Soccer Styles of Play, Soccer Attacking Styles of Play, Soccer Defensive Styles of Play, Direct/Counterattacking Soccer Style of Attack, Indirect/Possession/Build, Possess, Penetrate and Score Soccer Style of Attack

See Attacking Navigation Page for more on this subject. On offense, the two primary styles of play are a "direct attack" (which tries to quickly move the ball into scoring range, often using long passes, "through balls", or long air balls) and an "indirect attack" (also called a "Possession" style, which is slower and uses many short passes, often sideways or backwards, while looking for a weakness in the defense.) When you attack, you can "Defend Deep" (meaning to leave your defenders near your goal to defend against fast counterattacks) or "Push Up" (meaning your Fullbacks move up toward your Halfway Line to support your attack). On defense, the two primary styles of play are a "zone defense" and a "marking defense" (i.e., a man-to-man defense). There are several different terms that describe other styles of play. For example, "passing to feet" vs. "passing to space" and "onball attacking" vs. "off-the-ball attacking". With most formations you can use different styles of play. On offense, an Indirect Style of Attack is also known as "build, possess, penetrate and score" and a Direct Style of Attack is also known as a Counterattack. Most Rec teams can be more effective using a Direct/Counterattacking Style of Attack because they lack the team skill to make lots of consecutive passes as is required to score goals using an Indirect/Possession/"Build, Possess, Penetrate and Score" Style of Attack.