Give-and-go to goal

Press play to watch it run. Open it in Playmaker to move the players and draw it your way.

Soccer drill · Under-9 and up

The one-two is the simplest way to beat a defender who is doing everything right. The player on the ball draws the defender, plays it into a team-mate, sprints past on the blind side and gets it straight back to shoot.

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Adding it to a session puts it on your run sheet with its time and cue. It does not use up one of your saved plays.

Time
15 minutes
Players
3 at a time plus a keeper: attacker, wall player, defender
Equipment
  • 1 goal and a keeper
  • 4 to 6 cones
  • 6 to 10 balls

Setup

  1. Start the attacker 30 yards from goal with a ball, slightly left of centre.
  2. Put the wall player 20 yards out on the right side of the area, facing the ball.
  3. Put a defender between the attacker and the goal, 8 to 10 yards from the attacker.
  4. The attacker dribbles at the defender, passes to the wall player, runs past the defender and receives the return to shoot.
  5. Rotate: attacker becomes wall player, wall player becomes defender, defender joins the attacking queue.

Coaching points

  • Dribble straight at the defender so they have to step towards you; a defender who is not committed is not beaten by a one-two.
  • Pass and go in one movement. The run starts as the ball leaves your foot, not when it arrives.
  • Run past the defender on their blind side, behind their shoulder, where they cannot watch you and the ball at once.
  • Wall player: return it first time, into the space in front of the runner, not to their feet.

On the run sheet: Draw the defender first, pass and sprint past their blind side, wall player returns it first time

Progressions

  1. Start the defender passive (they can only block), then live.
  2. Let the defender track the runner, so the return pass has to be perfectly weighted.
  3. Add a second defender on the wall player, who now has to come off them to receive.

How it runs

The attacker carries the ball straight at the defender, and the defender has to step up to stop them. That step is the moment. The attacker slides the ball into the wall player and sprints past the defender on the side the defender is not looking at; the wall player plays it back first time into the space behind; the attacker is through on goal. The animation shows exactly that sequence, ending with the finish past the keeper.

Start with the defender only allowed to block, so the attackers learn the timing before they have to do it under pressure. Then make it live.

Why it works

A defender cannot watch the ball and the runner at the same time once the ball has gone past them. A one-two turns one defender into a two-against-one for the length of a single pass, which is why it beats good defenders as well as bad ones. It is also a habit that transfers straight into matches: the pass is easy, the run is the part players forget, and this drill makes the run the whole point.

The mistakes to watch for

Passing too early, before the defender has stepped up. Standing still after the pass. And wall players who take a touch to control it, by which time the defender has turned and the gap has gone.

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It lands on your practice plan already timed, with the coaching cue printed under it, next to your own plays.

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