How does a staff strategy enjoying the identical opponent 4 instances in 12 days?
Two groups hardly ever meet one another greater than two or 3 times in a single season. Past the standard double of home-and-away league fixtures and occasional cup conflict, dealing with a staff 4 instances in a single marketing campaign is nearly extraordinary. However what’s extra distinctive is dealing with an opponent 4 instances in a row.
Beginning on Saturday within the League Cup remaining, Chelsea and Manchester Metropolis‘s ladies’s groups are about to seek out out what it takes, as they face off an unimaginable 4 instances in simply 12 days.
And there are some latest classes from historical past for them to comply with. Final 12 months Benfica performed Sporting CP 4 instances in 5 video games between March 31-Might 1, and this week Liga MX rivals Guadalajara and Membership América clashed 3 times in eight days with a league match in between two Concacaf Champions Cup round-of-16 ties.
One of the crucial well-known examples, although, got here in 2011 when LaLiga giants Barcelona and Actual Madrid performed 4 Clasicos in 18 days. Equally, Tottenham Hotspur and Wimbledon met an astonishing 5 instances within the span of a month in the course of the 1998-99 season.
So what may Chelsea and Metropolis study? A few of these concerned within the video games above gave ESPN their ideas.
Chelsea vs. Manchester Metropolis, 2025
The ladies’s recreation has by no means seen something prefer it: Chelsea and Manchester Metropolis will play the League Cup remaining on March 15, earlier than assembly once more within the two-legged UEFA Girls’s Champions League quarterfinals on March 19 and 27, with a Girls’s Tremendous League conflict in between on March 23. They might have even had an FA Cup quarterfinal to contend on March 8, however the draw saved them aside.
“It is uncommon,” Chelsea supervisor Sonia Bompastor instructed ESPN. “I would not say troublesome. That is the problem we have to face, however clearly that is a uncommon state of affairs. We’ll take it game-by-game. We play Metropolis in numerous competitions; each recreation will probably be troublesome, however we’ll deal with the primary one.”
Whereas main European juggernauts Lyon in her earlier job, Bompastor confronted rivals Paris Saint-Germain a number of instances because the pair had been typically within the operating for the league title and in home cups knockouts/finals, although she by no means confronted them 4 instances in a row. All season, the French coach has emphasised that whereas remaining unbeaten is spectacular, solely successful silverware is what actually issues. They usually have an excellent likelihood, as Metropolis sacked head coach Gareth Taylor simply 5 days earlier than the ultimate.
“Our mentality is to assume that it’s [Saturday’s League Cup final] the primary alternative for us to seize a trophy within the season,” she added. “So yeah, we’ll go for it. We’ll take it game-by-game and it is actually uncommon, however we’re excited.”
Chelsea defender Lucy Bronze isn’t any stranger to a aggressive run of video games, having a trophy laden 18-year profession, however that is one thing that even the 33-year-old hasn’t skilled earlier than.
“I can not think about both staff are going to place out the very same staff for all 4 video games, the precise subs, the very same folks play the identical minutes, the very same gamers play the identical,” she instructed ESPN. “It is laborious as a participant to be constant throughout 4 video games in such a brief area at time. There will be outlying performances in numerous video games and I assume various things to observe. I feel it will be fairly fascinating from a pundit and a fan’s viewpoint, to analyse that and see how gamers carry out in every of them.”
Whereas the truth that all 4 video games are performed at totally different venues retains the atmospheres totally different and the outcomes and intentions for every of the video games differs, Bronze likened the run of video games to a chess match.
“It is virtually like a recreation of chess and who’s going to make a change that’ll change the dynamic,” she stated. “However will they [the opposition] change? Possibly there’s a matchup which is similar from the earlier recreation the place, truly simply because I am profitable within the first one, possibly the opposite gamers study one thing in that recreation.
“It’s fairly an fascinating idea: how gamers and coaches adapt and study throughout 4 video games to try to get the higher hand.”
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Barcelona vs. Actual Madrid, 2011
Again in 2011, 4 conferences in 18 days pushed the rivalry between Spanish giants Madrid and Barca to the very edge. The run of video games introduced the worst out of coaches José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, noticed Madrid topped Copa del Rey champions (1-0) and helped Barça on their path to win a LaLiga (1-1) and Champions League double (3-1 on mixture.)
Barcelona and Actual Madrid want no introduction to one another, having been rivals for years. However Madrid defender Marcelo discovered it robust to recollect which competitors he was enjoying in on the time.
“There was a league recreation and I assumed we had been enjoying within the Champions League … it was complicated,” he instructed ESPN. “Truthfully, it was actually unusual. I do not assume it was good for soccer as a result of everybody waited all 12 months to see a recreation between Madrid and Barca and it misplaced the [magic] … only for a second.”
Barcelona midfielder Andrés Iniesta admitted that there wasn’t a lot change to the buildup, given the historical past between the 2 golf equipment.
“They had been very intense weeks which mirrored the rivalry we had in all competitions,” he instructed ESPN’s Moises Llorens. “Barça had been marking an period and Actual Madrid had been making an attempt to place an finish to it … In these matches, there are few issues to cover or that the rival does not know, not solely as a result of we performed 4 instances in a row, but additionally as a result of the rivalry has been occurring for a very long time and every thing was already there super-analysed, regardless there could also be new developments yearly.”
Barcelona’s health coach below Guardiola on the time, Aureli Altimira, added: “By that stage of the season, we had hardly any time to coach. The work was already accomplished and it was about taking up board the totally different techniques that may very well be utilized within the video games. That’s what we labored on after we had been all on the coaching pitch. It was a super-team that knew learn how to get the most effective out of themselves and that confirmed.”
Certainly, the tactical nature of the video games modified, as every consequence modified the complexion of issues.
“I feel that the preliminary thought of every staff is all the time the identical, but it surely’s true that one recreation can provide you nuances or clues to organize for the subsequent,” Iniesta stated. “That is on a tactical degree. On a psychological or confidence degree, it is apparent that outcomes and the way in which we play within the video games to return even have an affect. These are video games through which the participant motivates himself, video games through which each participant all the time desires to play. However in our case, the coach all the time discovered the appropriate phrases to make us see the significance of each recreation …
“The Copa del Rey remaining was excessively confrontational, after which there was Pepe’s sending off on the Bernabeu, which generated a giant controversy. I do not know, for us enjoying good soccer was handy, the remainder was noise that did not assist us. Fortunately, we overcame every thing and that 12 months we gained the Champions League and LaLiga.”
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Tottenham Hotspur vs. Wimbledon, 1999
Over 25 years in the past, 5 video games between these two sides occurred within the area of a month from Jan. 16 to Feb. 16 in 1999, throughout three totally different competitions: the FA Cup, League Cup and Premiership. Solely six targets had been scored (half of them in Spurs’ 3-0 win within the FA Cup replay after a 1-1 draw), and Spurs gained the League Cup replay 1-0, whereas the Premiership tie completed 0-0.
Germany defender Steffen Freund — who went on to make 131 appearances for Spurs — joined from Borussia Dortmund within the winter break forward of the 5 fixtures.
“I requested George Graham, the coach, can I’ve a brief break with my household for Christmas and New 12 months’s Eve? And he stated, ‘Sure, no downside. However do not forget Steffen, we play in opposition to Wimbledon’,” he instructed ESPN. “There was an enormous alternative for the membership to win silverware and to play in Europe once more. And that was one of many factors I stated, ‘oh sure, after all two video games at Wembley, that may be good’.
“I used to be a brand new signing two weeks earlier than, so ultimately I had 5 Wimbledon video games in a single month. Typically I got here to the coaching floor saying ‘is there solely Wimbledon within the Premier League or in cup video games for Spurs?’ After all, it was a bit of bit humorous but additionally a bit of bit loopy as a result of you may have a cup replay in opposition to Wimbledon and you’ve got the Premier League recreation after which after all the massive [League Cup] semifinal. So total a bit of bit loopy. They had been actually laborious video games, but additionally thrilling to play in opposition to Wimbledon.”
Freund’s dream when signing for the north London membership was to win silverware — following success within the Champions League with Dortmund and Euro ’96 with Germany — and return to the European stage. Inside the first two months of his profession with Tottenham, he had accomplished so: beating Leicester within the League Cup remaining and gaining qualification for the next season’s UEFA Cup. Having spent a few of his post-playing profession as a coach, Freund’s reflection of that Wimbledon run of video games was that he may use every to study one thing new and apply that data to the subsequent recreation.
“Be centered on the sport,” he stated. “Go searching, take into consideration what has occurred within the first recreation, what they’re doing with and with out the ball.
“You already know the motion of [Wimbledon midfielder] Robbie Earle, however I needed perceive many of the gamers as a result of then you definitely study one thing from each recreation. The second recreation in opposition to Wimbledon after all was totally different; I knew already heaps about Earle, after which [striker] John Hartson, [full-back] Ben Thatcher, a lot of actually good gamers.
“It is good to know the way they play; it is good to know the actions of the gamers in opposition to you. I discovered at the moment what can I do, and what the gamers from my staff can do subsequent to me, to make use of that have from the primary recreation. Typically it is about whether or not they’re fast, good one-vs.-one, or on the flip, for example. In order that’s why you study from each recreation.”
