Edition 86

Welcome to the Soccer Newsletter. Today's subject was requested by a couple of subscribers and will deal with the play of the sweeper.

The first thing to keep in mind when dealing with the play of the sweeper is that the sweeper is a position and not a person. What I mean by this is that a different person might take on the role of the sweeper each time there is a change of possession (although in many teams, the sweeper will always be the same person).

The sweepers primary defensive roles are to provide support and balance to the defense as well as to communicate. The communication is an extremely important part of the position but I would prefer that people check out the Goalkeeping Newsletter archives for the articles I have written about communication since the communication from the sweeper is very similar to the communication from the keeper. The archives can be found at http://finesoccer.com/keepers.htm

When an opponent is attacking, the first thing the sweeper wants to do is make sure there is a first defender providing pressure on the player with the ball. If there isn't, and she isn't able to get someone to take on the first defenders responsibilities, then the sweeper must step up and become the first defender. Assuming that there is a first defender, the sweeper will then provide cover or support for this first defender. This simply means that the sweeper puts herself in a position so that if the first defender gets beat, she is there to step up and become the NEXT first defender. While providing this support, the sweeper must also make sure that someone is providing balance (this is the role of the third defender). Balance is simply making sure that if the ball gets played somewhere else on the field, there are defenders to step up and become the first and second defenders. An example of a team that doesn't
have proper balance is one where all of the defenders are around the ball providing pressure. When the ball gets switched to the other side of the field, there are no defenders ready to pressure or delay the
attacker because they didn't have balance (it's a similar concept as staying spread out some offensively although the defense certainly doesn't want to be spread out as much as the offense is.

By making sure the there is proper pressure, cover and balance, the sweeper is making sure there will be no good scoring opportunities for the opponent. She also must be willing and able to provide pressure, coverage, or balance in any given situation.

From an attacking standpoint, the sweeper has a really fun job. She can go forward at will, and in many instances, she will be unmarked. It would be the forward's responsibilities on the opposing team to mark the sweeper and the forwards must figure out who and when the sweeper (and other backs) are going to go forward. It is because of this tremendous freedom to attack out of the back that I feel the sweeper should be one of the most offensive minded players on the field. It's no longer any good to put the big kid who can kick the ball far back in goal. She should be the one who can initiate the attack and pick and choose the times to go forward (realizing that when she goes forward, someone else will take on the role of being the sweeper).

To be a good sweeper, a player should be smart, skillful and truly understand the game (in other words, she must be a wannabe keeper!).

If you want to learn more about the game and also help others, go to the FineSoccer Forum at http://finesoccer.com/forum.htm. I can't guarantee you will learn more but I know I have from some of the posters ideas.

Questions, comments or suggestions can be made to the forum or sent to me at comments@finesoccer.com

Remember that all of the newsletters are archived at http://finesoccer.com

Have a great day.

Lawrence