Soccer Coaching Blog | Professional Soccer Coaching Advice

Hitting teams on the break is a good tactic to use when your team is playing away from home against a team they know nothing about. Fast counter-attacks can take advantage of players being out of position.
Players need to be aware and alert to their team-mates and react quickly when the ball is turned over.

It relies on accurate passing and having the ability to hold off retreating defenders. You can watch the best counter attacks in the video below and play this exercise to help your players get used to running with the ball and holding the defenders off.

How to play it

• Mark out an area 40 yards x 20 yards – you can make it smaller for younger players.
• In one of the corners, mark out a 10 yards square with a small, coned goal in it.
• In this soccer drill the ball is passed so the attacker can run onto it.
• The attacker must take full control of the ball at this point. The defender starts his run as soon as the pass is made and his first action is to hold up the attacker. The attacker should change his pace to fool the defender.
• The defender cannot tackle until they get into the marked-off zone.
• Once they get into the marked-off zone, the attacker must try to lose the defender with a turn – for instance, a stop turn, then try to put the ball between the two cones.
• The defender must stick close to the attacker and try to get a tackle in to win the ball.

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