NATIONAL COACH RETURNS Little new on view at World Cup

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33601, 1 August 1974, Page 28

NATIONAL COACH RETURNS Little new on view at World Cup

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. The World Cup series in West Germany was disappointing as far as producing new ideas and techniques on the game, the national soccer coach (Mr B. Truman) said yesterday.

Mr Truman has returned from a twomonth study tour, which included a coaching refresher course in England as well as the World Cup. “I do not want to sound pompous, but cannot honestly say that I saw anything in Germany that I had not seen before," he said. “Most of the games were defensive, with a lot of negative football, and to that extent it was disappointing. And nothing really new in the way of tactics or techniques came out as in previous World Cups. “The 1966 senes produced the 4-3-3 system, and in 1972 it was 4-4-2. This time there was nothing really definite.” However, Mr Truman added that the series pro-

duced three or four games of i exceptional quality, and there were also a number of outstanding individuals. “Players such as Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and Luis Ayala were amazingly gifted and talented. But too many teams appeared to be frightened of defeat and this had a stifling effect on some of the players. “The only time we saw the total football everyone is talking about these days was in the final between West Germany and the Netherlands.” Mr Truman was full of praise for Australia’s performance in the World Cup. "I thought Australia did very well, but I also felt it might have done even better. “But its performance reflects well on the rest of Oceania.” He said that the first prior

ity for New Zealand’s preparation for the 1978 World Cup was to obtain as many international matches for the national team as possible. “I realise this is very often difficult from a financial point of view, but I also feel that internationally we have softpedalled a bit in the past," he added. Mr Truman said that this was not meant as a criticism, and he welcomed the proposed tour of New Zealand next year by Israel. “We have made one large step already in preparing for 1978 by developing our national under 21 side. The next step is to line up as many internationals as possible, and preferably to blood as many of these young players as we can.” Mr Truman said that this sorting-out period would probably be required until the end of next year, by which time a World Cup squad would probably have to be brought together. “From what we have seen of Australia they are very little ahead of us, certainly at schoolboy level. But they have more money than us to bring out better players at senior level and we have to make up for this by getting more international experience.”