Soccer is all about team

Soccer is all about patience, timing and speed of play.

Technique, of course, comes first, but as far as the game is concerned it’s pretty simple. Passing and movement are almost everything. The beauty of the game comes from involving all 11 players in the attack and on defense.

As a team is how it happens.

Since I’ve lived in Montana I’ve noticed a couple of things about the way players are coached that stray from the team mentality. Attacking is straight up and down the field, direct, using only the middle third of the field. The game here depends on speed up top, in the attacking third. There’s nothing patient or timed about it. Get the ball, kick it up the field and hope the other team doesn’t get it.

I’ve played for 20 years and have never been fast enough to win a breakaway. But, I can control the game and play a perfectly timed pass, receive it back and score just as easily as someone fast can dribble the ball at the keeper without a defender in front of them.

Defensively, kids are taught to just clear the ball. Offensively, dribble until they have pressure and then kick it away or kick it through for a striker to run onto and have a one versus one with the keeper.

It’s not team oriented and it’s ugly soccer. It’s not that fun to watch and the kids don’t get as much out of the game as they should. Only certain players get to touch the ball while others just run up and down the field. The team as a whole doesn’t get to touch the ball as much, so it’s not as fun to play as it could be.

I think the reason for this is that most of the time coaches don’t understand the game. It’s not their fault that they didn’t grow up with soccer on every television or the ability to play 6-10 months a year with players who are as good or better than they are.

Often times those coaches are parents who volunteer to help coach their kid’s team because there is no one else to help.

I respect that, especially because they’re filling a need that might not otherwise get filled. And it’s tough to try and coach something you don’t know inside and out, plus it takes up a lot of time. You commit to two or three nights a week of practice plus Saturday and/or Sunday games.

It’s a lot of work.

To understand soccer though, is tough. It’s a large scale game. The field is huge and there are 22 players on it, no time outs and two long halves.

But essentially soccer is like hockey without the sticks and the skates, only it’s played with the feet on a larger field with more players.

Tactically it’s like any other sport, keep the ball and try to score. The issue with direct soccer is that it makes it harder for the team to keep the ball. Players end up chasing and reacting to the ball rather than controlling it.

Encouraging kids to keep the ball until they have an option to pass or shoot gives them the confidence they need to try and control the game. And the longer a team keeps the ball, the less they have to try and get it from the other team.

Getting players to use the outside thirds of the field opens up a team’s ability to attack. It pulls defenders from the center of the field, giving those inside players more options to go to goal should they receive the ball back.

Defensively, when someone in the back line wins a ball off an attacker and just kicks it, they will be defending again shortly. If they can win the ball and find a teammate to pass the ball to, the team has a better chance of keeping the ball and going to goal.

Players off the ball generally get caught watching the ball or the player with the ball. A lot of times they’re trying to direct the game verbally, when in actuality they have made themselves completely useless to the player with the ball.

The biggest issue I have with direct soccer and the games I’ve seen coached in this state are that the outcome of a game is completely dependent on only a couple of players. When a team puts 11 on the field, and gives two or three of them the responsibility to win a game, how does the rest of the team feel?

Soccer is a game where the ball needs to be attacked and defended by every person on the field, starting with the person closest to the ball and ending with the person whose furthest away.

First touch, accuracy, quick feet, speed, etc. are important. They help the game, they help players, they make players stars, but if a player doesn’t know how to use their teammates once they get the ball, then those technical skills are useless.