Training 15 and Match Day with Monash 5-0

Training at thursday wasn't much, we did some basic exercise plus dynamics and then we started a practice match between each other. One major problem i face that day was that our centre midfield wasn't really keeping a good pressure on the center, and that leads to alot of goals coming from the center passes. But anyway, i sorta make it clear to the coach what i think for the defense and he understand that.

Match day with Monash Uni today was quite fruitful, as we tear up the scoreline for the Thirds to 5-0, i played keeps for the first half and the other player played for the second half. I sorta think that Haas, our coach, gets my point of the defensive issue i talk to him the other day, as he appoints a Sweeper behind the defense line for the first half that im playing in. Which i think is a very good and comfortable defensive play that i can play with. As i've made it clear and they all know well too that my main weakness is my ability to come out early to collect or clear the ball, and therefore the Sweeper really made my goalkeeping more focused and reliable. Most of the time my mind canot do 2 things at once. Once they started the attack my mind is calculating and foreseeing what kinda move will they make? Will they shot ? If shot which angle ? Left or right? High or low? Shot or lob? Fast or slow? Should i punch or should i grip? But most important question : SHOULD I COME OUT OR NOT ~

So most of the time i ended up preparing to stop the shot while what i can do more efficiently is just to come out and clear or collect the ball.........i really need to work on that more and more. Another main weakness i have was my ability to make counter attacks via goal kicks. My counter attack value, if there's such value, would be - or zero. I ask the Sweeper beforehand to take the goal kick and he kindly accepted, and i was quite wow by his goal kick actually, or his first goal kick of the game actually, the ball was high, fast, and traveling onwards all the time, mind you guys, goal kicks have never been a forte to me, its my biggest weakness as well! First since im a keeper, i dun do much running, so my legs aren't that well developed compare to players, second, my height make my leg's swinging radius smaller than player with longer legs, and third, small foot size really limits the contact patch my leg has with the ball, the smaller the contact patch, the smaller the force can be directed. Mind you i do spend almost 2 years keep training on goal kicks, until a point it really turn into one of my deadliest weapon, one of my confidence move, one of my forte. But it all decreases, after 1 year of absence from regular goalkeeping.... After the match i spend bout 2 hours practicing goal kicks, and i felt i did a couple of good ones, with a combination of height and distance, but its still couldn't surpass the Sweeper's kick yet.....gonna keep trying harder and harder.

The 4 things we're emphasizing today was Communication, Structure, Ball and Channel. So basically communications are the communications between players and players, structure is how well we maintain our structural formation, players doesn't leave their position and cause a empty gap etc, ball, how well we move the ball around and channel, how well we channel the ball to other players to attack.

The formation which i played in the first half was like this :












We have the Keeper on the box, and then a Sweeper behind a 4 man defense, and then 3 midfield and 2 strikers.












The side backs, or the Left and Right backs are acting as Wingers as well.












So mainly the Midfield stands as one of their options, they could play the ball up to the midfield, and then up to the Forwards, or back into them and then to the Forwards, so the Channeling is pretty much happening alot on the V-section over there.












Whilst if the Forward are heavily marked and isn't an option, the Center Forward which is standing lower then the Forward, is an option for the Midfield to pass.












And the Forward can have the time to make his run and create space, thus opening up the attack upfront.
One of the most common question about using a Left or Right Back as Wingers is that, what if the Left Back (example) is attacking as a Winger, lose the ball and counter attack commence so quickly, the Left Back couldn't get back ?












This is when the Flat-4 strategy comes into play. For those of you who don't know what a Flat-4 strategy is,

"its basically a 4-man defense line, which stays forever as a line, and act as one whole unit other than individual defenders marking." I will explain this in a later post.

When an defender has gone up for attacking purpose, the other side of the defenders will move in and compensate for his position, example if Left Back has gone up and couldn't return, the Centre Midfield will cover its place, while the other Center Midfield and Right Back will tuck in as well to form a 3-man defending system, if appropriate the Sweeper may come up and play as an Center Midfield as well, retaining the 4 man defense, although without a 100% efficient Sweeper behind.

Basically i think for my type of goal keeping i would prefer to have a Sweeper as a Last defense, as i think its a more secure and organized defense system, our Midfield done a great job keeping pressure at the center, with alot of passes of through balls and one-twos made in the attack, which is very well executed, at the end we finished with a clean sheet and 5 goals, 2 goals from our Left Back actually, well done for Dom the Left Back.

Overall i think i did alrite, just a couple more tweaks to get my goal kick back and i should be alrite i think...i still got pretty mindful of things going on my mind but i just simply can think fast enough, its sorta like driving a car through a mountain roads, the moment u think of how to get around this corner, the next corner comes up; same with football, the moment u think of what this player's gonna do, the next players receives the pass from the previous players and u have to evaluate what's the action he's going to make and the action your going to make to stop it.

Its all within 0.1 of a second literally.