It’s easy to win, win and win again. Anybody can do that. Every strategy out there is designed to win, but the most difficult dimension of strategy is giving up some ground to win the entire field; giving up inches to gain a yard. It usually doesn’t make any momentary sense. How does loosing lead to winning? But that’s the basis of the Counter-Attack strategy employed in soccer.In the Counter-Attack strategy, a team gets on the field with the original intent to let the opposing team have more of the ball. They absorb wave after wave of pressure, dropping deeper and deeper into their half. Any one watching would think the team under pressure is definitely going to lose. As a matter of fact they barely touch the ball. How do you win a game played with a ball if you don’t play the ball? But that’s the point: the players on the field are there to play a game, not just a ball. There is a bigger picture. Just like the Counter-Attack, a great strategy forces you to look beyond the present. It forces you focus on what can be instead on just what is, no matter how difficult it might be.
To successfully navigate this difficult dimension of strategy, you must have two things in place:
Incredible Capacity: You must be able to define how much you can lose before the game begins. How much pressure can your team withstand before it breaks mentally and physically? How much pain can you take before you lose sight of the game plan? It’s important to determine capacity before the whistle is blown. What’s your breaking point? At what point will you snap?
Conversion Speed: The bedrock of any counter-attacking team is speedy players who can run at the opponent when the time comes. It doesn’t pay off to absorb pressure if you don’t have what it takes to strike fast and hard when needed. To justify this strategy you must have a great reaction time; that’s how those yards are gained.