5v5 Soccer Formations Note From David. The article below discusses soccer drills (practice games) that teach fast, creative attacking and 5v5 Soccer Formations.
2-2 and 1-2-1 Soccer Formation
Soccer Drills that Teach Fast, Creative Soccer Attacking
(Below is a letter and my reply) Hi SoccerHelp, My U9 girls play 5v5 (4 field and 1 goalie) no offsides, regular size field, and goal. We play a diamond 1D-2M-1F soccer formation. However, the other day we played against a team that played a 2D-2F soccer formation. It confused our girls because they are used to covering a player and we bunched in the middle because that was where their players were. I need some small changes to get through to score against the 2D without confusing the girls too much. I was thinking working the Wings down the outside and crossing into the Penalty Box. Looking for any help. Jaini, Premium Member ---------------- Hi Jaini, Thanks for being a Premium Member. It sounds like the bunching up problem occurred when your opponent had the ball and was due to your players marking the opposing players who were bunched up. You might want to think of teaching your players (or at least your Fullback) a sort of Zone Defense system as a way to avoid that problem and mis-matches. You might want to consider teaching First Defender/Second Defender, which is explained on Premium. Concerning your attack, yes, you could teach them to attack down the side and cross the ball in, but that has its problems too and your attack could become one-dimensional. Plus, successfully attacking down the wings isn�t easy and requires a lot of practice and skill. Do you have the time to practice that much and that level of skill to penetrate and cross the ball with second and third attackers making coordinated runs to goal who are skillful enough to receive the cross and finish? If so, try the 3 Man Direct, Wing Attacking Game on Premium. My suggestion is to try to teach your players the basics that they need in order to have a fast, creative attack. I suggest focusing on:I hope some of this helps, please let me know. David at SoccerHelp
- Teaching One-Touch play (play the Dribble Around Cone & Pass Relay Race soccer drill that is a game)
- Teach them to recognize Open Space and to accelerate into it (play the Dribble Across a Square soccer drill that is a game with the square 15 to 17 steps wide)
- Teach them to Pass to Space instead of Passing to Feet, which will allow a more creative attack.
- Teach them "Strength on the Ball" and how to Shoulder Tackle so they can win the ball or at least slow the opponent's attack. (play the Shoulder Tackle & Strength on the Ball practice game)
- Teach them how to win 50/50 ball's or be the First Defender and slow down the attack. (play the Win the 50/50 Ball or Be the First Defender 1 v 1 Attacking & Defending practice game)
- Teach "Team Attacking" and reward that. (see www.soccerhelp.com/Patch_Award_System.shtml)
- Teach Aggressive Receiving (play the Dribble Around Cone & Pass Relay Race game)
- Teach Coaching Rule No. 3, which will allow you to better control the flow of the game and is worth 2 or 3 goals per game.