Sports
A Soccer Formation And What It Means by Damien Ong
[Dec 08, 2007]
In a soccer or football game, there are eleven players to a side. However if one reads any articles on the web or newspaper and hear or watch a review and match, there is always a formation mentioned for each match. What is a formation then, you may ask yourself?Basically it can be defined as a tactical system by which the team is organized and plays by for a match. Formation can be changed anytime during a match. Reasons for these changes could be due to injuries to players, tactical changes by the opposition, to protect a score or even to chase a game. Therefore it is not surprise to see several formative changes to it during the course of the match.
An important note in any formation, the only unchangeable aspect is the goalkeeper. Regardless of whatever formations obtained by a team, there must be a goalkeeper in the game. And he is the only legally allowed player in a match that can use his hands to collect, save or touch the ball in the six yards or penalty box. Hence he would be wearing gloves and a different color jersey from his team mates. This is another reason why all formations seen to be based on 10 outfield players since the goalkeeper is a compulsory player. Therefore formations can read 4-4-2, 5-4-1, 5-3-2 and 3-43 without mentioning the goalkeeper.
Since there are many formations, this article would focus on the current basis for formation for most teams which is a 4-4-2. In layman terms, it means that other than one goalkeeper, there are four defenders, four midfielders and two strikers. Here is a bit more complex as even in a 4-4-2, there can be attacking or defending methods or styles to it. To have a clearer picture, the 4-4-2 would have to be broken further.