5:00PM - 6:30PM Field Training
OMG! For like the second time this winter we had the full 17 girls at training! It's a miracle!
We had half the field to ourselves tonight and I wanted to make as much use of the space as I could.
I. Crossing and Finishing With Recovery Pressure Wide
We've focused a lot on crossing and finishing in the last two years. This winter we moved to adding pressure on the crossers. This pressure makes the crosser play at a more game realistic speed (getting to the ball quickly, crossing quicker) rather than them having the ability to take their time getting the serve across with no defenders to worry about. This time is not often available in competitive game matches.
In addition to helping the crossers more simulate game realistic situations, this wide pressure helps the runners develop a more realistic sense of reading the crosser and the timing of their own attacking runs in the box. When I first went to pressure on the wide player with a recovering defender, all the attacking runs were late. Why? Because the runners had gotten used to slower, non-realistic play by the crosser. Now that the crosser had a recovering defender to worry about, the crosses came over earlier (thus the runs were late). If the crossers would then wait to let the attackers get into better positions, the recovering defenders would hammer them. So I tell the crossers to whip the ball in when they can and FORCE the attacking runners to read when the ball is coming over and work on the timing of their runs.
I could have looked to add this pressure to the wide players earlier on in our team's development, but the non-pressure crossing work helped the wide players get down their crossing technique, and the ability now to speed things up at this age allows the wide players and attacking players in the box to adjust quickly to the faster flow of the game.
Setup
8 crossing playing, 8 central players, 1 GK
Two disks on each flank, Crossing Disk and Recovery Disk, with the Recovery Disk 5 yards further away from goal that then Crossing Disk
Procedure
central players work in pairs
(1) Blue1 passes to Blue2
(2) Blue2 lays off a pass back to Blue1
(3) Blue1 plays wide to C, who tries to get in a cross to Blue1 (slot run), Blue2 (near post run), and Gold1 (a left-side wide player coming into the far post)
recovering defenders (wide players take turns at being a recovering defender) start 5 yards behind the crossers and cannot leave their disk until the crosser leaves their disk
Coaching Points
If crossers leave too early (before the play develops) and are forced to slow down their runs to wait for the ball, their recovering defenders (who can recover the second the crosser moves forward up the field, will be able to get back into a defensive position. So crossers must read the central players in order to sprint quickly up the field at the right time in order to lose marking defenders.
Wide passes from Blue1 must have the proper pace and direction
Play your teammate in to dangerous positions whenever possible
II. 6v5 to Goal, Find the Point Player
In prep for our upcoming competitions, I wanted to continue to give the girls some attacking and defending ideas based on the team shape that we are likely to use. At this point in time, I am leaning heavily to the 4-1-2-3 formation, so I set up the following exercise to run the girls through some game realistic scenarios in a scrimmage-type format (6 attackers versus 5 defenders attacking goal).
Set Up
Back four defenders plus one defending midfield player and a GK, with two target players at midfield
Front three attackers supported by two attacking mids and a defending mid
All the soccer balls with the coach at midfield
Procedure
I always started the exercise with the defending team pushed up to somewhere around the 40 yard line
I would then serve a ball in and the girls would play until a goal or a shot was taken wide, or until the defending team was able to clear their area by finding one of their target players
The service was varied; sometimes sent in behind the defensive line, sometimes in to a forwards feet, sometimes to a mid-field player
Coaching Points for the Attackers
Find the Point player's feet to draw defensive eyes and collapse defenders to the ball
Don't watch when the Point player gets the ball. Anticipate, be proactive with runs, and look to get into dangerous spaces
Coaching Points for the Defenders
Friday, March 9, 2007 at 04:14PM 
Our U11G and U12G top teams will also be making the trip down to Des Moines in April, along with our U14G White team. Our U11B and U13B will be there as well, so it should be a fun event with all the teams participating.
