A Game of Goals

Goals, Goals and More Goals

Soccer is a game full of goals. In addition to scoreboard-based goals, how one traditionally keeps score in a match and what we typically refer to when discussing the game, there are season-long goals (winning a season, a tournament, perhaps even the World Cup), there are match goals (winning the game), position goals (successfully defending an attack, successfully orchestrating a movement that results in a good shooting opportunity), and individual ones (winning a 50/50, chasing down an opponent, turning a defender inside out, hooking a ball past a wall). There are also training goals (including skills acquisition, comprehension/awareness, speed, endurance) and strength goals in addition to mental goals (eliminating .

That being said, among all these goals it's difficult for the casual players, and sometimes even advanced players, to articulate how soccer/football actually works. You know good soccer when you see it, but don't necessarily understand why it's so. Knowing what you are attempting to do, your goal, typically informs your approach, so we're going to take a moment and talk about how soccer goals, the ones you see on the scoreboard, actually happen.