No. 10--Soccer: Columbia vs. Brazil and The Importance of a Good Defense

by Soccer Coach Albert M. Luongo

Columbia vs. Brazil
This was match number one of the South American Qualifiers played on Qctober 14, 2007--for the 2010 World Cup Qualifying Match: At times this scoreless game was exciting to watch. Yet at other times it was a sleepy passing game in each team’s defensive part of the field. At times, there was no opposition by attacking players as each team slowly passed the ball around. This passing game was almost like slow motion as sometimes can be seen in South American soccer. However, at other times, it was clearly top division type of play and enjoyable.

Why was this a zero to zero game? The answer lies in the fact that both defenses made few errors. This tight defending required most shots taken on goal to be from long distances. So for the most part, the game was held at the midfield, but with great passes and control there. This was especially true for Columbia as they dominated the passing game most of the time. Similarly, young players should emulate passing and control this way. And, coaches should get their players to accurately pass, trap and shield, and control the ball. In addition coaches desiring more wins, should learn to recognize and promote proper defense, not just offense.

Young players should realize that ball control begins by trapping long or hard passes such as was seen in this game. To develop this skill, kicking the soccer ball back and forth should always be with long hard kicks and nearly dead-stop traps--no other way. This should take place both at practices or when just playing around with a soccer ball. Note: It is commonly practiced to just deflect a soccer ball at a slow to medium pace back to the kicker without settling it. As such, little in the way of skills can be learned or developed from this practically fruitless exercise. The dribbling displayed in this game illustrated what can be obtained with lots of dribbling practice. With my teams, as coach, I would assign prescribed dribbling drills to be practiced by the players in-between practices. These drills improve balance, speed and accuracy for this skill. Then at the following practice, players were required to demonstrate the assigned home-drill dribbling. I would then access each player’s skill. Players that performed the assigned home drills always faired better than those that did little homework and, the dribbling also showed up in games.

As for coaches, they should endeavor to learn to recognize what a strong defense can do to prevent goals. Preventing goals from being scored against one’s team naturally means that it only takes one goal to win. Some coaches never seem to understand this as they endeavor to always push forward and seem to disregard the team’s defense training.

Also to be recognized is the importance of ball possession. Short passes, starting with the goalkeeper, maintain possession longer. They are far more important than gaining distance by long indiscriminate kicks, head flicks and headers up field. Often this type of play brings the ball immediately back into “dangerous” territory where the defensive team must once again be on defense.

All of the above information is the author's opinion. This article in no way is meant to degrade, discredit or defame any team or person. Its sole purpose is to improve the skills of young soccer players, coaches and the game itself.