Playing soccer with your head doesn’t mean going into the air and heading the ball into or away from the goal. Playing with your head means that you are mentally ready to play for the entire match and that you can get into your opponents head and make them play at a lower level than they are capable. That’s soccer psychology.
A soccer player must during a match be able to play at their optimum level. This means that the player can make a mistake, mistakes do happen, and proceed on with the match without allowing the mistake to bother them. This “forgiveness” is an important factor. If a player does not “forgive themselves” for making a mistake, then the player will start to tighten up, press harder than they are able to and consequently not play up to their optimum level.
To play at this optimum level, the soccer player must know what their playing limitations are and insure that they play to maximize their strong qualities and minimize the exposure of the limitations. This knowledge and the application of tactics during a match insure that the player doesn’t “try to do too much” and overextends himself or herself during play. This overextension will tend to expose the limitations of their abilities and consequently reduce their level of play.
Many parents and players who are new to soccer have the idea that soccer is a “non contact” sport. It is true that soccer players only wear shin guards and some goalkeepers a leather cap, but soccer is a full contact sport. A referee team controls the physical play on the field. This physical play can be either fair or foul. The referee will decide what is fair or foul within the rules of the game. The player must accept the fact that they are going to be bumped into, pushed, kicked or tripped during the course of the match. The acceptance of this physical play without getting angry or retaliating allows the player to continue to play at their highest level.
Defensive players will utilize any tactic to take the offensive player out of a match. The better defensive players will utilize both physical play and psychology to minimize the effect of a skilled offensive player. During one state high school tournament, blue was playing against white. Blue had a highly skilled and dangerous striker. White had no individual defensive player to match the blue striker. In the pregame the white coach was trying to determine how to play against this dangerous player. The white stopper spoke up and said, “No problem coach, I’ve got him”. The blue team won the toss and elected to take the ball to start the match. The white stopper lined up on the center circle. The whistle blew and the blue striker got the ball. The white stopper took the blue striker down with a hard tackle. The referee called the foul and cautioned the white player. The stopper leaned down to the striker, offered to help him up and said “Hi, you’ll see me all night”. During the match the striker was totally ineffective. He was always waiting for the stopper to appear. The stopper in the first minute of the game had used soccer psychology to cause the striker to play at far less than his ability.
While soccer psychology works for the individual player, the entire team is affected by using soccer psychology. The players must buy into the concept that they are members of a team and individual play is part of the team effort. This team effort and the utilization of all every player on the pitch will provide team success as a whole. This team concept insures that the “stud” players do not need feel pressure to win every game by themselves. The stud player when confronted by a number of opponents must know they have the ability to release the ball to another team mate who has no opponents nearby and can help contribute to the team. Soccer psychology is utilized to both create and reinforce the team concept. This team concept provides any team the opportunity to succeed on the pitch.
Soccer is a free flowing, creative game. The application of soccer psychology insures that the players on the team are allowed to make mistakes without self criticism or doubt. One of the biggest factors in soccer psychology is that the players are part of a team and that mistakes are allowed. When an individual player makes a mistake, that player knows that there will be a teammate available to help correct the mistake. Proper application of soccer psychology will insure that the team as a whole will accept mistakes and that the team as a whole will remediate the mistakes without criticism by the player who made the mistake or the team being critical of the mistake.
Soccer psychology is an important part of the game. The team must know that they can play at their optimum level and that mistakes can be made. This confidence emanates from the team and can either consciously or subconsciously affect the other team, both individually and as a whole. The ability to apply aspects of soccer psychology to the opponents will cause the opponents to play at less than their optimum level thus insuring success for the team applying the soccer psychology.
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