Soccer Pass to Yourself

(aka "Pop It"). As players get older & better, it becomes very difficult for an attacker to dribble past a defender & passing becomes very important. By U-12, your attack won't work very well unless your team can "pass", "pass to space" & "pass to yourself". One way to beat a defender is to "pass the ball to yourself" by passing the ball to open space behind the defender & then beating him to it. The passer has the advantages of knowing where he is passing it & of forward momentum, while the defender must turn around and gain momentum. This is one way to get through the last line of defenders if they have "pushed up" & in that case is like passing a "through ball" to yourself. This works best if the attacker is faster than the defender. I tell attackers to "pop the ball" past the defender & ideally to chip it or kick an "airball" if they can, since an airball is hardest for a defender to block with his foot. Since they can run faster without dribbling than they can if they are dribbling, I tell them to pop it as far as they can while still beating the defender to it. For example, if they are on the right or left side, they can pop it farther than if they are in the center, because if they kick it too far down the center the goalkeeper will get it. If the defender is faster than the attacker, the attacker won't be able to pop it very far or the defender will beat him to the ball. Second Attackers and Third Attackers must move up with the ball to support the First Attacker. If a defender gets the ball, the attackers must pressure the defender to try to win back the ball. If they can cause a turnover, they may have a scoring opportunity. (See "Through Ball", "Hopped Pass", "Creating Space", "Verbal Signals", "First Attacker" & "Pass"). How to teach "Passing to Space" and "Aggressive Receiving" are explained in SoccerHelp Premium.