The following drill comes from the Soccer Awareness Training Center. Soccer Awareness Training Center provides unlimited access to Wayne Harrison's Soccer Awareness systems, training sessions, drills and more. Wayne's system helps develop world class youth soccer players and teams in a systematic and imaginative manner that guarantees performance at the highest level of competition. Whether you’re a beginning coach who needs help getting started or someone who wants to add some variety to their training sessions, the Soccer Awareness Training Center offers a wide variety of drills to choose from. Join Today

Here the players work to get free of their markers by their movement off the ball; they create space for themselves and / or for their teammates.

Coaching Points:

1. Creating Space – Spreading out as a team.
2. Decision – When, where and how to Create Space.
3. Technique – of passing and receiving.
4. Support Positions of players; angles and distances, movement off the ball.

In the above example (2) and (3) break wide to create space and offer two options to receive a pass from the keeper, (3) receives the pass and (4) runs off (C) to check back to receive the pass in space. (5) And (6) create space in front of the receiving player by making split runs to move (A) and (B) away from where (4) wants to attack and shoot at goal.

If either (A) or (B) do not track the two strikers and stay in the space in front to defend against (4) then (4) can pass to whichever play got free by not being tracked on their run.

Download a printable pdf of this session and more defensive small-sided games in the Soccer Awareness Training Center.