I just got into Major League Soccer this year. I've been loving it, I feel like I've missed out not having soccer in my life all these years. Obviously the sport isn't complicated per se - just put the ball in the goal. But I'd like to know more about the basics. Like, I don't even really know all the positions or what these formations are. Or like, how to tell if a team is doing good/bad when they aren't scoring at rhat moment. Any videos or whatever is appreciated.
Tifo Football on YouTube has some good tactical stuff, it might be a little more in depth than what you’re after. But they’ll put up videos after big games like “here is how team A beat team B and how their tactics achieved that”.
Depending on how much time you have, if you’re interested in formations there’s a good book called “inverting the pyramid” that’s about how modern formations came to be (the title comes from the fact that in the early days teams would have most of their guys further up the field and less defenders, and that has basically inverted over the years).
Formations in elite level football are super fluid in the modern game though. There’s a lot of content out there, depending on how much of a tactics nerd you want to become. That sort of granular analysis isn’t super interesting to me so I don’t have many recs.
I can give a quick run down of positions… this might take a while, haha.
Goalkeeper: pretty obvious, the person at the back with the gloves and weird coloured shirt who can use their hands. You might hear the term “sweeper keeper” a lot. Basically that is used to denote the “modern” style of goal keeper that comes and “sweeps” up behind the defence and is good with their feet, rather than the old school pure shot stopper. (A sweeper used to be a type of defender who would sit behind the defensive line to sweep up balls over the top and so on, now the trend is for the gk to do that job)
Defenders: you’re usually gonna see it described as a back 3 (or 5…) or a back 4. Back 4 is two “full backs” on the left and right, with two centre backs in the… centre. Full backs can also be “wing backs”, which is a more attacking full back who gets up the field much more to help attack. You usually see wing backs on either side of 3 centre backs (this is where the 3 at the back/back 5 including the wingbacks comes in). Centre backs used to just be big tough guys who could tackle and head the ball, but more and more the trend is for them to be good in possession too, to carry or pass the ball upfield (at the elite level this really goes for every position these days).
So to sum up the defenders you have fullbacks, wingbacks, centrebacks (aka centre halfs, a bit archaic now).
Midfield is where it gets complicated. For the sake of brevity I’ll try to keep it simple. As far as central midfield goes, you can have more defensively skilled guys who will sit in front of the defenders and win tackles/cut out passes etc, as well as start attacks if they’re good at carrying the ball or passing themselves. These are the defensive midfielders. Then you have true centre mids, which are weirdly kind of rare at the minute. You’ll also hear the term “box to box” midfielder. It’s because that’s where they do their business, between the boxes, winning that midfield battle for their team and setting up attacks. Then you have your attacking midfielders. The traditional centre attacking midfielder is a skilful guy who threads passes through to the strikers and knits attacks together, but now the role is super varied (if a team has one at all). Besides the CDM, CM, and CAM there’s also left and right midfielders, but they’re pretty rare to see at the top level these days because most teams don’t play a 4-4-2 formation. You’ll have attacking fullbacks or even wingbacks doing the job a wide midfielder used to do.
Oh also just to make things super fun and confusing for a newcomer, defensive midfielders also get called “sixes”, box-to-box mids get called “eights” and central attacking midfielders get called “tens” - however this often has nothing to do with what number the player is actually wearing because the way shirt numbers work has changed, but the short hand has stayed the same. You can also have more than one of each (lmao). Like a team might play a “midfield three” in a 4-3-3 that has two 6s and an 8 - or if they’re being more attacking a 6 and two 8s!
Then there’s the attackers/forwards. This sorta kinda includes the aforementioned central attacking midfielder AKA “number ten” from earlier, as you’d expect. In front of the number 10 you have…. The number 9 AKA the striker. The guy who sits at the tip of the spear whose main job is to score goals (except when it isn’t, but hey this is a simplified explanation here). The attackers on wide left and right are called wingers. Wingers (and full backs and right left mids) used to play on the same side as their dominant foot. So your right winger would be right footed. This was back when a lot of teams played with 2 strikers in a 4-4-2, so the right mids/wingers would be trying to cross into those guys. These days you see a lot of so-called “inverted wingers” who play on the OPPOSITE to the traditional side, trying to come inside and use that angle to shoot with their stronger foot, or play in teammates.
As you can see, with all these positional variants coaches have a lot of options, but they can only pick 10 outfield players. This is where all the different formations come from. For example a 3-4-3 will have the wide play provided by the wingbacks (the outer two of the “four”) while the wingers will likely be inverted (the outer two of the front 3) so those wingbacks have space to work with out wide.
As for how to figure out if a team is doing well when they’re not actively scoring… are they having a lot of shots on target? Forcing the opposing keeper to make a lot of saves? Do they have the majority of the ball possession? Are they stringing a lot of passes together and putting together nice attacking moves? Is the game being played primarily in the opposition half rather than their side of the field? Those are all signs a team is on top and playing well.
Really I could take about this shit for hours because it’s fun for me, but I might just be telling you stuff you already know! Haha
Belated thank you! Yeah, I had heard about that Inverting the Pyramid book and I enjoy reading, so I'm definitely gonna give that a read here in a bit after I watch a few more games. Also, how you explained the defenders was especially helpful!
Watch games and browse the soccer Wikipedia page.
From a practical perspective, the game is played 11-on-11 where there is 1 goalkeeper and 10 field players per team. These field players tend to be divided between defenders, midfielders and forwards. The positioning is dynamic so players will vary between defending and attacking frequently.
Rules-wise, the ball can’t touch a player’s hands unless it is the designated goalkeeper in the goalkeeper box. A foul (eg dangerous tackle) or handball or other infraction can lead to a free kick or a penalty kick if it occurs in the goalkeeper box. Infractions are judged by the main referee for explicit rule-breaking but also perceived intent which could lead to a verbal warning, a free kick, a yellow card (formal warning; max 1 per game, 2nd yellow card = automatic red card) or a red card (immediate expulsion and team plays remainder of game less one player).
For out of bounds, only the ball can ever be out of bounds and, therefore, out of play. Players can cross lines but it’s only the ball that matters and crossing lines requires the entirety of the ball to cross them (unlike tennis). Sideline (touchline) outs are put back into play with throw-ins while goal line (where the goals are) outs are put back into play with a goal kick.
There are various rules about when a ball or a player is in or out of play for offsides but basically an attacking player cannot be ahead of the second-to-last defender before the ball is passed to them. The position of the ball itself does not enable an attacking player to legally be offsides but rather the moment it leaves the foot of the passing player while the attacking player (target of pass) is onsides.
Theoretically, possession (who has the ball) tends to be very important because it sets the pace of the game and usually the team that doesn’t have the ball doesn’t score.
There’s a lot more but this is the baseline basics.
Thanks! The "perceived intent" thing and the yellow/red card clarifies things for me. I'm familiar with offsides in ice hockey, so even though I wasn't sure of the exact mechanics, I got the general idea of what was happening when I've seen it called.
You can play 1v1 too but I figured they were asking about traditional soccer since they mentioned MLS
I'm glad you're getting into the sport! Also glad your watching MLS, I think its a fun league to watch and I personally love how chaotic it is (unless you have to watch NYRB)!
As for recommendations a channel I haven't seen recommended is It's Called Soccer. He's been covering mostly the US National team but recently been breaking down stuff in MLS and leagues. He's also written a book that I haven't read personally, but it's called: The Beautiful Game Decoded: A Guide to Understanding Tactics.
I think the other comments have hit on a lot of the rest of the points. I will say soccer can be extremely complex and nuanced, but if you keep watching the game and picking up what you can it's really not that hard to figure a lot out.
Try watching the LA Galaxy, they're owned by AEG and are treated like they're only in the league to sell jerseys
Honestly I'd love for Red Bulls to sell the club (or at least for the company to actually care about the club). I feel like if LA Galaxy SG's somehow got Klein out it may be slightly better. But LA Galaxy feel like a club that's just not run like a modern club.
I feel AEG should seel the Galaxy they don't give a shit it's so obvious
Klein and the entire management have to go, they do no care about winning just selling jerseys
I've had a problem with the Galaxy since 2011, because i noticed it since then, they never took the CONCAChampions seriously
Yeah I think they openly admitted Klein is in charge because he's made the club very profitable even though the on the field results are horrid.
That's exactly my problem with them
The MLS will always be second fiddle Liga MX as long as this mediocrity is enabled it's why US soccer is such a joke
From the athletics reporting seems like MLS knows they're going to have to circle back to a lot of these struggling OG teams in big markets because the expansion fee gravy train is drying up. That and there's a power struggle I guess between the newer owners that want to grow the league and the older owners that just want to suck down that expansion fee cash
It's cheaper and more profitable for investors to go buy a European soccer team, so the MLS business model is daunting to many
US soccer has a potential to really surpass the region but they keep treating soccer like a Ponzi scheme.
I think some cities deserve an expansion but it's obvious that the OG owners are literally just toying with their fans.
The only reason MLS is advancing in the CONCAChampions is because USF cries to CONCACAF about reformatting it over and over again
Yeah I mean, honestly the sport at a high level I feel is just fundamentally broken with the European model. The US model I think would have potential but right now they're not maximizing it at all and it's definitely profit driven.
The US soccer system will always fail so long as it's kept this way. I know what you mean by the European model but what I'm referring too is the infrastructure of both European and S American soccer at its roots, US youth academies are for profit, in Europe and S America, they're too look for talent, and free for those worth it.
This applies to MLS as well, CONCACAF puts a lot of money and BS into formatting tournaments to ensure a Mex-US Final. Which is why it shows at the world cup level when both teams get hit with reality
I'd argue the academy's in the US are starting to change. MLS academy's are getting better. They're more frequently setup like the ones in europe. USL is also starting to get some academies. There's still a lot of talented folks falling through cracks and the US needs a way to capture it. No denying that.
And frankly the European development model is also for profit in a lot of cases. It's just that the profits are deferred till the most talented players are sold on from the academy system.
I think the US setup currently makes sense, develop players and sell on for a profit. Which is what pretty much what any league outside of the top 5 really has to do. There's definitely room for improvement in the US but I can't say the setup is inherently wrong. Some of the decisions like no pro/rel and others are also pragmatic decisions to keep at least MLS stable. USL isn't big enough yet.
The problem is their academies still charge, you can build US soccer to greatness on that alone (i am not a USMNT fan) but there is so much mediocrity that's enabled throughout the CONCACAF that it pisses me off, we have so much potential but corruption will keep us ALL down.
Every aspect of professional sports is for profit, but I'm talking about academies being accessible to low income talent because that's why the game thrives in S America. That's the point of the academy to find incredible talent nurture it and sell for a high profit to a club in a higher league.
I'm not even talk pro/rel i think the US can honestly survive without it, I'm talking the overall competitiveness of the entire CONCACAF as a region. Their focus is mainly selling US v Mex, which yes is a great rivalry but when you format all tournaments to cater to that you get a lot of corruption and mediocrity. It speaks for itself why CONCACAF "giants" fails at the world cup level. There's so much untapped potential here. MLS players and CONCACAF players should be good enough to play in Liga MX and that's far from the reality. Until then we aren't going anywhere
Also glad your watching MLS, I think its a fun league to watch
I'm a fan of a certain expansion team that has been doing exceptionally, so watching MLS has been a blast for me so far.
I can probably take a good guess who, and I also have a massive soft spot for them personally. Hopefully they put in a strong season, the fans have looked excellent supporting the team so far this season!
Jump in the deep end and start playing Football Manager. Jk don't do that (yet) unless you want to lose hours of your life lol.
Football Made Simple is a good channel. As others mentioned Tifo Football is a good channel as is their Tifo IRL channel.
Some books I'd recommend:
Football in Sun and Shadow - for an interesting look into the history of the sport
Inverting the Pyramid - History of Tactics
The Mixer - History of the Premier League
Also MLS is way different from how the rest of the world does the sport, with most other nations following the Promotion/Relegation model vs the standard American sport "Regular Season -> Playoff" model. But some nations have varying formats as well, like I know Mexico has two seasons (Apertura and Clausura). There's also different cup competitions for clubs ranging from Domestic to Continental. In the US we have the US Open Cup, and depending where you live your local club could end up playing an MLS club. We also have the CONCACAF Champions League. CONCACAF is the governing body of North American and Caribbean nations (and then also Suriname, French Guiana, and Guyana for some reason) and in that competitions teams qualify through their league and play in it.
For books go right now and get The Game of Our Lives, The Ball is Round and The Age of Football. The first one is a History of Football in UK, the second is the evolution of the soccer, us football, rugby, Australian Rules Football and others on every continent, and the last a look at state of league football today. He analyzed literally every country on earth. He's a lefty so you'll get some socialist perspective as well
A hands on way to understand the tactical side is to screw around in a pirated copy of one of the Football Manager games!