Soccer Leaders Home >

SOCCER COACHING:  Basic Principles of Individual Attacking:  1:  First touch - Field Attack

In general, attacking is much harder than defending. Why? Because attacking usually requires more advance (and advanced) thinking. In other words, a defender reacts - while an attacker has to have a plan if he is going to have a good chance of success. In addition, attacking requires better ball control than defending, because it is difficult to keep possession long enough to get within scoring range by just whacking at the ball. As a result, the coach must spend a lot of time in developing the ball control skills of his players, and in training them in the various elements of individual attacking.

Individual attacking has 3 basic phases. The first phase is what is commonly known as the First Touch phase. The quality of the First Touch, and the planning which goes into this First Touch, often will be the key difference between a successful attacker and one who constantly bombs out. The second phase is the actions required to beat any field defenders, so that you are 1 v 1 with the keeper (called “field attacking”). The final phase is the actions required to beat the keeper and/or last field defender blocking the ability of the ball to “see” the goal so that you can put the ball in the net. This final phase will be called Finishing (although it is important to bear in mind that the other phases may be compressed into this single phase, with a ball received in a way which allows the very first touch to be a shot on goal).

Indeed, any time that an attacker realizes that the ball is going to come to him, his first decision should be “do I have a decent chance at scoring a goal with my first touch?” If the answer is “yes”, then he must always make the attempt to score. As noted later, a player misses 100% of the shots which he does not take, and it is critical to educate young players early in the notion of thinking about a shot first.

If no shot is “on” with the first touch, then the player must get the ball under control and take another look to see if a shot is now available (because defenders move around - so a momentary opening may have arisen). If a shot is still not “on”, then he must figure out the best route to take to get into a good scoring position, then look once more for the chance for a shot. In other words, he needs to remember that his ultimate objective is to score goals.

First Touch Phase

If at all possible, the attacker wants to receive the ball so that he will be facing in the direction where he wants to go. However, he also wants to know what is going on behind him - so that he can anticipate the kinds of pressure which he will be getting from the back once he turns. And, of course, he wants to keep an eye on the ball itself, so that he can receive the ball well. How can he accomplish all of these objectives?

By adopting an initial stance which is open to the entire field, then turning as he receives the ball so that his eyes can sweep over as much of the field as possible to assess any obstacles to the attack. Commonly, the player will start with his back very close to one touchline and his body turned to be parallel to the touchline (which gives him a clear view of the entire field). Sometimes, of course, a player will be in the middle of the field. In this case, it usually is more advantageous to be facing somewhat towards the opposing goal, then to turn in at least a 180 degree arc as the ball is being received, so that the player can view as much of the field as possible prior to receiving the ball.

After checking out the obstacles in his path, the player must decide where the best space will be to receive and control the ball. It is imperative that the player know where the best space is BEFORE the ball arrives, so that he can use the best receiving option to put the ball into this space. In deciding what space is the “best space”, the attacker must consider two things:

—-  What are my chances of scoring if I keep possession here?

—-  What are my opponent’s chances of scoring if I lose possession here?

If not too risky, an attacker always wants to hang onto the ball or to help a teammate to do so, and will follow the ancient maxim “If we have the ball, the other side can’t score.” However, if the slightest goof on his part will turn the ball over to an opponent right in front of his own goal, then it is too risky to keep possession - and his job turns into one of finding the least dangerous parts of the field in which to turn over possession. Thus, when close to his own goal, the attacker will quickly move the ball to safe spaces to the sides of field (or will send the ball far upfield to a teammate) if this can be done safely, but will boot the ball upfield or over the endlines or touchline before considering turning over possession right in front of his own goal.

When near the opposing goal, however, there is no immediate risk if he loses possession of the ball, so he can afford to take risks. In this situation, the best space into which to put the ball is the space where he can take a shot which has a reasonable chance of going in. Usually, the space to the side of and slightly behind the defenders is normally the “best” space in which to direct the ball - even though the defender or goalkeeper may have a 50% chance of getting there first. Why? Because, even if you score a goal only 50% of the time that you take a shot, these are great odds - and it is foolish to pass up the chance when there is no real downside to taking the shot. Young players may not instinctively understand this - especially if they are naturally cautious - so the coach must train them to understand when it is a good idea to take a shot; when it is a good idea to try to retain possession; and when it is a good idea to cut your losses and dump the ball out of bounds.

Once the player has pre-selected the “best” space into which to play the ball, he will turn his attention to the actual reception of the ball. This requires that he pre-select the body surface which will allow him to best control the ball and redirect it to the intended space. The player then will get his body into position to permit proper reception of the ball with this body surface, so that the ball can be put into the intended space with precision.

As the player gains more experience, and as his opponents become quicker at making decisions themselves, he will discover that it is essential that he anticipate several moves in advance and pre-decide what he is going to do next. Just like in a match of chess or checkers, where it requires several moves to finally lay the trap to capture a piece, soccer requires smart players who use their brains as much or more than their bodies if they wish to be successful at higher levels.

Initially, however, the young player has more than enough to worry about in deciding what is the “best” space. Ordinarily, the coach will preselect the body surface to use (normally starting with passes on the ground) - and will try to make the job of the attacker as easy as possible by giving the new attacker plenty of room or by placing restrictions on the defender which will allow the attacker to develop confidence in stages. It may take a number of practice sessions before beginners can control the ball very well on the ground. Plenty of time should be spent to allow the players to become comfortable with the ball, and to develop a good first touch so that they can accurately move the ball into the chosen space to get away from pressure.

Field Attacking Phase

Once your player has taken his crucial first touch and has gotten the ball under control in a less-pressured area where he can have time to look up, his next step is to see how many defenders are between the player and the goal, and to develop a plan to get around them. Why? Because the player wants to get the ball away from his own goal (to keep his opponent from scoring) and to get the ball fairly close to the opposing goal (to improve his chances of scoring).

When the player receives the ball, and is not yet in shooting distance of goal, what he wants to do is to get within scoring range of the goal in a way which is best calculated to allow him to “beat” the opposing defenders. By the same token, one of the most dangerous defenders to an attacker is a defender coming up from behind him at speed, so the attacker does not want to get around the defender too early if there is any chance that the defender will be able to catch up with the attacker before he gets to goal.

If the attacker is blessed with unusually high speed, and can outrun any opponent, he has the luxury of being able to race towards the opposing goal at top speed. It is very difficult for a defender to slow down an attacker who is moving at top speed without committing a foul, and it is relatively easy for the attacker to move around any stationary defender with a simple touch to one side. As a result, this can be an excellent technique for a very fast attacker to use on some occasions. However, a wise coach will not overuse such attacks, because this makes the attacks (and the likely attacker) too predictable for the defense; the team wastes valuable learning time by using single attacking option instead of learning various styles of attacking; and the fast player wastes too much time on emphasizing a style of play which likely won’t benefit him in the long run, while failing to learn how to participate in group attacking or how to handle opponents who are as fast as he is (as speed differences tend to diminish significantly after adolescence). Instead, the wise coach will try to train his players in how to attack individually, and as a group, when the opponents are as fast as they are.

How does an individual attacker make a successful attack against one or more defenders when he does not have any true speed advantage? The answer is that he learns how to use the element of surprise to create momentary speed advantages, and use these momentary speed advantages to get past the defender and to quickly cut back into the anticipated path of the defender to reduce the ability of the defender to catch him. There are several ways to obtain these momentary speed advantages. One way is to “take-on” the defender by going right at him, and then using fakes to get around him. This technique is discussed in more detail below.

Another way to get around the defender is through moves involving rapid changes of speed/direction. For example, as the defender is starting to bottle up the attacker on the touchline, the attacker can sprint forward and force the defender to sprint with him, then the attacker can quickly cut the ball back so that the defender keeps going for a few steps, while the attacker rapidly takes the ball around the back of the defender. This same option can be used in a variety of ways. For instance, the attacker can start this same move, fake a cutback, then keep accelerating down the same path when the defender starts to reverse direction. Once around the defender, the attacker immediately cuts onto the defender’s path towards goal in order to force the defender to have to loop around to try to win the ball back.

An option which is useful in the middle of the field when a defender is closing from the side is to slow the run so that the defender adjusts his angle of approach (point of intersection), then accelerate when it is too late from him to recalculate and readjust. While this may be a bit sophisticated for very young players, it is easily within the grasp of players who are 9 and above.

To “take-on” a defender, an attacker wants to aim his attack almost straight at the first defender who is between him and the goal. Why? By coming directly at the defender, the attacker forces the defender to commit to him and, once committed, the defender automatically must start falling back as the attacker approaches. By causing the defender to fall back, this brings the attacker closer to the opposing goal (which is his objective). Nonetheless, the attacker knows that, at some point, the defender will stop falling back and will be forced to try to steal the ball, because the defender otherwise will end up dropping into the goal itself (and even off the field) which will make it easy to score.

So, the attacker wants to keep a close eye on the defender and try to keep him distracted by making some little foot-fakes (basically, small waves of the foot around the ball to pretend that he is thinking of spurting in one direction or the other), in order to worry the defender enough to focus his attention - but also make him scared to dive in to try to win the ball. The attacker wants to pick the time when he will try to beat the defender so that he can be in control of what is going to happen.

When the attacker is getting ready to take-on the defender, the attacker will want to bring the ball under close control and start to take smaller mincing steps (almost like he is prancing). The attacker will then use a fake or cut (or a series of these) to try to get the defender to make lunge towards the ball. As the defender lunges in the direction of the fake, he is said to “bite” on the move - and the act of lunging is called “diving in”. By diving in, the defender will have shifted all of his weight to one leg (usually the front foot). This momentarily renders the defender powerless to use the leg on which he has put all of his weight. This is called having gone “dead-leg” on this leg - which means that he cannot lift this leg or use it until he shifts his body weight back to the other leg.

When the defender has cooperated by going dead-leg, it is usually a simple matter for the attacker to use this mistake to go around the defender. However, a defender obviously will not leave this “window” open for long - so it is very important that the player learn to explode through this window. Some young children grasp the idea more readily if you explain to them that, when the opportunity comes, you want them to EXPLODE (or jump) through the window just like they had a bunch of robbers chasing them. Once they have gotten through the window, they must then learn to SLAM THE DOOR on the defender by cutting back into his path to make it harder for the defender to catch up.

For beginning attackers, the most critical skills are to get their heads up and watch the defender for mistakes - then to try to explode around the defender when he dives. However, as the players become familiar with the basics of these techniques (and become more skilled in using the ball), they will need instruction in how to use dead-leg opportunities to their maximum advantage.

In the most common type of dead leg situation, the attacker dives forward from a sideways-on stance, so that his momentum is coming forward. In this situation, the player is completely “dead” on the front foot - and essentially is dead on the back foot, so the attacker has the lovely choice of going by him on the inside or outside of his lunging leg. If the attacker can go around the outside of this leg (bringing him around the defender’s back), this is almost always the better option because it is much more awkward for the defender to turn outside than inside (so it takes longer to make this turn). Nonetheless, especially with new attackers who lack much skill in feinting and who take a long time to change direction themselves, it may be more workable to fake to one side and then immediately cut to the opposite side when the defender bites - and introduce this concept at a later date.

Another common dead-leg situation arises when the defender has lunged to the side (stabbed at the ball or “dived”) in response to a fake. At the moment of this dive, the defender is also “dead” on both legs. Once again, because of the awkwardness of the turn, the outside option is better - but the inside option works too.

Dead-leg situations also arise when a defender is backpedaling rapidly. When the defender is running backwards , he has to move his weight from leg to leg - and his backward momentum can be used against him. Normally, the best time to take advantage of this situation is when the defender is just reaching back to put his weight on the inside leg (so that he has no choice with his momentum but to land on this leg). At this moment, if the attacker cuts and explodes sharply to the inside, the same dead-leg advantage will arise as if the attacker had gotten the defender to dive at the ball. These same principles also apply in deciding when to cut back behind a defender who is running alongside the attacker (i.e., the cutback should be timed for when the defender is reaching forward with the inside foot, as his momentum will require him to continue forward and put his weight on that foot, allowing the defender to cut over his back and head to goal - and forcing the defender to do an awkward turn to try to get back around to follow).

Obviously, the coach will not introduce all of these concepts at once. However, the coach needs to be aware of these various options, as well as the underlying theory, so that he can gradually find ways to introduce these concepts and allow the players to experiment to see “if this stuff works”. Children often learn best when given some exploratory time to verify that something really does work or really is true. Thus, the lesson may sink in better if they are given the chance to try these ideas out and do some quick scientific experimentation to see if coach knows anything.

[source:  Soccer-Coach-L manual.  Updated 12 March 1999. 
Read these legal and copyright notices before using any Soccer-Coach-L material…]

<< Back to main page