No matter how hard we try to keep possession, sooner or later the other team is going to get the ball. Since we don't want them to keep the ball, there are a couple of things that need to happen immediately every time the other team gets the ball.

First, someone on our team has to challenge the ball carrier. Get between the ball carrier and our goal and make it difficult for the other team to advance the ball towards our goal. If you're the one challenging the ball and you can win the goal, that's fine...but your #1 responsibility is to stay between the ball and our goal to prevent the ball carrier from taking a shot. As you can see here, our #17 is challenging the ball.

(Being "in front" of the man you're marking means being between him and our goal. Commonly referred to as being "goal side")

If the person you're marking runs from one touchline to the other, you need to also run from one touchline to the other - and be sure to stay between that player and our goal. If the person you're marking runs around in circles, you too have to run around in circles. Plus, you have to stay between them and our goal. In our defensive third, once you start marking someone you have to keep marking them until we get the ball back.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So here's thousands and thousands of words worth of pictures:

Getting Goalside

We're in white. They're in red. They are about to take a corner kick from the lower right-hand corner of the screen. There are seven of us in the box and five of them. Four of their five players are marked correctly. Can you find the red player that isn't properly marked?

As the ball comes in from the lower right-hand corner of the picture, only one red player could take a shot without one of us blocking the shot. Did you find him? Along the goal line, sandwiched between our back and the goalie. If the ball gets in his area, the back can't block the shot:

In this game, the ball doesn't go to that guy. It goes all the way across the goal box to the attacker on the far left side of the picture. As you can see in the above picture, the defender is in great position to keep the attacker from taking a good shot. These players are World Cup level athletes, so the attacker does manage to get a shot off, but it is a real wimpy shot because the defender has such good position:

Do you see the two guys fighting for the ball on the left side of the picture? Good marking by our guy over there. And look at the attacker on the right side of the picture - there are two of us marking him and there's no way he's going to take a shot if the ball comes to him. And see that attacker just outside the center of the goal box? Like the attacker on the right side of the picture, there's no way he's going to take a shot.

But there are two attackers who aren't properly marked - the one right in front of our goalie and the one closest to the penalty spot. If the ball comes to either of them, they can easily take a one-touch shot on goal:

As the weak shot moves towards the goal, the attacking players continue to move forward. Our guys, unfortunately, don't continue to mark.

Two guys on our team are trying to clear the ball:

Everyone else except the goalie and sweeper stands flat-footed. Our defenders all let their marks get between them and the goal. This is not a good thing.

If you watched any of the World Cup coverage, you know that if I was an Irish, English, or Italian ESPN commentator, I'd be yelling that this is "DISASTROUS - TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE!!! A COMPLETE BREAKDOWN OF TEAM DEFENSE!"

But, since I'm not Irish, English or Italian, I'll just say that it is NOT a good thing - we have SEVEN defenders in the penalty box, yet all five of the other team's players are in position to take an unobstructed one-touch shot on goal. And at this level of play, they probably wouldn't miss.

The guy on the right would have a shot that even I could make:

The other guy in the goal box could pivot and volley a ball into the net (reminds you of something Jon Weiss might do, doesn't it?):

The guy just outside the goal box has a real clear right-footed shot, and would have tons of time to set it up:

The next guy to the left probably would have the toughest shot of the bunch - he'd have to get his shot over the defender sliding to the ground and place his shot to the right of our goalie. While it is the toughest shot of the five, at this level of play, it isn't a particularly difficult shot to make:

If you watched this World Cup game, you know that none of those possible shots were made.

What actually happened was that the ball popped out to the attacker on the far left edge of the picture. Our defender wasn't marking properly, and the attacker was able to step up and take an unobstructed shot on goal:

The shot zipped past our goalie and ended up in the back of our net:

Sometimes a goal is scored because the attacking team does a great job. This goal, however, was scored because our team did a terrible job of marking. If all our players had stayed goalside of their marks, we wouldn't have allowed this goal.

Game 2 of World Cup 2002: This is an excellent example of what can happen when you don't mark properly. The U.S. is ahead 1-0 in the second half. If we hold on to the lead, we get 3 points from this game and are virtually assured of moving on to the next round. When Korea has the ball, wouldn't you expect all of our defensive players to be goal side?

As Korea plays the ball into our box, this is the view our goalie has of the play. You'll notice that one U.S. player is goal side of his man, but the other U.S. player is not:

Looking at the play from the half line, you can clearly see that the Korean player has slipped in and is goal side of the U.S. defenders:

The bottom line is that because he wasn't goal side, our defender didn't have a chance in the world of keeping the Korean player from taking a quality shot on goal. If the defender had been goal side, he could have contested for the ball and probably prevented the goal (take another look at the video clip at the top of this page to see the result of good marking in a similar situation).

The Bottom Line for Our Indoor Teams: When the other team has the ball, you have to find someone on their team to mark... and than stay between that person and our goal until we regain possession of the ball (regardless of where on the field that person goes after you start marking them). We'll start allowing some discretion when we've all mastered the basics of marking (and consistently stay with our marks), but for now - when you start marking someone, you should stay with that person until we regain possession of the ball.

Basic Building Block of Indoor Defense: When the other team has the ball, one person on our team has to immediately challenge the ball carrier. Everyone else on our team (except the goalie) needs to immediately find someone to mark and then continue to mark them until we regain possession of the ball.