Crossing and Finishing

13 Players

I. Ladder Work

II. Tactics Talk and On Field Walk Through

• Switch the field once
• Look to get end line and cross or win corners, all crosses need to get to the penalty spot

IIIa. Crossing and Finishing Technique

Set Up

• Groups of 3 (One crosser and two finishers)

Procedure

• The crosser dribbles down the line and does a move on the dummy defender and crosses the ball into the box for the finishers to head home
• Work on driven crosses to the back post and end line crosses brought back to the top of the 18

Make It Competitive

+1 for a cross and a shot on goal
+3 for a cross and a goal 
+5 for a header goal 
+10 for a header goal in the magic box 

IIIb. Eric Works With AJ

• Footwork
• Dealing With Break Aways

IV. 6v6 With Wide 2v1 Channels To Goal

Set Up

• 2 teams of 6 players and a goalie
• Wide channel that is from the outside of the 18 yard box to the side line

Procedure

• Teams play 6v6 and try to get the ball out wide
• The team that is defending cannot send anyone wide until the ball enters the wide channel
• When the ball enters the wide channel the defending team can send one player to create a 2v1 for the attacking team
• Teams must get the ball to one of the wide channels before they can score 

Make It Competitive

+1 point for a goal 
+3 points for a goal from a cross
+5 points for a header goal 

Creating Width

12 Players

I. Ladder Work

II. Switch The Field To 2v1 Wide & Cross

Set Up

• Use half of a field
• 4 teams of 3 players
• 3 teams are attacking and one team is defending
• Make a wide channel for the 2v1
• Create a goal for the defenders to score in if they win the ball

Procedure

• A coach or extra player plays a ball into a center mid who has checked to her
• The center mid receives the ball and plays a big switch to the far outside mid
• The outside mid who started inside bounces outside and receives the ball close to the side line
• As the ball is traveling to the outside mid the red defender moves out wide to put pressure on the ball and she should be about 10 yards away from the wide player when she receives the ball
• One of the blue forwards makes a run to towards the outside mid to create a 2v1 on the wing versus the red defender
• The two blues go 2v1 and look to either combine around the red defender or the blue outside mid can play the forward down the line to beat the defender with the pass
• If the defender wins the ball she can score by passing the ball through the cone goal 
• After a successful 2v1 the blues cross the ball into the middle for the 2nd forward to finish first time 

Make It Competitive

+1 for a cross and a shot on goal
+3 for a cross and a goal 
+5 for a header goal 

Defense +3 for a goal

Key Points 

• The cue for the outside mid to get wide is when the center mid opens up the field.  The run by the wide mid needs to be quick and they need to curve their run wide to create a passing lane.
• The forward needs to read whether or not to run to the line to be played in by the wide mid or if she should combine with the wide player to beat the defender
• The cross into the box needs to be placed in an area where the forward will be successful

III. 6v6 With Wide 2v1 Channels To Goal

Set Up

• 2 teams of 6 players and a goalie
• Wide channel that is from the outside of the 18 yard box to the side line

Procedure

• Teams play 6v6 and try to get the ball out wide
• The team that is defending cannot send anyone wide until the ball enters the wide channel
• When the ball enters the wide channel the defending team can send one player to create a 2v1 for the attacking team
• Teams must get the ball to one of the wide channels before they can score 

Make It Competitive

+1 point for a goal 
+3 points for a goal from a cross
+5 points for a header goal 

Get The Ball Wide & Finish - Training 5/10

I. Ladder Work

II.  Basic Crossing and Finishing

• Put players into groups of 3 send one player out wide and keep two in the middle
• Wide player puts a hesitation move on the dummy defender and crosses the ball in looking for a service to the head of an attacker
• When we come from the left Becks will do a hesitation move, but everyone else will cut the dummy defender back and serve with their right foot
• Create a magic box that is a 5x5 yard grid on top of the 6 yard box on the far post

Make It Competitive

+1 point for any goal that the ball hits the ground
+3 for any goal scored out of the air
+5 for a goal out of the air in the magic box 

III. 2v1 Lead Pass Out Wide To Cross and Finish

Set Up

• Teams of 4 players 
• 2 players are crossers out wide and 2 players are attackers in the middle of the field
• Grid is 15x15 yards on the outside of the field on top of the 18 yard box
• The defending team starts with one defender and one recovery defender

Procedure

• Players go 2v1 and attempt to beat the defender out wide across the end line
• When they beat the defender out wide they cross the ball into the box for their attackers
• Start with no defenders in the middle of the field, if we have success then add in one defender 

Make It Competitive

Attackers
+1 for a cross and shot on goal
+3 for a cross and a goal
+5 for a cross and a goal taken out of the air

Defenders
+3 points for stealing the ball and playing it into the pugg goal

IV. 4v4 Get It Wide Scrimmage

Set Up

• 3 teams of 4 players and a goalie in each goal
• One team is the crossing team and two teams are playing 4v4

Procedure

• The teams in the middle play 4v4 and must get the ball to a wide player
• After the team gets the ball wide the wide player plays in a cross and they try to score or they can play it back into a forward who can only take one touch and they can play someone else to go to goal
• The defending team can send one player out to defend the outside and create a 2v1 situation
• Play a 5 minute game as hard as they can

Make It Competitive For The Crossing Teams

Keep track of the goals created by the wide players so they are competing against each other and the other teams to see who can set up the most goals and have the fewest turn overs

+5 points for a cross that leads to a goal
-1 point if they make a pass and the person they pass the ball to turns the ball over
-3 points if they make a pass that is intercepted 

V. Scrimmage

11/17 Transition Game Training

Today we only had a quarter of the dome to train in.  Before having half of the dome last Monday I was wondering what I would do with all of that space and worried that I would be paying for a large space that I wasn't using.  Today I found myself wishing that I had the entire half of the dome to progress the 2v2v2 With Targets game that we did on Saturday.

Before training I was also wondering how the parents would cope with having training starting at 5pm.  It was good thinking of Cook to schedule the 1/2 field training later when theoretically it should be easier for more people to make it to training.  But I actually had more people here today than I did last week at the later time.  Today we were only missing 2 kids.  Really good.

We started off with our partner juggling.  With 2 touch mandatory with feet only our record was 18 and we had another group get to 17.  

For our footskills today I wanted the girls to get lots of reps with a defender since we have been spending so much time going over the moves without a defender and with a dummy defender.
 For the first 10 minutes I encouraged the girls to take their time and try out all of the new moves that we have been working on.  I put a lot of emphasis on getting the girls to try and nutmeg the defender.

The next 10 minutes we went over how to beat the defender while going at speed.  Now we were concentrating on when how we could beat a player on a quick transition so we could attack with pace and create numbers up opportunities.

We stopped a couple of times and talked about the visual cues of when you have a defender beat (hip swivels, off balance) and how to set up the defender as you are dribbling at her.  

I encouraged the girls to try to limit themselves to only 1 cut back when they were on offense and to believe that the move they were doing was going to work.  

While I was doing this Schaefer was able to work with AJ on goal keeping.

After this we did the 2v2v2 With Targets to Goal transition game that we did last Saturday.  After 10 minutes of continuing to really learn how the flow of the game goes, we stopped the girl and focussed on not running straight up and down the field as they transition forward.  

We talked about criss-crossing in the middle after playing the target.

We also talked about making sure that both runners didn't run past the target player because the forward flick on pass for the target player facing the other way is not a high percentage pass and will cause us lots of turn overs.

We finished up training with a 6v6 scrimmage and 2 of the girls went and played with the U15 Green's to give them more numbers and allow us to have everyone play.

11/10 Training 1v1-4v4 Numbers Up Game

0-10 Partner Juggling

10-20 Footskills: Lots of rollover moves

20-60 1v1-4v4 Numbers Up Game
This was a game that I had seen Mark do with the U12's last Saturday that I really liked.  It is so nice being surrounded by great coaches that I can pick up lots of really good session ideas.

Set Up: 4 yellows, 4 Blues, 1 gk
To start the first yellow player dribbles at speed and takes a shot from outside the 18 yard box

 After shooting the yellow player now becomes a defender and the first 2 blues step up and go 2v1 against the yellow.
 

After shooting the Blues now become the defenders and the next 2 yellows step on to create a 3v2 with the original yellow who now gets to start in the position of being a target player.  We played with an offsides line at the 18 and I encouraged the new blue defenders to step up quickly after they finished going to force the yellow target player to have to work to get back onside.
 

*To make the exercise more game like I had told the girls that when they were defenders and they won the ball they could score a point by dribbling the ball past the half line.  This meant that the defenders would be starting in different positions throughout the game.  Sometimes they would be straight in front of them but other times there would be a defender or two recovering from behind so it gave them lots of different looks.  The game was great in always presenting something different to the girls and transitioning quickly from offense to defense.

After the yellows went 3v2 the final 2 blues stepped up and created a 4v3.  This part will be great in working on how our forwards should move to create space and combinations as we do this exercise more in the future.
 

The last part is for the 4th and final yellow player to come out and make finish the exercise with a 4v4 to goal.

The girls picked up the game really quickly and it was a lot of fun.  I had originally set up a points system for the game but the girls were so into it that I didn't bother with it because they were competing so hard.  This game was also good for fitness for the first 3 players that went because they stay on the field for so long and are constantly moving.

Today I really just focussed on the dribbler and runners moving diagonally, having the dribbler draw in the defenders, and when to pass the ball.  I want to do this exercise again the next time that we have a half of field to work with so I can start to work on some of the other aspects of the game.

We finished the day with a 7v7 scrimmage that included some of our U16's to give us enough numbers.