Defending Crosses

  • Defending crosses means ensuring that the defensive triangle is set up as a minimum.
    • That is 3 players need to stay near the goal and be in a position to attack the cross or shot block.

Defensive Triangle.jpg

 

So assuming the ball is out wide and :

  • Our ball side Full back and ball side winger are out wide trying to win the ball.
  • Out ball side CB and CDM (#6)  are also drawn towards the ball to congest the space in this area
  • The CDM has to work really hard to fill the space at the tip of the triangle. Quite often when they don't a goal is conceded.

it leaves the Other

  • CB, FB and CDM (and possibly the W) to congest and compete in the space around the goal.
  • If we can get more players in this space (as if we were defending a corner) the harder it will be for the opposition to score.

 

This video looks at defending crosses in depth.

Can you analyze whether goals (in this video) could have been prevented if the defending team had have defended better

Task

 

  1. Study the video above : Study the starting positions and reactions of defenders when a cross is hit into the goal scoring area.
  • Do you see what you would expect?
  • Was there anything you didn't expect?
  • If the defenders won the ball, why?
  • If the attackers won the ball, why?
  • Did you learn anything extra from this task that you can add to your game?

 

 

 

 

 

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