coaches with IMFC. “This is a group that likes to play with the ball and we have to make sure we are all on the same page.”
One of the keys to that will be what Nancy calls non-verbal language.
“When someone has the ball, he has to know where his teammate wants him to play the ball. They have to be able to communicate to the ball carrier, where they are going to be, in space or down the line, as well as if they want the ball played to their feet or into space. A look, a shrug of the shoulders, etc. can all be indicators for the player with the ball, so they have to be able to communicate and understand each other without saying a word.”
“We have players who speak English, French, Spanish and Italian. It's therefore crucial to understand each other as far as on-field positioning goes, and non-verbal communication becomes even more important.”
And so far, the technical staff is pleased with what they’ve seen.
“We need to properly define the concepts to the players,” he said. “We are pleased with the effort of the group thus far and the players are carrying themselves well.”
