Soccer Edition 98

Welcome to the Soccer Newsletter. Today's subject deals with providing support on long balls in the air (punts, goal kicks etc).

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To use a keepers punt as an example, if the ball is going towards your central back, too often, the rest of the team stops and watches to see what happens when she heads the ball. The problem with doing this is that they usually end up losing the second ball (which is the ball after this central back has headed the ball). Winning the second ball is one of the things that separate the top teams from the middle teams.

The obvious question is "how do you win the second ball?" The keys are to first try to win the first ball and at the same time, to put your team into position to win the second ball. Assuming there is a long punt that the central back is going to try to win, two players MUST try to get behind the central back on 45 degree diagonals in case the ball goes over her head or she slightly miss-times her jump and the ball skims off the top of her head, the teammates must be prepared to win the second ball from behind. Another two players should be getting in position in front and on diagonals of the central back to give options for winning the second ball in front of the central back. Since people frequently talk about supporting in triangles, think of this as a triangle in front and a triangle in back for proper support. If the player going to win the first ball KNOWS where her support is, that makes her job that much easier. She knows that if she wins the ball, she can play a ball on a 45-degree angle in any direction and it will go to a teammate. This means she doesn't have to be worrying about where her teammates are while trying to win the ball and also that she doesn't have to worry that if she messes up, she will be in a lot of trouble since she has support behind her ready to help out any way possible.

The absolute first thing needed for a team to win the second ball is to first go after the first ball (if you don't try to win the first ball, you probably wont have a chance of winning the second ball). The player who decides to fight for the first ball needs to put a name on it (meaning she must call for the ball to let her teammates know she is going for it). If a player does NOT hear her teammates call for the ball, she must assume that SHE has to go for the ball. Once the team hears one of their teammates call that she would go for the ball (and this is done by yelling "Lisa's Ball!" and NOT "my ball"), the players must immediately run into position to provide support at the proper angles. The next communication would be the players calling "you have support behind" and "I'm to your right" to let the player fighting for the ball know where her support is without having to look around.

Doing things like always providing support on long balls and communicating in these types of situations are what makes the difference between success and failure.

Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent to comments@finesoccer.com or posted to the FineSoccer Forum at www.finesoccer.com/forum.htm. ids@finesoccer.com

Remember that all previous newsletters are archived at http://finesoccer.com

Have a great day!

Lawrence