No. 2--A Discussion On Shielding--UCON vs. Rutgers Women’s Soccer

This article is about controlling the ball on the field: Trapping and shielding. On Saturday, October 6, 2007 I caught the game on TV between UCON and Rutgers. It was women soccer and a good spectator game to watch. It ended up with a zero to zero score and even went into overtime for two ten-minute periods. What I particularly noticed was that it was a controlled passing short-ball game most of the time. There were very few fouls and the ball was kept in play most of the time. Because of all this, I would say that it was a good spectator’s game because these factors allow the game to play on continuously. What was enjoyable to me was to see the UCON players shielding the ball, especially just after the trap was made. This is a move that I have always strongly endorsed while coaching the field players.

Shielding goes like this: With an opposing player near the “trapper” at the time of the trap, it is ordinarily difficult to trap and maintain possession of the ball. However, just after receiving the ball (keeping it near the feet), the trapper maintains control by rotating his or her body to protect the ball—this is necessary if there is an opposing player applying pressure. This means that the ball, the shielding player and opponent are almost always kept in a sort of straight line--in that order. Thus giving protection to the ball. The shielding-player generally places his or her back (and arched leaning backward) towards the opponent--keeping that opponent safely away from the ball. The trapper, now the “shielder”, maintains his or her body between the ball and the opposing-player. As the opposing player moves around to get at the ball at the “shielder’s” right, this shielder rotates the body and dribbles the ball counter-clockwise--always using the body as a shield. If the opponent goes to the left side of the shielder, the body and ball are rotated clockwise.

When shielding is performed against one player it is nearly impossible to steal the ball. It can even be done against two opposing players, but naturally not quite as effective. I love to demonstrate this set of moves to young players. This practice can also be used to safely make a rotating 180-degree turn. Suppose a player receives the ball from his or her own goalkeeper while facing this player. Further suppose that there is an opponent at his or her back. In order to turn 180 degrees to go up field, it is a matter of shielding and rotating mostly in the same direction and in an arc. Thus keeping the opponent mostly at the right or left side and away from the ball.

Why is shielding not used very often in North American matches? I cannot answer that, but it is used by top international players such as can be seen with top Brazilian soccer. Too often, I observe a player (dribbling the ball) trying to get by an opponent while placing the ball between the two of them. Sometimes it works, yet sometimes it does not. So it is risky. Note: The shielding practice described above is used extensively in basketball, but I doubt that it is ever called shielding. It is an identical tactic however.

Shielding is one tactic used for ball control. Generally, when a team has control of the ball most of the game, it is the winner. This control style of play (ball control) is definitely advantageous and puts teams that employ this method of play at the top of their leagues.

Now back to the women’s match. Here are my opinions about the game. The game was dominated by UCON with many controlled ground passes, close trapping and shielding. This control gave them several more chances of scoring than Rutgers while moving the ball up field; moreover, Rutgers made a few good attempts at scoring themselves. Even though UCON had more attempts at this, Rutger’s defense was solid and thus difficult to penetrate. I might add that proper defense, from my own experience, is a superior tactic for winning championships, but it is often underrated. It will be the subject of another article.

I think that UCON could have won due to its domination on the field. It also had a good defense even though it was tested less than the defense of Rutgers. During overtime, UCON lost this edge, as their play became sloppy by attempting to play long-ball soccer. Clearly this was not the type of soccer that they used in the regular playtime. Had they not tried to force a goal during the overtime periods by making long kicks and flicks downfield, they might have maintained their domination over their opponents by working the ball up field with control ball soccer: The type play used during regular playtime. As it turned out (in my opinion), both teams in overtime were anxious to force a goal and threw caution to the wind. The result was that neither team had the ball under control most of the time and the result was a scoreless game. The lesson here is that a team should continue to play the controlled style of play that they are trained to do so and not deviate from it when the pressure is high.