Homework – Ballistic vs San Diego Videos

[Bret AndersonParticipant]

I thought I would focus my initial homework submission on a comparison of play between the game against Ballistic (U12s vs Ballistic United (Surf Cup 2012)  and the game against San Diego(U12 Possession Soccer Development vs San Diego SC).  What interested me in these two games was how play unfolded under different styles of defense.  Ballistic chose not pressure the back five in favor of keeping their team behind the ball to close down runs.  In contrast San Diego chose to press aggressively everywhere.

The constant in the two games was establishing play out of the back.  The game against Ballistic gave many opportunities to see textbook examples of how this is done.  The first 45 seconds of this video shows the back five dropping back into their basis shape, moving in unison and receiving the ball across their body.  They have plenty of time and space to execute.  In contrast there is little time and space in the San Diego game.  My favorite sequence starts at the 2:30 mark where we see the goal kick choreography in action.  The goalie plays the ball out to the left center back who comes under immediate pressure.  The center back plays the ball out to the left back who receives across his body and quickly plays forward to the attacking left mid who one touches the ball back to the holding mid.  The holding mid switches the play through the center back to the right back who has time and space to play foreword.  This impressive sequence really highlighted for me why constant repetition of this pattern is needed in order to enable success in a high pressure environment.

While the approach to playing out of the back was similar in the two games transitioning through the midfield into the final third was quite different.  In the Ballistic game the tactic appears to have been to play long balls to the right forward to create a 1v1 situations near the box.  In the video I counted seven sequences in which a long ball was played out of the back to a forward.  I only counted three sequences in which some form of combination play / attacking pattern were used.  In contrast there was more combination play in the San Diego game.  The attacks often featured one touch passing to help break out of the pressure. The San Diego game also provided a number of opportunities to highlight the importance of set plays.  At the 1:35 mark the right backs executes a quick throw in down the line and over the defense which gives the forward an opportunity to get into the box.  At the 4:50 mark a free kick is quickly played back to the holding mid in space.  He plays it forward to the attacking mid who takes a shot from 30 yards out that ricochets off of the cross bar.  In both of these cases quick execution of the set play allowed the team to get into scoring position.

To sum up, the constant I saw in the two games was using the back five to play out of the back.  This foundation allowed the team to then take different approaches to transitioning to the final third based on how the other team was playing and what options were available.  That’s my take on the two videos.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

• This topic was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by  Bret Anderson.

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