Yes I totally agree. It's funny you mention this actually. I played for Portsmouth at U-13 in a tournament in England and we played a team from Michigan in the semi-finals and lost to them 1-0. They were nowhere near as technically sound as we were, but they had a HUGE advantage over us in size and were able to simply run past us despite the fact that we were much better then them when we had the ball and were passing back and forth. When you get older however, and the difference of speeds and size diminishes so much, this is when the technical ability again becomes the dominating factor. Like you mentioned, Holland are able to have a tremendous team every year because they are so technically good and this makes them trouble for anyone they play, despite their size and speed. There are obviously certain positions that it is very helpful to have size in, such as a big target forward, but then again teams and individuals have done very well without being large. Look at Zola, Maradona, Pele, etc, who were not tremendously big but definitely great players.
Back to the younger players, the ones who are big and fast and run past people get all the praise and the technically ability of the smaller players sometimes go unnoticed. Tactics also go out the window, as hoof it up to the fast guy for breakaways is the key to scoring.
