THE FOUR MOMENTS
In soccer there are four key moments. At any given point in a match one team is in one of these moments and the other team is in the opposite moment. It is important for every coach to know what the four moments in soccer are and what they mean.
- In possession
- Out of possession
- Offensive transition
- Defensive transition
WHAT DO THEY REPRESENT?
In possession: This is the moment when the team has control of the ball. Notice that there can be no doubt about whether the team has control or not.
Out of possession: This is the moment when the other team has control of the ball. The same rule about control applies here.
Offensive transition: This is the moment where the team gains possession.
Defensive transition: This is the moment where the team loses possession.
All these moments are seen from the perspective of one team. If one sees it from the perspective of the other team, the moments will be reversed.
WHY IS IT USEFUL?
It is reasonable to ask why it is useful to include transitions in the moments. After all, in offensive transition the attacking team has the ball. And in defensive transition the other team has the ball. Isn’t “in possession” and “out of possession” enough?
There are some characteristics in the transition moments that is very different. When one of the teams wins the ball, the other team is usually set up in an offensive organization. This means that the team losing the ball is often not in balance. The team winning the ball can exploit this by launching a quick attack. The main priority for the team losing the ball, is to slow down the attack and regain balance.
There are other options to delaying the attack and getting in balance as fast as possible. The most known, and talked about, is the so-called gegenpress or counter press. If a team uses gegenpress, they try to win the ball back as soon as possible after losing it.
Most teams practice the four moments separately in training. However, if the team has two coaches, they can coach the opposite moments in a session.
Generally we can say that these are the goals in each of the moments:
- In possession: To score goals
- Defensive transition: To organize the team and/or win the ball back quickly
- Out of possession: To avoid goals from the other team and/or win possession from good organization and pressing
- Offensive transition: To organize the team for attacking and/or create a goal scoring opportunity before the other team is organized
The moments can be further broken down into phases. These phases will be vital for when a coach wants to create a game model. The process of creating a game model will be covered in another post that is currently in the works.
THE FOUR MOMENTS IN SOCCER – CONCLUSION
No matter if the team is playing 5v5 soccer, 7v7 soccer or 11v11 soccer, if it is girls or boys, kids or grown ups, these four moments will always be the same. Therefore I think it is good to introduce this concept as soon as possible to players.
In my experience, most coaches don’t focus enough on transitions in training. I think they are just as important as in and out of possession as they bring some opportunities and risks that you don’t see when both teams are organized.
