By Philip Joe Cauchi There are various ways in which a team may aim to exploit a dead ball situation from a free kick. The team may agree to strike the ball directly at goal, if the infringement occurred just outside the penalty area and especially if in the team you have players like Cristiano
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By Mike Smith If there is one point where the beautiful game can get ugly, it is in front of the goal when a team is “crashing” in to score. This is a moment where sheer numbers, size, strength and determination win the day. Often times in the waning seconds of a game, a team will
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By Wayne Henderson - After every coaching session I always ask “how could my session have gone better?” After I have looked back at the content, my observations and reactions of the goalkeepers I often ask for MORE. More time, more space, more goalkeepers or more equipment. In this article I will address one of these
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By Jason Stockman - So technically speaking “Mano a Mano” (or Mano y Mano) means “hand to hand” – but in many places we see it as “Man to Man”. And that is what today’s drill is about – playing man against man (or woman against woman). One scenario you never want to see your
Continue readingBy Jason Stockman - In a previous article, we worked on positioning for keepers during a corner – more specifically, where keepers should start out, what their area of influence was and learning to deal with increasing numbers of both defenders and attackers. Using what we learned in that article, we can now focus more
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By Chris Kouns USSF A License (USSF Coaching Education Instructor) – NSCAA Premier Diploma (NSCAA Coaching Education Associate Staff Coach) – Head Women’s Soccer Coach – Georgia Gwinnett College These set piece options variations of short corner kicks and free kicks from distance that can help your team find more success than just pumping the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s topic deals with the keeper giving himself room on free kicks (when possible).
We will start using the example of a free kick from 35 yards out and near the sideline.
Too often a keeper will allow the attacking team to get
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s topic deals with protecting the posts on corner kicks.
When watching many professional teams defending corner kicks we see one, or both, posts left unprotected. Without looking at the data but rather using general observation, it also seems there are a lot more goals being scored on corner kicks. One might say this is because of better services, better attacking players etc. but I have a hard time believing this isn’t partly due to lack of players on the posts.
My suggestion, especially at the youth level, is to have a player on each post.
It’s not good enough to just have a player on each post, they also need to know how to position themselves.
Too often I see players on posts with their entire bodies facing the corner.
There are a couple of problems with the players lining up this way. The first one is the player at the near post tends to
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
In the recent match between Real Sociedad and Real Madrid, there were 6 goals, with 50% scored from corner kicks, with several other missed headers and 2nd balls which could’ve resulted in more goals.
Interestingly, both teams chose to leave the back post open with no player on there, which turned out to be a zone which was tried to be exploited by both teams.
Sociedad Corner Routine
Near Post Flick on routine
As the flat ball is drilled in, it has enough pace that a flick on will continue fast enough past the GK and central defensive players. Sociedad look to exploit the back post zone as there is nobody on the
Continue readingWelcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on corner kicks, free kicks and counter attacks. This is an interesting way to work on dead ball situations while incorporating other aspects of the game of soccer. There are other variations such as these in the book Brazilian Soccer Coaching: Learn How to Train Technically Superior and Tactically Intelligent Players Training the Brazilian Way
This is a regular 11 v 11 scrimmage (or less numbers depending upon how many you have available). One team starts on offense and takes 10 corner kicks from one side. Players line up as they would in a regular game.
The attacking team (in this case the black team) makes it’s normal runs trying to score while