Hello everyone and welcome to Soccer 101.

My name is Joe Lowry, and on this episode, we're talking all about soccer's phases of play.

In the past, you may have overheard a group of coaches talking about phases of play,

or maybe you scanned through a soccer tactics thread on Twitter,

got a bit overwhelmed with all of the tactical jargon that gets thrown around in those threads and kept on scrolling.

If you've ever heard of phases of play, or read about soccer's phases of play in the past, and are still confused about the whole concept, we're going to get to the bottom of it today.

To peel back the curtain and make our learning journey just a little easier, I'm going to go ahead and give us an outline for this episode.

First, we're going to define what the term phase of play means.

Then we're going to pinpoint exactly what soccer's phases are and how they connect to each other.

Then, and finally, we'll walk through examples that illustrate those phases and give us some insight into their intricacies.

With that rundown out of the way, are you ready to rock and roll?

I'm going to assume that the answer is yes, because we're going to go ahead and get started. When someone mentions a phase of play and soccer, what are they talking about? What does the term mean? Well, let's break it down. A phase is a period or a stage in a progression. Let me give you an example. We've all heard someone when they're talking about their moody teenager say,

oh, it's just a phase.

The thing is, they're right.

That teenager will almost certainly emerge out of teenagehood

with their emotions at least a little more in check.

It's not always a smooth process to move past the teenage years,

but they'll get there,

because those years are a phase.

They end and lead to the next phase, adulthood.

We know what a phase is, but what's a phase of play?

To figure that out, all we have to do is take the concept of phases and apply it to a soccer

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