In Paraguay, where the South American Under-15 Championship brought the continent’s next generation together this September, CONMEBOL used the tournament as more than a competition. Alongside the matches, the confederation staged a technical programme intended to help national-team coaches build training environments that develop sharper, more creative decision-makers.
The initiative involved the coaching staffs of all 10 participating countries and formed part of a longer effort to define how young players should be taught across South America. Venezuela celebrated a first-ever South American Under-15 title during the tournament, while Brazil also lifted an Under-15 continental crown.
Testing the decisions behind the game
At the centre of the seminar was TacticUP, an online assessment platform created by the Football Research and Studies Centre at the Federal University of Viçosa in Brazil. The tool measures tactical understanding, including how players read situations and select actions during a match.
More than 200 players from the women’s teams completed the assessment. Their responses were examined alongside evaluations made by their own coaching staffs, offering a comparison between the players’ understanding of the game and the coaches’ observations.
- Training sessions were observed and recorded, with attention paid to exercises designed to encourage game recognition, decision-making and varied solutions to match situations.
- Technical staffs met to review the training material and assessment results, taking account of each squad’s setting and the progress of individual players.
- Players completed the TacticUP test, which identifies how they interpret football scenarios and choose between possible responses.
- Coaches assessed decision-making in attacking and defensive situations, both when players were close to the ball and when they were operating away from it.
The study also considered the way coaches communicated during sessions: whether their instructions were technical, tactical, motivational or dynamic; whether the focus was individual or collective; and how long their interventions lasted. By the end of the event, findings had been supplied to 20 technical staffs spanning the men’s and women’s sides.
A wider South American training project
CONMEBOL had identified decision-making as an area requiring further development among its member associations and turned to scientific data to shape its response. The confederation’s view is that any shared plan must still account for the different characteristics of each country and national team.
Israel Teoldo, general coordinator of the football specialisation programme at the Federal University of Viçosa and a consultant to both the Brazilian Football Confederation and CONMEBOL, said the system gives coaches a dependable way to identify a player’s needs in game comprehension and choices.
“The coach also makes an evaluation,” Teoldo explained. “From there, training becomes easier and the coach can make adjustments more accurately.”
He said the work has been underway within CONMEBOL for nearly eight years, with the past three dedicated to gathering data, research and studies. The longer-term objective is to establish a development curriculum and then align coach education with it.
For the confederation, the intended outcome is not a single uniform model imposed from Asunción to the rest of the continent, but a clearer framework for teaching the qualities it sees as part of South American football’s identity: understanding the game, making sound choices and finding creative answers under pressure.
