The Art of Late Runs into the Box
As an attacking player, making yourself open to receive the ball and score is a big part of your job. This often involves choosing the perfect time to make a run into the box.
In many cases, the key is throwing off the defense, so their attention is focused on your teammates, and they don’t see your run coming.
This is the basis of a late run into the box. The “late” part stems from the concept that you’re entering the box after the defense has scanned the area and have picked up their marks, meaning you’re about to overload them and create some chaos.
Setting Up Your Run
The standard late run is simple – you are trying to arrive far post to clean up a cross that gets through everyone. Hard to defend, and a play every coach loves to see.
Here’s a different version that gives you more control of how it goes – and defenses are rarely ready for.
Let’s say you have the ball, and you’re dribbling up the right flank towards your opponent’s box. One or two of your teammates are already deep into the box, so these are the players the defense is most concerned with.
If you want to make a late run into the box, your first move is to lay the ball off to a teammate making an overlap towards the end line.
Once your teammate receives the ball, the defense will expect them to cross the ball into the box. Since two of your teammates are already there, this is where the defense thinks the ball is going.
Why the Defense Won’t See You Coming
The art of a late run into the box is very similar to the classic “give and go” technique. You lay the ball off to your teammate, and then make your bellying run towards the top of the box. Because you’re nowhere near the ball, the defense probably isn’t expecting you to score. So, there’s a good chance that once you lay the ball off, the defense will forget about you completely and concentrate exclusively on your teammates inside the box.
When you receive the ball, you’ll be right in front of the goal with no defenders in your way.
Putting Yourself in The Defender’s Cleats
The effectiveness of late runs becomes more apparent when you see it from a defender’s perspective. To grossly oversimplify, most defenders live by three rules:
Don’t let the cross in
If the cross comes in, win it out of the air
If you don’t win it, don’t let them get a clean shot off.
When they’re focusing on those three things when it looks like a cross is coming in, they’re too preoccupied to catch a late run.
As a sidenote: this is why it’s so advantageous to learn how to play other positions during training. If you’re a Striker, it makes sense to learn how to play as a Centerback, since the two positions often go head-to-head in high-pressure moments. A great Centerback can read and anticipate the movements of a Striker, and vice versa.
If you play as a Centerback in this scenario, you’ll see how difficult it is to see that late run into the box coming. Once the ball is laid off to the player near the end line, the defense naturally moves closer to the goal, away from the player who eventually makes a run and ends up receive the ball.
Where to See a Perfectly Timed Run into the Box in Action
Even if you don’t get into the box at the right time, it’s still beneficial to make the run because you’ll have more players inside the box, making it harder for the defense to clear the ball.
Making a late run into the box is also a lot easier thanks to video analysis tools like BGTV, a massive library of professional footage organized by position. Each clip features high-level players executing essential techniques and making smart decisions with breakdowns from professionals explaining exactly how the player knew what to do in this situation.
If you’ve never executed a late run into the box and you want to add this technique to your game, seeing it in action is a great start. It’s just like studying for a test, only this time, it’s your soccer IQ that’s growing.
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