Soccer Edition 50

I have seen too many soccer matches over the years where I hear coaches telling their teams to get wide to create space and the response from the outside midfielders is to take another step or two toward the sidelines. The only thing I can conclude from this is that many players (and coaches) have no idea why they need to get wide nor do they know how to utilize the space once it is created.

Getting wide (and for this newsletter, I am going to be talking about outside midfielders exclusively but it does pertain to others as well) accomplishes two things. First, it puts the player in position to receive a ball under less pressure (keeping in mind that pressure is defined as the absence of space and time). If the outside mid goes toward the middle of the field, this will allow the defender to stay compressed and still mark the player tightly. As soon as the ball is received, there is very little time before the defender is right there and also very little space to work with and therefore, instant pressure. If the outside mid will stay wide (all the way to the touch lines) she will have more time to receive the ball before the defender can close her down and also have more open space to operate in so, in other words, she will have less pressure when receiving the ball.

The other thing getting wide does is create space to attack into. This space can be used by this outside mid or by other players on the field. For example, if the outside mid is wide and draws her defender with her, the marking back can come from behind into this space that has been created between the outside mid and the center mids and take advantage of this to attack into. Another option is to have the outside mid receive the ball while wide and then take the ball toward the middle to then create the space for the back to overlap around her (see http://finesoccer.com/soccer5.htm for better examples). None of this can be accomplished if the players wont get wide and created the space that is needed.

There are times when an outside mid might not want to get wide (for example the Brazilian National Team will frequently have their mids stay more to the middle to allow for the backs to have as much space to attack wide out of the back as they want) but most coaches are looking for the outside mids to get wide and use this space properly.

One of the reasons that outside mids don't get wide enough is that when their team loses the ball, they must get back and toward the middle quickly. Then when their team regains possession, it's out and up again. This requires a tremendous amount of running and without great conditioning; it becomes almost impossible to do this properly. However, if you are going to play this position, why not get in shape and do it properly? (As an aside, a friend of mine who is a college assistant coach is playing this summer on a women's team and has had to play outside mid some for the first time, she has decided that when she becomes a head coach, she is going to get rid of the outside mid position completely because it's not fun).

How wide is wide? When the ball is in the center of the field wide is all the way on the touchlines. 3-4 yards inside the touchlines is not enough. These few yards very well might be the difference between success and failure. When it is time to utilize the space that has been created by going wide, do it at speed. One of the most frustrating things for me is to see a player get wide, and then WALK into the space that has been created instead of really taking advantage of it by sprinting into the space.

Watching a team that gets wide early and utilizes the space properly is so much more enjoyable then watching a team that doesn't seem to have a clue as to how to do this. The extra space created with the proper utilization of width frequently is the difference between winning and losing (and getting rid of all of the theoretical stuff, winning is more enjoyable usually then losing).

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