Counter attack like Argentina

Watching Argentina play Canada in a World Cup warm up game, there was a great counter attacking goal. What I liked was the attacker’s skill in taking on a couple of defenders once they got to the opposite end of the pitch.

I see breakaway chances in lots of youth games but it needs a good finisher to score a goal. Often young strikers will wait too long or try to kick too hard and shoot past the post.

You can watch a clip of the goal below and play this exercise which coaches your players in how to take advantage of a counter attack.

How to play it

• Mark out an area 40 yards x 20 yards – you can make it smaller for younger players.

• In one of the corners, mark out a 10 yards square with a small, coned goal in it.

• In this soccer drill the ball is passed so the attacker can run onto it.

• The attacker must take full control of the ball at this point. The defender starts his run as soon as the pass is made and his first action is to hold up the attacker. The attacker should change his pace to fool the defender.

• The defender cannot tackle until they get into the marked-off zone.

• Once they get into the marked-off zone, the attacker must try to lose the defender with a turn – for instance, a stop turn, then try to put the ball between the two cones.

• The defender must stick close to the attacker and try to get a tackle in to win the ball.

The perfect cross
I’ve been working my team on good crossing this week, and the work was put to the test at the weekend. The players were much more positive in crossing and attacking the cross. It resulted in the team scoring two goals. You can use the exercise in today’s issue of Better Soccer Coaching from West Ham Academy director Tony Carr to get your team crossing with purpose.

I also have a clip of Barcelona’s Dani Alves crossing for Bojan to score. Look at how the cross goes into the danger area between the penalty spot and the six yard box. Perfect.

Key soccer coaching tips for crossing skills

•Low, powerful crosses are hard to defend.
•A good, accurate, low cross into the penalty area is one of the hardest balls young defenders will have to face.
•High, looping crosses are hard enough but at least you can see those.
•Balls coming in at an angle just behind the defenders are almost impossible to control and often any touch by a defender will result in an own goal.

How to do it

The technique players should use is the swerve pass using the inside of the foot.

The technique

•Non-kicking foot should be slightly behind, and to the side of the ball. Use the inside of the foot to kick across the ball.

•Tell player to keep his head steady, eyes looking at the ball at the moment of contact.

•His body should be slightly forward to keep the ball low.

A soccer coaching ladder to success

I’ve been discussing the use of speed ladders on my Soccer Coach Weekly forum. It seems a lot of you use speed ladders but would like more exercises to use with them. In Soccer Coach Weekly I run fitness drills, but I am never sure how many coaches have access to them.

You can use flat cones for speed ladders placed so your players have space to put both feet down quickly and move through them in the same way you would a speed ladder – like one of the forum members suggests.

Early on in my coaching career I was given a speed ladder when I bought a full kit for my team. So I did a bit of research into using them – and I think most sports should use them and will get the benefits of speed and coordination that they promise. And for a pre-season it’s a very good way

Here’s two drills which I use with my young players to help with their coordination:

Sideways double feet

• Stand side on to the ladder, feet in the first square
• Running action, moving sideways through the ladder
• Each foot contacts each square once
• Ground contacts on balls of feet
• Emphasise upright posture & coordinated arm action
• Repeat 5 times. Rest 60 seconds between repetitions.

Forward hops – 3 in 1 out

• Hop forward on one leg
• One hop in each square
• Every 3 hops step once out of the ladder onto the other leg
• Continue this sequence until ladder is complete
• Ground contact on balls of feet
  Strength & powerHow of pass / shot12
• Repeat 5 times.
• Rest 60 seconds between repetitions.

The best defenders block the ball

May 4, 2010, 10:18 am
Filed under: Dave Clarke,Soccer Coaching,Soccer Skills,Soccer Training | Tags: AC Milan, Italy, spain, Barcelona, defender, nesta, puyol, close down

One of the problems for defenders is that when they are closing down players a clever attacker can break away with the ball into goal scoring positions. The best defenders will stay with the attacker and get a block on the shot or a last second tackle to poke the ball away.

This situation is quite likely in youth soccer when young players lose concentration at the back and an attacker gets free with the ball. Rather than stand and watch the drama unfold they should be running to get back and cover the attacking player.

There will always be opportunities for a defender to recover when they have made a mistake or the attacker has worked their way free from the covering defence.

As coach you should be encouraging your players never to give up when they have lost the ball and work hard to win it back and stop the opposition scoring.

Check out the clips below of two of the world’s best attackers making last ditch tackles and blocks to save their team losing a goal – Alessandro Nesta of Italy and Carles Puyol of Spain show how giving up just isn’t in their vocabulary.

How to pass back to a nervous goalkeeper

Watching a match a couple of weeks ago between two lower English league clubs, I heard the goalkeeper remark to his left back: “Don’t pass it back to me like that, you’re not in the Premier League now!”

The left back was on loan from a Premier League club and in his first game had given a hard pass to the goalkeeper – who it must be said has never been confident with back passes.

He likes them wide in the penalty area away from the goal and on his right foot. The young defender had used the goalkeeper to get out of a tricky situation without giving away a throw-in. It had been more like a pass to an outfield player, but the goalkeeper should be able to control the ball with one touch then kick it towards a team mate.

It is a pressure situation for a goalkeeper in youth soccer, and a pressure situation for those of us watching. If you’ve got a goalkeeper who just can’t get to grips with the back pass take the heat off them and yourself by getting your defenders to pass in the right place.

Passing so that if the goalkeeper misses the ball it goes out of play for a corner is better than passing so the ball goes into the net if its missed.

Check out the diagram of where the pass should be then watch Gary Neville pass back to the hapless Paul Robinson in an England Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia.

Do your players have skills like Manchester United? Then show them off online

If you think your players’ skills could rival the likes of Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs or Nani, and you can take a short video clip of them doing the skills then read on.

Manchester United Soccer Schools (MUSS) are running a competition encouraging aspiring footballers, aged eight to 18, to learn more skills. The 6 core skills that qualify for this are:

1. Fake pass.

2. Stop turn.

3. Flick behind.

4. Roll across.

5. Drag back.

6. Stepover.

The clip should show at least one of the skills and be 60 seconds long. A coach, a parent or guardian must then submit it on behalf of the player.

If you do take a video clip of one of your players, for the competition, then also send a copy to me and I will put the best ones up on my Soccer Coaching Blog.

To get you started here’s a clip showing the drag back in action and how to coach and practice it.

sumber : http://soccer-coaching-blog.com/