Dealing With Long Balls | Winning the Aerial Battle and Switching Fast

Overview

• Teams whose players need to handle long balls cleanly and consistently
• Teams that want to sharpen up aerial battles and the quick attack-to-defense flip right after
• Players who want to learn to deal with set pieces and long feeds from both sides of the ball — defending and attacking

Objectives

• Get your players handling long balls cleanly and consistently
• Dial in positioning and timing when battling for the ball in the air
• Handle the quick switch between attack and defense the moment the battle ends
• Build the ability to defend as an organized unit and make smart, efficient decisions going forward

Setup

This is a long-ball SSG (small-sided game) on a 30 x 50 field with 14 players.

1）The game kicks off with the goalkeeper playing it out

2）Defenders aren’t man-marked — they position themselves freely

3）Once the ball gets around midfield, players launch a long ball toward the opponent’s box

4）From there the battle for the ball is on, and it runs until someone scores, clears it, or wins it back

5）The moment the ball is won, players switch fast from defense to attack and go the other way