A minute to win it

Session plan

Want to try this with your team? Download the session plan and give it a go. 

Organisation

Set up two pitches parallel with each other with space in between. In our example, they’re 36 yards long and 25 yards wide – but you can change the dimensions to make them appropriate for your players’ age and developmental stage. The two pitches don’t have to be the same size. Different pitch sizes will challenge your players in different ways based on the available space. 

On each pitch, put a goal at one end and a mini-goal at the other. Then place two more mini-goals down, one on each side of both pitches. Finally, add a halfway line and put plenty of footballs around the areas you’ve created. 

For this practice, we have 16 players split into two teams of eight. Both sides are divided into one goalkeeper, four defenders and three attackers. As the graphics show, on each pitch, the keepers go in the full-sized goals and are joined by two defenders, while the other defenders protect the mini-goals in the other half. The three attackers from each team then go on the opposite pitch to play against their opponents. 

You can adjust these numbers to suit your group. 

How to play

The aim of the game is simple. Work together as a team to score as many goals as possible and stop the opposition from doing so. 

To start this activity, give players ownership over creating fair teams and deciding their keeper, defenders and attackers. 

Players then take up the positions shown in the graphic. So, team one’s attackers play against team two’s defenders and vice versa. 

The attackers on both pitches attack one goal against one set of defenders and play to a finish. This can be either scoring a goal, the ball going off the pitch or the defending team winning possession and scoring into one of the side goals. 

After attacking one goal, they get a ball from the side of the pitch and attack the goal in the other half. Again, they play to a finish. 

For every goal, award a point. The same applies to the defenders if they score into one of the side goals. 

After one minute (or longer if you collectively agree on a different time limit), add together the attackers’ and defenders’ scores from each team to see who wins. The winners get a ‘game point’. Continue to play this activity for a set number of rounds. The overall winner will be the team with the most game points at the end. 

Progression

If your players master your activity – or find it too hard – try adding a progression. To encourage more ownership, you could: 

• give both teams a chance to select one of the opposition players to join their team 
• allow both teams to add an adaptation of their choosing to the game. 

But remember, learning takes time. So don’t alter the activity too quickly – or too much. Try using the STEP framework (Youth Sports Trust, 2002). This helps keep things fun, engaging and appropriate. 

Plan to use this with your team? Let us know how you get on by posting in the England Football Community forums.