South American giants Brazil and Argentina locked horns in the men’s football semi-finals of the Olympics on Tuesday with the latter winning 3-0 to make the final versus Nigeria.

All the team members are great players with some being extremely famous. To get where they are, the players have worked very hard work – with plenty of repetitions in the technical aspects to help develop their skills.

If their youth development was correctly carried out, the fame and money would be the measure of their success.

For starters, remember to make the game more enjoyable, and to create better players, it’s important to take the drilling and screaming out of youth football.

Overbearing adult interference will always hamper children’s progress as the children are always instructed to do this or that.

Allowing the child to rectify his or her problem would be a better solution as this will help the child to think. This creates good decision-making and improves the child’s tactical awareness.

Many a time, I have seen parents or coaches working with six or seven-year-olds on structured drills. Then they start yelling at the children to “spread out.”

Kids of this age are just being introduced to the game and can hardly kick the ball – so asking them to spread out and play the ball to the flanks would be asking for too much.

Today, we play in a more structured environment. No more street football with a can or pieces of paper all rolled up like a ball to give us the fun that we used to enjoy so much. That was where talents were developed. What is required when working with young children is playing small-sided games in school, at the backyard, the beach or just about anywhere that gives the child the greatest joy. The ultimate dream of the child is to score a goal.

This gives the child a reason to want to master a technique and develop it to a skill like Ronaldo’s and Pele’s.

So it would make sense for coaches to replicate the kind of football the Ronaldinhos of the world played when they were under 10.

But there are youth coaches — lots and lots — who feel they’re being generous if they devote a third of the practice to scrimmaging.

I imagine a six-year-old Maradona would have quit the sport if his introduction to it entailed doing the drills we make our kids do instead of letting them run around trying to score.

The Brazilian and Argentine players who delight us so much developed their skills playing without adults looking over their shoulders to stifle their creative impulses, and criticising their mistakes.

For children to develop a passion for the game is to have a good time playing it. Opportunities to score goals — that would be the greatest thing anyone playing the game would agree is the best form of developing the children’s passion for football.

Children in mini games must play as they please.

Give them the opportunity to explore rather than for the coach to constantly reprimand them. Above all, children should not be discouraged from dribbling.

Kids can easily comprehend the concept of dribbling and they should be encouraged. Ronaldo is a fine example of how good dribbling can give a player something extra in a one-vs-one situation.

Dribbling also develops one’s ball skills that will help players to be good passers.

Remember the game is the best teacher and here are some guidelines:

• Three vs three games without keepers for children under 8.

The playing area – what rules to apply.

• Guidelines: Encourage coaches to create practice sessions that simulate pick-up games, organise less, say less, allow players to do more and encourage the dribbler.

It is hoped that the section under ‘guidelines’ will have an impact on well-intentioned adults who run our youth leagues but sometimes forget that football for young children is playtime.