World Cup 2010

[Fat Strat]

lol... sorry Jim, but there are actually 11 players on the field in a soccer game. The goalie is a given, I suppose.

A 4-5-1 is four fullbacks, 5 mid-fielders, and 1 forward. A very loose analogy for it might be a two-tight end, 1 WR set in football. You know they're not going to be throwing it deep from that alignment. 3 yards and a cloud of dust.

5 midfielders is certaily a more defensive-oriented lineup than the traditional 4-4-2, but it really just depends on how the midfielders are used and the quality of the players involved.

[jim]

lol... sorry Jim, but there are actually 11 players on the field in a soccer game. The goalie is a given, I suppose.

A 4-5-1 is four fullbacks, 5 mid-fielders, and 1 forward. A very loose analogy for it might be a two-tight end, 1 WR set in football. You know they're not going to be throwing it deep from that alignment. 3 yards and a cloud of dust.

5 midfielders is certaily a more defensive-oriented lineup than the traditional 4-4-2, but it really just depends on how the midfielders are used and the quality of the players involved.

So what are the various formations? I reckon you can change? How do you sub in soccer? Is it like a hockey line change?

[Tambourine Man]

Each team gets 3 substitutions per game, and they're done when the ball is dead (out of bounds, penalty, after a goal). You'll see the incoming player report to the ref and wait near midfield for the next dead ball.

4-3-3 is another formation I remember using a bit growing up, but 4-4-2 is by far the most common.

I've been sporting my England cap all week.

[StL Dan]

I wonder how many of the soccer haters like nascar.

I don't hate soccer, there are several components of it that ruin it, though.

OTOH, I DO hate DAMNASCAR

[Fat Strat]

Yeah, we did play a little 4-3-3, too. Mostly, though, it was 4-4-2, with the center mids playing one up and one back.

I always liked playing that back center mid position, but man that was a lot of running back and forth...

[thrill]

A UScentric soccer blog that I read called "The Shin Guardian" posted about the likely formations and tactics for the England-US game.



In this diagram you'll see we play close to a traditional "bucket" 4-4-2. It's called a bucket because it's shaped like a bucket with a handle. In the traditional 4-4-2 formation, the two central midfielders stay further away from goal to break up passes through the middle of the field from the opponents and just generally be a nuisance trying to keep them from advancing into our area. The two outside midfielders are called the "wingers" and they try to get forward towards the opposing goal to get involved in the offensive attack. The two "forwards" stay forwards (hence the name) towards the opponents goal and try to score goals. In this formation, the two central midfielders have a lot of defensive responsibility. The wingers have a little defensive responsibility but primarily are there for offense and the forwards have very little obligation to play defense. I should clarify that when I say "play defense" what I mean is they'll spend very little time in the defensive half of the field, aka the half close to our goalkeeper. They'll still of course try to steal the ball when they can.

Like this
-------g-------
-d--d--d--d-
-m-m-m-m-
----f---f----

The letters stand for Goalkeeper, Defender, Midfielder and Forward.

England you'll notice plays a 4-4-2, but the middle of the field is more of a diamond, like this:
----------g---------
---d---d---d---d---
---------m---------
---m---------m----
---------m---------
-------f----f-------

In this formation, the red midfielder plays a very defensive role. He stays back to break up passes and possession from the opponents trying to get in close to his goal. The blue midfielder has very little responsibility to track back and defend. His primary function is to get the ball in the midfield and distribute passes to the forwards or to get forward himself and try to score. This is a less conservative formation than the traditional 4-4-2 we play because instead of having two defenders who's primary function is to defend, they have one and then another who's primary function is to be a playmaker. In tomorrow's case that will be Chelsea's Frank Lampard (elite goal scorer from the midfield and excellent play maker) as the blue m and Michael Carrick from Manchester United as the red m. Look for Aaron Lennon from Tottenham to be the right wing (facing goal he'd be on the right side) and Liverpool's Steven Gerrard to be on the left.

Understand that Lampard and Gerrard are world class. Better than anyone on our team. Lennon has blinding speed and Carrick, though not as formidable as the other's, has tons of experience playing for the best club in England and therefore one of the best in the world. Our defense is suspect against speed on the left, so Lennon will be important for them tomorrow.

They've got three players that are better than anyone on our team in Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney. Rooney is either the second or third best player in the world depending on what you think of Christiano Ronaldo and he's going to be going up against our central defenders who have some question marks in terms of their ability to play to their potential because of injury and rust. If we can't stop him, we're screwed. They'll probably pair him with Heskey, who is a big, strong oaf who can't score, but what he does do is completely tie up one defender with his strength and size so the other defender is forced to mark Rooney one-on-one which won't end well for pretty much any defender in the world. Our center mids are going to have their hands full with the midfielders so hopefully our defense can step up like it did vs Spain.

In short, it's going to take us playing to our absolute maximum and England playing to about 85% of it's potential for us to even have hope of a tie here. Lucky for us, England has a history of doing just that in the World Cup, so here's hoping.

Link to the article containing the formation image and discussion: http://theshinguardian.com/2010/06/08/t ... revisited/

[Maclowery]

Holy crap, that was way more complex than anything I'd ever read regarding soccer. Fun read. I wish this stupid thunderstorm would blow over. I sleep through practically anything, but Iowa City is getting just wrecked right now. Sucks, too, my neighborhood was having its block party tonight. Looks like storms throughout the morning then another batch at night.

YOU SAY YANKS WHOOOOOHOOOOO

[Fat Strat]

England you'll notice plays a 4-4-2, but the middle of the field is more of a diamond, like this:
----------g---------
---d---d---d---d---
---------m---------
---m---------m----
---------m---------
-------f----f-------

That's close to the formation that we used to play a lot. Also played this one, which was my personal favorite:

--------g---------
--------d---------
---d----d----d---
-------m---------
--m---m---m---
-----f-----f-----

That played closer to a 5-2-3 than it looks, with that up center mid making runs and feeding the forwards. The center back was called a sweeper. The other center fullback could push up and play a quasi midfielder if we were holding the ball around the opposing goal. Our basic strategy was feed the ball up and cross,run and cross, run and cross... And anyone could make the run. I played a lot of sweeper, who didn't run, and left fullback. I was always making runs at left back and crossing it into the center. Also took all the set plays.

You won't see many sweepers at the international level because they play for the offsides more. We weren't willing to do that. Getting the calls were too unreliable.

[Fat Strat]

I've been watching the Argentina vs. Nigeria game for 3 minutes (they're 5 minutes in) and Arg. just scored after missing close chances on 2 other shots. What a beautiful corner and header that was. This one will be the first ugly game of the Cup. Could easily be 4-6 to nil.

[robbotis]

If Beasley and Clark start. The US has no shot.

Edu and Torres would be preferred.