U14 Soccer Strategy Help

[cubboyroy1826]

Okay gents I have asked for some advice in the past and I come to you now for some more. My U14 girls teams faces the cream of the crop on Saturday. We won our first game 6-0 and last week lost 2-1 in a game we should have tied but a questionable ref call decided the game. The team we played last week had 4 club players on it and the team we play this week has 5 club players and pretty much scores at will. As fate seems to be I have one girl on my team that might be club quality but she should be playing U12 not U14.

My initial thought is to start with three defenders as we normally for along with three more defensive mids who hang back, two attacking mids and two forwards. I am looking to slow the game down and pack the defense in as much as possible. We are not a very offensive minded team and really only have a couple girls that are good attacking with the ball. We have two above average keepers who can definitely hold their own and a couple mids that are very physical players. The other problem we have is our three good defenders are small players and can get pushed around.

So to recap we play a team that is very good at handling the ball, with 5 very skilled players and two girls who have incredible speed. Any ideas?

[Izulde]

Run a straight 4-4-2 with the two speed demons up front.

[cubboyroy1826]

My issue with the 4-4-2 is that of the 4 mids I really only have 3 that will stay disciplined and play in their positions. I have a couple girls on the team that decided this was the time to start playing soccer for the first time. So our 4-4-2 got chewed up last week and caught out of position a lot.

[Izulde]

Since you're looking at a defensive orientation anyway, perhaps a 4-1-3-2, where the one acts as a defensive mid in between the D and the midfield proper?

I'd say a 5-3-2 would be out personally. I tend to think 5 player lines in U14 leagues gets pretty disastrous.

[bulletsponge]

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[rowech]

Never build a formation for what you're playing against. Build it for what you have and what you will be best in based on what you have.

[PurdueBrad]

If you need to slow down the competition, this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_V0hW3_ve4) seemed to work. It might be a little hard as there are 5 really fast players but I would think if you have enough help it should work. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?

[Coffee Warlord]

4-3-3 maybe?

2 speed demons up front + 1 kid playing behind them.

Put your 3 kids who are disciplined enough to play mid in the mid. Maybe one of your 3 skilled defenders play as a DM/Stopper type.

Put your other 2 good defenders in the center, and 2 kids who can run the field as the wingbacks.

[cubboyroy1826]

Thanks Brad I really think that tactic might be a problem but I will give it some thought.

Coffee I like your thinking and think that might be the best option as we are strong defensively just not great from an attacking standpoint. We really have to rely more on the counterattack.

Rowech I understand what you are saying in playing to your strengths but defensively we are strong it is once we get on the offensive where have some issues. Our forwards are good but our attacking ids tend to want to play with the ball too much and one thinks she can go one on one a little too often.

[Marc Vaughan]

You're playing with kids so don't get too fancy or think in terms of things which are too tactical or technical.

Look at the players available - work out your strengths and weaknesses and play to them.

With defence unless you have talented players - get them organised and enthusiastic enough to 'double up' on players, even a half decent team can defend competently if they cover space sensibly (4 at the back and at least one midfielder dropping to support and press would be my suggestion) and have someone press onto the player with the ball with the others covering and waiting to pick up*.

*The most common thing I see at 'kids' level in the US is show-boating, ie. if a player is pretty good then he'll try and walk it around people - train your team so that one person presses and another covers behind, when the show boater beats the first player the second will normally be able to pick it off him easily unless he's really really good and has kept it very close to his body ... this works especially well against 'fast' players as I find they're generally the ones with least control as they're used to being able to rely purely on their speed.

This sounds like it'd suit your team quite well as the physical midfielders would be great for holding up or slowing down the speedier players ....

PS - Physical stature doesn't matter as much as attitude imho.

[GoldenEagle]

5-4-1 with a sweeper and park the bus.

[Marc Vaughan]

Just read your reply regarding your attack being the issue - I'd recommend trying to encourage your attackers to look for passes more and tell them that they'll get the ball back - lots of triangle training and one-two's should like it'll help .... emphasise that it the job of everyone to find space to recieve the ball when you're attacking and not the job of the player with the ball to beat people all the time (use the old 'a ball passed travels faster than a player dribbling with it' routine if needs be).

If your more selfish player get reassured that if she passes it then she'll recieve it back further down the pitch in more space then that'll probably help encourage her.

[cartman]

Get 5 of their players to get red cards. Problem solved! :D

[cubboyroy1826]

Get 5 of their players to get red cards. Problem solved! :D

Brilliant!!

[MizzouRah]

I use the 4-4-2 for my U14 girls team. We tried a 3-4-3 last year and it just didn't work out.

4-4-2 seems to slow down the other team and although the games are lower scoring, I don't mind a 1-0 W. ;)

[cubboyroy1826]

Well my U12 girls won 1-0 on a defensive battle.

Our U14 came out on the short side losing 5-0. We played our butts off but just were not near their skill level. We had a bad call that led to a penalty kick and our goalie blew an easy save. Other than those two plays we were just outclassed.