Building Out From the Back 2009 Boys

Our focus this week is building out from the back.

We’ve covered this many times and in many ways and we’re now ready for a new phase. When a team sits back and decides not to press us, we dominate possession and have an easier time moving the ball up the field.

When an aggressive team is pressing hard, we have a difficult time passing and dribbling the ball up the field. This is due to condensed space and time. We panic, have a sloppy pass or trap, and the ball turns over.

One way to get comfortable with pressure is to play in smaller spaces. We do this a lot and will continue to get more confident when teams press us.

A second way to remedy this is to consistently have multiple options to pass to when under pressure. Positioning is key here.

There are seven spaces on the field vertically that I want us to begin to recognize:

Each space extends the entire field. We should not have more than two players in a given vertical space while in possession of the ball, excluding the goalie. This gives us options all over the field and will help make us more comfortable on the ball.

Here’s what our default positioning looks like with the 7 areas layered over it (1-2-3-2-3 formation):

Our goal kick setup looks like this:

The blue dotted lines represent movements of the players. The solid blue lines are passes.

2 and 3 “lose their men” checking back down the sidelines to be options for 4 and 5. 6 is also an option in the middle, while 8 or 10 checks back depending on what side the ball goes to:

The ball is passed to 5.

Here’s what this looks like when we layer over our 7 vertical spaces:

When our teammate rotates into our vertical space, we can rotate into theirs, and all it may take is running or jogging into a half space a few yards to our left. This opens up an angled pass forward, backward, or to the side:

From here we have many options. Triangles and diamonds all over the field.

This type of movement requires a lot of scanning. It builds intelligence and tactical awareness and will take some time to get used to. The boys have been building up to this for a while now.

Expect the field to look a little different on Tuesday with these lines.