Our team is getting destroyed defensively in our division 4 (out of 7) summer league. Our team is made up of all young players between the ages of 19-21, all with prior playing experience. Our team can score but defensively we are consistently getting caught outnumbered (mostly because of too many pushing up and then getting caught on the counter). I'm a referee and our team is mostly a collection of my friends and friends of my friends....we've never played together before last week We've played with 2 in the back, 3 mids, and 1 forward. Our first 3 games we've lost 5-3, 7-3, and 7-2. I feel like we can play with most of the teams we've played, we just haven't played like much of a team. FWIW there's no offside....any tips for our team?
This is a common problem. You likely dominate possession while the other team sits back and waits to counter. When you lose possession, the other team breaks out running numbers while only a couple of your players are available to defend. I've played with and against similar teams to this and they tend to be easy to beat because they lack the experience together to make up for this simple counter attacking approach. Your formation is fine, but the problem is likely how it's being executed. There are 4 areas of the game and your players need to know their responsibilities in each of those areas: offense/possession losing possession/transition to defense defense winning possession/transition to offense Have you talked at all about these areas as a team so each player knows what to do? I subbed as keeper for a team that played this way in 11v11 last week. We were clearly better than the opponent skill-wise and teamwork, but ended tied at half 3-3. The other team scored by out numbering us in the middle toward our goal because our mids pushed too far up and expected our defenders to win the ball instead of helping. A simple comment at halftime that our mids need to slow down their mids when we lose possession lead to a 7-3 win by the end of the game. This is essentially what I'm guessing your team needs as well. When you lose possession, your mids need to pressure immediately to regain. They also need to drop back to put pressure on the other team in front of your back 2 defenders. If it's easy to break through your midfield line, then it will be even easier to get through your defensive line. Basically, your mids are the key and must play 2 ways, especially with only 7 players. BTW - I'm very familiar with the 7v7 game - actually playing a 7v7 tournament this weekend. It can be a lot of fun with a great deal of open space. If your keeper is good with his feet, then use him to distribute as this can be a forgotten weapon on the small field. Very useful for a defender to knock the ball back to the keeper when under pressure, and more effective on smaller fields.
Can't really argue with MonkeyBoy... Really agree re: the keeper. I always tell my kids that the most important moment of the game is the minute we lose the ball, because we're going forward and they're ready to surge forward themselves. It is so much harder mentally to run hard when you are going back towards your own goal than it is to run in support when we have the ball. Because of that, I tend to play heavy defensive lines and give defenders the green light to go forward, but if they think they are defenders first they might commit better to defending at that moment of transition. Without knowing anything of your team, I would suggest a 2-1-2-1 because first and foremost you have to get the goals to stop.
First question - do you ever train/practice with this team? Second question (rhetorical) - how do the other teams play (as far as line-up and tactics) against you? Third question - Are you having trouble containing the one forward you play or is the issue more with their midfielders getting in behind yours? I'll start by saying that the first two responses here have been very good and insightful. Monkey boy is especially correct about the GK - in 7v7 an 'extra' player is very useful. I'll piggy-back on Val's comments regarding formation. You mention that you play 2-3-1. I assume that is standard. Assuming that you play on a relatively small field (vs 11-11) and have no offside, I wouldn't worry so much about the traditional mark and cover defending (tying up 2 defenders for one striker). Hopefully you have a good enough man marker to contain him. I'd deploy the extra defender as a holding mid-fielder, located about 5-10 yards behind your mid-field line and staying mostly in the middle. We play 7v7 pick-up a lot and you'd be surprised how often the ball comes through the middle, right behind the mid-field and about 15-20 yards from goal.
You want to "layer" your lines to make it more difficult for the opponent to advance the ball. You're going to lose the ball and it's natural for players to be lazy. Work around this natural inclination and park at least one or two players at midfield. You only really need two players to attack and the other two non-defenders act as "release valves" when your first two attackers can't break through the defense. I'd work extensively on 2-man combinations to create scoring chances.
1. No practice, just show up and play. 2. We can possess it a little, move forward, then were caught on the counter. We scored the first goal yesterday, then gave up 7 straight. Getting caught after attacking is our biggest problem. 3. I don't know...they just seem to get players forward relatively easy and our defense gets outnumbered. Yesterday I noticed them possess it some around midfield, including it passing it back, then getting numbers forward and outnumbering us. That's where the midfield has to come in and attack and prevent their attack. I think our GK is afraid of coming out too much and being shot on from far out....The field is 60 yards long. Yesterday we played 2 in the back and got burnt through the middle. A holding mid playing just in front of the 2 backs would have been helpful. Luckily the next game we play is against the last place team (they've given up 2 more goals than us somehow). I'll let you know how it goes. We'll try the 2-1-2-1 and let you know how it goes. Thanks for the advice.
That's your issue. Your guys are coming out to play and have fun, and if you face a team with any greater cohesion, you'll give up easy goals.
Practice together is awesome but sometimes not entirely realistic for adults. Most of my adult teams have never practiced and we still managed to be pretty good. When we did "practice" it was more of pickup soccer, which isn't nothing but you're not engaging in "deliberate practice" either.
As elessar78 stated, you're likely not going to be able to get the adults together for practices. I also seriously doubt that his opponents are practicing either. The big disadvantage you've got is that this is a new team where players don't know or trust each other yet. It takes awhile to build good teamwork just playing games once a week, especially with a wide variety of skills and conditioning. If you can get the players together for some pick-up soccer, that would help tremendously. Otherwise I would suggest backing off and playing more of a safe style of play - cover players defensively and look to take advantage of the other team's mistakes with counterattacks.
I think this is great right here. You score a decent amount of goals, so reduce the number you concede. The fact is, it's pretty hard to score in soccer. I've played against guys who aren't soccer players but are athletic enough to make life difficult. They are quick and mobile enough to get in your way and cut off your angles. So if you have one guy doing a decent job of cutting off the dribbler's angle, a second defender (cover) taking care of the rest. Add a gk and what's left to shoot at? It's an oversimplification but that's what it is. The beauty of soccer is that it's like a set of dominoes, knock one down and the rest will fall. As mentioned before, disrupt the attack as soon as the opponents lose the ball. We pressure like crazy for the first 5 seconds after we lose possession. This is very disruptive and, again, dominoes they can't get the attack going from the outset and it's breaking down very quickly. Learning to play with a covering defender makes defending even more easy. Again dominoes, regaining possession quickly, regaining possession period increases your chances of scoring and reduces your opponents chances of scoring. Seems dumb but, defending creates offense. When I explain the parts of the game to the youngest players its: Get the ball back, Get it up the field as quickly and as safely as possible, Get shots on goal (3Gs). It happens in that order and everyone is doing one of three tasks. Maybe I'll add a fourth: Get ready to defend.
Ended up losing 6-5 after being up 3-1 and 5-3. Gave up 2 pk's, including 1 with under a minute left that I didn't think was a pk. Got caught a few times on the counter, but played slightly better overall. No subs in the 2nd half hurt us when it was 100 degrees outside.
Let me first start off by saying, my experience with small field is indoor, with walls, 6v6 or 7v7. The problems you're having with your team are exactly what my team was suffering from a couple months ago. My natural reaction was to try pep talks, different formations, and strategies; the whole time drawing from my experiences of playing hs and collegiate soccer. None of it worked, and I realized (with all due respect) playing in a city league with a smorgasbord of people with different ages, sizes, and skill levels, calls for different game play. As obvious as it sounds (and once again I mean no disrepect), when you're playing with people who aren't so good, but are fit, different strategy is required. I had to dumb things down and reassess the basics. Also, keep in mind, the league I play in counts girl goals as 2 points, and there is no offsides. Thus, the most popular strategy is to have 1-2 girls post up top, usually in offsides position right on our goalie to cherry-pick. It is effective! And my teams struggle was figuring out what we were doing wrong. 1) Marking - it's crazy to be playing in a team of such experienced players, yet in the craziness and cluster in the box that often happens in small field, people are always left wide open, right infront of the goal, as the rest of my teammates attempt to swarm the person with the ball. Indoor has so many substitutions and position changes that your team has to be smart and positionally aware when it comes to marking. Staying organized and maintaining a 1-to-1 man marking for defense is key. 2) The counter is also effective in indoor. Defensively, people need to drop back. To help execute this in games, my team started to play a rotation system on the field. Although obvious, everytime a player would make a run forward with the ball, one player had to drop back. This did mean that there was one less pass option up top, as one of our players would be sprinting back, but it pays off. 3) Possession. Turnovers happen so quickly in indoor that your team has to know how to keep control of the ball. 4) If you're in the last third of the field, shoot. 5) If you're being closed down quickly, but boot it forward into one of the corners. As my team slowly started incorporating these very basic, simple, almost American football inspired tactics, we started winning games. It really was a situation where our team tried to bring the beauty and complexity of outdoor into indoor, and the 2 just aren't really compatible. Sometimes you just have to grind out the win.
