Soccer Drills

Wide World Soccer Drill #1

Here is a great passing, defending and communicating activity that can be done with almost any numbers but works best with 8 players (or multiples of 8).

It's a 4 v 4 game with 4 goals. The field is 40 yards wide and 35 yards long and the four goals are 8 yards wide (they can be made up using cones) See diagram below for the field set up.

To score, a player must dribble to the goal line and stop the ball dead on the line. If it goes over the line it's a loss of possession. If a team scores a goal. they keep the ball and can then score on any of the goals EXCEPT the one they just scored in. If they lose possession of the ball, the other team can score in any of the 4 goals.

Both offensively and defensively there will have to be a lot of communicating to figure out what goal a team can and can't go to and also to figure out the proper shape and balance for their team. This game could be played 3 v 3 or 5 v 5 if that is what the numbers call for but 4 v 4 is ideal (if you have 16 players at a training session play 2 games of 4 v 4.

This game should be played for relatively short periods of time at full speed rather than for a long period of time (maybe 5 minute games then a break for water and coaching points and then another game etc).

Give this a try and I believe you will find your team can work on a great deal of aspects of the game while also working on fitness.

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