You really can't scout our team.

"You can't really scout our team

 

because everyone's getting shots."

 

~ Rajon Rondo ~

Boston Celtics Point Guard

 

 

This is the philosophy behind our system of play, our offense or attack.  I firmly believe in spreading the scoring around as much as possible. Last spring 17 of 18 players scored goals as did 5 guest players.  Make no mistake, it's great to have a prolific goal scorer... and we have one or two of those on our team. It;s just if we become reliant on those players scoring all our goals for us we become predictable and they become more easily defended.  The way we play, opponents just never know who is going to score... or from what position the scoring will come.  This unpredictability is the key to our attacking success. This has been confirmed by opposing coaches.

 

"We scouted you and thought we were prepared. You had the same players in the same positions, but the attack was completely different. Different people taking shots. Different people scoring.  It made our scouting report worthless."

 

The sentiments expressed above were shared with me by more than one coach.  Music to my ears!  Sometimes I think the game of soccer becomes stale. Some teams so narrowly define roles for the positions / players that their play becomes predictable to an extent the game is stodgy. Is it any wonder why we lament the lack of creativity in the American game? 

 

Maybe it's my basketball roots, but on our team everyone plays both sides of the ball.  That is, everyone defends and everyone attacks - including shooting and scoring!

Go to Goal!

Play the ball in behind the opponents backs and watch your teammate run onto it and go to goal!

This is direct play at its most extreme and often its worst.

Lionel Messi is considered one of if not the top player in today's game.  He's a terrific "dribbler."  That is, he runs with the ball extremely well.  This ability to run with the ball can pressure defenses to the breaking point. When Messi is on the run with the ball everyone rises to their feet in anticipation of something great about to happen.

A great ball carrier who can break down the defense is an extremely valuable commodity to have on your team, but only if he knows how to use his ability for the greater good.

At my last stop as a high school head coach I had a young lady who was a state qualifier in track and could run as fast with the ball as she did without the ball. She was stunningly gifted in this regard.  Unfortunately she never did learn to use her gift to the full benefit of her team. Kelly was content to break behind the defenders and go to goal. Taking a shot was the only thing on her mind. I have never witnessed more blown break-away opportunities than I did during her career.

Why?

The reason is found in how Messi plays. 

Messi carries the ball with the intent to engage defenders.  It's great if the only defender he must engage is the opponents goalkeeper, but more often than not it will be an opposing field player that must be engaged before a shot on goal opportunity arises.  Messi knows when to pass.  More precisely, Messi uses his run with the ball to set up the pass. He pulls players out of position to create numbers up situations with teammates and then utilizes a cross or combination passing to generate the shot on goal opportunity either for himself or a teammate.

There is a player on one of my son's teams who is good at getting played in behind the defenders.  Jonathon has had several opportunities running with the ball at goal.  Many of these occur with his path being from the corner, corner, post wedge.  In a sense, by going to goal,  Jonathon is engaging defenders and drawing them to him.  Invariably he ends these sequences with taking a shot from a nearly impossible angle... while one or more teammates are open in front of the face of the goal. I would like to see Jonathon more fully explore all options available to him. This will necessitate a change from being a ball watcher to being a game watcher. 

Kelly was never willing to make the transition from going to goal to intelligently and purposefully engaging opponents and incorporating teammates into attacking the goal. There's still time for Jonathon.  To develop game intelligence, one must become a game watcher.

And that is what makes Messi so great, his game intelligence.  When he carries the ball, Messi sees multiple options and chooses the one that best benefits his team more often than not.  There is an understanding of engaging defenders to set them up to be defeated with the help of one or more teammates.  Messi sees the broader game instead of just himself, the ball and the goal.  When Messi goes to goal he purposefully takes a mate or two long with the intent to increase the chances someone will score the ball!

Analyzing Team Play. What and Why.

If you go to any Internet soccer forum or message board you will find a frequent topic of discussion is the lack of proficiency in scoring goals. This is one of the areas I am most often asked to address in the team camps I conduct. There seems to a general consensus in thought that a magical drill or practice exercise exists that can improve a teams ability to score goals. Of course, this just isn't true.  In fact, the reasons a team struggles to score can often times be a lot more complicated than one might suspect. Before coming up with appropriate exercises to address a teams struggles to score I have to figure out why they are struggling to score.

A friend contacted me after the 2012 high school season lamenting his team generated 22 shots on goal for the entire season. On the other hand, they had converted on 21 of those chances!

For our purposes here we will use the official FIFA definition for shots on goal:  A shot on goal sees the struck ball travel within the frame of the goal and results either in a goal being scored or a save being made.  So, if the shot strikes post or bar and bounces out, this is not considered a shot on goal. And, of course, any shot high or wide of the goal is not considered a shot on goal.

The  coach referenced above is a former college goalkeeper and knows the correct definition of a shot on goal. So I was really curious as to how a team could convert on 21 of 22 chances. That is one of the most confounding statistics I have ever heard of. No wonder he was interested in getting his team to take more shots on goal!

The question I had to answer was, why only 22 shots on goal over the course of 17 games?

The first hint I got was the coach telling me his team refused to shoot from distance. They insisted on being at nearly point blank range before attempting a shot.  Aha! That explains the tremendous conversion rate. It also provided a vital clue in terms of questioning why they only took 22 shots on goal. My suspicion was a lack of striking skill and this was confirmed during my first session with the team. They didn't take more shots or shots from greater range because they could not execute the required skill to do so. Now, I knew where to begin addressing the issue of generating more shots.

Attacking Play

 

Gain Possession

 

Maintain Possession

 

Utilize Possession

 

Strike on Goal!

Shot on goal

The official definition;

A shot on goal is a shot that is on net.  The results of a shot on goal must be either a save by the goalkeeper or defending team or a goal scored by the attacking team. A shot that hits the post or the crossbar without being deflected by a goalkeeper or defender and that does not cross the goal line is not a shot on goal.