3v3 Long Ball Rally, 4 Corners Crossing, & Team Formations

Field Training | Thursday, Aug 19 | 6:00PM - 7:15PM | 1/2 Field

Our second training session of the year.

Focus of today was ball striking technique, and after a warm up, the girls got right into things with a 3v3 Long Ball Rally activity.

We moved into our 3-team 4 Corners Crossing small-sided game to goal, and finished addressing possible team formations.

We have 3 friendlies on Saturday and play our 08 ECNL team on Sunday. Trying to get as many competitive games in as early as possible in order to test the girls, evaluate where on the field each girl can most contribute, experiment with team formations, and get the girls comfortable with each other.

Team Formations

Last year (our first year on the 11v11 field) we started in a 4-4-2 formation in the fall.

After getting our butts kicked in the Jeff Cup final, we moved to a 3-5-2 in order to better control the center of midfield.

Early in the summer we moved to a 3-4-3 to help bolster our attacking threat.

Some coaches have their preferred system of play, and that’s all they play - regardless of personnel/team make up.

I prefer to look at the talent on the team, where we are stronger/weaker individually, and then figure out which team formation is best suited for our success.

The downside of our heavy fall ECNL schedule is that I don’t have the luxury to experiment much, and will have to quickly identify what works best for us and get the girls acclimated to it…fast.

Not saying that our main formation can’t/won’t change over the course of the season. It likely will. I will likely need to change it mid-game for tactical purposes - something I’ve rarely done at the younger age groups.

So I want to get the girls educated on the possible formations, how roles on the field change with each formation (ie, a wide midfielder’s role is vastly different in a 3-5-2 versus in a 4-3-3), and why we might need to change formations late in a a game to get a result.