Play Simple Football. Part 2 : Passing

 Football is not an individual sport, it is a team sport. Therefore, once you have mastered control, now you need to know how to play with your teammates. In order to use your teammates, you need to know how to pass, but first understand that not every pass needs to be a killer pass. This is the part that I made a huge mistake on. Whenever I played football, I constantly told my teammates to make runs so that I can give the killer pass to them. This might work in a 5 aside game, but in a proper 11 aside match, it does not work all the time. You need to build up the play to get closer to the goal, and it is almost impossible to completely destroy the defence with one pass unless your Xavi Hernandez. Even Xavi Hernandez does not give killer passes to his teammates every time. He tries to build up the play first, and then when he sees the opportunity, he unleashes the killer pass.

 What I mean by 'build up' play is that you do not need to go forward every time. Sometimes you need to retreat backwards and then organize your play. Make sure your teammates are in the right position, and the team is on good shape to attack again. If you understand how to pass the ball like this, your team will be able to score goals easily against teams that never retreat. Therefore, you do not always need to look for the perfect pass, just pass the easy ball to your teammate, and slowly build up the play with possession. If you get used to this play, the pressure on you to make that 'good' pass will go away from you, and you will be able to play football with more confidence and intelligence.

Play Simple Football. Part 1 : Control

 Just an year ago, playing football made me very stressful. I thought I was a decent player, but when I started to play in the league, I did not know when to dribble, pass, and shoot. It felt like as if I was betrayed by my best friend. My favourite sport and hobby turned out to be very stressful for me. So after a few months, I stopped playing in the league, and just played with my friends, trying to get rid of the pressure. While I was away from football, I asked for some advice from my friend, who was playing in the top league in Singapore. His advice was simple. "Control the ball and then pass it to your teammate." When I heard this advice, I was very confused. I did not know what he meant, so I tried to watch how professional footballers play. I focused especially on Andres Iniesta, because he is not the strongest or the fastest player, but he is considered as the best midfielder in the world. Watching him play was so fun and astonishing at the same time. His play was very intelligent, but also very simple. Just like the advice from my friend. From there, I started to understand how to play football 'properly', and realised that I was playing like a complete beginner who only knows how to dribble past defenders. After the enlightenment in my mind, I felt pretty confident to play football. 

 However, simple does not equal easy. It is never easy to control the ball and pass it at the right time. To master control, I practiced juggling everyday, which also helped me find my sweet spot to shoot the ball with power and accuracy. (read this article about juggling) After a lot of practicing, I am now able to juggle over 300 times, and I feel totally confident with the ball. Now that I almost mastered control, it makes me easier to look up and give the right pass at the right timing. Most of my friends do not know the importance of control, and never practice juggling. Therefore, they find it hard to control high balls or balls with speed. This is the reason why simple does not mean easy.

 Playing simple football is important, and the first step is to master control.