By Philip Cauchi -
Title: Playing the ball with the feet under pressure
Aim: To be able to play accurate vertical passes when under pressure.
Key points:
1. Be light on the balls of the feet.
2. Oriented first touch.
3. Weight and direction of the kick (pass).
Practice: Receive the ball to score in the mini goals.
Preparation: A server – that can be the goalkeeper coach, a player recovering from an injury, or another goalkeeper – is positioned at each top corner of the penalty area with a supply of balls. Two other players act as opponents and start from the top of the penalty area as indicated in the above diagram.
Description: The servers take turns in passing the ball back to the goalkeeper who must quickly control the ball and kick it into any of the three mini goals. When a ball is passed to the goalkeeper by the servers the two defenders immediately apply pressure and aim to dispossess the goalkeeper and score in the regular goal.
Variations:
1. The servers may move to provide support in case the goalkeeper finds it very hard to kick the ball into any of the mini goals.
2. The servers play with the goalkeeper in securing possession of the balls until the moment to play forward into one of the mini goals is on. The area may need to be reduced in width for this variation (diagram below).
Progressions:
1. Reduce the area of practice so that the goalkeeper has less space and time to think.
2. Play the below small-sided situation where the goalkeeper together with his teammates have to play the ball forward into one of the mini goals simulating playing forward into midfield.
By Philip Cauchi
