Counter attack in soccer

A counter attack in soccer is a fast attack that starts the moment your team wins the ball, while the other team is still spread out from its own attack. The aim is a shot or a clear chance within a few passes, before their players can get back behind the ball. Three habits make it work: look forward first, get runners going wide and through the middle straight away, and keep the passes and touches few.

How a counter attack works in soccer

When a team attacks, its full backs push up, its midfielders step forward and the space behind them grows. If you win the ball at that moment, the best chance your team will get is in the next few seconds. Once the other team has recovered, which is what recovery runs teaches from their side, you are back to breaking down a set defense.

The player who wins the ball looks forward first. If a teammate is free in front of the other team's back line, a quick pass there gets the ball past several opponents at once. If the forward pass isn't on, a lay off to a teammate already running forward, as in the third man run, can do the same job. If nothing is on, a short safe pass is better than losing the ball again. Young players often want to dribble the whole way, but a pass forward covers the ground faster than anyone can run with the ball.

The runners matter as much as the ball. Two players sprint wide, one on each side, and one runs through the middle. The wide runs pull the defenders apart: a full back who follows a winger toward the touchline is no longer next to their center back. The middle run attacks the space this opens. Runners stay level with or behind the last defender until the pass is played, so they aren't offside, and then accelerate.

The player on the ball carries it at the defense rather than across it. Running straight at a defender makes them decide whether to step up, and when they do, a gap opens behind them. The pass then goes early, into the runner's path, so the runner never has to slow down. If the attack stalls and the defense gets back in numbers, it is fine to keep the ball and build again.

Step by step

O attacks to the right. D has pushed into O's half to attack, with its back line near halfway.

D7 has the ball in O's half, and O7 steps in and wins it.

O7 looks forward first and finds O10 in the space in front of D's back line. As the pass goes, O5 and O8 sprint up the wings and O9 runs inside.

O10 carries the ball straight at the back line, and D3 steps out to meet them. O5 and O8 stay wide, so D1 and D4 have to go with them.

D3 stepping out has opened a gap between D2 and D3. O10 slides the ball through it into O9's path. O9 was still behind D2 when the pass was played, so O9 is onside.

O9 gets to the ball first and shoots across the keeper toward the far post. O5 and O8 keep running toward goal in case the keeper saves it.

The shot goes in. From the moment O7 won the ball it took two passes and a shot, and most of D never got back behind the ball.

To practice it, walk through the play with your team first, so each player knows where to run when the ball is won. Then play a game on half a pitch where one team builds an attack and the other team, once it wins the ball, has a few seconds to score, counted out loud by the coach. The count keeps the counter quick and makes players look forward first.

The full play

You can take this playbook into your own account and change it for your team, for example to start from a turnover on the wing or from your own formation.

If you coach a youth or rec team, game day on Playspedia helps you plan who plays when and keep playing time fair. Set up your team here.