When to Play a Ball Over the Top
Playing a ball over the top is simple enough – just chip it over the defense for your teammate to run onto it. The timing is what makes it a tricky technique (that’s incredibly effective when executed correctly).
Often, players end up kicking the ball too far so it’s easy for the keeper to clean it up, too early so its easy for the defense to handle, or too late so your teammate is offsides.
Playing the ball over the top is all about knowing when the time is right, and that requires some quick decision making with your soccer IQ.
The Risk of Playing a Ball Over the Top
We’ve all seen what happens when someone plays a ball over the top but overshoots their teammate. The goalie gets to the ball first.
When you really think about it, playing a ball over the top is putting your teammate in a hypothetical race with the goalie. You’re considering your own position on the field, your teammate’s position on the field, and then asking yourself: Who will get there first (your teammate or the goalie)?
Technically speaking, you can never be 100% sure your teammate will get to the ball first. But 50% sure? That’s a fantastic opportunity. In our experience, that’s what you should shoot for in terms of timing. If there’s at least a 50/50 chance you can hit it to where your teammate will reach the ball before the goalie, take the risk and play the ball over the top.
Anticipating Your Teammates’ Movements
We wish we could give you a simple formula for determining that 50/50 likelihood. But it really comes down to your connection with your teammates. Your attacking teammates need to know how you like to time playing the ball over the top, and you need to know their ability to win that ball. Do you float it or is it more of a driven chip? Do you prefer to play the ball over the top from a certain spot on the field?
This is a good thing to practice with your teammates – a simple 30 minute session of just you and your attacking teammates (no need for defenders) where you are chipping it to them and they are running onto it will go a long ways to perfecting the timing so that you can get multiple 50/50 chances in a game.
When to Adjust and Stop Playing it Over the Top
Another factor to keep in mind before playing the ball over the top is the other team’s reaction. After playing it over the top once and creating a chance on goal, do the defenders play a step deeper to shrink the space you can play it into? If not, you can keep peppering the balls in and keep creating chances.
But eventually, a good team will adapt and anticipate your chip. This creates more space right in front of you to play your attacking teammates to their feet with their back to goal. Always look and take the advantage they are giving you to exploit rather than keep trying the same thing over and over.
Like any other technique, learning when to play a ball over the top is much easier when you’ve seen it in action, time and time again. That’s why we created BGTV, a massive library of professional footage organized by position. Each clip features high-level players making smart decisions with breakdowns from professionals explaining exactly how the player knew what to do in this situation. That’s how you learn when you’re in the right - or wrong - environment for a certain technique to work.
Ready to check out BGTV and grow your soccer IQ? Use code FREEMONTH1 for the first month free!
