Soccer defending drills to teach proper defensive skills and team strategies.
Defending is a vital part of soccer that requires discipline, positioning, and teamwork to stop the opposition. This page provides drills to help players develop defensive skills such as tackling, marking, and intercepting to protect their goal effectively.
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This 2v2 soccer drill focuses on putting players in 2 vs. 2 situations while attacking the goal. The dynamics of the games works on transitioning, and fitness demands on the players can be intense at times.
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This dynamic game will allow you to focus on the transition from offense to defense. This soccer transitional drill is designed to be played at a quick pace.
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The soccer end zone game is a great soccer drill that will help coaches focus on all aspects of attacking and defending in soccer. With incorporating end zones into the game, it gives players a chance to learn to attack space behind the defense and allows defenders to learn how to deny space behind them.
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This drill is designed to get players to play balls wide when playing from the back, the defensive third of the field. Players recognize that they find more time and space on the outsides of the field and they are relieving the center of the pitch from dangerous play.
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This 1v1 soccer drill is an excellent drill for focusing on teaching players attacking skills such as taking on their opponent or learning to attack space. Defensively it will teach players the responsibility of man-marking.
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This 2v2+1 soccer drill is a great situational game that focuses on numbers up attacking situations or numbers down defending situations.
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This 4v4 finishing drill is one of my favorite soccer finishing drills as it works on every aspect of finishing inside the 18-yard box. This drill focuses on soccer finishing skills such as chipping, crossing, heading, finishing and composure in the 18.
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The Guard the Castle drill is a great small-sided game that focuses on passing in numbers up situations. This soccer passing game is a fun drill the kids will love it!
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This drill is designed to focus on all aspects of the game in a 3v2 situation. Mainly runs of attackers, angle of support, passing vs. shooting decisions, defensive shape, and recovery runs, along with working on mental attentiveness.
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This drill focuses on attacking from the end line from the flanks and serving a ball in. This is a great crossing game to isolate the flank players and getting them to serve the ball in front of the goal.
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The 4v4 + Target Players to 2 Goals is a great 4v4 soccer game that teaches players to play into their target player. This game adds a more realistic twist to the typical 4-on-4 soccer game.
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This 4v4 possession soccer drill helps players keep possession for a purpose with short and long passing combinations. This drill also allows one to focus on defensive transition by quickly close down space and eliminate passing lanes.