Assignment #2
I think we really need to address playing more physically and the concept of defending together. We are not far away from fixing these topics. I don’t think it that you are scared of contact or you don’t care or that you are soft. I think it is more that we need to change our mindset about it a little. I almost want to say that most of you are too honest and you want to defend and win the ball by only playing the ball not by playing the person with the ball. The other teams are in a way doing the opposite and they play the player first and put a body on us while we have possession of the ball. This will become more and more a part of the game the older you get and the higher level you play. Most of you have come from playing flight 3 and also playing freshman soccer at your high schools. The physicality on the J.V. field and the physicality on the flight 1 or NPL 2007 age group is going to much higher and a bigger part of the game.
Physicality
I am not asking that you all go pushing people around and not play the ball but I am asking you to do that. If you watch the videos of our last tournament when we get a body on the the players on the ball we have a much better rate of success. Even the slightest touch, nudge or push makes a huge difference. When you don’t touch the players on the ball we make them look like they should be playing in the World Cup. It is imperative that we play more physically and keep the players with the ball off balance mentally and physically.
Defending Together
This concept is not exactly team defence it is kind of a segment of team defending . I think the best way to explain it is to imagine one of our teammates pushing and scrapping or maybe delaying an opponent that is in possession of the ball. As your teammate is engaged with this player it is the perfect time for you to step and assist your teammate and also engage this player this is what we are calling defending together. When you watch the video from this last tournament you will again see that we have a really good percentage of successful tackles when we do this. Don’t let your teammates out to dry and work together to most of time easily win the ball. This is another really important concepts and if we can do it we will win possession of the ball and take control of the games.
Assignment / Rebels game /
Watch most or all of the highlights tagged with the subject of Physicality and also the ones tagged with Defending together. Some of the clips are plays we did well and some are plays we did not do so well. Send me a comment on a play we could have done better and on a play we did well for at least one of these topics. How could we have improved the play? What was the result or what could have been the result? Something like that.