3v3 Tournament Strategies

      The information below is compiled over the years from a large number of coaches and from the Soccer-Coach-L e-mail list. 

Ken Gamble 2004

       Below is some of the advice I received from other coaches about 3v3 strategies from a few years ago. I used it to co-coach a team that won a 3v3 tournament several years ago.

      Joel Wheeler and Karl Keller had some of the best advice. As far as practicing we played 3v3 games over and over. We set up a field (small goals, crease area in front of goals) just like the tournament. And we rotated the players so that they played all three spots so that subbing could be done without thinking.

     We played a 2 forward, one sweeper system and made sure the other teams NEVER had open shots on the goal. The two forwards had to play lots of defense and make quick transitions to attacking. The sweeper had to be a great ball handler who could bring the ball out of the back and force the other team's defenders to come to him so that he could hit a teammate with an open pass. On the attack we shot every time we saw a slight opening. We subbed at least every minute.
 

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3v3 Tournaments

      This is the epitome of the small sided game. The best coaching approach is to find a patch of ground, two goals, six players, and play, play, play. Draw the goal area with paint, sticks, cones, or something and make sure that they are penalized for touches there, so that they learn the hard way. Don't try to nail them into positions. If you try to have a "back" player, then the other two will stand there and watch as he/she gets beaten and the opponent goes for goal. Coach them to win the ball and keep it, looking for a shot. Get hold of the rules and be sure you know little details, like what this tournament calls a penalty kick and how to take it. Practice the little things a little, but not too much.

      Here is what I found to be successful. Rule #1 HAVE FUN! then. . . Shoot and score often and don't worry about the negatives of running up the score. Get to 10 as quickly as possible. Try to have a "rebounder" in place for misguided shots. Look for a shot on the opening kick. We got a least one a game when the front of the goal was left open. All it takes is a tap then a chip. Defend the opening kick with player at the top of the circle a defender in front of the crease and a crasher on the side of the circle. The crasher goes to the ball upon the initial touch, the others stays home and defend initial play up the middle. On defense, stress the importance of getting back between the ball and the goal as soon as you get beat. Fundamental but usually disregarded. On corner kicks, stay above and beyond the goal at the crease on offense. Defending, I use a two player wall between the corner and the goal at the crease, the loose player plays the open opponent out front. On subs, I found benefit in rotating the players in to the front and out from the defenders position. Make sure your other players know the sub is coming to rotate back to defense. I am not sure how old these teams are but stress team scoring over individual scoring. Spread out on offense, compact on defense. It's basic soccer and remember rule #1 above.
      Brad Niedert Panther S. C. Oswego, IL
 

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       I just participated in a large 3v3 tournament in Edwardsville IL with a GU8 team that had the same rules except the goals were 6x4. The U8 girls won their division with a 4-0 record. We defensively dominated the other teams with immediate unrelenting pressure on the ball. We forced several turnovers on kick-ins because we marked very tight with the sweeper floating at mid-field. No team had a plan to get the ball in against this pressure yet on a lot of our kick-ins the other team dropped back and allowed us to back-pass to the sweeper, who either shot or took it back to the player who made the kick-in because she was not marked either. I could write a book on what I saw but I'll try to keep it short.
 

1. Players have to recover immediately after loss of possession. Teach them the proper recovery angle.
    
2. I played with a sweeper. They must be aggressive but show patience on defense. They have got to stay between the ball and the goal, force the other player to the touch line and tackle only after support has arrived.
    
3. The sweeper has to be an offensive threat. If the wing has penetrated deep
   the drop pass to the sweeper is always on. My U8s learned to back pass in preparation for this tournament. This is a testament to teaching with small sided games. It works!
    
4. You need a plan for kick-ins against pressure. We stacked in the middle of the field and showed wide. We always kicked-in to the touch. Kick-ins to the middle of the field are trouble.
    
5. The games are intense. You need to sub often. My girls were very versatile and it helped. Practice all your players in all of the positions.
    
6. It was hot! Begin several days before the tournament and make sure your players are properly hydrated and eat lots of carbohydrates. If you have a break between games, keep them off their feet and keep them cool. We actually took a drive in an air-conditioned van to cool off.
    
7. Practice shooting to the small goals. We used push-pass technique for most shots.
    
8. Practice penalty kicks and have competition. We won the championship game 3-2, but I believe we were prepared for a shoot-out because we had practiced.
    
9. Play hard and have fun! If you have a list of cities, would like to know nearest city to St Louis.
   
   Joel Wheeler (GU10) Rec Belleville, IL
   
    

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     The only tactical surprise was the strategy many teams had of shooting as soon as they crossed midfield. This lead many teams to station their sweeper just outside the goal box. This lead to teams playing 2 on 3 on their offensive end resulting in low scoring games. We did not play this way as our sweeper is the quarterback of our offense and pushes up well inside the midfield. I think the results speak for themselves. The only negative thing I saw was many of the professionally coached club teams had been taught to push and hold. I found it rather disturbing to see these tactics so prevalent in such young teams especially in what is advertised by the rules as NO CONTACT soccer. The refs let everything go but to their credit they were consistent and it was up to us to adjust and we did.

     I noticed that the goal box dead zone tournament rules for 3v3 are somewhat different than the dead zone rules used in our local 4v4. There have been several "complaints" about the dead zone rule in recent posts.

Our local 4v4 rule states:
1. ) Playing fields shall be 26 yards long and 22 yards wide.
2. ) The size of the goal will be 3 ft. (high) by 5 ft. (wide).
3. ) A DEAD ZONE, an 8 ft. semi-circle, will be marked in front of each goal.
4. ) No player may enter the DEAD ZONE. The dead zone is a foreign concept in light of the "real" game. But once the children get used to it, they learn to "finish" before they get to the zone. In the local game, the farthest you are away from the goal is 4 feet. One "trick" we teach is to make a run to the far side of the dead zone/goal, on a CK or goal-side kick-in, then tap it in off the through pass. The dead zone can be your friend. Use it, like the ref, for a "pick and roll". So, while it is different, it gives the player an opportunity to solve different kinds of problems in a fun, game environment. This is one of the great things about small side games, right? It can be very humorous to watch someone fall all over themselves in an attempt to stay out of the zone. Regards,
Jeff Hugghins
 

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How about strategy?

I was thinking about playing in a triangle two kids up and one back. We use the same triangle. I was going to put the slow kid in back so he can get into position for defense and he will turn the ball over the least- which should be good considering he's the back line. Most goals results from turnovers in your end. Your sweeper should be a great ball distributor with good judgment or as good as can be expected for a U8. Lack of speed will hurt you in the back. Better have a backup plan. And have the other two kids play a zone- each gets half of the field, with the sweeper helping where needed. My concern is that they are U8 and not sure they will understand zone. So the alternative is to pick a man and mark him no matter where he goes. As U8 my kids marked man-man on all inbounds but dropped back into a basic zone. We have swapped over to more of a combo now since as they get older you have to be able to put pressure on their sweeper. We have two different ways to do that but probably too complicated for U8.
       On offense? I was thinking to keep the triangle to have one player back to stop any counterattacks (the field is only 30 yrds long). Yes, but push up to support for the back-pass option. Other than that I don't know what else to do? And take a shot whenever you are open- since the field is only 30 yrds. Any suggestions? As U8s we were able to take the ball down the side and go 1v1. If unable drop pass to the sweeper for the shot. At this age their sweeper will probably not come out to challenge. As they get older the drop pass starts a give and go that can be effective. If sweeper has time and space play through balls to the corner flags for immediate counter. Any delay can only lead to trouble in your end. IMHO the two keys to playing 3v3 are immediate and relentless pressure on the ball, and the ability of your wingers to get back goal-side of their marks on loss of possession. I wrote a long E-mail on 3v3 tactics several weeks ago. Refer to that if you can find it. You should have a plan however simple for getting the ball in play especially on your goal kicks. Poor goal kicks will kill you. E-mail off list if you need more.

Joel Wheeler GU10

You can get more information on the Summit Sports series of 3v3 tournaments at:
http://www.summit3on3.com/
 

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You probably want to start with an obvious 2 back, 1 midfielder triangle, having your best defender back. If you have numbers, you can also practice for the tourney marking man to man.
Good luck, Jose Padilla u-8
Coach Marco Antonio Etcheverry Soccer Academy

 

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       We usually play the reverse of what Jose suggests. We leave one "sweeper" back just outside of the goal box (an arc in our tournaments) and two midfielders left to mark the other team or to make offensive runs.
       The "sweepers" have the primary responsibility of 1) putting themselves between the ball and the goal, 2) starting the counter attack when no defender picks him up, and 3) passing to the open midfielders.
       The two midfielders have the responsibility to make the offensive runs forward and the defensive runs back. One of them also has to rotate back to cover for the sweeper in the event he pushes up. It's very conservative, I know. I'm sure it's not considered complete soccer. The sole defender often appears to be little more than a goalkeeper, but in 3v3 all it takes is a split second on the offensive half of the field for the opposition to score on an open goal.
        My kid's teams have been extremely successful with it. Playing the reverse often results in two defenders on either side of the goal watching the ball "split" them right into the goal.
        Above all, instruct your kids to shoot, shoot, shoot.

John Dorman
 

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       I was elected 3v3 coach for my son's teams last year (they did 3 tournaments), and I/we learned a lot along the way. These are the things I found worked with my players (U12/13 boys select players at the time)

1. formation - 1 back 2 up. - We tried the 2 back 1 up the previous year and it did not work well for us. The players would rotate to the back/sweeper position to get a bit of a breather.
2. Defense - Man to man goal-side. We tried a zone with horrible results. Front players have to come back behind the ball to help - at least one for sure.
3. Substitution - more frequent that you will think. We had a 4 player roster and started out with a 1. 5 minute sub pattern (players played 4. 5 minute shifts) too long for my guys - subbing every minute seemed to help a lot (1 minute rest, 3 minutes of play).
4. Team work - your players have to be willing to switch roles and fill as necessary.
5. Goal Kicks - have a plan/play or two ready. screwing these up will cost you big time.
6. Conditioning - see substitution - they gotta be able to run effectively for 3 minutes or so.
    

     Sooo how did we do? Got knocked out in the quarter finals in the first tourney, won the consolation championship in the second. In the third finished second in our group (went 2 and 1) loosing to the group champ 0-1 on what I thought was a bad goal (Off a corner, In my eyes the player was in the box when he touched it into the goal).
     I thought the players played well in all but the first couple of games we played, and I blame myself for that. Once we went to the man d, and getting behind the ball on d, we did much better. Like I said, these are things that worked well for my team. Yours may be different. I did use the same thing with a u8 3v3 team and they did well in the one tournament they played in making it to the semi's before getting beat by one of the U8 super teams here. for them basically they ran out of gas.
    

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      Had two 3v3 teams last summer, U9 and U10 girls. We played in three tournaments plus the Midwest Regional. U-9's are talented winning two tournaments and one second. U-10' were new to each other finished 3rd,
4th, and 5th. Both teams played in the regional, U-9's winning first three but losing in overtime to qualify for the nationals, and the U-10's opened up against the defending national champs, lost 9-3, didn't win a game, but played close in the last two games. Here is my system in a brief format. Contact me off-line with questions.
 

1. Yes we play man-to-man on the wingers with the sweeper playing second defender. If their winger drops the ball back to the sweeper our defender will follow the ball to apply pressure and the sweeper will move up to take her mark. In basketball would be known as the run and jump.
    
2. Penalty kicks are taken from midfield. Rarely called during a game but will be the tiebreaker after a 3 minute sudden death overtime in the semi-final or championship game.
    
3. Transition is the key work. Your sweeper needs to be able to deliver a diagonal through ball to either winger. On the the other hand your players have to understand that upon loss of possession they have to recover IMMEDIATELY and get goal-side of their marks. When our wingers encounter pressure they turn and drop pass to the sweeper and then make a run to the near post for the give and go. If opposing sweeper starts to favor ball side too much sweeper will send diagonal through ball to opposite winger.
    
4. Our set pieces are pretty extensive so here goes. Most important inbound is your goal kick. You must avoid turnovers in front of your goal. We run both a wide and a narrow formation. Goal kicks are taken anywhere from the end line. We set the ball about 10 feet outside the goal posts. We stack both wingers in front of the ball. Sweeper is four steps behind the ball. Wingers move on sweeper movement. Near side winger breaks straight to the sideline and sweeper passes 45 degree angle to the sideline. With the proper timing winger and ball meet just short of sideline. Off side winger steps forward and turns to get goalside of ball as it rolls on the ground. This puts her in immediate position to play defense in case bad pass or winger loss of possession. Sweeper steps into field and becomes second defender to offside winger. On wide formations on side winger lines on the sideline and draws her mark as close to your goal line as possible. This sets up a through ball to the sideline behind the mark. Rule is if winger is closely marked pass to space, if winger is loosely marked pass to feet. This rule always applies during the game also. Offside winger on wide formation has same responsibility.
    
5. Kickoffs can go in any direction. We put fastest winger wide (either side). The other winger takes the kickoff and drops the ball to the sweeper. She plays diagonal through ball to wide winger making a curved run to the near post. Off side winger after taking the kickoff makes run to far post. Winger receiving the through ball goes directly to near post for the shot or crosses to other winger if sweeper steps out to pressure (a basic two on one). We score at least once a game on the kickoff sometimes with only two or three touches.
    
6. Corners and sidelines. We play quickly before the other team has a chance to mark. Basic drop pass to the sweeper the winger who made the inbound then running to near post. Offside winger gets wide to other side in case give and go is not there then the sweeper will switch fields. On the corner we line up offside winger on the opposite side of the box straddling the top corner. When the winger inbounds to sweeper, she runs along the goal line for the return pass. She then crosses through the box. Offside winger waits for the ball to cross through the goal box and then taps ball in the side. We try to bait the other teams sweeper to step into the goal box. Sometimes the corner will just be a cross through the box. If the sweeper is closely marked on a corner or any kick-in from the sideline, the sweeper draws her marks back and toward the sideline to set up a through ball. The sweeper breaks toward the space she has just created for the inbound pass.
    

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     They will have lots of fun, regardless of the game results, but you probably want to spend some time creating a 3v3 field and playing with the peculiar
3v3 rules. You can find a full set of the rules on the internet - check the URLS in the coaching manual. The reason to spend some time in this different format is that some of the rules will drive your kids nuts at first. I took my u10s last year, and it was interesting to see the problems. For instance, my best D had lots of difficulty coping with the notion that he could not retreat back into the goal mouth if needed - and that he couldn't do a slider to whack the ball out of the goal mouth either. We actually had to end up moving him out of the back because he simply couldn't adjust (his defensive instincts were too set - and, to be honest, his natural habits were correct ones, so. . . hated to spend time trying to undo something good). The kid who replaced him as D was quite solid in his defensive skills (and could adjust to the box idea) - but had a weak kick. As a result, we had some problems on some goal kicks and some clearances. Ultimately, this weak kick proved to create such problems that he had to be pushed up to the attacking group. We found that the best positioning (used by most other teams as well) seemed to be to have one back player, one wide player (similar to a mid) and one deeper player (more like an ACM) who set up in the familiar triangle. The back player does need to push up and slide over to provide back-pass options
(well, for u8, probably more to simply get into position in the area where the ball is more likely to pop out : +). We also found that most scoring occurred towards the end of the game - because fitness really starts to show as the deep player (or wing) fails to get back to help. If you notice than an opponent's players are not getting back, this can be an ideal time to play some deep balls (no offsides) and try to get some 1v1s or fast-break options. So, build a field with some spray paint and cone goals (or flags with a string tied at the right height), and have some real-life scrimmages to work out the kinks. And, to answer a question which immediately came up when we did this, a ball which comes to rest in the goal area without going into the net results in a goal kick for the defenders.
 

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My son and 3 of his teammates did 3 v 3 -- we finished 1-2, losing in the in the final game to the eventual champs. Both losses by a couple of goals--creamed our one opponent in the victory. We could have easily been 3-0. Some ideas:
 

1. Get a pair of small goals or PUGGs and lay out a field with the exact dimensions. Practice at least 3 times before you go. Practice 3- touch, and
   2-touch only. Practice runs.
2. 1-2 formation with sweeper and 2 forwards.
3. On offense, one forward at corner strong-side, one at top of goal. Triangle, Triangle, Triangle, 10-12 yards support. Bunching equals losing.
4. Identify weakest player on other team. Give carte blanc to all your guys to beat off dribble. But better see passing elsewhere.
5. Teach three easy runs. First is scissors run where corner and top of goal forward switch sides. When it works, defenders bump into each other and one guy springs free. Easiest. Second occurs if ball is won at half way line. Ball played into space at strong-side corner, forward runs on. Somewhat easy. Third is ball into top of box forward who lays off to sweeper running to weak-side corner space. Corner forward rotates back to sweeper position. Hardest.
6. Shoot, shoot, shoot -- keep the ball low.
7. In offensive half, always hard to the ball. In defensive half, contain.
   (See 8)
8. On defense, the name of the game is (a) man mark goalside and (b) contain, contain, contain. With the small field, a missed tackle more often than not means a goal. So better to give up ground while keeping goalside than lunging and leaving a wide open angle. Your opponents have also been told to shoot shoot shoot, so keeping position may lead to a poor shot selection if you're between him and the goal.
    

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      Coaches: On the 3v3 tournament strategies: To assess the value (to the players) of coaching; and in an effort to support one of the last remaining bastions of soccer FUN and of "figuring it out for one's self, " too many of you coaches are way off base! Back off! Let the kids figure it out for themselves! Are you confident enough (as a coach) to sideline a portion of your ego for just a few brief 3v3 games? Hell, the original posting was about a bunch of 10-year olds, wasn't it? And look at the extent to which super soccer coaching science has evolved (or deteriorated). The origin of today's Summit Sports 3v3 tournament series (originally Cramer Sports, then Triple Crown 3v3 Shootout) was a festive Saturday & Sunday, in the park, with friends and family, hamburgers & hotdogs, skills contests, popcorn, Tony-the-Tiger (Kelloggs was among the first national sponsors) and Chiquita bananas, watermelons and cold drinks, resulting in 3v3 FUN SOCCER. OK, there were winners and losers - but more often than not, a group of four players was self-directed. Not "coached" but sometimes parent-supported and assisted. And guess what? The players did just fine! And they played, sometimes observed, eventually they figured it out for themselves - what works, what doesn't. Most of all, they had so much fun they kept coming back for more, and more, and more. Even those who didn't win, experienced enough fun to keep coming back. Why ratchet up the coaching? Keep in mind we adults can really screw things up for kids who are out for a good time. When, where, and how do we let them grow by leaving enough slack to allow them to experience their errors, then better themselves by making the necessary adjustments? It's called Learning! And it doesn't always need an egotistical (must win) adult to make it happen. And when the kids do figure it out, the lessons may become more valued achievements than anything you can Coach into them. So take a break from coaching, bring an aluminum lounger to the park, enjoy your time as a parent. Cheer them on, make friends from among those on the other sideline. Demonstrate to your kids the fact we're all part of the human family which sometimes gets together to enjoy soccer just for the fun of it. Enjoy the game we love, Dan Grunfeld
 

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I took a group of U-10 boys, all from two traveling teams, to 3v3 tournament. Using many of the principles Joel Wheeler has outlined in previous posts, we had two short practices, and came out of the tournament
3-1, and easily could have been undefeated with a break. All the teams we played were made up of traveling team players as well-- some with more talented individual players, but with no system. (The team we lost to (5-4) was well coached and VERY talented). Look up Joel's previous posts in the archives for great ideas, especially for set plays. We modified them slightly and they worked well. When I coach, I like to give two-to-three word phrases attached to specific ideas that the kids can process easily. So to Joel's spot-on ideas, I would add/modify the following ideas/phrases:

OFFENSE:

• "Ball on the ground" -- on the small field, air balls lead to bad first touches and out of bounds/lost possession. Spend 10 minutes or so each practice on passing to space/corners with an teammate running on so they get a sense of the pace necessary to get the ball there. I tell them "better too fast than too slow", since slow balls will more likely be intercepted.
• "Pass to weak-side" -- explain the difference betweens strong and weak-sides and get them in the habit of looking to pass weak-side. Play a quick 3 v 2 scrimmage where the 3 can only score if a weak-side pass is made.
• "Pass to corners" -- very effective weapon.
• "Good triangles, good spacing" -- not only the key shape in 3 v 3, but in full sided soccer as well.
• "Lose your mark" -- a much more concrete expression than "run off the ball"
• "Our dead balls, stay ball side" -- so you can receive
• "Scissor runs" -- our in-bounds play was a simple scissors run, where our guys would cut on the nod of the kicker, and where our objective was to get their marks to bump into one another. Whenever it happened, I gave each of the kids a ticket to one of the skills games.
   

DEFENSE:

• "Their dead balls, stay goal side" -- so they don't get behind the defense.
• "Defense, stay goalside" -- again, so they don't get behind you
• "Mark weak-side" -- the obverse of "pass weak-side. " This is the weak-side forward's key defensive responsibility.
• "Support to center" -- critical. If the area in front of goal is unoccupied you're toast. Someone has to patrol that area. Reinforcing this concept allowed us to stymie a number of 2 v 1 breaks.
• "No Lunging! " -- as Joel pointed out, stepping in when the other guy has control is a sure way to get beat off the dribble. Maintain balance, staying goalside. Even if the guy has control, he can't shoot the ball through you. Again, for every game that no lunging occurred, I gave them each a ticket to a skill game. The last two games there wasn't a single lunge.
• "Attack the bad touch" -- If your mark has a tough first touch, close down. I agree completely with Joel that 3 v 3 is a great game, with great lessons to teach that are directly applicable to the full sided game. And I think you can be serious and focused as you prepare them, and they can still have a lot of fun.
   

Karl Keller
 

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  Web Administrator    Ken Gamble