21 Fun Soccer Games - Developing Thinking Players through Small Sided Games

Book and Animated Games

If you are already a coach, physical education teacher or just actively involved with soccer coaching, you will be familiar with the question “are we going to have a game?” In our opinion it’s a great question but not as good as the question “what game are we playing today?” or “can we play that game again today?”

This book outlines and explains 21 small-sided games (SSGs) that we hope you and your players enjoy. The 21 games have been chosen as examples of SSGs that we use regularly in our coaching. We could have chosen many others, but after a lot debate, we settled on these 21 because we feel that they perfectly show the potential that well-designed SSGs can have in helping a coach develop their players and teams.

Although we use SSGs as a core aspect of our coaching, we also recognize that other learning situations can contribute to a player’s development. For example, we fully accept that isolated skill practices (e.g. ‘drills’) can improve players, and this book does not seek to say that coaches should only coach through games. However, it is probably only right that we do admit that we and our players love SSGs, and that we think they are crucial to the holistic development of players.

CHECK OUT GAME 4 - CONE TOWER