Defensive Organization

Vitor Pereira

Macro Principle

• The team must defend in a pressuring zone defense (“pressing zone”)

Macro Principle

Characteristics

• The team seeks to create a “pressing zone" with acceleration on to the opponent, causing her to go to where we are organizing pressure. It is a zonal organization that becomes high pressure in defined moments (“pressure references")

Macro Principle

Characteristics

• This “pressing zone” can be applied further forward or further back (high or low pressure), depending on the defined strategy for the game according to the characteristics of the opponent.

Macro Principle

Characteristics

• In the "pressing zone" the team should be concerned primarily with the spaces. The players should clearly understand how to defend both spaces and opponents in these areas.

Macro Principle

Characteristics

• The team must show an active role in recovering possession of the ball, trying to make the opponent make a mistake & for this to happen, the team must be well organized in its defensive lines.

Sub-Principle #1

• The team must interpret collectively the “pressure triggers ” (collective references of pressure which the team must identify clearly and from there take the most appropriate action).

Sub-Principle #1

Characteristics

• The team must perceive & identify the “pressure triggers”, namely, the team must identify when to accelerate on to the opponent, pressure her aggressively, or on the other hand, when they must retreat to take away offensive depth from the opposing team.

Sub-Principle #1“Pressure Triggers”

1. Opponent receives ball back to goal, pressing on the “blind side”

2. Badly executed pass which makes receiving the ball more difficult for the opponent, i.e. gives time to organize the block & pressure the opponent.

3. Long & high pass, for example, from the center to the opposite side (the time that the ball is in the air, plus the time of reception is a sign to pressure the opponent).

Sub-Principle #1Triggers to Retreat

• Conditions are not always available to press the opponent, in these situations, we must take away the wide & deep spaces. For example, when the opponent is facing us, with good conditions to give offensive depth to their game. All the players must see when we must take away offensive depth from the opponent & when not to.

Sub-Principle #2

• Pressure the opponent on the “blind side” (moment when the opponent receives the ball with their back to our defensive block).

Sub-Principle #2

Characteristics

• Take advantage of opponent’s poor positioning & from poor adjustment of support on receiving the ball which normally “closes” the field.

Sub-Principle #2

Example

• Full back with the ball next to the side-line, with the inside midfielder (or defensive MF) receiving inside pass with support facing the corridor, focused on that sideline (this gives us the “blind side”).

Sub-Principle #2

Characteristics

• However, it is not enough to pressure the opponent on the “blind side”, it is necessary to “invite the opponent to enter the “pressing zone” which we are organizing, & then to accelerate on to the opponent & recover the ball”.

Sub-Principle #3

• The team must know how to defend in lines, i.e. close & reduce spaces between the lines & within the lines (“make field small”).

Sub-Principle #4

• The team as a whole should swivel depending on the position of the ball, for example, if the ball is on the left side, the right back should not be open on the right, but close off the inside space.

Sub-Principle #5

• The team must learn to differentiate between the different rhythms of defending as a function of “pressure triggers”, i.e. the team has to realize from a collective point of view when to retreat or when to accelerate on to the opponent according to the different triggers.

Sub-Principle #6

• The team must be capable of knowing when it must gain or win back spaces out wide or in depth (if the opponent is facing us with good possibilities of playing the ball deep, the team must at this moment retreat, close down the spaces & reduce the depth of the opponent. If on the other hand the opponent’s back is turned to the game, it is the moment to press & win the wide & deep spaces).

Sub-Principle #7

• The players should be concerned about the ball, the space and the opponent, with marking space the reference point (and not marking individuals).

Sub-Principle #8

• The Defensive Principles (Containment, Defensive Covering, & Balance) are very important in all sectors, & all players must master these defensive aspects.

Sub-Sub-Principles

• Open up the Field (it’s important that the players don’t close down the field to defend, so they are not systematically surprised).

Sub-Sub-Principles

• Example

• The outside back on the opposite side from the ball, shifts towards the ball-side, but if your support is facing the side of the ball, she is “closed” to the field, & there is a huge part of the field that she cannot see.

• Turn shoulders to open body to field.

Sub-Sub-Principles

• Characteristics

• The players must “open up” the field in defensive organization, because only with a correct positioning of the supporting players is it possible that the players visually control the spaces, the opponents & the ball.