By Tom Mura Question - Our 12's team are all confident and excel at training, but once they go into a game there are times when they appear intimidated by the opposition and become hesitant in areas they are very good at. The outcome is a disjointed performance on game day. The coach has come to
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By Scott Housden - This drill can easily be incorporated into a general crossing session or a specialist cut-back crosses session. Essential criteria of dealing with any high balls or crosses is ‘Assess – Decide – React’ and it is no different for this drill. Set Up The set up as shown in the diagram below
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Weekly English Premier League Opinion - World Cup Edition Day 10Belgium vs. TunisiaBelgium look slick. Everyone is aware of the talent that Belgium have. And everyone is aware of their continuous routine of failing to live up to high expectations. This is probably the best time for this current group of Belgians’, they are in
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Weekly English Premier League Opinion - World Cup Edition Day 9Brazil vs. Costa RicaWhere has samba soccer gone? Boring Brazil versus tournament savvy Brazil, which one will win out. All the emotion, support and inevitable pressure was massively evident at their home World Cup last time. Perhaps that euphoria was a bit too much to
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Weekly English Premier League Opinion - World Cup Edition Day 8France vs. PeruFrance weren’t great in their first game and yet got the win. Peru were entertaining, they met expectations but unfortunately lost. Pogba was poor in France’s opening encounter and the continued questions about his true capabilities were repeated.This high tempo game started off
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Weekly English Premier League Opinion - World Cup Edition Day 5 Tunisia vs. EnglandPlenty to discuss, lets start with VAR and get that out of the way. I just don’t understand this system at all, or at least I don’t understand the utilization of the system. So back in the dark ages, prior to technology,
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Weekly English Premier League Opinion - World Cup Edition Day 5Tunisia vs. EnglandPlenty to discuss, lets start with VAR and get that out of the way. I just don’t understand this system at all, or at least I don’t understand the utilization of the system. So back in the dark ages, prior to technology, there
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Weekly English Premier League Opinion - World Cup Edition Day 3 France vs. AustraliaI was expecting better than that. France were, and still are, my predicted winners of this World Cup 2018, but based on that performance my prediction looks in jeopardy. The performance of Paul Pogba was nothing like world class. There are many
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By Mike Smith “ How hard did he work to get that ball?” I often times find myself asking my players this right after they have just sent the ball up the field to break pressure, not understanding immediately giving the ball back to the opponent actually CREATES pressure. Many times it is the opposing center
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By Philip Joe Cauchi Introduction: Moments of transition are crucial for many teams with the aim of getting advantage of the disorganised state of the opponents and hit them back on the break before they are able to recover. Being organised and ready for the negative transition is called preventive marking. Preventive marking involves having
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By Steven Smith Area Size: Three cone or mini goals are set up on each end line of a 25 X 35-yard field. Players line up with half on each end line ready to come on as a 3 vs. 3 group to attack or defend. Teams: Two teams of 9 players each Time: For full
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Weekly English Premier League Opinion - World Cup Edition Day 3France vs. AustraliaI was expecting better than that. France were, and still are, my predicted winners of this World Cup 2018, but based on that performance my prediction looks in jeopardy. The performance of Paul Pogba was nothing like world class. There are many exceptional
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Weekly English Premier League Opinion - World Cup Edition Day 2Egypt vs. UruguayNobody is giving Egypt a chance. Uruguay have two world class strikers, two seasoned central defenders and a host of talent in and around them. Egypt’s talisman Mo Salah was deemed fit enough only for the bench and that decision seems to put
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Weekly English Premier League Opinion - World Cup Edition Day 1Few could wish for a more enthralling opening to a World Cup than a couple of Goliath teams battling it out with the eyes of the entire globe staring in. The soccer scheduling gods did well with this one. The two lowest ranking teams in
Continue readingWORLD CLASS COACHING 30 Finishing Rondos By Luca Bertolini Table of Contents PART ONE INTRODUCTION MOVING FROM POSSESSION TO FINISHING PHASE KEY POINTS FOR PRACTICING FINISHING RONDOS PART TWO ONE-GRID RONDOS PART THREE TWO-GRID RONDOS PART FOUR THREE, FOUR AND SIX-GRID RONDOS Introduction: The Possession Principles of Play Soccer is an attacking game whose objective is
Continue readingWORLD CLASS COACHING 30 Finishing Rondos By Luca Bertolini Table of Contents PART TWO ONE-GRID RONDOS Single Grid Rondos Exercise 1: 2 + 1 v 1 - Third man finishing (1) Sequence Two black players are placed along one of the longer sides of a rectangle and along one of the shorter sides. One neutral player
Continue readingWORLD CLASS COACHING 30 Finishing Rondos By Luca Bertolini Table of Contents PART THREE TWO-GRID RONDOS Two-Grid Rondos Exercise 16: Alternate 2 + 1 v 1 duels or 3 + 1 v 2 transition duel Sequence A rectangular area is divided into two numbered zones vertically (1 and 2) and two goals with goalkeepers are placed
Continue readingWORLD CLASS COACHING 30 Finishing Rondos By Luca Bertolini Table of Contents PART FOUR THREE, FOUR AND SIX-GRID RONDOS Three-Grid Rondos Exercise 23: 3 v 1 to build up and 1 v 1s to finish Sequence A rectangular area is divided into three areas; a lower and horizontal one to build up and two upper one
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By Anthony Hazelwood The following activity has two groups of players play a 4 vs. 4 activity, however each player is restricted to stay in a 10 x 10 yd. squared zone within the overall grid. The idea is to have a fluid possession game within the time of play while creating an isolated 1
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By Steven Smith This session is focused on tactical training while encouraging all players to stay focused during full sided play and while making every effort to never let the mind wander during that play. Shift and Shift with every ball movement. Think two and even three steps ahead. Try to find specifically trained patterns. Activity
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By Gregg Gillies - Set Up: Size (45 x 35 depending on age, skill level, etc. - can be brought down as far as 30 x 25) Depending on your technical and tactical focus as well as equipment available this can be played with small goals or full size with goalies. See diagram 1 below for
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Weekly English Premier League Opinion - World Cup EditionFor a change of pace, while the EPL is in their off-season and we have the World Cup to look forward to and enjoy, the Weekly EPL Opinion blog, will become the "World Cup Edition". Jonny Carter will continue to give his opinions on the teams, players
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By Tom Mura Question - This high school girls’ soccer season has just begun where I live, and I coach a local JV team. As the JV coach, I view my job as one with two parts, soccer development and confidence building. Normally, I have the girls play a 4-1-2-1-2, partly because it's a simple enough formation
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