Soccer

Just imagine being on a 120 yard by 75 yard field outlined in white paint with eleven teammates and eleven, quick giants dribbling at you trying to knock you over and score. These giants are fast, strong, and very smart. Being an outside back, one has to know how to prevent people from getting by them. The defender is one of the players on the field who get attacked; he or she is the one who has to make the tackles and never get beat or make a mistake. A defender who plays on the outside of the field needs to be strong, disciplined, have great endurance, have the perfect touch, and smarts.

The Perfect Touch

One thing that an outside back or center back must have is a perfect touch. The perfect touch is played from a teammate, whether from the inside of the field or in front of the defender, and received across the body. Being a left back, he or she should receive the ball on his or her inside of the left foot. When the ball is about ten feet away, coming at the defender, he or she should pick up his or her head and take a glance at the field in front of them to see what options they have. Once the ball hits the foot, the foot should push the ball out about two to three feet away in front of the player. Then the defender has the option of where he or she wants to play the ball to next.

Quick Thinking

This is where a defender's smarts come into play. Once the ball is received and about two to three feet away, the back decides what to do next. When he or she took the glance before the ball hit his or her foot he or she was taking a picture of the field. The picture should let one know where other teammates are moving, where opponents are at, and what gaps are opening up on the field. After the perfect touch and the glance the outside back decides where to play the next ball. He or she can take as many touches as he or she wants, keeping the ball close to the body, or one can play the ball to a teammate. The ball must be played either into the space that a teammate is running or it should be played at the teammate’s foot. If the defender decides to hit a ball in the air, he or she must make sure that it is over hit; if the ball is under hit then the other team is more likely to steal the ball and counter attack.

Tackling

Say that the defender makes a mistake and plays the ball too short. The other team receives the ball and comes at the strong outside back. The back needs to be able to read what the other team is going to do. If the giants decide to come at the left back, one must be able to body up the man with the ball. Anyone on the field is allowed to push people off the ball with their own body; however, they cannot literally push someone, they have to use their own strength and not sprawl out their arms. To push someone off the ball a defender and use their shoulders and thrust them into the man with the ball, or he or she can slide tackle the opponent. Sliding is a more sophisticated way of getting the ball. One must throw their whole body to the floor and swing his or her legs toward the ball to knock it away. Sometimes the opponent will fall while the ball is hit which is where the strength of the left back’s legs come in. He or she needs to have strong legs to follow through an opponent and make them give up the ball.

Making so many tackles like this wears out one’s body. To make sure that you are not too worn out, you have to keep your endurance up. Training for about an hour and a half to two hours daily would be a great way to stay endured. Also one should go to the weight room to keep all of his or her muscles endured. Working out your legs would help, but you do not want to strengthen your muscles. Keep small weights whenever you are lifting so that your muscles stay endured. A left back needs to be able to run about seven to nine miles within ninety minutes.

Discipline

One of the last things that a left back needs is discipline. A left back has to be disciplined to the point that when he or she loses the ball, they sprint back to win it. One cannot give up on his or her team. Not only does a left back have to be disciplined on the field, but off the field as well. Off the field, you need to watch everything that you eat. You are supposed to eat as healthy as possible and try to stay away from greasy junk food and fast food. The left back, along with every other teammate, needs to perform at every practice like it is a game. Without that intensity, no one will become a better player. During practice the back needs to go hard and make tackles that he or she would in a game.

The defenders on a soccer team are very important and it is a hard position to play. Without defender, the team will not be able to be successful. Every detail must be paid attention too in the game of soccer. The details of these traits being added to your game will make you a successful outside left defender. Being endured, having discipline, being strong, having a perfect touch, and being smart are what makes a defender good at his or her position. If you are missing any of these traits then the team will be weak at defending and will most likely lose.

Go out and Play

There are many places to go out and play soccer in the Bloomington area. There are parks all over Bloomington-Normal that you can play at. There might not be any soccer nets; however, you do not need nets to play soccer. You can use two garbage cans or even set up two cones as a goal. You can play soccer anywhere in the Bloomington area if you really wanted too. All you need is a couple of people to go out and play with along with an open area of about twenty yards of space.

A place to go out and watch soccer is the Corn Crib, owned by Heartland Community College. Men's soccer is in the Fall and Women's soccer is in the Spring. This field is originally owned by the Cornbelters, a semi-pro baseball team. It is a great atmosphere to go out to the Corn Crib and play or even watch soccer. Also, Illinois State University has a club soccer team that plays during the Fall each year. You can go watch them play or even try out if you are attending ISU. If you are not a college student yet, you may want to join the travel team here in Bloomington. Bloomington started a club called the Illinois Fusion. Check them out at http://www.illinoisfusion.com/ If you are the type of person that does not think you are good enough for a club team in this area, then there is the perfect solution. Bloomington also has a youth recreation league. Check out the recreation league at http://www.bysc.org/

Check out the soccer team at Heartland Community College

To Learn more about soccer and it's history visit http://www.fifa.com/