A Short Guide to Beating the Long Ball

October 18, 2019

We’ve talked about it before, but let’s have another, shorter, go at it: The long ball.

The Anatomy of The Long Ball

Optimal conditions for a ball over the top: No pressure on the

ball, numerical superiorites locally, a high backline and space
to run into.

Essentially, it is the quickest way to threaten the goal of the

opponents if applied correctly. I’m not saying it is the best
way or the worst way or anything of that sort, but I am saying
that it is the quickest route to the opposition goal, if you do it
correctly. There are obvious problems associated with a
strategy solely or predominantly focused on the long ball.

I’ve discussed the validity of the long ball as a tool amongst

many others at length before. If you would like know more,
please see this post.

For the purposes of this post, all we need to know is that it is a third line pass played between but more
often over our backline.

Defending against the long ball

Today, rather than focusing on the long ball itself, I want to focus on the most effective tools for
countering a long ball strategy. Briefly, we’ll be looking at how to avoid the opposition A) having the
time and space to effectively play a long ball over the top of our back-line or, failing that, how to B)
prevent the incoming long ball from becoming as much of a threat.

I’m not going to guarantee you instant results. As with any other part of the game, it takes time and it
takes practice to learn this stuff, but if you work with it consistently and with quality you will vastly
reduce the amount of chances and goals conceded from opposition teams who employs a long ball
strategy.
The key is Defending Vertically

If you want to avoid being exposed by long balls played in the length of the pitch you, or rather your
players, must master pumping.

Pumping is, briefly, knowing when to push up and when to drop off. Preferably in unison and as a team.

Pushing up has the benefit of helping us apply effective pressure on the ball. It is very hard to play a long
and accurate pass straight up the pitch, if an opponent is providing pressure from the front and blocking
your path. That is part A): Providing effective pressure on the ball, to limit the opponent to other options
than a pass straight-forward.

Now, we might not always be able to do that. Sometimes the opponents may pass it to someone out of
range of our players and thus we cannot immediately establish pressure on the ball. What we are faced
with here, is the imminent threat of an un-pressed opponent having the time and space to accurately
pass the ball over the top of our team. How do we counter this? Well, in anticipation of the long ball, we
drop.
This is part B): We drop to shorten the space between our back-line, goalkeeper and our goal. That
makes it smaller, more compact, and thus far less vulnerable. If we have to duel for the ball, we will do
so in accordance with the 1-in-front-of-3-principle.
The 1-in-front-of-3-principle: One player steps forward to challenge, the remaining back-line covers.

We Only Get to Control One of the Teams

Playing well and losing to a team who was inferior yet effective through the use of long balls can be
frustrating. But we must accept the premise that we only control our own team. We may disagree with a
range of choices in relation to the style, strategy or even conduct of the opposition teams we face, but
we don’t get to decide that stuff for them!

Instead, focus on you and your own team! You don’t control the opposition! If you face long ball
merchants week after week you must accept that and try to work on effective countermeasures. You
don’t have to like how they play, but you can’t change it, so my best advice it to try to make the threat
posed by their strategy as little as possible.