Playing Long Ball Soccer Is Detrimental

Barcelona FC has taken the world of soccer a huge step forward. The team has mastered the art of the pass and has learned to utilize the possession game of soccer to dismantle even the strongest of opponents. In the United States, a few select teams have taken note and are adapting their own styles to match the possession game.

Unfortunately, the possession game in the United States still has a long way to come. Spending a spring or fall Saturday outside near a youth soccer complex will teach any observer that our game plan right now is entirely different. Finding a team who can keep the ball on the ground, keep it at their own team’s feet and work the ball around the team for an extended period of time would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Results in youth soccer are very much “win” driven, because most parents and fans expect wins from their teams. When a team fails to win, they move on to another team, leaving a gaping hole in the team they left behind.

Sadly, this practice is hindering the development of youth soccer in the country, and it has also led to the practice of utilizing the long ball in our youth soccer programs. On a Saturday at the complex, you will find almost every team in any area of the country is playing this game and it’s painful to see the youth players learn that this tactic is the right way to play.

The long ball is a style of play where a team defends against the other team and hopes to regain possession of the ball. Once the ball has been won back, all thought turns to the goal at the other end of the field. In some cases, the defender may not even make a single pass to a near teammate before attempted to kick the ball as far as they can down field to an onrushing teammate.

This tactic was born from desperate coaches who have parents breathing down their necks for a victory. To cope with the need to win, the coach may select their fastest or most physical player to play in the striker position. This player is expected to be onside and ready to receive the long ball. Once the ball has been played (and in the tactic, the ball is usually played the moment the team recovers the ball), the attacker must outrun the other team to the ball and hopefully get a chance to take it to goal.

Most of the team is useless. The team relies only on the nameless player who takes the ball from the other team, the next nameless player (or even the same one) who can kick the ball far, and finally, the speedy, athletic attacker who can outrun other players to the ball. The rest of the players could spend the game picking grass blades or chatting with the other team.

Advantages Of The Long Ball

There are some advantages to the long ball:

• It can be used to cope when a team is being outplayed by another more skilled team.
• Long ball helps a team keep the ball among the stronger players of the team, leading to a better chance of a win.
• In situations with little time, the long ball can reduce the amount of time “wasted” getting the ball forward.

Winning With The Long Ball

Using the long ball can be an effective tactic to win a game, especially when their opponent is more talented. Coaches and trainers can teach their players how to defend well against talented teams and then take advantage of their defensive weaknesses quickly using the long ball as a counter attacking strategy. By doing this, the team can catch their opponents off-guard and send players forward. In many cases, the talented opponents have sent extra players forward to attack, so when the ball is turned over, their opponents have fewer defenders. By playing a ball quickly, the team can take advantage of a numbers-even or numbers-up situation. This increases the chances of scoring a goal and, in turn, winning the game.

Playing Through Stronger Players

By playing the long ball game, a team can eliminate the need to play the ball through weaker players. Weaker players are players who may not have a great first touch, or an awareness of the game. They may have a tendency to play poor passes to teammates or have a poor understanding of when to play the ball forward. By playing long ball, the team can bypass these players and allow the stronger (or sometimes strongest) player on the team to have a chance to run onto the ball while the opponents are in a weaker position.

Reducing “Wasted” Time

By physics alone, a ball played once over 50 yards will travel faster than a ball played to three teammates over 50 yards. The ball doesn’t have to stop and spend time at each players’ feet and can thereby make it to the final destination faster. This allows the stronger player a better chance of getting more opportunities with the ball, and since the ball was played quickly, it may well have caught the defense off-guard, giving the stronger player an even better chance of scoring. Because scoring is what youth soccer is about, right?

Only partially. The real purpose of youth soccer is the development of players, not the development of teams that win. Every player needs to have an equal chance of developing as a soccer player. Not all players will develop at the same rate, and not all players have the potential to become professionals, but that may not be the goal to begin with.

The long ball hurts teams substantially more than it helps team. The long ball is merely a quick fix to help keep a coach’s job, or to help build a team’s immediate confidence. In a recent interview with Soccer America magazine, Theresa Echtermeyer, director of coaching for Colorado United, stated, “we should be asking ourselves two questions… First, “Is this what’s best for the kids?” Second, “is this what’s best for soccer in America?” Both questions must be answered, with a priority of the first question.

What’s Best For The Kids

While each parent must be tasked with providing what is in the best interest of their own children, the needs of the team must also be met. Every team must work together between coaches, players and parents to find what is going to be best for each team. Rarely, though, is a quick fix going to be the answer for any problem or dilemma a team is facing.

Some teams may find that the players they have cannot compete well with other teams in their own divisions. They may lose many of their games and may be outplayed in the midfield. Defenders may frequently make mistakes, or forwards may be unable to capitalize on the few (or many) opportunities they are afforded. To cope, the coach may turn to the long ball tactic. A player or two may be chosen to play as forwards. These players are usually more athletic, faster, or have a better touch than other players on the team. These players receive that long ball and hope to make the best.

In many cases, this tactic isn’t even thought out. Instead, a player may be substituted into the position, a ball may be cleared out of the defense, right into the path of the player. The player then takes the ball and surprises the coaches, parents and teammates with a finish. It could even win the game! Coaches see the results, learn from it, and then try it again the next game.

This isn’t what is best for the kids. By using this tactic, coaches are teaching the other players on their team to avoid creativity, avoid playing the ball through the midfield naturally, and let the game rest on the shoulders of a single player. It also teaches the players that, in the name of the win, it’s perfectly acceptable to abandon previous game plans, but only in the name of the win. It shows the players that learning how to play beautiful soccer is less important that keeping their pride afloat.

Not only is this tactic risky at younger ages, but it can be beaten. At older ages, defenders have a better understanding of long ball soccer (probably because they play it themselves) and have learned how to defend players who may be faster than them. At older ages, defenders learn to work together, to mark properly and to provide space to faster players. At older age groups, the long ball becomes less and less effective.

What makes the long ball even more troublesome in youth soccer is that even when the tactic is less effective, coaches feel their players make better use of their opportunities. Coaches may never abandon the tactic and expect their players to cope with the lack of opportunities. Defending teams may pressure higher than before, making the need for a player to play a long ball more desperate, which in turn compromises the pass itself.

Low Success Against Fast Defenders

The long ball can be neutralized quite quickly by a team with fast defenders. If the defender is able to match the speed and physical presence of the attacking player, the attacking player may not receive the ball as often. This in turn gives the attacker fewer opportunities which will convert into even fewer goals. The frustration will build and the player may, instead of resorting to playing a different style of play, may simply “turn up the intensity” and hope to overwhelm the player by walking the line between playing physical or playing dirty. This could result in even more turnovers by the attacker committing fouls or leaving the offside line too soon and finding themselves in an offside position.

Reduces Ability Of All Players

Playing the long ball bypasses the remaining players on the field. Every time a player doesn’t receive a ball, they lose an opportunity to grow as a player. When a long ball is not played, the ball is worked through the remaining players on the field. They must learn to receive the ball, control it, find a teammate and connect a pass, or they may even be missing an opportunity to beat an opponent on the field using their own footskills.

With the long ball, all of these opportunities go away. The players are expected to win the ball and then, as quickly as possible, find the target striker, or find the nearest teammate who can then try to find the target strikers. At younger ages, coaches who allow their teams to play this tactic frequently are costing their players opportunities to grow in the most basic and fundamental parts of the game. This will cost those players later in life, causing them to not grow at the optimal rate, miss out on playing opportunities at high school, and may even cost them college soccer scholarships because their game is not well-rounded.

It even reduces the abilities of the striker. Instead of learning to play with the rest of the team, they are merely learning how to receive a ball and go to goal. The player rarely allows other players to get into the attack, absorbing those opportunity for themselves. It also reduces team creativity for the player in the attack and leaves the player very one-dimensional.

Without the proper opportunities players cannot grow. Opportunities at younger ages should be distributed as evenly as possible to every player, not just the athletic players or the strong players. Even at older ages, the opportunities to grow for less skilled players should not be completely limited. Instead, coaches should remember the real purpose behind the game and the purpose behind youth soccer. To develop talented players and to give the opportunity to play to everyone interested.