1. We play man-to-man on the wingers with the sweeper playing second defender. If their winger drops the ball back to the sweeper our defender will follow the ball to apply pressure and the sweeper will move up to take her mark.
2. Penalty kicks are taken from midfield. Rarely called during a game but will be the tiebreaker after a 3 minute sudden death overtime in the semi-final or championship game.
3. Transition is the key work. Your sweeper needs to be able to deliver a diagonal through ball to either winger. On the other hand your players have to understand that upon loss of possession they have to recover IMMEDIATELY and get goalside of their marks. When our wingers encounter pressure they turn and drop pass to the sweeper and then make a run to the near post for the give and go. If opposing sweeper starts to favor ball side too much sweeper will send diagonal through ball to opposite winger.
4. Our set pieces are pretty extensive so here goes. Most important inbound is your goal kick. You must avoid turnovers in front of your goal. We run both a wide and a narrow formation. Goal kicks are taken anywhere from the end line. We set the ball about 10 feet outside the goal posts. We stack both wingers in front of the ball. Sweeper is four steps behind the ball. Wingers move on sweeper movement. Near side winger breaks straight to the sideline and sweeper passes 45 degree angle to the sideline. With the proper timing winger and ball meet just short of sideline. Off side winger steps forward and turns to get goalside of ball as it rolls on the ground. This puts her in immediate position to play defense in case bad pass or winger loss of possession. Sweeper steps into field and becomes second defender to offside winger. On wide formations on side winger lines on the sideline and draws her mark as close to your goal line as possible. This sets up a through ball to the sideline behind the mark. Rule is if winger is closely marked pass to space, if winger is loosely marked pass to feet. This rule always applies during the game also. Offside winger on wide formation has same resonsibility.
5. Kickoffs can go in any direction. We put fastest winger wide (either side). The other winger takes the kickoff and drops the ball to the sweeper. She plays diagonal through ball to wide winger making a curved run to the near post. Off side winger after taking the kickoff makes run to far post. Winger receiving the through ball goes directly to near post for the shot or crosses to other winger if sweeper steps out to pressure (a basic two on one). We score at least once a game on the kickoff sometimes with only two or three touches.
6. Corners and sidelines. We play quickly before the other team has a chance to mark. Basic drop pass to the sweeper the winger who made the inbound then running to near post. Offside winger gets wide to other side in case give and go is not there then the sweeper will switch fields. On the corner we line up offside winger on the opposite side of the box straddling the top corner. When the winger inbounds to sweeper, she runs along the goal line for the return pass. She then crosses through the box. Offside winger waits for the ball to cross through the goal box and then taps ball in the side. We try to bait the other teams sweeper to step into the goal box. Sometimes the corner will just be a cross through the box. If the sweeper is closely marked on a corner or any kick-in from the sideline, the sweeper draws her marks back and toward the sideline to set up a through ball. The sweeper breaks toward the space she has just created for the inbound pass.
