The power of the anticipation
I’m not sure if you can remember what I say about what a good defence is. Especially as a player. The goal of the defender defending the ball is not to take the ball of the attacker. The goal is to make their life as hard as possible. If you have done a good job, a team mate will pick that ball for you.
Here is how you do it, in a transition. Two lessons in one.
As a reminder, Follow this steps:
- Take a look at the video:
- Read and think about the analysis.
- Match the analysis and the video. Min 0:37
All right, we have Liceo’s defensive transition. We already talked about how important transitions are, and also the key for them, the mindset change. The faster the better. Arnau Xaus (Liceo N3) is putting a lot of pressure on the ball. Making the transition incredibly hard.
Xaus’ effort would be meaningless if the other team mates were not covering the other attackers. You cannot even imagine how frustrating this situation is for the calafell player. He is in charge of starting the attack, while at the same time having the clock ticking to move the ball to the other half, while he is the last player, and on top of that there is no support from any other team mate. Xaus keeps pushing, to the point that he touches the ball and forces the goalie to touch the ball. Thanks to this, the Calafell player is able to face the situation. Stopping giving the back to Xaus so he can see what to do. The ball is pushed to the side, where another Calafell player comes to the wall to give support. The pass is not really good due to the pressure. The other Calafell player is giving the back to Liceo’s goal cage. Which means that he cannot see Nuno Paiva (Liceo N11) approaching him. Paiva lounges to get the ball while Xaus and the other attacker are already skating towards the other side. Leaving the inner space free.
