Tough D

It will be an interesting day to play soccer. I'm thinking that I did learn one thing last week; aggression is necessary. Admittedly, my preferred style of play is set in the box and let the ball come to me. However, I began thinking about all I have said about field position. I realized that it's not only the goalie who should worry about field position. Typically as the center defender, I also need to stop the ball as early as possible to keep the ball away from our goal. Again, as I have said several times, power soccer is a game of field position. If the ball is on the other half of the court, there is no way the other team will score. Okay, I guess it might be possible if you have some insane spin kick like Michael Archer, but I do not know if even he could make a full-court shot through the defense. Therefore, I need to remember to be aggressive tonight, and not aggressive like full contact, flipping people over aggressive but rather aggressive in terms of playing the ball and dumping it back towards the other end. Again, remind me tonight if I forget.

Points to Recall

Tomorrow night I have power soccer. Therefore, let me review for the world what I need to remember.
• Play defense facing forward. Of course, the easiest way to surrender a goal is to bump it into your own goal. Facing forward to help eliminate the odds of taking an unintended shot on your own goalie.
• Remember the weak side. It seems that more often than not goals are scored on the weak side. Due to the fact that there can only be one defender in the box with their goaltender, that defendant will most likely be on ball side with goaltender. The offense can set that weak side player right on the post. Half of the goal will be wide open if a strong cross can be made.
• Play the ball to the outside on defense. Granted, many goals are scored from free kicks or corner kicks from the sideline. However, with the ball bouncing around in the middle, the risk is even greater. Also, since there is only one defender in the box, one of his or her teammates will probably be on the outside to pass to.

I hope you enjoyed the three points that I intend to work on and remember tomorrow night. If I forget them, let me know very loudly so I can do better next time. As always, iron sharpens iron.

Weak Side!

It was a great night at power soccer practice. I think that we are definitely coming together even though we slightly mixed up the typical teams just so that we do not get accustomed to just playing with two players. It was good to see that we are still able to gel even though we haven't played with certain players for a while. That is a vital part of making the team. We need to be able to be familiar enough with who is on the floor to know their strengths and weaknesses and how to support them best. That was what I was most impressed by last night. It seems that we are all learning how to adapt to each other, and I hope that continues. Also, I noticed that the weak side was much more active last night which is also extremely important. When the weak side is active, there will be many more opportunities for goals. In fact, I think that two of our goals were weak side and one of the other teams. More than half of the goals were weak side; obviously it is very important. Nevertheless, great practice last night, and get ready for next week.

Triangle Game

I was watching power soccer footage today, and after thinking last night that offense and defense are essentially the same and interchangeable, it made me think about how a lot of power soccer is played in a triangle formation. In the picture above, you can see a relatively generic play that seems to be very common. Essentially, the offense is in a triangle with one player on each post and one at the top of the box. I noticed this type of pattern particularly with the Atlanta Synergy although it does seem to be the basic set for almost every team. The defense I portrayed in the image above is not necessarily always true because occasionally those wing players end up dropping lower if the offensive wing players are out wider than the box. However, I think that it is evident that the basic shape is a triangle on defense as well. As I was mentioning yesterday, the pattern is the same and the strategy is similar. Whoever is at center is trying to get the ball to the wing players. On offense, this will set up the assist on the goal and on defense this past will begin a fast-break hopefully. Of course, transitional defense looks a lot different than this, but this appears to be what happens when the ball is on top of the box and the one defender is settled in the box. I won't even get into transitional defense, but I thought that it was interesting how triangles occur very often when I am watching game footage.

Face Forward

I have realized one of the most important aspects of power soccer that we're all guilty of breaking. Power soccer is a game that is played facing forward. What do I mean by this? Essentially, every role needs to remember about facing forward. If I am playing on the weak side wing, I need to be facing forward to be able to continue pressuring a cleared ball forward. Of course, I have watched enough footage to notice that certain players like Case Calvert actually back down the floor on a fast-break so that he can unleash a spin kick, but for those of us who can't pull that out yet, forward is definitely the way to go. Similarly, if I get beat by the offensive player, I need to get out of the way rather than try to turn and chase back towards my own goal. The reason for this is that if my momentum is going back towards my own goal, any play on the ball that I may make would only push the ball closer to my own goal. I believe and I know others do too that power soccer is a game of field position. If my team is able to keep the ball on the other half of the court, we will not give up any goals. It seems incredibly simple, but if they can't take a shot, they can't score a goal. Anyway, back to my main point, if I get beat, I need to get out of that area so that one of my teammates can pick up the attacker facing forward. So, I need to remember this, but it is always a good reminder for everyone to face forward!

Game Two

Well, today certainly put our soccer team in perspective. To put it mildly, let's just say that our power soccer team is not undefeated anymore. However, I must say that today was an amazing learning opportunity for all of us. CNY United of Syracuse, New York came up to meet us at the University of Vermont which we were thrilled about in and of itself. You know, for about 5 seconds we actually controlled the flow of the game. Then, I turned it over and it was all downhill from there. The final score was 9-1, but I think that they were being nice because they were much more experienced and particularly played with much better teamwork. It might have been a long afternoon for our goalkeepers, but luckily Jerome "Pika" Durand of the Atlanta Synergy came along with Jerry Frick to teach us. However, he did more than just teach us something, he got out there and joined our team. With Pika anchoring our defense, we only lost 2-0. However, the best game was the last one. We divided the teams in half and blended together. That game ended with a score of 1-0. I must say, it was a bit intimidating playing a Division I opponent led by US national team member Peyton Sefick, but at least I learned so much about how I need to improve both in both equipment and ability. But at least now I know where I could be going with hard work and practice. I want to thank everyone who came out to support us today! It makes it a lot more fun when you have friends behind you.

Good Shots Needed

I was thinking about Japan as they lost earlier today. They had very few good opportunities whereas Paraguay was consistently putting pressure on goal. However, despite all the pressure that they were putting on goal, they had just as much success as Japan did. It is one thing to have opportunities, but it is another to convert. I know this from my own power soccer experience as well. When we played in New Hampshire last month, I did score a number of goals. However, I also sent several shots wide. Ideally, every shot should be a shot on goal. To improve on that, every shot on goal should be to an area away from the goalie. Of course, this is incredibly idealistic because we take shots we shouldn't take. The idea is to get quality shots, not just a high number of shots.

This is my challenge then to myself, my power soccer teammates, or any athlete in general. If you have a great shot that will very likely go in, by all means take it. However, if the shot is doubtful or a teammate has a better shot, don't be afraid of the pass. Nobody would criticize you for tallying an assist as opposed to a goal.

Photo by Miguel Vera on Flickr

Adaptation

Simply because power soccer is played on the basketball court, I am beginning to see many similarities to the game of basketball. Something that I recognized from our first match was the importance of the back cut. On the first few corner kicks, we were allowed the inbound virtually uncontested. However, as shown in the diagram above, eventually we were covered relatively heavily. This coverage is obviously a problem because there's no direct path to any offensive player. Once the back cut is employed, player number two will be wide open in that gap who then has options to either take a shot or hit player three who would be on the weak side hopefully wide open because the goalie should be on the side of the corner kick.

We did not design a play that involved back cutting. However, we adapted when the need arose because we had to. It's pointless to try to run a play that's going to hit the ball right to the other team, so Scott would pass to the open spot and Linda or I would get there often through the means of the back cut. While it didn't necessarily occur to me at the time, I now realize that even though we were just trying to get the ball in the open space, we were doing it via back cuts. There are so many more advantages to back cutting that I could tell you through the lens of many of the coaches whose books make up a large part of my personal collection, but I will leave it at this.

The above photo was made using Basketball Playbook Version 10. I previously have reviewed it on my blog, and it is free at http://www.jes-soft.com/playbook/. Read my review for what to do when the free trial runs out!

Excited!

Again, today's blog is probably a no-brainer. In about an hour and a half, I will be entering my giant tan van to head southeast toward Durham, New Hampshire for my first official power soccer game as a member of the Vermont Chargers. I think that this will be a good experience for all of us since it is much different to play during practice than in a game. I know from watching many basketball practices over the years that the intensity is not always there like it is in a game. So, hopefully we will be able to get right into the right mindset to play aggressively as well as cleanly. By clean, I mean fair of course, but I have never doubted our team's ability in this area. The clean that we need to work on is turnover free soccer. With only three players on the court, everyone is pretty much used to attack when you are in possession of the ball. Therefore, any turnover means a fast-break on the goalie one-on-one or maybe even two on one. Of course, as they are in basketball, fast breaks are almost always goals.

On the defensive side, we need to play tough one-on-one defense since you are not allowed to double-team. The only way to make sure that you do not give up a goal is to shut down whoever happens to be in your zone or who you assigned to in man-to-man. However, to use the basketball analogy again, there needs to be help defense if someone gets beat. However, if I'm focusing on my man or woman, how will I know if one of my teammates gets beat? The answer is communication. We need to talk and make sure that we are willing to help each other. I just need to pay attention because I might get so into the game that I might not pay attention.

With these ideas in mind, wish us luck, and I'll update you all tomorrow on how we do!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jemsweb/ / CC BY-SA 2.0