Training on Tuesday 23 Oct

about 22 players in attendance today. field 2 was open, so we used boots. started out with 2 rounds warm up. then we did 2 sides possession play. 2 touch football. every 7 passes 1 goal. or if you pass to your team mate through the various cones set up, also 1 goal.

after that we did 2 side football. but with a twist. see the thing is at any one time, half of one team will be running around the four corner flags. this means in the match one team will have a numerical advantage over the other team. the larger team then has to play with one touch, while the other team has free touch. once the runners return, the smaller team now becomes the team with the numerical advantage. so they now use one touch while the other team has free touch. each running group ran about 4 rounds.

then, we did 2 side football again, but this time 6v6, with neutral players on the outside. 2 touch football. did about 5 sets. then cool down with 2 rounds. following which 50 push ups 50 sit ups. end of training.

the keys of today's training - always know where you are going to pass, or what you are going to do with the ball, even before you receive the ball. next, when outnumbered (during the second exercise), stay close as a unit and soak up the pressure, instead of closing down aimlessly and being passed off the park. lastly (this point was brought up during the last exercise), play more direct football. instead of passing around the pitch to look nice, you can also look for the deep penetrative ball to the neutral player who can then knock the ball down for another player to score.

oh yes - and a big shoutout shout out to kola! (is that how your name is spelt?) PhD student (from nigeria i think). he joined us for training today, and maybe in the future too...