Let me explain, in case you don’t already know, what The Hong Kong Soccer Sevens is. The clues are in the name, yes it’s played in Hong Kong (annually) and yes this is a seven a side football tournament (not the sport with odd shaped balls that is so commonly connected with Hong Kong), played on a regulation 11 a side size field at it’s spiritual home The Hong Kong Football Club at the heart of Happy Valley (maybe more famous for it’s horse racing) on Hong Kong island.

The tournament is split between the main tournament and the Masters. The masters has seen numerous world stars of football come to show off their talent (albeit at a slower pace). All I can say is that to see some of these players it epitomises the anecdote “form is temporary, class is permanent “. The tournament has been graced by Didier Six, Lothur Matthias, Jean-Marc Bosman, Andy Cole, Peter Beardsley, Des Walker the list goes on and on.

Rumors are always rife before the tournament about which teams will come and play. In years gone by the regulars were always Rangers and Celtic of the Scottish league and Aston Villa of the English Premier league. Due (I am lead to believe) to financial constraints, this year we would not have the Scottish representatives at the tournament and they would be replaced with some other teams. Other teams that have participated in the past are Manchester Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, The Kaiser Chiefs, Boca Juniors, Urawa Red Diamonds, Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai SIPG, the Australian National U21’s it’s a long list of quality teams from all corners of the globe.

After you run through this amazing list you go down to the lesser known (to the world outside of Hong Kong) professional teams of Hong Kong’s Premier League, BC Rangers, Kitchee FC and then going down another level, teams made from players at the Hong Kong Football Club who participate in the professional leagues of Hong Kong but maintain their amateur status, after this is the second Hong Kong Football Club team The Captains Select made up of those “left over” (for want of a better phrase, no disrespect) first team players and then players from their amateur league teams.

Then last but not least, bringing up the rear of all of this are the whipping boys of the tournament, the no hopers who come to make up the numbers and play for the privilege of being on the same pitch as future football legends, The Yau Yee League Select. A team comprised of players from Hong Kongs longest serving amateur league. School teachers, bankers, insurers, desk jockeys, publicans, bar staff, bar “proper-uppers”, players from every walk of life there is in Hong Kong and general lovers of the peoples game.

I’m not entirely sure how the coach selection process was done by the Yau Yee League before, but this year it was agreed that the process to find a coach(s) for the coming sevens tournament for the Yau Yee League Select team would start with an advertisement on the leagues website.

The request for interested parties to make application for the unpaid position to coach the Yau Yee League Select team went up on the leagues website with only a couple of weeks left of the season.

I’d like to think that my experience and coaching qualifications from the Football Federation Australia and the English FA put me in with a chance. The other string to my bow, as I suggested in my application, was my experience of coaching sevens football to numerous youth teams over the last many, many years of my professional coaching career. It might be little league, but believe me when I say the standard is very high, both technically and tactically.

A week later and I received an email from Matt Seddon (Yau Yee League representative and Select team manager) telling me the good news that I had been selected, along with James Dean (another coaching professional) to plan for and coach the team that would compete in this years tournament. Tommy Vincent (Yau Yee League representative) completed the Yau Yee League Selects management “dream team” for the coming tournament.

James and I were brought together supposedly to pick out some “canon fodder” for the pro teams arriving in Hong Kong in around 7 weeks time. Obviously this was due to the outstanding resumes, credentials and experience both James and myself possessed. I was later to find out (true or not?) that we were the only two people who had applied, so I guess we were the perfect candidates for the job.

It was then released which teams would be coming to the tournament and among the expected Aston Villa (five times champions) West Ham Utd, Leicester City, Newcastle Utd there were some new big names to the tournament, Stoke City and Athletico Madrid. We were ecstatic when the draw was made.

So trying to cut this (what is becoming a longer than expected) long story short, we had around 6 weeks to cut down a squad of over 40 nominated players to a squad of ten and coach them for what we wanted to try and achieve in the tournament (preferably something a little better than “cannon fodder”).

#believe

After day one of the tournament was complete, we took some praise from the tournament organisers on their social media page.

We had defied the odds and through victories over Stoke City and Hong Kong’s National U20’s Team, we had shaken off our “cannon fodder” status, had knocked Stoke and Hong Kong out of the Cup competition and we were through to the next round along side Athletico Madrid, who had a lucky 2-1 victory over us after coming from behind with the aid of light penalty (my story, my poetic licence!)

The results :

Yau Yee League Selcet 2-0 Stoke City

Athletico Madrid 2-1 Yau Yee League Select

Hong Kong National U20 1-2 Yau Yee League Select

So this put us into the Cup competition to play West Ham Utd, which although we had a few chances, West Ham took an early lead, sat on their one goal lead for most of the game and deserved their 1-0 win. (https://youtu.be/rgM53HQ5nmY?t=1357)

This put us directly into the Shield competition and set us up for a dream semi final against Aston Villa, the one team that had won this tournament more than any other team and we took them all the way to extra time and penalties where our goal keeper (Eugene Kan) has earned himself legend status and received an honourable mention at the post tournament dinner https://youtu.be/sw1_6SeHPcE?t=4810

“The Crazy Gang have beaten the culture club”

Would you believe it, the part timers from the “friendly league” of Hong Kong have knocked out the five times Champions of the Hong Kong Soccer Sevens and the one club that has produced more England Internationals than any other. The Yau Yee League Select marches to the final of the Shield competition.

The final proved to be a bridge just a little too far. Although we stayed in contention throughout, had a couple of good chances denied on the line, had a good penalty appeal turned down, we just couldn’t quite beat the professionals for the winners medal. BC Rangers played well throughout, had strength and experience in their team (along side some up-coming youth) and had scored a couple of good goals.

Yau Yee League Select 1-3 BC Rangers

Our guys gave everything they had left all the way to the end and the final 3-1 score line flatters to deceive our opposition who scored their final goal deep into added time when the game was already won.

I could not be prouder of our all round team performance and looking back at training on hill tops in thunder and lightning storms, standing in one inch deep of “black rain” water, I am now 100% sure the football gods were smiling on us all the way back then.

During a long a painful Covid lockdown in Hong Kong, I pieced this little memento together of the fun we had.

In 2007, I came across a business management book that would change the way I would approach football team management on a personal level.

There are plenty of resources for actual coaching of tactics, principles of play etc, but there is very little out there that will help you to get your players to gel, to get on with one another and find that little bit of magic that turns a group of players into a team.

In LAX airport I picked up a copy of Patrick Lencioni’s “5 Dysfunctions of a Team”, by the time a touched back down in Hong Kong I had a new approach to the teams I was coaching and to be honest, many people that I had any kind of working relationship with.

In his book, Patrick Lencioni outlines 5 dysfunctions and then the methods of righting those wrongs, to create a harmonious, productive team. You can see what these are from the pyramid image above, working from bottom to top.

Let me simply summarize this for you now.

Members of teams with an absence of trust…

• Conceal their weaknesses and mistakes from one another
• Hesitate to ask for help or provide constructive feedback
• Hesitate to offer help outside their own areas of responsibility
• Jump to conclusions about the intentions and aptitudes of others without attempting to clarify them
• Fail to recognize and tap into one another’s skills and experiences
• Waste time and energy managing their behaviors for effect
• Hold grudges
• Dread meetings and find reasons to avoid spending time together

Member of trusting teams …

Admit weaknesses and mistakes
Ask for help
Take risks in offering feedback and assistance
Appreciate and tap into one another’s skills and experiences
Focus time and energy on important issues, not politics
Offer and accept apologies without hesitation
Look forward to meetings and other opportunities to work as a group

Overcoming the absence of trust …

Personal histories exercise
Team effectiveness exercise
Personality and behavioural presence profile
360 degree feed back
Leader role

Teams that fear conflict…

• Have boring meetings
• Create environments where back-channel politics and personal attacks thrive
• Ignore controversial topics that are critical to team success
• Fail to tap into all the opinions and perspectives of team members
• Waste time and energy with posturing and interpersonal risk management

Teams that engage in conflict …

Have lively, interesting meetings
Extract and exploit the ideas of all team members
Solve real problems quickly
Minimize politics
Put critical topics on the table for discussion

Overcoming Fear of Conflict …

Acknowledge that conflict is productive, and that many tend to avoid it.
Team Members must occaisionally assume the role of a “minor of conflict”
(someone who extracts disagreements in the team to sheds light on them.)
Team members need to coach one another not to retreat from healthy debate. Remind them what they are doing is necessary.

A team that fails to commit…

• Creates ambiguity among the team about direction and priorities
• Watches windows of opportunity close due to excessive analysis and unnecessary delay
• Breeds lack of confidence and fear of failure
• Revisits discussions and decisions again and again
• Encourages second-guessing among team members

Teams that are committed …

Have clear directions and priorities
Are aligned around objectives
Develop an ability to learn from mistakes
Seize opportunities before the competition
Moves forward without hesitation
Changes direction without hesitation or guilt

Overcoming lack of commitment …

reformulate action plan
Set and honor deadlines, including interim milestones
Worst case scenario analysis to remove the fear from mistakes
practice quick decision making with limited analysis

A team that avoids accountability…

• Creates resentment among team members who have different standards of performance
• Encourages mediocrity
• Misses deadlines and key deliver-ables
• Places an undue burden on the team leader as the sole source of discipline

Teams that are accountable…

Ensure that poor performers feel pressure to improve
Identify quickly problem by questioning one’s approach without hesitation
Establish respect among the team who are held to the same standard
Avoid excessive bureaucracy around performance management and corrective action

Overcoming avoidance of Accountability …

Publication of goals and standards: no one can ignore them and we know who is responsible for what
Progressive review : team members should comment on their peer performance against objectives and standards
Reward team instead of individuals
Do not relegate accountability to consensus approach: shared team responsibility with individual responsibility

A team that is not focused on results…

• Stagnates/fails to grow
• Rarely defeats competitors
• Loses achievement-oriented employees
• Encourages team members to focus on their own careers and individual goals
• Is easily distracted

A team that focuses on collective results …

retains achievement-orientated employees
minimizes individualistic behaviours
enjoys success and failure acutely
has individuals who subjugate their own goals for the good of the team
avoids distraction

Overcoming inattention to results …

public declaration
the team must make results clear
have results based awards
reward only those behaviors and actions that contribute to those results.
They must be careful not to get sidetracked to tangential action items.

Teamwork ultimately comes down to practicing a small set of principles over a long period of time.  Success is not a matter of mastering subtle, sophisticated theory, but rather of embracing common sense with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence.