|
Featured Links
Fun Soccer Drills For Coaches - CLICK HERE To Download Now!
Strength Training For Soccer - A Tailored Soccer Fitness Program
Think on Your Feet - Soccer Strategy & Tactics
The beauty of soccer is that it’s a complex game where the possibilities are endless. Your proficiency in soccer not only depends on your physical coordination, but also on your ability to read the game, make quick decisions, and communicate with your teammates. No matter how crisp your dribbling, shooting, and passing skills may be, it’s all useless without strategy.
Luckily, the objective at the heart of soccer is simple: keep the ball moving and put the ball in the net. But, there are a million and one ways for you to get from Point A to Point B. How well you do so hinges on how rapidly you can assess your situation on the field, weigh your options, and choose the one most likely to achieve a goal.
The best way to improve your strategy is to play with and against the best. If you play a good team and you’re constantly put under pressure, you’ll be forced to play the ball quickly. Whether you’re playing professionally or with your friends at the park, try to play at a game-like intensity all the time. Don't do things that you know you wouldn't get away with if you were playing a good team. This kind of discipline will keep your mind sharp.
Playing with a wide variety of people will also expose you to new strategies and techniques. Be a conscious and observant player so that you can add these experiences to your strategic artillery. Even carefully watching the pros at work will make you a better player, as long as you make a real effort to understand how teams get a winning edge and look for an opportunity to apply that strategy yourself on the field.
Although strategy is best learned on the field, there are several principles that you can benefit from becoming intimately familiar with…
Back to the Basics
Soccer is ultimately about getting the ball into the right person's feet: the one who has the most time and space (i.e. faces the least pressure) and is in the most advantageous position to score (or make that goal scoring pass).
The key to playing good soccer is to keep the ball moving by playing one and two touch soccer—that is, passing and moving off the ball and being creative. The ability to do this goes back to a good first touch, using your body to shield the ball, and knowing what you want to do with the ball before you get it.
Take a look at these two videos of a counter attack and simply wonderful passing.
Generally, you want to spread out on offense and become a compact unit on defense. On offense, use the entire field to break up the defense, creating gaps and spaces to attack.
The best way to open up spaces in the opposing team’s defense is to keep the ball moving. Let the ball do the work. Play it into the forward’s feet, and then have him or her lay the ball off to someone making a run through towards the goal or, if the forward is covered, lay it back to the midfielder, who plays the ball wide. The wide midfielder then tries to get a cross in, or switches the ball back to the other side where there is more space.
Your strategy, when you play the ball to the forward who is tightly marked, is to draw the defense into this player. Once the forward gets a touch on the ball and holds the ball up with a touch or two, the midfielder can get the ball back and pass to another player who’s now open, since the defense has collapsed around (or at least shifted their focus on) the forward. The pass can then be made behind the defense to get them chasing the ball with their heads turned.
In general, switch play and keep the ball moving on offense, so your opponent cannot close down your space and make it difficult for you to make a pass, and so you can find holes in their defensive structure by stretching them out. In moving the ball laterally, you can find time and space and pick out a teammate in a goal scoring or advantageous position.
On defense, you want to do the reverse of what you do on offense: stay compact as a team unit and defend with numbers. For instance, if the opponent is attacking down the right side, then the far right midfielder can move into the middle and help out, since the opposing player on the far side is not as dangerous as those attacking with the ball.
Of course, he or she must still be aware of the player they are marking, but they must gamble, in a sense. If the opposition makes a long pass to the far left winger, he or she needs to be able to get there before the ball does, and then the whole team will have to shift positions to the right side. If the far right midfielder ventures too far into the middle, they won’t be able to adequately cover their marked player. But if he or she gauges it properly, they’ll be able to arrive before the player has time to control the ball and attack down the line.
Whether you’re on the offensive or the defensive, you’re going to have to become adept at moving through the field. Keep in mind that the better you are at cutting through the opposition when your team has the ball, the better you’ll be at defending against such tactics when you’re on the defensive.
The Run-Down
The important thing to remember is to make runs that lead to goal scoring opportunities or open up space for a teammate.
If you make a run in behind the defense, for example, and that doesn’t work out, check back to the ball, get the ball and lay it off and then make that run behind the defender again, so the midfielder can chip or loft the ball to you in the air. Or, if the midfielder on the left side has the ball, you (as the center midfielder) can make a run down the line to receive the ball or open up space for the left sided midfielder to take his opponent on the dribble and move into the open space in the middle.
If there's an opportunity to take the defender on, go for it. If not, lay it back to the center midfielder and break down the line again to receive the ball. The center midfielder can also make an overlapping run. The right sided midfielder can play a one two with the forward who is posting up. There are numerous options if everyone on the field is looking to put themselves into position to receive the ball and help one another.
To execute these types of exchanges (a give and go or overlap) you need to lead the defense into believing you are going in a different direction. Keep them on their heels; lay the ball off at the right time. You can always start over. If one side of the field is too clogged up and crowded, then switch the ball to the other side. It could be two square exchanges of the ball and then on the third pass, someone breaks into the open space to receive the ball in behind the defense.
Starting over can mean making a run to get yourself open or setting up your defender for a return pass. Dart down the line, checking back to get the ball. Make an angled run into the middle, then checking to the outside. Essentially, this is making space for yourself by taking the defender with you into the middle and then breaking to the outside. Draw the defender away from the space you want to receive the ball in - and then check back into the space you just opened up. It could even just be walking five yards towards the sideline and then breaking back to the middle. Check back to the ball at an angle. This way you will have more space to turn and see the field, as your body is already half turned. You can check back to the ball side on so you can see where you want to play the ball next, and keep your body between you and the defender (control the ball with the outside of your foot).
Read more at Soccer Runs: Keep the Opposing Team Guessing
Learn more at Patterns and Defense
|
