Soccer warm-up: tactics with Daphne

Daphne’s delayed the start of practice by half an hour today. She sent an email asking everyone to warm-up first, but you’re too curious about why to do that. Instead of warming up, you text Daphne, asking if you can be of any assistance, and a minute later, you get a location.

You show up to the media studies building, heading upstairs to one of the screening rooms. It’s set up like a mini-theatre, three rows of chairs in front of a big screen. Daphne’s hooked her laptop up to the projector in the back, footage of a soccer match playing on the screen. It looks like it’s shot from the sidelines, the quality a far cry from the games broadcast on TV. Daphne’s taking detailed notes on her tablet as she watches the game play out. She’s wearing her coach’s outfit today, a white polo and shorts that hug her form very flatteringly.

“Alex, great to see you. I’m putting together some notes on a set piece I want to drill today,” she says. “One of my friends at Franklin showed up to their games and shot some footage for us. We’re playing them this weekend and I want to be prepared.”

She lets the paused clip play, revealing the opposing team taking a corner. You watch the play with interest. The ball is kicked straight into the box, where a moment of chaos unfolds. Two people head the ball in quick succession, others are scrambling, and it’s only a wild kick from a defender that sends the ball off the sidelines.

“See how that happened?” she says, replaying the clip. “How did the other team get so close to scoring?”

“It goes wrong here,” you say, pointing at a big dude. “That center-back should have the striker marked, but he’s slow to react.”

“Exactly, well-spotted! If we put Javier right here, he should have a good chance of breaking away and getting a chance at goal,” she says. “Even better if we overload that center-back, so I’ll put Jack right here too. He’s not as clean at finishing yet, but he’ll be a good distraction.”

“That moment’s hesitation could mean everything,” you agree.

“Good,” she nods, rolling a new clip. “Let’s talk about tactics in open play.”

The two of you sit and watch for a couple minutes, bouncing ideas off of each other, but nothing inspiring comes out of the talk. That is, until you spot the center-back again.

“Look at his pace here,” you say, pointing. “He’s tired.”

“That’s not so easy to exploit. He’s got a lot of good passing options,” Daphne frowns. “They’re keeping a high defensive line.”

“They like these long balls from goal to their defenders, which is risky, and to their credit, that keeper’s got a pretty good foot,” you say. Daphne nods in agreement, jotting down good at distribution in her notes. “They can convert into an attack quickly, because the squad is so compact into the opposition’s third. But what if we hit them right where it hurts? Exploit them with some aggression of our own?”

Daphne’s eyes widen. She makes a couple notes on her tablet, dragging the players on your team around the pitch, and shows you the formation, drawing a few suggestive arrows.

“A high press like this?” she says. “That’s what you’re thinking, right?”

“You know it,” you smile. “We’ll have to train for it today. It’s hard to keep coordinated, but we can practice those runs. Just imagine how we’ll tear through their defense.”

“Franklin’s got a lot of talent on their team this year, but they’re young, not experienced enough against these formations,” Daphne nods. “I like the sound of this. Let me draw up some practice drills.”

As she does so, you watch a couple more minutes of footage, examining their players, noting their habits and tics. This girl favors her left foot, almost to the point that she won’t take a first touch with her right. That guy is good at finding space—he’s a dangerous one to watch out for.

“We’ll need to be careful about the counterattack,” Daphne says, looking up. “We’ll need you and the others on defense to be very sharp.”

“We can do it,” you say, confident in your abilities. “The high press is always going to be a risk, but we’ve got a solid back line. You can count on me.”

Daphne nods, smiling. “Then it’s settled. Good work today, Alex. Your insight has really helped the team.”

“Sure thing,” you reply, smiling back at her.

There’s a sparkle in her eyes, and all you think is game recognizes game. You don’t think you’ve ever caught her looking at you in this way before. You could get used to it.

Daphne +20