1v1 Defensive Tips

I’ve noticed that most of my posts have been offense oriented. Of course, 3v3 Soccer is a skills game that is fast paced and high scoring. When great teams play, it's rare to see scores like 5-0. They are usually 7-5, so teams shouldn't get down if they allow a score. Teams need to learn how to score, and score often; however, here are some defensive tips to help your players in 1v1 encounters.

1) Contain. (i.e. don’t stab)

Most defenders rush in. Against a good dribbler, defenders get beat quickly. While it is okay to rush over to get into position, the defender should slow just before he or she reaches the dribbler.

2) Wait for Separation

Once in position to challenge, the defender should wait until the dribbler has pushed the ball away from his or her body, e.g. the dribbler is no longer touching the ball. That is when the defender should attack.

So, if the defender is touching the ball, CONTAIN and WAIT FOR SEPARATION. Once the ball has separated from the defender, ATTACK!

In 3v3 soccer, if your opponents have a fast break against your back player, he or she should time their attack to coincide with separation and never run backwards. In one Nationals, we took a guest player (which I don’t recommend as mistakes will be made by the new player), but this player was really skilled, although on his other team, he played the back position by always standing in front of his goal. We made it to the finals, and ended up losing 6-4. [Incidentally, the team we lost to, took some of our plays from the previous year, which didn’t bother me except for the fact that they were running our plays better than us!] Two of their goals were directly attributed to the new player’s mistakes. 1) He forgot to do the switch and kicked it to a marked player who wasn’t expecting the ball. The other team intercepted and made a long shot. 2) The other team got a lucky bounce and was able to have a 2v1 fast break on this new player who ran backwards and of course, the good team scored. The problem was that this 2v1 scenario would never have happened had he gone for the ball instead of running backwards and giving up ground. When the ball first bounced, it was going away from the other team and toward my defender who could have easily swooped in and taken the ball, i.e. cut to either side, and then passed the ball up and we would have been the team with the 2v1 scenario. But this player wasn’t accustomed to attacking since his usual team didn’t play pressure man. He was used to running backwards any time opponents attacked. When I tried to explain that, he got mad saying he couldn’t guard two players. He missed the point. If he had taken the ball when it was available to do so, he wouldn’t have needed to guard two players.

3) When balls are coming toward you, and there is separation, when you get to the ball, cut to either side. Refrain from kicking into the opponent’s legs as this can cause the ball to deflect behind you. (This is a common mistake for young players.)

4) Refrain from flinching or spinning away when the attacking player kicks the ball. (Another problem for young players.)

5) Come out from the goal. Players that back up into the goal actually make the goal larger, giving the attacking player more area to score. Pushing out reduces the size of this area.



6) For corner kick defending near the goal, your players should stand goal-side and shoulder to shoulder with their marks, pushing their shoulder against the opponent's shoulder thereby impeding them as the ball is kicked in.

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I’ve attached a video clip of Carles Puyol, known for his defensive prowess. My favorite clip is after his goalie is beaten and it’s just him protecting his goal. The forward hammers the ball, and instead of flinching, Puyol actually moves toward the ball...



Note: Don't forget you can turn your defense into a counterstriking offense if you have fast players and your opponents have pressed too far upfield. Once your team steals the ball, your player can send a backspinning ball toward the opponent's goal.

Advanced Defense - I-formation

The I-formation is a team defense that is somewhat complicated, but very effective against a triangle attack on your side of the field. Ordinarily, when a team attacks in a triangle formation and their back player is dribbling up with the ball, your team will also settle into a triangle formation. But as their back player dribbles up, your team realizes someone must challenge him or her, so when one of your forwards leaves their forward to challenge their back player, it leaves their forward wide open to receive a pass. I’ve watched players run ragged going between the back player and the forward.

Instead of having one player running between two players, I created the I-formation to more evenly distribute the workload and force the opponent into a bad pass or a long shot and take away the easier tap-ins and backdoor plays.

Setup: Your back player stands directly in front of the goal while the other two players stand one in front of the other, creating an I formation on the field.

Responsibilities: Your forward player at the front of the line is responsible for their back player, i.e. the back of their triangle. Your middle player is responsible for their two forwards, and your back player is responsible for staying between the ball and the goal.

Movement: The tricky part is the movement of your two forward players in a circular motion, i.e. BACK, SIDE, and FOLLOW. So, if their back player passes it up to their forward, to either side, your middle player rushes out to the SIDE to meet the player with the ball, while your front player drops BACK into the middle slot. If their forward passes the ball back to their back player, your SIDE player now FOLLOWS the ball back to their back player, while your middle player continues to lurk in the middle. When the back player passes it forward again, your player who dropped BACK into the middle slot goes to the SIDE to meet your opponent’s attack, while your front player, who had just previously FOLLOWED the ball to the front, now drops BACK into the middle slot. If their forward manages to pass the ball across to the other forward on the other side of the field, your middle player, who just BACKED into the middle position, will go out to the SIDE, while your player who was on the other SIDE will now FOLLOW the ball back to the middle slot. Are you getting the circular pattern? Basically, you never want a defender running backwards to chase after a ball. Instead, your team is always sending someone forward to meet an opponent who is receiving the ball. You continue running this until they make a mistake.

Hints: remind your players that when they challenge a player, not to allow the opponent to simply dribble around them. Instead, your defender is trying to force the pass. Also, this defense requires a lot of practice so your players know where to go. Most players want to attack, not drop back. And the back player must be willing to take punishment, i.e. stop balls with his body as teams will try to force shots in.



So if your opponents have the ball on their side of the field, use pressure man. If they get the ball on your side, go into the I-formation.

Common Offenses and Defenses...

In 3v3 soccer, I don’t prefer one style. Instead, I let my team play different styles, especially in practice where one team is the scout team, playing various styles, while the “other” team plays the style to beat it. Over the years, we have faced the following styles:

Bumble Bee Defense: This is sometimes called the bee hive where everyone chases the ball. You see this style played by young teams. Simple passing beats this style.

Hog Ball Offense: This is where whoever has the ball tries to score and they never pass even when teammates are open. Actually, this is the favorite of my scout team because they want to see if they can dribble through everyone and score. This style has trouble against the bumble bee defense but can work when you have a 1v1 situation and teammates are covered. Another defensive strategy against this style is the funneling defense.

Counterstrike Offense: When the defense steals the ball, a player sends it downfield, with backspin toward the goal. This is effective if the counterstriking team has fast players and the opponents have pressed too far upfield. Back players need to be fast to stop this.

Running One-Touch Scoring Offense: On kick-ins on the scoring side of the field, intead of controlling the ball, the offense runs toward the kicked-in ball and tries to one-touch the ball into the goal. To stop this, defenders need to meet the ball instead of waiting for it to reach the player.

Planted Player, Offense and Defense: This is when a team plants their back player in front of the goal and the player doesn’t come out to help offensively. The two forwards are sent ahead, 2v3 style, to try and score. While this offense rarely scores many goals, it does make it difficult for the opponents to score. If the opponents do score, then it’s hard to come back because the winning team can play possession ball. Backdoor plays and 1v1 can beat a planted player style. A variation of this style is when the back player is very good and fast. As soon as the ball is stopped by the back player, the back player goes into hog ball mode or passes it up to another player. If the other team has pushed up too far, they are susceptible to a counter strike or a cross the midline shot. If you play against this style, make sure your team does not force the ball with long shots. When your team does take a shot, make sure it’s at the corners of the goal and midriff level so a missed shot goes out and your opponent’s feet cannot stop the ball easily. You do not want to shoot directly at your opponent’s back player because that is what they want.

Front Line, Offense and Defense: This is when no one plays back but everyone stays up. When this style loses the ball, they are susceptible to counterstrikes or balls passed into space behind them.

Long Ball Offense: This is a 50/50 style where you always fight others for the ball. If you play good teams, it usually results in a turnover. However, if your team is super fast this can work really well, especially against younger teams. The drawback is that it tires out your players. One hint, that's worked for us when we've needed a last second goal, is to send a long ball that bounces in front of their deep players (because that type of ball can be hard to control) with your forwards ready to pounce on the rebound off their players, which almost always happens against young teams. Again, your forwards should not wait behind the defense but slightly in front, expecting the rebound.

Crisscrossing Offense: This is when forwards, on opposite sides of the field, run past each other to each other's previous spot. Defenders need only keep their spot and allow the forwards to tire themselves out.

Long Shot Offense: You'll find teams that have sharp shooters, players that cross the line and take long shots that go in. Pressure man usually stops this offense because you're always covering someone and not allowing them to take the shot.

Triangle Offense: This is the most popular for good structured teams. Everyone stays spread out, like a triangle with the back player acting as the bottom point of the triangle. This style works well against bumble bee teams. Pressure Man Defense can stop this style. If everyone pushes up, this offense is susceptible to fast breaks or crossing midline shots.

Backdoor Offense: This is when two players attack the back defender on a fast break. The player with the ball runs wide, to force the back defender to swing around, trying to stay between the ball and the goal, which opens "the door" for the second player. To defend against this, your forwards must run back, and they must run into the passing lane, not after the ball. Your defender must be disciplined and understand that his job is to stay between the ball and the goal and force the pass. Forcing the pass allows for two mistakes: a bad pass or a bad redirect on goal. Many times, I see the back players trying to stop the pass, not realizing they are just leaving the goal wide open for an easy goal by the opponent dribbling in.

Pressure Man Defense: This is when one player moves in slowly on the ball while the other two players cover their man. (Posted in more detail earlier.) This style is only played by the good teams. Ways to beat it are switching plays (posted earlier), 1v1 if you have players that can dribble well, front line offense where everyone pushes back making them come up forward and then beating them with a pass into space.

Those are the basic styles you’ll face and each can be used effectively depending on the style you play against. There are four other styles which I didn’t mention because we rarely played against them, but we used to great affect. They are the wingman offense, crossing runs offense, give and go offense, and I-formation defense. I’ll post those later...

Funneling Defense...

3v3 soccer teams that don't pass back or just boom the ball on kick-ins for 50/50 battles (where pressure man doesn't work) you can play funneling defense. Basic funneling is leaving your opponents weakest player open. Normally, the weakest player on a team doesn't fight very hard to get open. They are easy to markup, so I tell our players to leave those players open and mark tightly the good players. Once the ball is passed to the seemingly open person, then our players pounce.

This strategy only works when your opponent has players of different skill levels. When you get to Nationals, almost all the players are good so this won't work. But then, those teams are also structured so you can go into pressure man.

Pressure Man Defense...

In 3v3 soccer, this is the best team defense I have found, especially when you are playing a good passing team. It requires your players to be disciplined and it should only be played on your opponents defensive side or your attacking side. [Note: if your team isn't very fast, then this defense can be broken easily.]

The basic premise of this defense is one player attacks or puts pressure on the player with the ball while the other two players play man to man. There are two times when you can jump into pressure man, off a goal kick or a kickoff/kick-in pass to the back player.

Going to pressure man defense on a kickoff pass back to your opponent's back player or a kick-in pass to your opponent's back player is fairly simple. When the ball is passed deep to your opponent's back player, one of your forwards (usually the best 1v1 player) will go and apply pressure to that back player, moving in slowly while teammates move to their marks, your opponent's forwards. If the attacking player rushes in too fast, your opponent's back player will simply pass to the unmarked player. You want the attacking player to move in slowly to give your back player time to move up and cover the player he just left, or their last player who could be at midfield. It isn't unusual to have all your team on the opponents side of the field. Once your opponent's forwards are covered, your attacking forward can challenge, playing 1v1 soccer. If their back player tries to pass, your other players can jump in and intercept the ball. Many times, their back player will realize there is a problem and try to juke your attacking player. It is important that your attacking player move in just like a 1v1 game and not allow themselves to be easily beaten or the play breaks down. Because my team is good at 1v1 soccer, I don't mind setting up that situation. I can't tell you how many easy goals we get by playing pressure man. Also, your marking players need to remember to stand goal side of their marks because you don't want a through ball to beat you. Another hint, when your attacking player moves forward, have them come off their worst player. In other words, allow your back player to come up and mark their worst player.

Going into pressure man off a goal kick is a bit more complicated. Basically, you only want to mark the deepest player because you want a short pass. Your two forwards hang back about quarterfield to allow for the short pass. Once the ball is in play, your back player will cover (goal side) their deepest player. Your two forwards will move in, one marking the player without the ball, and the other coming in to play 1v1 with the opponent.

The first time we used pressure man was at a regional. It was my first year as the coach and we didn’t have all the plays I’ve been telling you about. We tried to play like everyone else. While we could win locally, at regionals we lost to a team 9-2. I'll call them team “A”. I thought we were good but there was no way we could stop team “A” because they passed too well and I had no solution for their offense. I watched team “A” blow out others while trying to figure out how to stop their potent attack. I was astonished when they actually lost, by several goals, to team “B”. I noticed that every time team “A” passed the ball back, team “B” would pressure, but their back player would also sneak up to cover the open man, intercepting passes and completely shutting down team “A”. That night, I held meetings with my players to teach them the new defense because we’d have to play team “A” again in the semi’s. While we had our chances, we lost 4-3, but team “A” didn't score any goals from their offense, instead, they scored off our mistakes, i.e. my back player trying to dribble too much. The coach of team “B” came over and told me he thought we could have won. I almost told him we copied his strategy. But the most astonishing aspect was when team “A” played team “B” in the finals. [We finished third] For some reason, Team “B” kept their back player back. He never pushed forward and they got blown out. I wanted to ask the coach of team “B” why he changed his strategy, but honestly, I don’t think he had a strategy and was allowing the kids to play. Evidently, his kids had forgotten what they used the day before. Of course, I didn’t forget, and we’ve been using pressure man ever since.