Defense Wins Championships

After a ten-day "break" from structured soccer training, we began our Winter II (Jan - Mar) training program yesterday.  I say "break" as we had 12 girls participate in an optional two-day holiday indoor tournament over the holiday week.  We actually had 9 teams from our club participate in the Christmas Cup at the Corner Kick Indoor Facility in Maplewood, MN, and it was a fun change to have the girls play the fast-paced 6v6 boarded indoor game.  It a fantastic semifinal game, we avenged a 1-2 group play loss to the Bangu U14 girls, scoring the winning goal with 3 seconds left on the clock to pull ahead 2-1 and move to the final game.  It was actually one of the hardest fought games that our girls had in a long time and the U13 girls showed some real guts and heart to battle back from a 1-0 deficit against the older girls.  The two teams will meet for friendlies a few times later this winter/spring and then come up against each other in the U14 Premier League this summer... all the meetings are sure to be hard-fought battles!

Most of Winter I was geared towards technical shooting/finishing.  My goal for the first part of Winter II is to focus on both individual and team defending.  Once a solid defensive foundation is set, I will then look to move into attacking build up.

Defense was engrained in my blood during my days with the MN Thunder.  I think Buzz Lagos (Head Coach) was one of the great teachers of defending principles, and the long hours the team spent dedicated on defensive was the cornerstone of the success we had since the organization's inception in 1989.

Though I've been preaching solid defensive habits since taking this team back in 2004, I feel the girls are at a stage at which they can really start to understand why we do certain things on our defensive end, and how these aspects relate to the game as a whole.  All the girls who have been with me in previous years have had experience with pressure, delay, cover, channeling, double teams, recovery runs, and tackling.  After revisiting these topics for the benefit of the new girls with us this year as well as to reinforce the ideas in the heads of returning players, I plan on moving to more team defending aspects.  Here is a rough outline of the topics I want to cover and the order in which we will touch on them.

1v1 Defending

• Pressure
• Footwork
• Patience
• Angle of Approach
• Channeling
• Denying the Turn
• Moving with the Ball
• Block and poke tackles
• Tackle Feints
• Verbal and visual communication

1v2 Defending

• Recovery runs
• Delay/Jockeying vs Diving In
• Double Teams
• Cover
• Channeling
• 1st and 2nd Defender
• Communication by 2nd Defender

2v2 Defending

• Cover
• Drop Steps
• Ball Watching
• Visual Communication

2v3 Defending

• Triangle Shape
• Balance/Shape
• Double Team Opportunities
• Communication

4v3, 5v3 Defending

• Blocking Passing Lanes
• Defensive Work Rate
• Communication

High Pressure Defending

Transition to Attack

Playing a Flat Back 4

Counter Attacks

Some of this stuff will be more of an ongoing lesson (like playing a flat back, transition play, etc) but I think I can cover a lot of stuff in the next dozen or so training sessions.  With the girls be pros by the time I'm done with them?  No way.  But I think they will be better all around players and our team will end up much stronger in the long run.