In week five of the futsal at Huntington we concentrated on some combination play with 2 players.

First, we worked on a good cross field pass to the far post and a player arriving to finish first time.  At the start the players thought it would be easy but the lack of goals showed this wasn’t true.  Archie in goal made some great saves, and after a while the players realised the cross ball had to be driven at pace to cut the goal keeper out.

We then did two drills that involved combination play with a player acting as a pivot player.  Using a pivot player is a major tactic in futsal and consists of an attacking player playing high up the field, balls are played into him early and players feed off him with deft flicks and simple passes.  The first drill involved the players utilising an overlap and another far post finish.  The key to this drill was getting the ball for the overlap at the right pace, not an easy skill.

The second drill involved a couple of one-twos with the pivot player.  Due to the players thinking the cones had been placed for them to have to get to, at first results were varied.  But after Coach Chris told them the cones were just for reference, the play got seriously good and some fantastic combination goals were scored, coaching point to remember there, Chris!

In the final match we gave both teams a challenge by saying if they scored from a lay-off from a pivot player the goal counted as two.  Both sides scored some brilliant goals this way and the play was superb to watch.  Another great session at Huntington with so many players really giving 100% and starting to  get to grips with futsal as a game.