One nil up, two men down

Why use it

This is a great scenario to challenge your players. One team is 1-0 up but loses a man and the other team is 1-0 down and you’ve given them the extra man, so they have a two-man overload. How will the two teams react to the situation?

Set up

Mark out a playing area of 50x30 yards but you should adjust the size depending on the number of players you use. We’re using 12 players including keepers. You need balls, bibs, cones and goals.

How to play

Start the game as a 6v6 with normal rules. After a few minutes stop the game and tell one team they are now winning 1-0. The losing team is trailing 1-0 but they get a player from the winning team. Tell them there is 10 minutes left of the sudden death cup game and give them a couple of minutes to sort out their own tactics.

Technique

A great exercise to see how the teams sort themselves out. Will the winning team try and defend with two men less or will they try and kill the game off on the counterattack?