Street Soccer

Recently, I conducted a session that the players really enjoyed, and we got a lot accomplished in the process. I played what I call “street soccer.” It was a time where the players were given a lot of the decision making power as to how they played. We assigned each player to a team, gave them the “challenge” of the game, and let them decide how they were going to accomplish their goals. They decided what “system” to play, what position each player would play, and what the team “tactic” would be as well. As coaches, during the games, we did very little coaching. At the breaks, we asked a lot of questions to prompt them to think about how they played, the effectiveness of their “plan,” and perhaps what worked and what they would do differently next time. These discussions were very helpful for the players and really helped the coaches understand their players as well.

Each player would keep track of what their score was. When they played a game, they awarded themselves three points if their team won, one point if they tied. In addition, for every goal that their team scored, they awarded themselves one point, with a maximum of four points to be earned due to the goals they scored. Thus, in a 6-2 game, players on the winning team each earned 7 points (3 for the win plus 4 for the goals they scored). The players on the losing team each earned 2 points, one for each goal that they scored.

At the end of each game, the players would report their score to a coach, who kept track of the results during the session. At the end of the practice, each player had accumulated a total score. In fact, the coaches said that their final score closely reflected the overall effectiveness of the players. In short, good players somehow find a way to win.

Not only did the players enjoy the session, but the session was full of intense play, focused players, good soccer, and best of all, players trying to figure out things on their own, often times coming up with great solutions to the game. Even when some of the games were dominated by one of the teams, the team that was losing still fought hard until the end because they knew that they could still get points for scoring goals, no matter what the final tally was. In fact, this at times led to some dramatic come-from-behind victories. Lastly, the play got better during the course of the session.

Since there were only ten players at the practice, the games were most frequently 5v5. We then changed the game format slightly, each game having a different challenge that was presented to the players. Games were short, seven minutes at the most.

Here are some ideas for the “games” to play. We did not use all of these ideas in the one practice, but they are all good challenges for the players:

1. Play 5v5 with keepers, with no offsides law in effect.

a. Does the attacking team put a player “high-up” the field?

b. Does the defending team drop and delay their pressure to take away the longer ball in to the high attacker?

2. Play 5v5 with keepers, with offsides in effect, but with no midfield line. So, if all of the field players were pushed high up the field, the last player back determined where the offsides line was, instead of having it at midfield.

a. Does the defending team recognize when they can step their team up to really make the space small for the attacking team to play in? Do they know when not to step because the attacking team can play a ball behind them?

b. Can the attacking team beat this “offsides trap” by playing bigger diagonal balls to players who have stayed onside… or by dribbling themselves through the stepping “trap”?

3. Play 5 minutes, but give one team a 2-goal lead to start. Then play another game giving the other team a-2 goal lead.

a. Can they hold the lead? Can they fight hard and come back?

b. Each of the 2 games counts towards two scores for each player.

4. Play a man down for 5 minutes for one game. Then switch and play a man up for one game. (Here I was the “extra’ player for the team that had an advantage… I know… some of you are saying “What advantage is that?!”)

a. Can the team with the advantage keep the ball away from the other team?

b. Can the team with the “man down” still find a way to put pressure on the ball?

c. Can the “man-down” team play more directly to the goal?

5. Play 5v5 with no keepers, but shots have to hit the net on a fly to count.

a. Can the defending team keep good pressure on the ball, denying all shots?

b. Can the attacking team quickly find the open player?

c. Does the player have good enough technique to strike a ball so that it flies in to the net?

6. Play 5v5 with no keepers, but only shots scored off of a “first time” shot count. (No shots off of a dribble.)

a. Can the passer give a good enough pass that can be finished “first time?”

7. Play 5v5 but you have to score by dribbling over an endline.

8. Play 5v5, but you have to score by passing the ball into an end-zone to a teammate.

a. Can players get open enough to receive a pass?

After the end of each game “form,” I would randomly assign players to a new team. This way, they were able to play with and against everyone else on the team. Little time is spent between

games. In fact, the players are eager to get the next game going, to see if they can get more points.

I have found that each time I do this with a team, I am amazed with how competitive it can get. Especially when we pull the players together at the beginning and pre-view the day’s work with comments such as, “We are going to play a series of games. Each game has a different challenge. We will see who is able to get the most results during the practice time and who fights hard until the end!” With careful manipulation of the “teams,” a skillful coach can help all of the players to be involved on a winning team and maximize the points for each player when they need it most!

We often wish that our players were able to solve problems on the field for themselves, but we rarely give them the opportunity to practice this skill. This “street soccer” environment affords the players this opportunity. However, since I was talking with the players at the breaks, and perhaps when the game paused when the ball was out of bounds, I was not leaving the players alone to totally fend for themselves. With careful, timely intervention, the players are given the opportunity to try out their solutions and see how successful their ideas are, and they get helpful feedback from me the coach when appropriate.

At the end of the session, the players were asking for one more game! A true sign that the session was a good one!

I can’t wait to do this again in the near future.

Try it out and let me know how it goes.