SM
The avuncular one
Quite a few of us have to contend with the sloping football pitch on the odd Saturday I am sure. However, came across an odd combination this weekend which caught me off guard. Interested to here other people's views and advice on this one.
Dry day, pitch is on a slope from one goal to the other, slope increases in steepness as you get to the lower goal. Was preparing myself to be having a hard working day running up and down the hill. CARs on the lines. It's a local cup game between teams from different divisions.
From the kick off it became clear that the home team have developed a style of football to take advantage of the slope and have a keeper with a huge kick. Basically I would be on my diagonal at the top end of the pitch, play breaks down, keeper (or defender if the ball doesn't get to the keeper) smashes ball 70 metres down the pitch to the 2 waiting strikers. They may as well not have had midfield players. This is from the first moments of the game. Trying to get into good positions becomes a nightmare, less an 2 seconds to run down field and get into position. This is made worse by the away team trying to play a high line offside trap. Instead of running a diagonal, which becomes impossible, I start running a right angle - straight down the pitch so I can make some kind of credible decision about offside and then cut across to the left if play allows.
The away team do exactly the same in the second half, but the home team are clever enough to play deeper. However, the away team playing down the hill play the high line again in the second half with the home strikers trying to run through up the hill onto long bomb passes.
I am certain my positioning would have been slaughtered if I was being assessed at this game. I work hard, get through it with minimal moaning, both teams are reasonably happyish att the end.
It felt like 90 minutes of structure less footie, the type you tend to see at the end of tight matches - huge long balls back and forth.
Anyone else come across this and how do you cope with the slope, the style of play and positioning bearing in mind the need to be on top of offside decisions at all times?
Dry day, pitch is on a slope from one goal to the other, slope increases in steepness as you get to the lower goal. Was preparing myself to be having a hard working day running up and down the hill. CARs on the lines. It's a local cup game between teams from different divisions.
From the kick off it became clear that the home team have developed a style of football to take advantage of the slope and have a keeper with a huge kick. Basically I would be on my diagonal at the top end of the pitch, play breaks down, keeper (or defender if the ball doesn't get to the keeper) smashes ball 70 metres down the pitch to the 2 waiting strikers. They may as well not have had midfield players. This is from the first moments of the game. Trying to get into good positions becomes a nightmare, less an 2 seconds to run down field and get into position. This is made worse by the away team trying to play a high line offside trap. Instead of running a diagonal, which becomes impossible, I start running a right angle - straight down the pitch so I can make some kind of credible decision about offside and then cut across to the left if play allows.
The away team do exactly the same in the second half, but the home team are clever enough to play deeper. However, the away team playing down the hill play the high line again in the second half with the home strikers trying to run through up the hill onto long bomb passes.
I am certain my positioning would have been slaughtered if I was being assessed at this game. I work hard, get through it with minimal moaning, both teams are reasonably happyish att the end.
It felt like 90 minutes of structure less footie, the type you tend to see at the end of tight matches - huge long balls back and forth.
Anyone else come across this and how do you cope with the slope, the style of play and positioning bearing in mind the need to be on top of offside decisions at all times?
