Defending – it’s as easy as 1-2-3!

With young players, the hardest, and in my opinion, the most important single aspect to get across is that the closest person to the opponent with the football DOES NOT have the responsibility to win the ball! Once defenders understand this, about 90% of diving in is eliminated and the attackers job becomes much harder.

It also reinforces the next most important concept: that somebody had BETTER be moving to cover the space behind the closest defender! That is the player who will, most often, wind up winning the ball.

You can demonstrate this quite easily by selecting the best defensive soccer player on the team, placing that player isolated out on the pitch, point to a goal for him or her to defend, and then tell them to “get the ball” from you. Then, simply dribble up to the player, push the ball past, into space, and run onto it. If you can get the defender to step towards you, you can do this quite easily.

Ask the team why this was so easy. Now ask how you can prevent it from happening.

Somebody should come up with having a teammate behind the pressuring defender.

Now repeat the demonstration with another opponent who has been instructed to cover the space. Also ask the closest (pressuring) defender to not win the ball unless a mistake is made by the attacker. Run it again and you should see a huge improvement.

Closest person to the opponent with the ball (the first defender) applies the PRESSURE

YOUR JOB IS TO SLOW THE ATTACK, NOT WIN THE BALL and to slow the attacker down.

Apply just enough pressure to get the attackers head down
Make the attack predictable and push the attack to the least dangerous part of the field
Only attempt to win the ball if the attacker makes a mistake and you are sure to win it. BE PATIENT!

Tips for the first defender

Pressure the ball IMMEDIATELY!

Do not dive in, just slow the attack down and make it predictable. PATIENCE!!
Eyes on the ball
Weight even between legs, and forward on toes, knees bent
Feet shoulder width apart, one foot forward
Do not mark too close until you have help – a wall pass may beat you.
Mark close enough that the attacker has to keep her head down looking at the ball.
Herd the attacker towards the touch-line
Tackle only if you are sure you will win the ball.
Risk tackles more in the offensive third of the field (closer to the opponents goal)
Tackle if the attacker is alone and outnumbered.
Tackle if you can touch the ball before the attacker can.

The next closest person to the ball provides the COVER

YOUR JOB IS TO BACK UP THE PRESSURING DEFENDER.
Cover the space behind the pressuring defender.
Adjust your distance based on the speed of the attack, and the skill and speed of the attacker.
Communicate with the pressuring defender, let him or her know that you are there, tell them which way to push the attack, if necessary.

Others provide the BALANCE

Mark any nearby attacking threats who could receive the ball directly from the ball carrier.
Track and other attackers who are moving, or could move into threatening positions.
Cut out any passing lanes. This can often be done while marking or tracking opponents.
Communicate with your teammates. Point out any unmarked threats, or any opponents making runs.
Be ready to assume the role of pressuring or covering defender if the situation changes.

Tips for the second and third defenders

2nd Defender:

Cover the space behind the 1st defender. LET THE 1st DEFENDER KNOW YOU ARE THERE!
Be a little bit toward the goal side usually.

3rd Defender:

Cut off passing options; especially square (cross-field) passes.

You can either mark the receivers, or the space between them and the ball.
RECOVER – It is never to late to run back and help your team-mates.
STAY COMPACT – Do not be drawn out of shape.
Make sure that the far post area is covered as the ball nears your goal.
Do not be caught ball watching. Track players moving forward.
Do not release your mark to go after a back pass unless you are CERTAIN that a team-mate is there to cover, AND does not have a mark of his own to cover! Usually this means the covering player TELLS YOU TO GO. So communicate!

Games for very young players

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Breakaways

A competitive drill that improves defence and attacking skills

Set-up:

Divide your team into attackers and defenders.

Attackers in red bibs, defenders in blue bibs.

Three lines of attackers – A1, A2 and A3 – spread out equally at the midline. A1 has the football.

Centre defender D1 is positioned at the top of arc.

The goalkeeper is positioned in front of the goal somewhere out near the edge of 6 yard box.

Two additional lines of defenders D2 and D3 at opposite sides of the pitch on the touchline about ten yards inside of midfield. The defenders D2 and D3 should count slowly to 5 before entering the field.

Attacker A1 dribbles at defender D1 and uses combinations of passes, overlaps, wall passes, through balls, etc. with A2 and A3 in a 3v1 breakaway to get a shot or cross off. First touch shots that score are to be rewarded with two points. Other goals count one point.

Coaching Points:

Defender D1’s job is NOT to tackle A1 or win the ball, but rather to delay the attack (until help is available) and force the player with the ball wide (out of the middle) in order to give up poor chances of scoring only – that is shots from out wide and shots that the keeper will be able to cut the angle down and defend easily. It is also very important that defender D1 position himself so that he can intercept passes into the area in front of the goal should the player with the ball choose to cross the ball.

The defenders D2 and D3 should count slowly to 5 before entering the field. Their job is to make looping recovery runs to aid defender D1. They should pick up an attacker to defend or combine with D1 to double-team the player with the ball only if they can do so without risking giving up an easy shot on goal. If they are unsure where to make their recovery run to, tell them to go to the penalty spot and organize their team defence from the penalty spot into a better defensive position. When in doubt, the penalty spot is the universal recovery destination. Defenders should get goal-side of their marks as soon as possible.

Defenders should not tackle or try to win the ball until they have their defense organized and have defensive support behind the tackler or double-team.

Attackers can not waste time as defenders D2 and D3 will recover within five seconds. They must combine quickly to work the ball into shooting position and must get a shot off before D2 and D3 are in recovery positions. First touch shots are a must. They should also “crash” the goal immediately after the shot is taken. Goals only count if all three players touch the net within three seconds of a shot. Coaches should count out loud to remind players.

On offence, the objective in a 2 on 1 situation (or 3 on 1) is to get the ball to an open attacker in the middle. If … the attacker comes out from the middle too early the job is relatively easy. The player dribbling down the outside of the field need only pass to their teammate in the middle. If the defender is much smarter and stays in the middle then the player with the ball should dribble at an angle across the field toward the far corner. The other attacking player should wait until just after they have passed the middle, then run behind them toward the opposite corner of the field. This crossing movement confuses the defenders and the goalie. It draws the defenders out of position and creates a good opportunity for the second attacker to take a drop pass or back heel pass and shoot into the open net on the far side of the goal. A similar crossing movement is also useful in 2-on-2 fastbreaks. From “The Art of Soccer” by Mark Catlin, MD

On defence, From “The Art of Soccer” by Mark Catlin, MD

Delay
Don’t be beaten
Force play to the outside
Protect the centre, prevent movement and passing to the centre
Approach ball when scoring threat is high but at an angle to prevent centering pass.

Options:

Count by defenders D2 and D3 can be adjusted depending upon age and success wanted. A higher count (i.e. 10) to start off to insure that attackers get a shot off. After initial success, move to a lower count to apply pressure to get shot off quicker.

Vary number of defenders that start in box.

Give defenders one point for every attack that they thwart. Keep score.

Start ball with attacker A2 or A3 to vary the attack origin and options and movement off of the ball.

Bowling with Headers

A fun soccer heading game

Setup: Depending upon the number of kids divide them into equal groups of 5-7 players per group. All players in each group form a single file line except for one player who is the server. The server uses three standard “flat style” training cones and places them in a row about 10 feet in front of the first player in the single file line. The three cones are perpendicular to the single file line and each cone is about 18″ apart. The server places a football on top of each cone.

How to play: Each server stands behind his line of three (ball topped) cones and tosses the ball underhanded to the first person in the line. The first person in the line tries to head the ball down and knock a ball or balls off the cones. It’s possible but unlikely for one header to knock all three balls off the cones by knocking one ball into the other balls. The person who just headed the ball goes to the end of the line. The server collects the ball and gets back into position behind the row of cones and serves the ball to the next player in line.

This is a competition between teams/groups. Last group to knock all three balls off their cones loses and must perform a fun/functional task – running, push-ups, etc.

A bloody, murthering practice…

An account of football in Victorian times, written in 1891 by P.H. DITCHFIELD, M.A.

“…the great game for Shrove Tuesday was our time-honoured football, which has survived so many of the ancient pastimes of our land, and may be considered the oldest of all our English national sports. The play might not be quite so scientific as that played by our modern athletes, but, from the descriptions that have come down to us, it was no less vigorous. “After dinner” (says an old writer) “all the youths go into the fields to play at the ball. The ancient and worthy men of the city come forth on horseback to see the sport of the young men, and to take part of the pleasure in beholding their agility.”

There are some exciting descriptions of old football matches; and we read of some very fierce contests at Derby, which was renowned for the game. In the seventeenth century it was played in the streets of London, much to the annoyance of the inhabitants, who had to protect their windows with hurdles and bushes. At Bromfield, in Cumberland, the annual contest on Shrove Tuesday was keenly fought. Sides having been chosen, the football was thrown down in the churchyard, and the house of the captain of each side was the goal. Sometimes the distance was two or three miles, and each step was keenly disputed. He was a proud man at Bromfield who succeeded in reaching the goal with the ball, which he received as his guerdon. How the villagers used to talk over the exploits of the day, and recount their triumphs of former years with quite as much satisfaction as their ancestors enjoyed in relating their feats in the border wars!

Victorian football

The Scots were famous formerly, as they now are, for prowess in the game, and the account of the Shrove Tuesday match between the married and single men at Scone, in Perthshire, reads very like a description of a modern Rugby contest. At Inverness the women also played, the married against the unmarried, when the former were always victorious. King James I., who was a great patron of sports, did not approve of his son Henry being a football player. He wrote that a young man ought to have a “moderate practice of running, leaping, wrestling, fencing, dancing, and playing at the caitch, or tennis, bowls, archery, pall-mall, and riding; and in foul or stormy weather, cards and backgammon, dice, chess, and billiards,” but football was too rough a game for his Majesty, and “meeter for laming than making able.” Stubbs also speaks of it as a “bloody and murthering practice, rather than a fellowly sport or pastime.” From the descriptions of the old games, it seems to have been very painful work for the shins, and there were no rules to prevent hacking and tripping in those days.

Football has never been the spoilt child of English pastimes, but has lived on in spite of royal proclamations and the protests of peace-loving citizens who objected to the noise, rough play, and other vagaries of the early votaries of the game. Edward II. and succeeding monarchs regarded it as a “useless and idle sport,” which interfered with the practice of archery, and therefore ought to be shunned by all loyal subjects. The violence displayed at the matches is evident from the records which have come down to us, and from the opinions of several writers who condemn it severely. Free fights, broken limbs, and deaths often resulted from old football encounters; and when the games took place in the streets, lines of broken windows marked the progress of the players. “A bloody and murdering practice,” “a devilish pastime,” involving “beastly fury and extreme violence,” the breaking of necks, arms, legs and backs—these were some of the descriptions of the football of olden times.

The Puritans set their faces against it, and the sport languished for a long period as a general pastime. In some places it was still practised with unwonted vigour, but it was not until the second half of the present century that any revival took place. But football players have quickly made up for lost time; few villages do not possess their club, and our young men are ready to “Try it out at football by the shins,” with quite as much readiness as the players in the good old days, although the play is generally less violent, and more scientific.”

Blob Tag

All the players are inside the grid. All but three have a soccer ball at their feet. The three without a ball form a ‘blob’ by holding hands. The blob moves freely in the grid and tries to kick any player’s ball out of the grid. If a player’s ball leaves the grid he/she joins the blob.

Once a chain has six or more players, have it break apart into two smaller chains (of three people each). The last player dribbling is the winner.

COACHING POINTS

“Stay away from the blob”– that’s the purpose of the game.

“Don’t get trapped” — move into space away from the blob.

“Keep control of the ball” — don’t kick it too far away.

“Work together” — the blob must work as a team. They must stay together when kicking balls out of the grid.

VARIATIONS

Change the size of the grid. Bigger grid makes it easier for dribblers.

Have blobs break into two players per blob. (Harder for dribblers).

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