Positions on the Field

Soccer, or fútbol, depending on where you're from, is the most popular sport worldwide; consisting of 250 million players playing in over 200 countries. On the field, the traditional set up is 11 v 11.

Depending on your coaches and how you want to set up your team, there is a wide variety of how many players can change positions. For example, in this diagram you see the goalie, the last player, the three defenders above the goalie, four midfielders, and then three forwards. But, let's say, you want four forwards, instead of three. You can move up one of your midfielders to forward and make it so you now have a 3-3-4. Like I mentioned, there is a lot of different ways you can set up your field.

The goalie, also known as the keeper, is a very important player on the field and it isn't too easy to come across a very skilled one. This player is the only one on the field who legally can use their hands to stop the ball. They are the last one of the players so when a forward from the opposing team is dribbling towards goal, the goalie will be the last player they meet. Once they approach the goal, they're aiming to shoot the ball and make it into the net past the goalie. The goalie's job is to keep the ball from getting past them and making sure it stays in front of the net.

In this picture, you see a girl in a dark blue jersey and another in white. The girl with the ball is most likely a forward for the blue team and she's trying to get around the defender in white to go to goal. The defender is trying to prevent that from happening so she's making it so the girl with the ball can't get around her and score a goal.

Midfielders are pretty much every position in one, besides goalie. They have to not only defend, but they also have to attack as well. In most cases, they do the most running because they're in the center of the field and they're constantly opening up for other players to receive the ball and play it to another player, or if possible, take it to goal themselves. The importance of these positions in the midfield is so the rest of the players have more feet to pass too and the players in the midfield must have steady control of the ball and quick movement to release it efficiently. 

In this picture, you see a man in a red jersey shooting the ball towards the keeper while men in white jerseys try to prevent him from doing so. The guy in the red is what we call a striker, or a forward. These players are more common to shoot on goal and they are the people who tend to make the most goals within the game. Their job is to receive the ball, get around whatever players from the other team there is and take a shot on goal and score another point for their team. These players are positioned at the very front of the field and normally hang around the last defender on the other team so they can have a nice short run to goal (depending on how far back the defender is) and have the least amount of players to get past.

So, hopefully these steps on how positions work on the field helped you understand some of the basics of soccer. Don't forget, only the keeper can use their hands!