The slide tackle.
"Personally, slide tackles are my favorite part of the game," Penn State centre back Andres Casais said. "The player always has the ball with him, but there's always one point where he takes a touch and it's no longer in his control. It's more of a 50-50 and you gotta be close enough to him and quick enough so that when the ball is just that little bit away, you gotta go."
For players on the Penn State men's and women's soccer teams, slide tackles serve as a valuable defensive tool. Aside from the obvious dispossessing of the ball, a tough tackle can send a message to the opposition that the defense won't be going anywhere.
Every player has his or her own technique and preference for sliding, usually dependent on the dominant foot or which direction the ball is coming from. Women's soccer defender Emma Thomson, a right-footed player, said she predominantly wants to lead with her right foot and looks for that extra bit of space between the ball and the attacker's lead foot.
"I wait for the opportunity for the ball to just be in front of them. Either they just nip it around me or they take that extra big touch, and then I just slide," Thomson said. "When you slide, you have that extra yard or two on them, so you pretty much get it every time as long as you time it well and don't get the foul."
While the slide tackle is a weapon all defenders have, it's not a matter of sliding across the pitch without discretion. Men's soccer defender Patrick Krispin said he prefers to stay on his feet, manage an attacker and use his teammates as help.
Ali Schaefer, a defensive midfielder on the women's soccer team, isn't hesitant to make a slide tackle but also feels slide tackles should be used as a last resort. As a holding midfielder, Schaefer said the rules for slide tackling are different for her position.
"A better way to do it is if you just shepherd them rather than just going right in, because if you dive and miss then you leave your defenders one-on-one," Schaefer said. "That's why defense slides so much -- if they get past you there's no one else, so you gotta get in or else they're past you."
While Krispin said he prefers to make standing tackles, if an attacker is going full speed down the sideline he is "all about it." All four players said a clean, hard first tackle is a great way to send a message to the opposition.
Thomson said she tells her teammates before every game to "make the first tackle count" and make it known the defense is coming all game. Krispin converted to defense from the forward spot last year and said seeing a defender coming in full speed sends a subconscious message.
"Anytime there's a defender coming in as hard as they can, I know as a previous attacker, it's pretty tough to deal with, especially mentally," Krispin said. "Also as a defender if you go in hard and get a good tackle in, then he'll be scared of you for the rest of the game."
Slide tackles are a risk-reward move, and the players have to know when to dive in and when to hold back. Casais said he tries to avoid sliding in the box and road matches are more of a challenge because referees are likely to award fouls to the home team.
"Obviously in the penalty box, if you don't have to slide, just don't in case you give away a penalty or something," Casais said. "You see the ball, if there's an opportunity there, I'll just go in."
Aside from the tactical benefits of slide tackles, the players simply love diving in hard at an attacker. Casais said he always wears compression shorts because of how often he slides, and Krispin called Casais "the king of the slide tacklers."
For Schaefer, throwing herself across the field, leg extended, gunning for the ball is one of the game's most thrilling aspects.
"It just feels so good and you come out with the ball, the other player flies and it's so clean and just glorious," Schaefer said. "Any player who does slide tackle knows exactly what feeling I'm talking about."
- From the Daily Collegian Online at Penn State April 22, 2010
0 comments:
Post a Comment