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JAPAN 2025 TOUR September 2-12
ABOUT THE TOUR
Our exploratory fact finding tour to Japan was to share our knowledge and to learn more about the culture of Japanese soccer player development. The tour was funded and created by Gary & Carine Ireland with guest legendary US soccer coaching icon Anson Dorrance
⚽️ Pro. coach development, networking
⚽️ Meetings with key influential leaders of professional Japanese Men's J League & Women's WE League & directors of leading professional clubs
⚽️ Watched WE League Pro. 1st teams & youth games & trainings
⚽️ WE League club Academy visits & training
⚽️ Discussions with leading Japanese football figures workshop lectures/seminars & roundtable discussion
garyjamesireland@gmail.com 650-387 4128
TOPICS
JAPANESE SOCCER
JAPANESE SOCCER
⚽️ Comparing culture and material/content of youth and women's player development in Japan and USA
⚽️ The Future of Women's Global Soccer
⚽ Anson provides insight of how UNC players achieve continuous Improvement at UNC, the culture of development through commitment to training and how so many players turn professional after playing at UNC
⚽️ Excerpts from Anson books: "The Competitive Cauldron" "The Man Watching" and "The 'Vision Of A Champion"
⚽️ Anson describes his demand for UNC coaches and players to transcend ordinary effort to avoid mediocrity, ownership of performance and take responsibility for self practice. He explains his views on players thriving outside their comfort zone as they achieve "Never Ending Ascensions"
⚽️ Learn why the success of UNC women's soccer isn't only about numbers and data, it's about the deeply embedded DNA of core values of nobility, respect and positivity created by Anson Dorrance
⚽️ Anson describes why an obsession with everything about the ball..."Love of Ball" and "Love of Game" ...and commitment to ball mastery throughout a players career, especially in the "Golden Years" of a players career, translates into elite performance
⚽️ "Living On A Wall". Anson explains the importance and value of wall practice and how the greatest players in history dedicated enormous energy and time developing touch, feel and timing using concrete walls and backboards
⚽️ We will discuss the importance of Imitating and emulating favorite players and which players Japanese youth players respect and model themselves on
⚽️ Extensive discussions on various youth and women's soccer topics with a specific focus on player development and the culture of individual player development at home, in clubs and in the community
⚽️ Discussions on how players succeed, including the necessity of self training habits
⚽️ Comparing and sharing the playing qualities players should exhibit in order to achieve excellence and greatness
JAPANESE SOCCER
JAPANESE SOCCER
JAPANESE SOCCER
🇯🇵 Japan is has long been considered one of the best developers youth women's soccer talent globally
🇯🇵 Japan has produced world class players, has won many women's FIFA world championships and is increasingly more respected on the men's side with a significant number of players playing in Europe's top leagues and teams
🇯🇵 Japan has far smaller amount of registered youth players than the USA and significantly less than North Carolina and California
🇯🇵 In Japan players use everything from tennis balls to regular soccer balls when practicing in order to develop better ball feeling
🇯🇵 Japanese players play and train in small spaces, often on worn out fields due to expansive urban areas and there there is a lack of grass and turf facilities. Players experience a mixture of playing facilities: long and short grass; concrete; dirt-gravel; concrete-hardtop
🇯🇵 Japan is a year-round, one-sports culture prioritizing technical skill development
🇯🇵 Japan has excellent younger technical players and excellent development system, even with less licensed coaches than the USA
🇯🇵 Japan has a practice culture, not just competition culture
ABOUT ANSON DORRANCE
Anson is a pioneer of women's soccer & one of the most influential figures in the history of global women's soccer & the most successful coach in NCAA sports history. He's one of the founders of NCAA Women's Soccer, 22x NCAA National Champion of USA with North Carolina Women's Soccer, USA Women's National Team Coach ('86-'94),1991 FIFA World Cup Champion and 7x National Coach of Year
Anson's UNC and USA women's soccer alumni spans the globe with many players Anson coached at UNC currently coaching & playing professionally & internationally. He's coached 65 players to represent the USA, including:
⚽️ President of US Soccer Federation Cindy Parlow
⚽️ Former USA Women's National Team coach April Heinrichs
⚽️ Legendary player Mia Hamm
⚽️ Kristine Lilly, Meghan Klingenberg, Lorrie Chalupny, Cat Reddick, Tisha Venturini, Ashlyn Harris, Jess McDonald, Lorrie Fair, Tobin Heath, Heaher O'Reilly Whit Engen
Current USA Women's National team players played at North Carolina under Anson:
⚽️ Crystal Dunn (Paris St Germain), Sam Meza (Seattle), Ally Sentnor (Kansas), Emily Fox (Arsenal), Claudia Dickey (Seattle), Avery Patterson (Houston)
Anson has coached hundreds of UNC players who turned professional all over the world, often helping them with placement including:
⚽️ Ex-UNC England Coach & 2025 FIFA Women's Coach of the Year Sarina Wiegman called UNC“football paradise” (Wiegman played under Dorrance at UNC)
⚽️ Current England players Alessia Russo (Arsenal), ex-FIFA World Player of Year Lucy Bronze (ex-Barcelona & Man. City/current Chelsea), Lubben Moy (Arsenal)
Anson's entertaining, articulate storytelling & motivational abilities resonate not just with soccer. Other sports & corporations & PE have used Anson to motivate leadership & employees & provide strategic investment advice. Dorrance created the "Competitive Cauldron" culture of recording performance in practice which laid the foundation for UNC women's players performing at their best in every practice.
Ansons methods have been adopted by numerous professional & world cup players, professional & college coaches.
⚽️ 2025: Keynote speaker USC Convention (Chicago)
⚽️ 2025: Guest of Honor ECNL-AGM (Las Vegas)
⚽️ 2025: Herman Trophy Awards (St Louis)
⚽️ 2025: NBA's Boston Celtics sought his motivational/leadership guidance
⚽️ 2024: Honored at England v USA game by current/former UNC USA players
⚽️ MLB Houston Astros staff all read Anson's book
⚽️ MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks used Anson's motivational/leadership guidance
⚽️ Ex-US National Team Volleyball coach Terry Liskevych recommended Anson's“Training Soccer Champions” to NFL New England Patriots coach Pete Carroll, coach of NCAA Champions USC & Superbowl Champions Seattle Seahawks, who was so inspired by Anson that he honored Anson by inviting him to Seattle's team training session to demonstrate his NFL Championship team using Anson's "Competitive Cauldron" which Carroll called "Competitive Wednesday". "Anson and I met for the first time in 2005. I had been an admirer of his for years and read his book. Dorrance is one of the true legends in sports. I adopted Dorrance’s approach for an number of reasons. As a motivational tool it helped us make sure the players were practicing at a very high level"
⚽️ USA Women's National Team Coach Emma Hayes said in her book that her outlook on coaching was massively influenced & revolutionized by Anson. "He’s one of the most brilliant men I have met. He blew my mind with his boldness & intuition"
⚽️ See link to upcoming Anson Dorrance webinar with Gary Ireland here
"This is a women's soccer school. We're just trying to keep up with them”
Dean Smith. Michael Jordan's coach at UNC
"I grew up always good at sports, but being a girl, I was never allowed to feel as good about it as guys were. My toughness wasn't celebrated. But then I got to the University of North Carolina and it was OK to want to be the best."
Mia Hamm
