Kickoff, solo style…

In 3v3 soccer, the ball doesn't have to go forward first, so our normal kickoff is to pass it directly to the back player. Then again, I love to mix it up. Most teams know we pass, but I also have good dribblers so what I like to do is pick the player with the best moves [I'll post 1v1 moves later] and simply give that player the ball at midline. The player will then beat his opponent, go to the goal and either dribble past the last player or if the back player is out of position, simply shoot. I can't tell you how many times we've scored in the first 10 seconds of a game, even at Nationals, because the other team just isn't ready or doesn't expect such selfish play.

The first time we used this play was when we got a new player. We were struggling and our opponents had just tied the game with less than a half to play. Our opponents knew who we were so their players and parents were overly excited to actually be tied with us; but it only lasted 10 seconds because our new player told my regular player to just give him the ball. He was good at juking so he dribbled through everyone and scored. It rattled the other team and the rest of the game was a blow out. After that, I added it to our playbook.

If your best dribbler isn't on the field after your opponent scores, you can always sub the player in just to run the one play, then sub right out again.

[This incident reminded me of Lawrence Taylor when he first started playing under Bill Parcells, a new head coach for the New York Giants. LT couldn’t remember the defensive play so he simply rushed the quarterback and sacked him. A little bit later, he got confused again so he rushed the quarterback and sacked him again. When LT came to the sideline, Bill Parcells confronted him, asking him what he was doing since none of that was in the playbook. LT responded, “Maybe you should add it.”]