Player Positions in Soccer

Series Summary

The exact history of soccer is one that is a bit shrouded. However, it is known that a soccer-like game has been played around the world for about 3,000 years. The game as we know it was conceived in England. Soccer, or football, was a very violent sport that had no rules. There were actually laws passed to stop the game but failed. Soccer later adopted rules and became the game it is today. Soccer is the world’s most popular game! It is said that there are more than two billion people around the globe that are soccer fans.

This video series will give the basics of soccer. Our expert will explain the rules of soccer. The basic fundamentals and moves will then be demonstrated and explained by the expert. He will teach how to properly do a header which is where the player jumps and hits the ball with his head. Other basics like passing, shooting and dribbling are also covered.

Video Transcript

"The game of Soccer is played with 11 players, one Goal Keeper and 10 what we call field players. Besides the Goal Keeper which we have talked about there are three positions in Soccer. I want to talk about each position and a little bit about the responsibilities of each. First of all you have the Defenders; usually there are 3 or 4 to a side. Defenders are responsible for marking the Forwards, making sure they don’t score and passing the ball up to the mid-field and forward players to start the attack. Then the mid-field players who arguably have the most responsibility of anyone on the team. There job is to run the length of the field covering both defense and contributing offensively. They are responsible for marking mid-field players running through trying to score on them. They are also responsible for distributing the ball to the Forwards on their team and scoring for themselves. Finally, there are Forwards, usually two Forwards, sometimes one, sometimes three. Their primary job is to score goals. They help out on defense a little bit but again, their job is to score goals and help their other forwards and mid-field players by scoring goals. I’ll talk to you about some basic formations you play. Most basic is called 4-4-2, 4 Defenders, 4 mid-field players and 2 attacking players or Forwards. Another common formation is 3-5-2, 3 Defenders, 5 mid-field players and 2 Forwards. These are the two most common formations in Soccer. "