A soccer formation is the way that the coach arranges his eleven players on the field. Generally these rotate around the four cardinal soccer positions for football formations: goalkeeper, defense, midfield, and attack. The formations given in numbers are simply the number of defenders, midfielders, and attackers in the line-up. (There's no need to provide the 1 at the start for a goalkeeper as it's pretty much a given that every team needs one goalie!)
Formations make a difference as they can cancel out what the opposition coach has planned, as well as serve the strengths of your own soccer team. For example, if you have three great forwards, you might try a 4-3-3, or if you have some very fast, fit, small players, you can attack up the wings in a 4-4-2.
With that in mind, we'll take a look at some of the popular soccer formations below.
4-4-2: Every aspiring soccer coach has the 442 as his trusty standby. This classic formation grew popular in the mid-to-late 20th century and features four defenders, four midfielders, and two forwards. Within this there is variance, but generally the players who are in the middle are more defensive while the creativity comes from out wide. Tall, commanding centre-backs can pass the ball to swift full-backs, who play at either side of the defensive 'four', and they will in turn feed the 'wingers' ahead of them, while the central midfielders will play the simple passes and also tackle the opposition. Up front are two strikers whose job it is to hold the ball up and wait for support, or simply to put it in the back of the net!
4-4-2 Diamond: This 4-4-2 variant places more emphasis on central play, with a ?playmaker? in the middle of the midfield four supporting the forwards. This must be a player of vision and with a great pass. The full-backs have to support the forwards, too, with bursting runs, while the remaining three midfielders have a lot of defensive work to do.
3-5-2: The 3-5-2 works similarly up front to the other two, but other than that it varies due to a change on the wings ? the wide part of the field. The five-man midfield generally contains two ?wing-backs?, who combine the role of the full back with that of an attacker. These players must be very fit as they'll be running up and down those lines for a full 90 minutes! As soccer lineups go the 3-5-2 is becoming unfashionable, but with the right wide players available, not to mention a tough-tackling defensive midfielder in the middle of the five, it can work very well.
4-5-1: A very 'negative', defensive formation, the 4-5-1 ironically gives a great deal of work to the lone attacker up front. This striker may have to do a lot of dribbling, holding up the ball, and passing backwards to gain the support of his midfield. Still, with wingers, it can be a fine formation with which to practice the 'counter-attack' (breaking forward to score while the opposition are
Providing the telling through balls, clever touches and ability on the ball to carve open opposition defences, the attacking midfielder is often the most gifted footballer on the pitch. Traditionally, attacking midfielders will also possess a great shot and can often rival the forwards in the goalscoring charts.
Attacking midfielders can be many types of different players, with some being primarily skilful like Darren Fletcher, while others rely on speed of thought like Barry Venison. The attacking midfielder is difficult to mark as he makes dynamic runs and floats around the pitch like a carrier bag in the canal.
The best attacking midfielders of the last thirty years have all excelled on the biggest stage of all - the FIFA World Cup. Paul 'Gazza' Gascoigne rose to international fame with some exhilarating performances for England at Italia '90.
Gazza's skill, dribbling and goal-creation took his country to the brink of the final, before a booking would have ruled him out. As the realisation hit him, Gascoigne cried as the world watched. His tears and his abilities made him a star, as England sadly lost in a penalty shoot-out to West Germany.
Gascoigne showed so much promise, and with England's expectations came bitter disappointment. He suffered horrific injuries and his career suffered in much the same way. He rekindled some of the flame at Euro '96 with one of the best goals of the tournament against Scotland, before another semi-final shoot out defeat at the hands of Germany.
Although Gascoigne possessed skill of such a high standard, his ability is dwarfed by the Frenchman Zinedine Zidane. A genius with a football, Zidane would win every trophy in the game and amazingly become an international hero with his last soccer action - headbutting the annoying Marco Materazzi.
Zidane played at the very highest level, and always looked a different class to everybody else. He possessed every skill needed to be a great footballer, although his temperament was somewhat questionable as shown in the FIFA World Cup Final 2006.
Zidane's honours include three UEFA Champions League finals (with a solitary victory), two Serie A titles, one La Liga title, various cups in France, Italy and Spain as well as the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship. Zidane has also won FIFA World Player of the Year on three occasions and been transferred for a world-record 76 million euros.
The heir to Zidane's throne, and with the possibility of being even better, is the AC Milan and Brazil player Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, known as Kaka. At the age of 26, Kaka has already won the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League and various other cups and league titles.
Kaka is very similar to Zidane in his ability to pick out a defence-splitting pass, as well beat players with speed and trickery. Kaka has currently played 58 times for Brazil scoring an impressive 22 goals. His club football has seen him play for Sao Paulo and AC Milan, while a host of clubs have attempted to tempt him away with multi-million pound offers.
Attacking midfielders of the likes of Gascoigne, Zidane and Kaka make the game of soccer what it is. Their skill and passion for the game are paramount to their teams' ability to score goals and win games. As part of the midfield unit they help make the ball move fluently from defence to attack and make the game a feast for the supporters' eyes.
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Nigel Reed has sinced written about articles on various topics from Web Development, Recreation and Sports and Web Development. Nigel Reed has been involved in soccer during the 60's, 70's and 80's as a player and has been coaching youth soccer in Australia since 2000. Learn more on. Nigel Reed's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.
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