Brasil's Beautiful game.

AND THE 8 POWERS THAT MAKE IT SO

OVER THE EASTER holidays last spring, the Bethesda United (MD) youth soccer club spent a glorious week at the University of Sao Paulo learning what soccer is all about in a country that cherishes the game like no other country in the world.

From day one, the American youngsters were invited to immerse themselves in various pick-up games, five organized matches against junior teams, and a culminating game against a select team from the premier soccer schools of Brasil.

The intensive exposure to the greatest soccer culture in the world was more than educational. It was exhilarating. After years of playing our sanitized game of "looking good," coming out for a rest when you get tired, and "doing my thing when I get the ball" -- which often means turning it over to the opponents after committing a number of deadly sins -- the American kids entered the real world where possession is prized and fitness is taken for granted.

If you give the ball away, your teammates are going to chew you out, and if you're unfit, the choices will be simple: You will wind up on the bench, in the reserves, or selling programs. They expect everyone to compete for the entire game.

We have too many unfit players on our teams. They are part of our problem, but the major culprit is the system that encourages laziness and poor training attitudes. Players will do what they have to do to play. In the U.S., that means getting semi-fit. In Brasil, you have no choice. You have to get fit because there are too many players wanting your spot on the team.

1. Power of Fitness

We have to revise our use of substitution, especially from the U-15's on, to bring our players in line with the rest of the world. It is also important for coaches to become more sensitive to the game and to develop an awareness of when to put in a sub to impact a game.

That can only be learned by permitting fewer subs and by staying off the field once you come off it. We have to change our blinkered mindset about our better players. Soccer is a running, dynamic sport. When parents and administrators worry about exhaustion and dehydration, they should examine the causes, not the effects.

The greatest preventatives of aforementioned ills are skill and fitness. Skillful and fit players rarely get injured, whereas unfit and unskilled players are unprepared to play and invite injuries.

2. Power of Team Spirit

Fitness and team spirit are close friends. If you are fit, you always think about how to win a game. When everyone on a team is fit, you have an incredible advantage. Such teams never know when to quit and are dangerous every moment they are in the game.

Think of Manchester United against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions Cup Final in 1999. They were a goal down in the 90th minute and not playing well, but they came back to win 2-1 in the injury time.

Their belief and commitment to the cause offered a brilliant example of winning team spirit.

3. Power of the Pass

Positive possession is the key to the Brasilian game. They set you up all the time. It's like watching a skillful boxer destroy his opponent by feinting one way and then striking from the opposite way -- jab, jab, with short passes and then switch to a hook off a long pass to the open side.

Good teams are also patient. They wait for the right moment to strike.

They are quite happy to make you run and run and chase the ball until you drop. Quite often, their games are competitive for 50 to 60 minutes and then the hammer is delivered.

The first team I took to Brasil trailed 2-0 at halftime and then lost 10-1, as the Brasilians dropped the hammer in the second half.

You give the ball away in Brasil and the result will be painful. Ball possession is a precious gem. The ball is a jewel to them, whereas we treat it as any other disposable item. We assume we can always buy another one at WalMart.

That don't-care attitude means pain when you are trying to regain the ball from a team that cherishes possession.

Players and teams that care how they pass to one another tend to win a lot of games.

4. Power of the Passing Angle

Intelligent teams create constant passing angles to ensure possession. Without such angles, life can be full of turnovers and frustration. You can always spot the intelligent players and teams by their predilection for making fat angles early and often.

At Sao Paulo, our opponents did this so well, we were constantly chasing their shadows and moves. It's painful to be victimized by teams that are cunning and patient in waiting for defensive lapses and then striking for the jugular.

5. Power of the Angled Play

Soccer is very much a game of opposites, particularly when creating attacking moves. Defenders will always retreat in straight lines back toward their own goal. Attackers, on the other hand, have to travel a different route to get free. This means pulling away from your marker and creating a wide passing angle.

The great teams are full of angles. The player on the ball will be constantly supported by team-mates who are making passing angles for them. This is even more vital up front where space is at a premium and "pulling away" must be part of every striker's game.

Look at Romario, the "King of the Pull-Aways" -- he makes over 50 of them per game. It's that important if you are a striker.

Angles or diagonal runs are often the most difficult for defenses to close down. Again, our thinking tends to be in straight lines, north to south approach, making it easy for the defenders to see the oncoming move. Everything is in front of them -- the ball and their immediate opponents.

Romario was put on this planet to complicate the defenders' lives. By "pulling away" from his marker on the far side of the ball, he forces his defender to make decisions he doesn't want to make.

Do I go with the attacker or stay? If I stay, he becomes open, and if I go to mark him, I leave an open space to be exploited.

Romario also makes the unfortunate marker work his eyesight overtime, as the ball and Romario will rarely be in the same viewing frame. As soon as the marker begins watching the ball, Romario will either pull away or dart behind his marker with a slash-type of run. Romario wants the ball played behind his defender -- which again forces the defenders to turn and defend their own goal.

In fact, Romario, being a talented striker/mathematician, uses his magic formula to recognize what type of run to use. It is:

"Forward pass feeds a diagonal run," and "Diagonal pass feeds a forward run."

6. Power of Regained Possessions

As soon as the Brasilians lose possession, they press the ball. The nearest player to the ball-holder is the key. If he is an alert and thinking R.P., winning the ball back becomes a reality. This is particularly critical in the opposing half. Think of the advantages:

1. The nearer to the goal you win the ball, the quicker you can strike.

2. You find fewer opponents behind the ball.

3. The more pressure you put on the defenders, the more mistakes they will make. The weakest technical players will often play in the back.

A plan called "the Maldini than other workers.

After leaving Sao Paulo, we set off for Rio to see the Carioca Championship game. We watched Vasco de Gama beat Flamengo 5-1 in a half-empty stadium - meaning only 100,000 fans cheering and chanting like no other fans on earth.

Then there is the media that swarms onto the field any time they want to interview a player. We reckoned there were over 100 of them clustered around the dugouts alone. Practically any happening at all becomes an excuse to invade the field and find "the truth." It was like watching a remake of an old Keystone Cops movie.

Even the halftime entertainment is different, with a boy juggling a ball nonstop for 10 to 15 minutes or a guy on crutches with only half a leg juggling the ball continuously without it ever touching the ground.

Brasil is a special place. It becomes a magical one when a round object (soccer ball, tennis ball, a plastic ball, rag ball, etc.) meets the foot of a Brasilian. It then takes on a life and a vitality that can only happen in this land of the Samba. To them, a soccer ball has a soul and a special spirit, to be booted, boomed, headed, lovingly juggled or chased into submission to ensure a win.

The fans become ecstatic over the pure skill of the game, rather than the trophies and tournaments and awards, the way some other countries do. The Brasilian way creates a Pele or a Zico or a Romario or a Ronaldinho or a Rivaldo, to name just a few of their world-class legends.

Their passion always begins with the pure beauty of the game. And the secret of this passion lies in all of the players who play and practice soccer as a daily habit.

That's where the work comes in. The work produces the beauty and the beauty produces the passion.