The following posts have been tagged with "soccer attacking"...
Soccer Indirect Attack
See “Attacking” & “Direct Attack“.
Soccer Finish
Or Finishing, means to complete the soccer attack by scoring (i.e., converting a scoring opportunity into a goal). If your team can’t “finish”, you may need to work on soccer shooting or rebounding. Are your players shooting from too far away or without power? Are players in place to score on rebounds? Are they getting a lot of shots? Are your players taking shots? Are you getting the ball into the Penalty Box with Forwards in soccer position to score? When near the goal are they shooting low & to the corner? (As an example, a few years ago we played a game where we had 11 shots but only scored 1 goal. The problem was that all of our shots were air balls toward the center of the goal & the goalkeeper caught them. If we had shot grounders to the corner we would have scored 5 or 6 more goals). Teach your players to shoot low to the soccer corners when inside the Penalty Box & that accuracy is more important than power. Quick, aggressive players are usually good finishers. (See “Soccer Attacking“, “Soccer Attacking Plan“, and “Soccer Rebound“).
Soccer Direct Attack
To quickly move the ball forward toward the other soccer team’s goal by passing or dribbling; as opposed to a slow “indirect soccer attack” which uses a lot of backward or sideways (”square”) passes while searching for a weakness in the soccer defense. Unless your team has excellent passing ability, a direct attack will be more effective. (See “Soccer Counterattack“, “Soccer Attacking“, “Soccer Possession Style“, “Styles of Soccer Play“, & “Creating Soccer Space“).
Soccer Defending To Win
Refers to aggressively pushing up the Soccer Fullbacks & even the goalkeeper to support the attack & to “press” if the ball is turned over to the other soccer team with the objective of recovering the ball on the other team’s half of the field. This is quite different from a cautious defense that doesn’t aggressively push up or get the FB’s involved in the attack. The opposite of “Defending Deep”. (See “Attacking” & “Push Up“).
Soccer Counterattack
All of your soccer attacks will either start with a kick-off or a “re-start” (such as a goal kick, corner kick or free kick), or they will be “counterattacks” which start when you get the soccer ball on a turnover from the other soccer team. There are 2 types of soccer counterattacks: One is a slow, patient, ball-controlling soccer attack that relies on a lot of short soccer passes in all directions (i.e., backwards & sideways as well as forward); the other is to launch a quick “direct attack” by moving the soccer ball forward as quickly as possible into the other team’s “Danger Zone”. Unless you have a highly skilled soccer team that can complete a lot of consecutive passes, the quick direct counterattack will be the most effective. The concept is very similar to a fastbreak in basketball and if someone says you are vulnerable to a soccer counterattack they are referring to a direct, fastbreak counterattack. You are more vulnerable to a quick soccer counterattack if you push up your FB’s when you attack. There are 2 keys to launching a successful fastbreak soccer counterattack: (1) When your goal is under attack, you must be sure that one or two of your forwards stay out toward the halfway line or even farther if the other soccer team’s FB’s are deep. (Another advantage of this is it will force the other team’s FB’s to stay back, otherwise, they might push up closer toward your goal). (2) Your FB’s or MF’s must quickly kick the ball deep onto your opponent’s half of the field so your forwards can win the ball and fastbreak. (See “Attacking“, “Attacking Plan“, “Breakaway“, “Direct Attack” & “Formations“).
Soccer Clear
(aka Clear the Soccer Ball). The first priority of soccer defenders is to “clear the ball” (i.e., kick the ball) out of the “Danger Zone” (i.e., out of scoring range). If the soccer ball is in front of your goal and in scoring range, the Defenders should “clear it” because a turnover would give the opponent a scoring opportunity. This is especially true in recreational soccer where players often don’t have good soccer skills. For Recreational teams, when the soccer ball is in your Penalty Box, we recommend teaching your Midfielders to stay a pass away from the soccer ball (15-20 steps) and your Forwards to stay a long soccer kick (25-35 steps) away from the ball, and teach the MF’s and Forwards to “shift and sag” with the soccer ball, and teach your Fullbacks to clear it straight ahead. This way, your MF’s and Forwards know what to expect, can position themselves to “win the ball”, and you will have good soccer field coverage. Your MF’s and Forwards MUST fight for and win most of these cleared soccer balls or you will probably lose the game. At higher levels of soccer play the emphasis is on controlling the ball, but in Rec leagues teams often don’t have the skill to “build an attack from the back”, as it is called when the FB’s pass to the MF’s who pass to the F’s, etc., and clearing it is the only realistic style of soccer play. How to teach this Style of Play is described in SoccerHelp Premium. (See “Attacking“, “Attacking Plan” and “Tags: soccer attacking, soccer attacking plan, soccer build an attack from the back, soccer clear, soccer clear it, soccer clear the ball, soccer danger zone, soccer key concept, soccer shift & sag, soccer shift and sag, soccer win the ball
Soccer Build An Attack From The Back
A controlled soccer attack starting with the FB’s who pass to the MF’s, who pass to the F’s. The phrase is also used in a more general way to refer to FB’s being involved in the soccer attack. This is very difficult and unrealistic for most youth soccer recreational teams. It only works if your FB’s have very good ball skills. If the other team’s forwards are better than your FB’s, it will probably not work. If you turn over the ball near your soccer goal the other team may score. If your FB’s are under pressure, it is advisable for them to “clear” the soccer ball away from your goal. (See “Attacking“, “Soccer Attacking Plan” and “Clear“).
Soccer Boom Ball
A slang derogatory soccer term referring to when the ball is frequently kicked in the air toward the other teams goal. This occurs by youth soccer teams who have no attacking plan but it can also be an intentional and effective tactic with forwards stationed in position to win long “over-the-top” balls. You see a certain amount of “Boom Ball” in most professional soccer leagues and it is used extensively by some successful professional teams. For example, in 2001 this long over-the-top tactic was used by Celtic, which had a secure lead at year end in the Scottish Premier League. It is easy to criticize teams for playing Boom Ball, when in fact most professional and select teams “boom” their goal kicks and long corners and punt their goalie distributions rather than controlling the ball and building from the back, and many teams FB’s “boom” the ball to clear it when they are under pressure. I think it is fair to define “Boom Ball” as when the ball is kicked long without any real purpose or strategy and when the kicker’s team has only a 50/50 chance or less to win the ball. However, if you send the ball forward as part of an attacking strategy, or when under pressure in the Defending Third, or when your team has a better than 50/50 chance of winning the ball, it isn’t “Boom Ball”. “Boom Ball” is very different from “Kick & Run”. (See “Styles of Play“, “Kick & Run“, and “Attacking“).
Soccer Attacking Plan
For recreational soccer teams ages 10 and older, it is very important to have a simple and realistic soccer attacking plan that players clearly understand & can execute. For example, a simple attacking plan could be to clear the soccer ball away from your Defending Third, have your forwards be positioned to win the ball, and launch a quick attack. This is not as easy as it sounds. How to achieve this is described at SoccerHelp Premium.
(See “Soccer Attacking“, “Center The Soccer Ball“, “Clear the Soccer Ball “, “Soccer Counterattack“, “Defending Deep“, “Finish“, “First Attacker“, “Formations“, “Pass To Space“, “Push Up“, “Rebound“, “Shift & Sag“, “Styles of Play“, “Support” and “Win The Ball“).
Soccer Attacking
(aka “Offense”). When a soccer team has the soccer ball they are generally referred to as “attacking”, no matter where the ball is on the soccer field. There are 2 different styles of soccer attacking: a direct soccer attack and an “indirect soccer attack. A direct attack tries to move the ball quickly into scoring range by using mostly forward soccer passes, through balls and breakaways. An indirect attack is slower and uses a lot of sideways or backward passes while searching for a weakness in the defense. Unless your team is very skilled and has excellent passing ability a direct soccer attack will work best. (See “Styles of Play” for more details). Creating soccer space is a very important part of attacking. There are 2 different ways to create space. One relies on the ballhandler (i.e., the soccer player “onball”) to create opportunities. The other way to create space is by movement off the soccer ball & relies on movement by players other than the ballhandler (i.e., players “off-the-ball”) to create space & to create opportunities. (See “Soccer Attacking Plan“, “Soccer Attacking Third“, “Create“, “Soccer Dribbling“, “Go To Soccer Goal“, “Soccer Kick-Off“, “Pass To Space“, “Shift & Sag – Soccer“, “Strength On The Ball“, “Through Ball“, “Push Up“, “Build An Attack From The Back“, “Center The Ball“, “Coaching Rules“, “Commit The Defender“, “Counterattack“, “Creating Space“, “Cross The Ball“, “Defending to Win“, “Direct Attack“, “Finish“, “First Attacker“, “Soccer Formations“, “Soccer Goal Kick“, “Movement Off The Soccer Ball“, “Soccer Possession Style“, “Rebound“, “Release“, “Spread The Soccer Field“, “Styles of Soccer Play“, “Soccer Support“, “Switch The Soccer Play“, “Soccer – When to Dribble/When to Pass“, “Width In Soccer Attack“, “Win The Soccer Ball“.