| This game is best
with 7 a side or greater (11 a side works great if you have the numbers) and
if you have 3 keepers it is wonderful but two works well also). The field
should be full sized for 11 a side and only slightly smaller for less
numbers.
You play a regular game of soccer. If
the football is dribbled through any of the three goals at midfield, it's worth one
point each time. If a ball is PASSED through any of these goals and
received by a teammate it's worth two points. A goal scored into the
regular goal (at the end of the field, remember we are still playing a
regular soccer game here) is worth 5 points. A team can score as many
points at a centre goal as they want and a point can be scored going in
either direction (young players will get caught up going back and forth
through the side goals for points so it becomes important to remind them
that the ultimate goal is to score in the real goal). There should be a
keeper in each of the regular goals.
This game will encourage teams to stay
spread out offensively and will also encourage them to try to compress the
field defensively (it's hard to be chasing from side to side in defence when
the attacking team simply has to play a long switching ball to get either
one or two points).
If you are fortunate to have three keepers,
two keepers play in the regular goals and the third keeper is responsible
for the goals on the midfield line. Any time a regular goal is scored (the
five point goals) the keeper who gets scored on switches with the keeper in
the middle. This should encourage the keepers to do whatever they can to
not let in goals because the keeper in the middle is responsible for three
goals in both directions. This will require a great deal of conditioning on
the keepers parts but again, they need to know how important it is to NOT
give up goals in a game.
This game can be played for time (for
example it could be a 20 minute game) or it could be played to a certain
score (first one to 20 wins). It works on so many important facets of the
game that I think if you give it a try, you will soon find yourself using
this game (and variations of us) frequently throughout the season.
Give this a try and let me know what you
think on the
soccer coaches forum
|
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