Hello and welcome to Soccer 101.

My name is Darrell Grove and on today's show I'll be explaining pressing.

You probably hear the phrase pressing a lot when you're watching soccer,

but maybe no one's ever laid out exactly what it is. So let's do that today and let's start

with the absolute basics. Pressing is when the team that doesn't have the ball applies pressure

to the team that does have the ball in an attempt to win it back

or at the very least to stop the team with the ball making any progress done correctly

pressing is like a Jedi mind trick because pressure from the defending team is a way of controlling

where the ball is going, even though

it's the other team that actually has the ball. That's not the pass you're looking for, you can

say, as you wave your hand. And it's not that the team in possession is weak-minded, like that

dumb-dum stormtrooper on Tatooine. It's more that if the press is coordinated correctly, then you can close off all kinds

of passing options and leave the other team with no way to go about their business. So where do

you press? Well, the most obvious and most fun to watch pressing happens really high up the field,

and we literally call this the high press it's not dissimilar

at least in my limited understanding to a basketball full court press it's just that there's a lot more

space needs covering on a soccer pitch to give you a visual of a high press let's say the opposition

centreback has the ball maybe he's received it from his goalkeeper he's at the top of his own penalty. Let's say the opposition centreback has the ball. Maybe he's received it from his goalkeeper. He's at the top of his own penalty area. He's full of optimism about what he's going to do with the ball. Bless him, he's going to build an attack from back there. But then one of our strikers gets right in his face. And then our teammates are also up there, either marking other opponents and or standing in the way of potential passing

lanes. Side note, a passing lane is literally the path the ball would travel if player A were to pass

to player B. So if you stand in the way of this pass, then the passing lane is blocked. Got it? Okay,

focus up again. Ideally, we're up there and we outnumber them,

at least in certain areas. And the idea is that that poor old centreback, maybe picture him in a

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