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| Boys Playing Football, Mole National Park © Frans Lanting/Corbis |
I would argue
that every kid that has played football in Ghana has played some forms of Small
Sided Games (SSG). If you have played football on your neighborhood street (street football), you have
played a small sided game. If you have played “Four Corners”, you have played a
small sided game. If you have played “Monkey in the Middle”, you have played a
small sided game. Small sided games take place on an area smaller than the
standard football pitches.
If a normal game
of football is 90 minutes and you have 22 players on the pitch, each player on
average gets 4 minutes 5 seconds with the ball. This means that for 85 minutes
55 seconds, a player is either running, walking or sprinting or jumping. Given the limited amount of time each player has on the ball, it is important that each player makes great use of those minutes. Players cannot make great use of those minutes if they are not
very comfortable with the ball.
- Small Sided Games are played in small areas and often with less than 11 players.
- Small sided games deepen the love of the game because it allows players to be in contact with the ball often.
- When players get more contact with the ball, they get more comfortable and skillful with the ball.
- When players play in limited space, it forces them to be creative with the ball. The players would have to decide on their own whether to dribble, pass, head, or lob the ball to a fellow team mate. They begin to see opportunities even if the opportunity is only there for a split second. A player might see the legs of an opponent open and within a split second execute a nutmeg or what we call “Suuliya” in Ghana.
- Small sided forces the players to move the ball quicker and more accurately to team mates. This is because spaces do not last long in small sided games.
- It teaches players to ‘press’ when they lose the ball. It teaches players to close up spaces.
- In all it is fun and intensive.
The world cup
winner Zinedine Zidane once said
“Everything I have achieved in football is due to playing in the streets with my friends.”
Ferenc Puskas (who scored 84 goals
in 85 matches for Hungary and 514 goals in 529 matches in club football) said
“I am grateful to my father for all the coaching he did not give me.”
Puskas also
learned his game on the streets.
Cristiano Ronaldo (who won the FIFA Ballon d’Or
for World Best Player in 2013) acknowledged that
“It’s all down to street football.”
Small sided games are a conscious efforts to recreate the conditions
of street football but with some level of structure. The game is the best teacher
and we coaches are teaching assistants.
