After Every Soccer Game, Evaluate Your Team's Performance
After every soccer game, win or lose, it is a good idea to realistically evaluate how your soccer team played. Questions you might ask yourself include:
- Which team had the better/faster/stronger ("BFS") players? The team with the BFS players will win 80%-90% of the time. Be realistic about this. It is very difficult to beat a team that has BFS players. If you do, you've either been lucky or you out coached the other coach. If you have the BFS players and still lose, it is a good time to ask why and to reassess. If the teams were equal, the following questions from SoccerHelp will help you determine why you won or lost and how to improve.
- Which team had the most quality shots on goal and from what part of the field?
- a. From inside the Penalty Box in front of your goal?
- b. From outside the Penalty Box?
- c. Off rebounds?
- d. From off the Far Post?
- How did each team score?
- a. Breakaways?
- b. Combination passing inside the Danger Zone?
- c. Long shots at the top of the goal?
- d. A skilled player dribbling through the defense (i.e., individual brilliance)?
- e. Headers?
- f. Set plays such as Corner Kicks or Free Kicks?
- Analyze your shots and scoring opportunities:
- a. Did you have a lot of shots or just a few?
- b. Were they good shots that could have scored or poorly chosen shots? (If close to the goal, were shots low and toward the corner?)
- c. Did your team have chances to score on rebounds? (If so, was someone there for the rebound?)
- d. Did your team have chances to score off the Far Post? Was someone there to win the ball and take the shot?
- Who won the most of your and their:
- a. Throw ins?
- b. Goal kicks?
- c. Punts (goalie distributions)?
- Who won the midfield?
- a. Did they drive straight through your midfield with little opposition? Or did you steal the ball a lot in the midfield?
- Which team won most 50/50 balls?
- a. In your Defensive Third?
- b. In your Middle Third?
- c. In your Attacking Third?
The answers to these questions should give you insight as to your teams strengths and weaknesses. If, for example, you aren't getting enough shots on goal, you may want to try different players at Forward, a different formation, or a different style of play. If you lost because the other team had a great striker who scored a lot of goals, you should be alert in the future and assign a fast, tough defender to "shadow mark" this type of player. If you FB's are slow and you give up a lot of goals on breakaways, consider a 3-2-2-3 formation and "Defending Deep". (See "Attacking", "Coaching Rules", "Defense", "Formations", "First Attacker", "Styles of Play", "Attacking Plan", & "Tips" for more ideas).
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