An Open Letter to My Fellow American Soccer People During the World Cup Dear Fellow American Soccer Professionals, I know at least one of these has happened to you. You've been sitting at a bar watching a match when someone nearby starts complaining about diving. "Why are they adding time?" "Why is the game 0-0?"
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Counterattacking Phase 4- 5v5+4 By: Matt Carroll This session is the next in my summer session planning period. For my high school team, we will be working on sessions that will introduce key topics for the season to both cement them for our players and to experiment with different drills and coaching points to fine-tune
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Counterattacking Phase 2- Rondo Attack By: Matt Carroll This session is the next in my summer session planning period. For my high school team, we will be working on sessions that will introduce key topics for the season to both cement them for our players and to experiment with different drills and coaching points to
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Counterattacking Phase 1- Chase Drill By: Matt Carroll This session is the next in my summer session planning period. For my high school team, we will be working on sessions that will introduce key topics for the season to both cement them for our players and to experiment with different drills and coaching points to
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Attacking In Transition Form Your Own Half: Part 4- 6 Neutral By: Matt Carroll This session is the third session that I have designed for my high school-aged teams for our open summer session here in New Jersey. This is a period where you can hold open sessions, clinics, tournaments, and leagues. The catch is
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Attacking In Transition Form Your Own Half: Part 3- Cinco By: Matt Carroll This session is the third session that I have designed for my high school-aged teams for our open summer session here in New Jersey. This is a period where you can hold open sessions, clinics, tournaments, and leagues. The catch is none
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Attacking In Transition Form Your Own Half: Part 2- Bayern 12 Goal Drill By: Matt Carroll This session is the third session that I have designed for my high school-aged teams for our open summer session here in New Jersey. This is a period where you can hold open sessions, clinics, tournaments, and leagues. The
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Attacking In Transition Form Your Own Half: Part 1- Liverpool Drill/Transitions By: Matt Carroll This session is the third session that I have designed for my high school-aged teams for our open summer session here in New Jersey. This is a period where you can hold open sessions, clinics, tournaments, and leagues. The catch is
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Make your 1v1 Drills More Game-Specific In modern soccer, the ability to win 1v1 situations is one of the most important skills a player can develop. However, many traditional 1v1 drills fail to truly prepare players for the demands of the game because they isolate movements and decisions without recreating the pressure, speed, and unpredictability
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Diamond Midfield Session Part 4: 11v11 Functional Game By Justin Faust This 11v11 functional game is designed to bring the Midfield Diamond to life in a realistic match environment. Players are challenged to recognize passing angles, create overloads, and maintain strong positional relationships between the 6, 8s, and 10. The drill emphasizes movement off the
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Diamond Midfield Session Part 3: Diamond Functionality in a 9v9 Format. By Justin Faust This exercise features the players right down the middle of the field. In Figure 1, the yellow team simulates the 4-4-2 Diamond in midfield plus the center backs and two forwards. I have them compete against the white team who will
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Diamond Midfield Session Part 2: 4v3 Overload By Justin Faust I usually do this drill in a grid size of 20x20 as shown in Figure 1. The white team has the diamond formed and works the ball back and forth to the endline players on white. If the yellow team wins possession they try and
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Diamond Midfield Session Part 1: Activation- 4v4 By: Justin Faust This session will introduce the concept of the Midfield Diamond and how it helps teams keep possession, create passing options, and control the tempo of the game. I have used this for my team at the high school level, but it can also be used
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Counter Attacking Part 4: Numbers Up Game By: Justin Faust To incorporate everything that the session entails I like to end with a game that has many different scenarios that players have to adjust to. As shown in Figure 1, the game simply starts out in a 2v2 situation. If one of the teams scores
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Counter Attacking Part 3: 3v2 to 4v3 By Justin Faust In the 3rd part of our session we will progress to build off of part 1 and 2 into a SSG that incorporates offensive and defensive transitions. The setup starts with the offensive players shown in Figure 1. Each player follows their pass and after
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Counter Attacking Part 2: Technical Passing Drill By Justin Faust What can make or break a counter-attack is the first pass that is made upon gaining possession. If a player goes lateral or negative, they are simply regaining possession. To make a counter attack effective is either going direct or diagonal. This drill is a
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Counter Attacking Part 1: 3v3 to 3v2 Activation By Justin Faust The Counter Attacking session I have designed is one that I have used at the youth stages (ages 12-16) and advanced youth stages (16+). The format follows a Play-Practice-Play Model centered around attacking and defending transitions. I usually do this session MatchDay -1 to
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The 6v3 Rondo to Fit the Four Phases of your Game Model Rondos notoriously have been somewhat of a contentious part of soccer training in revent years, with many feeling strongly one way or another about them. Taking the positives and negatives into consideration, I believe the coach needs to make sure that there is
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Defending Overloads in the Final Third Part 3: Winger Entry By: Matt Carroll This session is the third in my team’s summer session folder. In New Jersey, we have an open period where any team can hold sessions. With multisport athletes, summer tournaments, and our participation in a summer league, we try to keep it
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Defending Overloads in the Final Third Part 3: Timed Release By: Matt Carroll This session is the third in my team’s summer session folder. In New Jersey, we have an open period where any team can hold sessions. With multisport athletes, summer tournaments, and our participation in a summer league, we try to keep it
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Defending Overloads in the Final Third Part 2: Progression 10 Ball By: Matt Carroll This session is the third in my team’s summer session folder. In New Jersey, we have an open period where any team can hold sessions. With multisport athletes, summer tournaments, and our participation in a summer league, we try to keep
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Defending Overloads in the Final Third Part 1: 2v1+1 By: Matt Carroll This session is the third in my team’s summer session folder. In New Jersey, we have an open period where any team can hold sessions. With multisport athletes, summer tournaments, and our participation in a summer league, we try to keep it to
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Creating Overloads at Midfield: Part 4 The Game The final stage of the session is a full sided 11v11, but with the caveat that the midfield has two neutral players that can only play within a designated area, creating an overload in the central area. In Episode 408 of The Coaching Soccer Weekly Coach Shap
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Creating Overloads at Midfield: Part 3 The Shoreman Drill For the third part of this session, we are expanding and making the session more game-like, but we are still hitting on the idea of utilizing our overloads to both possess and break lines. Check back to Episode 419 with Washington College (MD) Head Coach Tom
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