1v1 Defending (Part 1)

Field Training | Tuesday, Aug 31 | 6:00PM - 7:15PM | 1/2 Field

Attackers score goals. Defense wins championships.

No truer words have been spoken when it comes to the game of soccer. The more this team can minimize an opponent’s goal scoring opportunities, the better off this team will be when it comes to getting results.

And results aren’t the end all, be all. But results and winning are important factors in development. More on this later.

We’ve addressed 1v1 defending in the past with this group, but like anything and everything, the girls need more work. Moreover, with 1/3 of the team new, it’s important to start and square 1 and make sure we’re all on the same page.

The plan for tomorrow is to add in offset positioning, hand checks, denying the turn, and the drop step.

In the video…

Jockeying Warm-Up

This is an exercise my pro coach used to take our team through. Players work in groups of 3 with one ball. One player dribbles, one player defends, one player rests.

Defenders are getting comfortable with fronting an attacking dribbler without trying to win possession of the ball. Defending body shape, pressure distance, and matching the dribbler’s speed/pace are all addressed.

1v1 Off-Set Goals

This exercise is run in a 25x15yd grid with small goals on the shorter end lines, offset from one another (shown below).

Teams of 4 players, ball per player, aligned in the center of each end line (shown below).

Here I’m addressing:

• bent runs (to stop penetrating passes/shots

• speed of approach

• deceleration/shortening of strides as defenders get close to dribblers

• body position - down low, knees bent, side on, on your toes

• intensity and patience

• feints at the ball, toe pokes

6v6+1 Ball to Goal Keeper

Another drill we used to do on the Thunder.

The exercise cane be played with any numbers. We had 15 players at training, so played with a neutral player.

Teams get points for getting the ball into their goal keeper’s hands. 1 pt if the ball is on the ground or bounces in, 3 pts if the GK catches the ball in their box in the air.

It’s make it, take it, so if a team is successful in scoring a point, the opposing team’s GK rolls another ball out to the team that scored so they can attack again. This was a little weird for the girls (having the opposite team’s GK start their own team’s attack), but they picked things up quickly.

Here we’re addressing the “I go ball!” call, making sure the pressure is coming from the correct place/angle, and working on cutting off the passing lanes into the goal keeper.

If there is no (or not enough) pressure, the grid is small enough that most girls can play the ball to their GK target from anywhere.

I could have set this activity up better. The main change would have been to have the target GKs be able to run the entire length of their end line, forcing defending teams to constantly check the target GK’s position, and constantly have to adjust to cut off passing lanes into her.

We’ll be doing this again.