Soccer Defending Drills
Soccer Defending Drills will assure your team understands the tactic and technique of playing defense during a soccer match. Defending is the ability to prevent the opponent from getting chances and moving the ball forward. Although defense in soccer is not seen as a sexy part of the game, the truth is playing defense is a significant component of the game of soccer, as roughly half of your time is playing defense.
Pressure, cover, and balance are the three ingredients to coaching defense.
Pressure, cover, and balance are the three ingredients to coaching defense and is the key to good defensive shape. The idea is to put immediate pressure on the ball in attempt to dispossess your opponent as quickly as possible.
Pressure will teach the closest player to the ball to put pressure on the attacking player in hopes to dispossess the attacker or make them make a mistake.
Cover is a defensive positioning that gives immediate support to the pressuring players by positioning themselves near the pressure.
Balance refers to the ability of the team to position themselves in an excellent defensive posture that does not allow the switching of the ball to off-balance the defense.
Browse the Latest Soccer Defending Drills
3-Minute Shooting Drill
This soccer drill allows the coach to focus on shooting, goalkeeping and clearing balls from the back. This drill is an excellent warmup to a shooting or clearing practice.
Transition Drill
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.
Diagonal 1v1 Soccer Drill
This 1v1 soccer drill is great to focus on 1v1 play whether it is on the offensive or the defensive side. On the offensive side, you can get attackers to attack the defenders with speed, quick change of pace with an explosive touch to get away, and getting behind the defensive players. On the defensive side, you can focus on closing down quickly, forcing the attacker to the side and closing down the attack.
Pressure/Cover Tactical Defending Soccer Game
The focus of this soccer game is to teach players recognize the first defender (closest defender to the ball) and second defenders (player covering/supporting the first defender). The drill is geared towards teaching the players how to pressure the player with the ball and proper cover positioning.
Pirates of the Pugg
This soccer dribbling drill is a great soccer drill using a Pugg Goal that can be tweaked to focus on many aspects of the game. For younger players ages 8-11, the primary focus should be on proper dribbling technique in traffic which requires vision and awareness. The coach can also focus on the transition from offense to defense if the ball is lost, or recovering from a tackle and finding safety. Defensively, this allows defenders to steal the ball from attackers and play to a particular goal or target.
1v1 Competition
This drill is great to focus on 1v1 play. It is flexible and can be used to work on the offensive side or the defensive side. On the offensive side you can get attackers to attack the defenders with speed, quick change of pace with an explosive touch to get away, getting behind the defensive players and shooting at half chances. On the defensive side, you can focus on closing down quickly, forcing the attacker to the side and closing down the attack.
Tunnel of Death
This drill can be used to focus on either attacking or defending. It teaches players to take advantage of an off balanced defender by attacking with speed or could be used to focus on good defensive posture and transition.
2v2 Challenge
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.
4v4 Playing Wide Out of the Back
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.
The Numbers Game
The Numbers Game soccer drill focuses on the 1v1 situational play for younger players. This 1v1 drill works on all dynamics of this game such as dribbling, shooting, shielding, turning and beating an opponent.
