When you’re a soccer player, you’ll know that scoring goals will make the difference between winning or losing. You just have to make sure your team scores at least 1 goal more than your opponent, it’s as simple as that.
But scoring goals isn’t that easy for most of us. So how can we try to improve this?
It all depends on the position you’re playing on the pitch.
Defenders won’t have much opportunity’s on scoring goals due to the fact that they’re the last defense line before the keeper. The most important job of a defender is to make sure the other team won’t get a chance of scoring a goal themselves and make your goalie’s job as simple as possible.
But being a defender doesn’t always mean that you’ll have to stay on your part of the pitch. No, you can also try to make a run forward. In fact it will get your opponent’s defense confused most of the times because they’re wondering where that extra guy is coming from.
The only thing you’ll have to keep in mind is that you’ll have to get back on to your own position as quick as possible whenever your team loses the ball. If not you’ll probably ending up with a goal against. So a scoring defender of this kind has to be in an excellent physical condition and will have to make some good appointments with his midfielders to switch places sometimes until you’ll get back on to your position.
Keep in mind that you can’t go forward with every ball, try to pick out the right moment, surprise your opponent.
If your physical condition isn’t good enough for making some runs forward, you can try scoring goals on free kicks, corners, throw-inn’s. Normally every defender is very good in heading, so why not use this ability on free kicks and corners?
Midfielders are normally the guys with the best stamina of the team, they have to run forward and back to either attack or defend. Some players will be everywhere on the pitch, as others will play on position very well. You’ll have to have a couple attacking midfielders and defending midfielders. The defending midfielders will be the best friends of your defenders to help them out everywhere they can.
Most of the times a goal has scored, the action before the will start somewhere on the midfield. So a midfielder will give lots of assists.
The trouble you’ll face if you want to get head-a-head with the opponent keeper is that you’ll have to dribble at least one defender, because you’re on the 2nd line in the attack. To achieve this, a midfielder will have to work on his creativity, technique and his flair. But keep in mind to always look ahead, instead of keeping your eyes on the ball. If you only see the ball, you can’t see your teammates. And for teammates it’s very frustrating to not get the ball. So dribble one opponent and pass to your colleagues, if that’s not possible you can try to dribble the 2nd opponent.
You can also try to work on your shooting ability from the 2nd line. If you aim well and shoot hard, you can surprise their keeper, or even let another teammate score on the rebound.
Make eye contact with your attackers, they probably will be playing with their back to the goal to see the ball leaving your foot. With making good eye contact and small hand gestures, you can try to make a one-two around a defender to pass him very easily. When succeeded, you probably will be facing the keeper and get a shot on target.
Practice your free kicks every time you can, it will help you during the game. Pick one or two guys in your team to take the free kicks. It will give them more confidence for every free kick they’ll take.
If you’re the free kick taker, stay calm, take a deep breath before you set your mark. Try to look at part of the goal you’re aiming to but without letting it know to your opponent.
My trick on a free kick is to place the ball over the wall in the shortest corner, but then you’ll need to place the ball very well and that’s where the practice can help you out.
If you aim for the far corner, place the ball low and hard, the goalie has more time to see this ball coming than in the shortest corner so the faster the ball travels the lesser time the keeper has.
An attacker will probably be the leader of the pack if it comes to scoring goals. He’s closest to the goal so doesn’t need much space to get through. The problem is to get in the right space on the right time.
Attackers need to be quick, agile and have to know where they have to be. As an attacker, you don’t have to wait and hope you’ll get the ball on the right place, you can also try and create your own chance. You can play a few meters further away from the goal, to support your midfielders and get an extra player in that area.
Always try to make sure you’re running in the visible sight of the teammate that has the ball. If he can’t see you, he probably will look for another solution or even worse ending up losing the ball.
Make little gestures or eye contact to let him know where you want the ball. Just don’t shout to hard, you’ll just ending up letting the defenders of the other team know where you are.
Another way of scoring goals is taking penalties. This only requires balls of steel, or at least a bit. In the team I’m playing, whenever there’s a penalty awarded to us, there’s no one who’ll be claiming the penalty except me.
Is it because they’re afraid missing or because they get some kind of blackout or so, I don’t know. I can only say that in my head I’m just thinking if I miss, I’ve missed and if I score, I’ve scored. A penalty is some kind of lottery, sometimes you’ll win, and sometimes you’ll lose. Nothing more, nothing less.
But I can give you a few tips about taking a penalty.
Never, never look at where you’re going to place the ball. The keeper will always see it, if not from your eyes, then from your body language.
Whenever I take a penalty, I’ve already chosen a side of the keeper to place the ball to. I always stick to my first decision. And most off the times I’m aiming very low and hard and as close to the post as you can get without hitting it. Also whenever you hit a penalty, run after the ball, you’ll never know if it will come back from the post or keeper, maybe you can still score on the rebound then.
Sticking to your first decision is also needed whenever you’re facing the keeper in a head-to-head situation. Doubts on the last moment will 99% end up in a miss. Do what your feeling or mind is telling you at the first time you’ll get into the position.
No matter what position you’re playing, it always comes down on working for it. A good condition is an absolute must as this will make it easier to work for it. If you’re lacking condition, check back soon or subscribe to my RSS Feed for some future posts about improving your condition.
This was a quick guide on how I experienced it myself to score more goals. In the youth categories, I didn’t score much. Later I made a switch in my playing style and this resulted in more goals.
Although I most of the time play as a left fielder I crowned myself to the top scorer of my team 4 times in the last 6 years. Last season I’ve scored 21 goals and this year I’m at the same level as one of our attackers.
But to me scoring goals isn’t everything, I also like to give assists and try to let others play better. Soccer is a team sport and that’s what’s it’s all about. I’d rather lose 12-0 and be sure everyone tried to do their best, than win 10-0 and knowing me and others played a bad game. If you fight together like a team, you’ll win more matches.
How about you, do you feel the same as me, have you got any other tips for my readers or what’s your way of playing, please let me know by leaving a comment.
But scoring goals isn’t that easy for most of us. So how can we try to improve this?
It all depends on the position you’re playing on the pitch.
Defenders won’t have much opportunity’s on scoring goals due to the fact that they’re the last defense line before the keeper. The most important job of a defender is to make sure the other team won’t get a chance of scoring a goal themselves and make your goalie’s job as simple as possible.
But being a defender doesn’t always mean that you’ll have to stay on your part of the pitch. No, you can also try to make a run forward. In fact it will get your opponent’s defense confused most of the times because they’re wondering where that extra guy is coming from.
The only thing you’ll have to keep in mind is that you’ll have to get back on to your own position as quick as possible whenever your team loses the ball. If not you’ll probably ending up with a goal against. So a scoring defender of this kind has to be in an excellent physical condition and will have to make some good appointments with his midfielders to switch places sometimes until you’ll get back on to your position.
Keep in mind that you can’t go forward with every ball, try to pick out the right moment, surprise your opponent.
If your physical condition isn’t good enough for making some runs forward, you can try scoring goals on free kicks, corners, throw-inn’s. Normally every defender is very good in heading, so why not use this ability on free kicks and corners?
Midfielders are normally the guys with the best stamina of the team, they have to run forward and back to either attack or defend. Some players will be everywhere on the pitch, as others will play on position very well. You’ll have to have a couple attacking midfielders and defending midfielders. The defending midfielders will be the best friends of your defenders to help them out everywhere they can.
Most of the times a goal has scored, the action before the will start somewhere on the midfield. So a midfielder will give lots of assists.
The trouble you’ll face if you want to get head-a-head with the opponent keeper is that you’ll have to dribble at least one defender, because you’re on the 2nd line in the attack. To achieve this, a midfielder will have to work on his creativity, technique and his flair. But keep in mind to always look ahead, instead of keeping your eyes on the ball. If you only see the ball, you can’t see your teammates. And for teammates it’s very frustrating to not get the ball. So dribble one opponent and pass to your colleagues, if that’s not possible you can try to dribble the 2nd opponent.
You can also try to work on your shooting ability from the 2nd line. If you aim well and shoot hard, you can surprise their keeper, or even let another teammate score on the rebound.
Make eye contact with your attackers, they probably will be playing with their back to the goal to see the ball leaving your foot. With making good eye contact and small hand gestures, you can try to make a one-two around a defender to pass him very easily. When succeeded, you probably will be facing the keeper and get a shot on target.
Practice your free kicks every time you can, it will help you during the game. Pick one or two guys in your team to take the free kicks. It will give them more confidence for every free kick they’ll take.
If you’re the free kick taker, stay calm, take a deep breath before you set your mark. Try to look at part of the goal you’re aiming to but without letting it know to your opponent.
My trick on a free kick is to place the ball over the wall in the shortest corner, but then you’ll need to place the ball very well and that’s where the practice can help you out.
If you aim for the far corner, place the ball low and hard, the goalie has more time to see this ball coming than in the shortest corner so the faster the ball travels the lesser time the keeper has.
An attacker will probably be the leader of the pack if it comes to scoring goals. He’s closest to the goal so doesn’t need much space to get through. The problem is to get in the right space on the right time.
Attackers need to be quick, agile and have to know where they have to be. As an attacker, you don’t have to wait and hope you’ll get the ball on the right place, you can also try and create your own chance. You can play a few meters further away from the goal, to support your midfielders and get an extra player in that area.
Always try to make sure you’re running in the visible sight of the teammate that has the ball. If he can’t see you, he probably will look for another solution or even worse ending up losing the ball.
Make little gestures or eye contact to let him know where you want the ball. Just don’t shout to hard, you’ll just ending up letting the defenders of the other team know where you are.
Another way of scoring goals is taking penalties. This only requires balls of steel, or at least a bit. In the team I’m playing, whenever there’s a penalty awarded to us, there’s no one who’ll be claiming the penalty except me.
Is it because they’re afraid missing or because they get some kind of blackout or so, I don’t know. I can only say that in my head I’m just thinking if I miss, I’ve missed and if I score, I’ve scored. A penalty is some kind of lottery, sometimes you’ll win, and sometimes you’ll lose. Nothing more, nothing less.
But I can give you a few tips about taking a penalty.
Never, never look at where you’re going to place the ball. The keeper will always see it, if not from your eyes, then from your body language.
Whenever I take a penalty, I’ve already chosen a side of the keeper to place the ball to. I always stick to my first decision. And most off the times I’m aiming very low and hard and as close to the post as you can get without hitting it. Also whenever you hit a penalty, run after the ball, you’ll never know if it will come back from the post or keeper, maybe you can still score on the rebound then.
Sticking to your first decision is also needed whenever you’re facing the keeper in a head-to-head situation. Doubts on the last moment will 99% end up in a miss. Do what your feeling or mind is telling you at the first time you’ll get into the position.
No matter what position you’re playing, it always comes down on working for it. A good condition is an absolute must as this will make it easier to work for it. If you’re lacking condition, check back soon or subscribe to my RSS Feed for some future posts about improving your condition.
This was a quick guide on how I experienced it myself to score more goals. In the youth categories, I didn’t score much. Later I made a switch in my playing style and this resulted in more goals.
Although I most of the time play as a left fielder I crowned myself to the top scorer of my team 4 times in the last 6 years. Last season I’ve scored 21 goals and this year I’m at the same level as one of our attackers.
But to me scoring goals isn’t everything, I also like to give assists and try to let others play better. Soccer is a team sport and that’s what’s it’s all about. I’d rather lose 12-0 and be sure everyone tried to do their best, than win 10-0 and knowing me and others played a bad game. If you fight together like a team, you’ll win more matches.
How about you, do you feel the same as me, have you got any other tips for my readers or what’s your way of playing, please let me know by leaving a comment.
