Textbook: How to Give Away Goals

Here you will immediately notice a Chicago Fire player (in red, of course!) completely unmolested and easily able to receive a pass. Both players are in the offensive half. This is professional soccer? There are ways to mark up these guys to cut down the number of successful forward passes. I have heard the arguments for giving quick offenders space for fear they run by you freely and then are a massive threat. Isn't this pro soccer? Isn't everyone fast? and, Aren't defender able to rotate over and cover that stray offensive player that gets by someone? Yes, yes and yes. San Jose just looks lazy here.  It should be very difficult to receive the ball while facing forward in the offensive half, not easy as it is pictured here. Defenders are there to contest, molest, harass, and generally be complete pains in the neck for the offense every second of the game.

This was a key game for a San Jose side that is on the bubble to advance in the playoffs. This weak effort shows that they aren't up to muster at this late point in the season. No surprise that they went down to an embarrassing home loss that night.

Your mother is a terrorist

Perhaps the most controversial play in modern soccer (Maradona's Hand of God is #2), Zidane responded to an opposing player who called is mother a terrorist by physically attacking him and getting kicked out of the game (which was almost over at the time). The comment was horrible, but comments are not ussually enforced in soccer, since enforcement in multilingual environments is nearly impossible. Physical violence is mostly enforced, though I am surprised that the referee actually saw this occur and therefore felt comfortable in correctly ejecting Zidane.

The comment was wrong. Zidane was wrong. Knowing what will be enforced is part of the game.

With apologies to Robert Fulghum

Everything I learned I learned from Soccer:

1. Friends playing together is a beautiful thing. When you understand what other want, it is easier to get what you want. Does your teammate probably want to pass, dribble, shoot, or just make a run? If I know what he/she wants I can more easily enable his or her success with that option. This makes him/her more effective and, that's when I get what I want.

2. Don't hit.

3. Run. Fast. And always give space to others.

4. The Hall monitor/referee is always right. It is just a game. It doesn't matter, but how you act does.

5. Share. I mean pass.

6. It is O.K. if the spotlight finds you, but don't go looking for it.

Passing produces goals

Passing for over a minute without loss of ball takes team effort: looking around, running to space, brief dribbling (usually in the wrong direction) to get to free space. Sum total is a goal.

Anyone Can Compete

In England over the weekend, the world's best team at the moment, Manchester United, tied a middle level Blackburn Rovers team 1-1. If they were to play 10 times, Man. U. would win 7 of the encounters, have one loss, and tie twice (or some such combination). This weekend was one of the ties. Now and actual reality is all that matters - not hypotheticals like "We are going to lose" or "They are better than we are". If you think like that, then why are you playing the game at all? Why not just show up, walk on to the field, shake hands at the center circle and then all head to the parking lot for root beer and preztels?

BECAUSE YOU MAY IN FACT WIN.
So, play.

Variety

There is no one best way. Short passing? Blast the ball down field and run on to it? Dribble forever? All fine, but not to the exclusion of the others. Listen to the coach when the style of play changes at halftime.

Defending on corner kicks - a win-win

The video (15 seconds) is a simple corner kick and header for goal. Simple for the offense, because the defense might as well be taking a tea break.

When defending on corners, one of two systems will work, but something must be done.
Defense #1 - tight marking in which movement by the offense is mirrored by movement by the defense. Simple to say. Tricky to implement since corner kicks put a lot of moving bodies close together and nobody (except maybe Brian McBride) likes to get hurt. Still, regardless of movement stay with your offender and DON'T LET THEM GET THE BALL before you do. This works well for teams that work well as teams.

Defense #2 - use just three of the taller mid and defending players and as the ball comes they focus on the ball, not really worrying about the offensive player that may be about to be involved.

In both cases, the key is determination to get the ball.

Talent is fine. But determination can sometimes trump a lot more talent on the other side. And curiously, through determined play, those very players playing with abandon become better skilled. Double win.

8-1-1 works if your 1's are REALLY good

The last 2 decades have been the 4-4-2 years (4 defenders, 4 mids, and 2 offense). But as the video reminds us, if a couple players are good enough, keep everyone else back on defense.

Free Kick photo

photo from soccertalkusa.com

Soccer free kicks are very dangerous for the defense. The offense (Barcelona) here has many options, including:
going up the gut to #7 (forgive my ignorance of clearly world-class players' names)
going to the middle (the first, best choice, though where to after that?)
going to the far wing (though that limits the surprise factor since he just has to bring the ball back in on a cross)

The obvious choice is to the middle and hope he has an idea for where to go next (shoot? no, too far out). The bold move would be to send it to the star #7 and let him earn his millions. At the lower levels of play, this is still a good move since it says to the defense, "we are so good that we don't have to pass around you, we can go right down the center of the field where all your best players are." But remember to keep the next paragraph in mind constantly.

Soccer is a war. Wars are won be doing what the other team is unprepared for. Soccer games are lost by teams that are uncreative. Normally, the scene pictured above would call for a pass to the middle or the far wing. Those are the best plays on a consistent basis, but frankly they will rarely lead to a goal. Send the ball there 6 times in a row and it will be defended six times in a row, normally. But those six times are preparing the defense to assume that the seventh time will be exactly the same. This is the critical moment in which you take control. Because the seventh time you violate every soccer rule and send it into the face and heart of the defense by feeding the ball to #7. You will not be wasting your six attempts to get the ball to the most obvious player, you will actually be getting ready to win the war.

Will #7 succeed? It really doesn't matter, because your goal is not to score a goal, necessarily. You goal is to create a game environment in which the defense is not sure what your next move is, because THAT is when you will score.

Women's Soccer USA: Wambach played with a broken toe

Athletes play with injuries. I played with torn ligaments in my foot (undiagnosed until after the season).
We can safely assume that the US National coach and trainer knew about Abby's broken toe, but maybe not even the rest of the team: "loose lips sink ships" and all that. If a player is known to be playing in such a way as to protect from further injury, that can be exploited by other teams, so it definitely should be kept quiet. Even the NFL is very vague about the extent of injuries so as not to tip off the other team to weaknesses.
Women's Soccer USA: Wambach played with a broken toe

Korea?

The US Women's team recently tied Korea 2-2 in a match that included a 10 minute period when a key US player was out for medical care, not replaced so that she could return, and during which time Korea scored BOTH of its goals.

The coach has been summarily criticized for leaving the team a player short, but the bigger issue is the play of the other ten that were still on the field.

In the words of the Sportsprof:

It was an exciting game, but make no mistake about it, the North Koreans were the aggressors.

I watch a lot of soccer and the 14 billion passes are fine and dandy, but are mostly passes BACK and to the side. Being "agressors" has almost been lost. I see many opportunities that coaches could be using film to point out so that players have a better chance of seeing and using during future play.

Agressive play - sending balls forward into space, sending balls long, actually ... God forbid... DRIBBLING, all of this isn't a good way to get yourself benched on many teams, and yet the US team almost gets kicked from the 07 world cup for just that spirit missing from their play.

I don't want to return to the 1970's when that was all people did, but all kinds of soccer have their place. Better teams, like tiny Korea in the face of a high quality US Women's team, know this.

This is Not For Every Team

Here is how the US Men's National team lined up against Brazil (a 3-2 loss in Sept. '07):
Howard

Cherundolo Gooch Bocanegra (capt.) Pearce


Bradley Feilhaber
Donovan Beasley

Wolff

Dempsey

This is a fairly modern team structure, and is mentally challenging, as well as demanding great individual skill of the offense four (Donovan, Beasley, Wolff, and Dempsey). The great advantage here is the fluidity of attack, with the very easy addition of Bradley and Feilhaber (which actually happened in the game).

This kind of team organization is something to keep in mind for younger teams, but used only when the players' skills match the requirements of the kind of formation. Younger players tend to end up playing in three lines across the field 20 minutes into the game unless care in taken to make sure the striker is truly the point of attack, which is designed to bring surprise to any outside attack.

A strategy will work if the other team doesn't know how to handle it. If they see it and understand it, the advantage of the structure itself is minimized.

Better soccer players study and even invent all sorts of team structures and think about the advantages and problems of each.