U9 boys possession soccer in Colorado

[Tolya RubtsovParticipant]

Hi,

If you have time please check out videos I made about my two U9 teams trying to play possession soccer. Any feedback is very appreciated!
I have two U9 teams that are separated base on skills and understanding of the game abilities (not by size – the top team is a bunch of midgets ;).
We have been learning possession soccer for about a year.

Top U9 team Storm Secelct 06 Xavi (plays year up in U10 Gold 1 division):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCwMlRxB_m0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNs2S3q0JfE

Second U9 team Storm Select 06 Iniesta (plays their own age group U9 Gold):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q-29c1uy18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDktTi5A6DQ

Thanks,
Tolya

• This topic was modified 9 years, 10 months ago by  Tolya Rubtsov.
• This topic was modified 9 years, 10 months ago by  Tolya Rubtsov.

[Scott NelsonParticipant]

Winning + Possession soccer.  Nice when you can have both early!

 

[Tolya RubtsovParticipant]

Well, we are focused on possession soccer and right now it mainly means DEVELOPMENT, not necessarily winning. Xavi team in U10 division wins little bit less than 50% of the time. Iniesta in U9 division wins about 75%. The only absolute winning record has Xavi in Colorado Cup (U9 division). But it is more important for me that even in the games we lose we play better soccer (in most cases by far) and the result will come – need just keep working on precision and speed of play.

[DanaParticipant]

I really enjoyed watching those. Smart of you to coach two U9 teans so that you can combine them later :). How much of the 3four3 curriculum do you use?

[Scott NelsonParticipant]

Tolya,

If you are losing league games in order to win State Cup games, I would say that counts as winning to me… you are doing it “when it counts” against the best of your peers.  100% agree about development coming first, but it’s a lot easier to keep players, parents, and stakeholders behind you when there are are some “W’s” too, especially at the ages where size + speed are still seen as the “winning formula” by most coaches.  Do your kids get roughed up in any of those U10 games?

[Tolya RubtsovParticipant]

Dana, since they are U9 and unlike Mexican kids in CA  they have very little time/will to work on their own, I spend one practice a week for tactical work and two practices for technical work. Twice a week both teams practice together and these are technical days, once a week when I have only one team per session I mainly focus on tactical work and this includes 3four3 curriculum and some other good, possession based activities (some from Jed Davies book and some others). So 3four3 is ultimate guide for me in terms of possession soccer but I only spend about 30% of my time on it.

Scott, I think we were quite lucky and my kids did not get too much roughed, but from time to time of course this happens. I always tell my kids that timing is everything and with the right timing they do not have to deal with tackles – I think they got this when played against the best U10 team and they were on our ass all the time. We lost 0:7 but this was one of the the best game we played.

[Aman GrewalParticipant]

Tolya

That’s great to see. I’m impressed by how your team are looking for passes as a first preference. With that age group we found it difficult to coax them out of attempting to dribble past everyone on the pitch.

I’d be interested to know how you are dealing with the more physical U10 teams and those that apply high pressure (there was some of that in the U9 final in your video). When you lost 0-7 to the best U10 team, what did that look like? Were you losing the ball playing out of the back, or did you get countered fast when you were in the opposing half?

Are you working on some tactical pattern play to deal with these cases (e.g. goal kicks straight to wide mid/ striker who lays the ball off?)

We are a really small U12 team and are coming up against much bigger, stronger sides. We tend to dominate play for about 20 minutes – before the opposition get wise and press us aggressively high up the pitch.

Aman

 

[Tolya RubtsovParticipant]

Aman,

Best U10 team provided too much pressure for my boys and we were not flexible enough tactically to play long balls so we kept trying to play out of the back and got pinned against our own goals. The other team did not do much – just a lot of pressure and then capitalized on our mistakes on our own half. In Xavi U10 video there are couple fragments when we were able to play out of their pressure (I think they are the only team in this video in red uniform).

In fact after that game I went back to 3four3 blog and red again their report on games against Spain Barcelona in MIC cup. I remembered that that game did not look like possession game from both sides but was an extremely high speed and intensity game. When I red about 3four3 team preparation to this game (and/or to the game against Ajax) where they stated that they had to sacrifice playing out of the back for the result since the pressure was too high, I decided that we need to be more flexible in this and last month we worked a lot on this. So yes, I use patterns just like you said – goalkicks etc. In fact a goal in U9 final  (header) started exactly how you just described: GK long kickto the halfline (not in the middle), my player won it, played back and then we started a wing pattern with the cross.

Thanks,

Tolya

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