Every Bruins fan knows that this year our favorite team has been struggling at home. On the road, Bruins are 23-7-3, which, by this table, ranks them as the second best on-the-road record in the league. At home, it’s a vastly different story. With a record of 15-16-5, Boston is in the bottom quartile, sitting at 23rd out of the 30 teams in the league.
Concentration time
I grew up in Brasil, living near the stadium of one of the football powerhouses, Flamengo. I recall that before every game, the men would spend the night at the stadium, a sort of retreat, or as they called it “concentração”, “concentration”.
I did a quick search on the topic this morning, wondering if teams still do it and found out that not only does the concept have a wikipedia entry, but it’s still a going practice in Brasil. Also, it seems that some football teams in Europe also do this to some degree, for example Man City. And what was really interesting is I found out even college football teams do it.
Really, I have no idea if there is any positive effect. Back in the 50s, a famous equipment manager for Botafogo (at the time a powerhouse from Rio), quipped “Se concentração ganhasse jogo, o time do presídio não perdia uma partida” – “If concentração would win games, then the prison team would never lose.”
At times, the players rebel against it (especially when their salaries aren’t being paid), but in Brasil, it’s in the contract that they need to abide by the concentração rules. And orgs still do complain that it’s a luxurious cost to place players in hotels near the home stadium the night before a home game.
In this excellent article on the topic (in Portuguese), players and coaches discuss the pros and cons and the culture around the concentração before the game. It’s not a simple decision. Some teams call players in 2 days before; when you add home games to away games, players are never in their own bed for most of the year. Then there are the technological changes that have made concentração more individual than team-based, solo activities on electronics versus group activities around games or movies.
Perhaps it is also culture that keeps Brasilian coaches more connected to this practice, worried that his boys will be out partying [Of note, during the last cup run, Germany and Holland did no such concentração. Player discipline?]. Many coaches have tried to mess with the formula (as have big teams in Europe). But there is a strong expectation of the positive effect of squirreling away the players before a home game, that players, coaches, and fans point to a lack of concentração on losses.
Need to crack the problem, Claude
OK, so perhaps I, too, have a bias towards this idea of some sort of retreat before a home game. Especially when I see the different between the Bruins’ home and away record.
What’s it going to take for the Bruins to shake this poor at home record? No one knows what’s causing this skew in the record between home and away, but we all know it needs to be solved. Going into the playoffs, the ability to win at home is even more important, especially for player confidence.
I’m not suggesting that Bruins start acting like they are on the road for home games. Or, perhaps, I am. Perhaps, what I am suggesting is that Claude, Don, and the amazing John Whitesides give this a ponder as the Bruins try to hold on to our standing through the end of the season and all they way to that final game in June.
Image from last night’s loss at home (which oddly put us in 1st place): ESPN
