Welcome to the Soccer Newsletter. Today's subject will deal with throw
ins and how to retain possession from a throw in.
I am going to make the assumption that everyone knows how to do a proper throw in so
instead of talking about the technical side of things, I will instead discuss how to find
an open player to throw it to in order to retain possession.
I get extremely frustrated watching teams throw the ball time after time down the line
hoping that their teammate can win the ball against 2-3 opponents. At the
recreational level (a term I really despise since hopefully all soccer is recreational,
just at different levels of play) this might be acceptable but truthfully there are so
many better options available.
First of all, like the rest of the game, if you want to play the ball into space, it is
first necessary to create this space. The way to do this would be to have a player
start deep in the space that it would be nice to receive the ball in and then have her
check back to the ball. By making this hard checking run, it will draw the defense
with her and then the next player (maybe a center midfielder) can make a run into this
newly created space and have the ball played in at the same time. If this space has
not been created, the next space to look into is the space created by this second runner.
Assuming a forward made the checking run and a center midfielder made the second run, a
back should look to go into that space in the middle of the field. This runner will
almost always be open. The only time she will not be open is if an opposing forward
tracks back into the midfielder to mark up this back. As the back goes into this
space, the sweeper should switch over and take the space abandoned by the back. This
sweeper should be an option that will definitely be available if the other runners are all
marked. Also, the first checking runner may receive the ball and return it immediately to
the thrower.
Is there a need to have an alternative to this? Honestly, there really isn't.
No matter how many times you run this, one of the players will always be available or a
space will be created for yet another runner. The key is not surprise or strength of
throw but rather timing and speed of the runs. Be consistent and you will see a
whole lot more possession from your teams throw ins.
