Fundamentals of Playing Soccer

Over its century long existence in its current (professional) form, soccer continually evolved into an all-skills sport. In order to be a good soccer player, you can't simply focus on a single skill. You could be an extraordinary free kick taker and score every one of two close range kicks, but if you have no passing or receiving skills for example, no coach will risk throwing you in the team and literally playing 10 versus 11.
 

 
This said, let's take a look at the main soccer fundamental skills that are required in the modern day player. Note that they will each be covered with more details in a separate article, so what you'll find below is just an introductory paragraph to each of these soccer fundamentals.

Fundamentals of Playing Soccer –  Dribbling

Dribbling is to many the essence of soccer, alongside goals. A dribble is spectacular but it doesn't just hold entertainment value, since a successful dribble can dish out a substantial tactical advantage for the attacking team, creating numeric superiority, clearing up a shot or a passing opportunity or simply causing panic in the opposing team's defense, ruining their tactical setup.

There are several types of dribbles made with the inside, outside, sole or back heel of your foot but many dribbles involve more than just footwork. If you look at most dribbles, they also involve a body movement mechanic that allows the dribbler to shift his weight quickly, surprising the defender. It's also important to scan the surrounding field when dribbling, so make sure you never dribble with your eyes on the ground (or else you might do a successful dribble, losing one opponent only to have another one in your face when the dribbling is over). 

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Fundamentals of Playing Soccer –  Free Kicks

Today's soccer is a lot tougher and physical than say, 30 years ago, thus creating more free kicks overall in a single match. And it's often the case that these free kicks determine the result, especially if you have one or two highly skilled free kick takers in the team.

 
There are two types of offensive free kicks: the ones that are shot towards the goal and the ones that are crossed. The goal shot free kicks are considered far more dangerous, but usually they're rarer since they require the foul to have happened in a central area on the pitch, close to the opponent's box. With most of the modern soccer game being taken on the sides, crossing free kicks are more abundant and despite not being as dangerous as central ones, they're still a good source of chances for any team.

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Fundamentals of Playing Soccer –  Goalkeeping

Goalkeepers do a thankless job on many occasions, stopping 6-7 made goals only to see the striker gain all the credit for his 1 goal. Regardless, they have a crucial role in the squad and whereas a team could play without a single striker and still have a chance of winning, it's doubtful that a team could ever win without a moderately talented goalkeeper that provides some safety at the back.

Soccer goalkeeping mostly refers to how you handle the ball as the keeper, how you stop or deflect shots, how you pick crosses from the air and so forth. But a modern goalkeeper does so much more than that: he coordinates his entire defense since he has the best field of view, he often acts as a sweeper if the ball goes past the defense and he must have good passing skills to put his teammates on a fast counter. 

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Fundamentals of Playing Soccer – Heading

Ideally, a soccer match would be played without the ball rising from ground level, where players have the best control over it. But since we're not living in an ideal world, sometimes you’ll have to fly the ball high into the sky as a soccer player and it will be one of your colleague's job to head it, whether with the purpose of a pass, clearance or goal shot.

Heading is a crucial skill for strikers (who will try to make use of crosses with their head), defenders (who will have to clear a lot of the opponent's crosses with their head during the course of a match) and the central midfielder (who will have to redirect goal kicks and defender clearances from both teams with his head). Side players don't have that much of a use for a high heading skill, although it obviously helps. 

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Fundamentals of Playing Soccer – Juggling

Ok admittedly, when compared to many of the other fundamentals of playing soccer found here, juggling might seem a little useless since you won't actually have the room or the time (or well...the reason) to juggle in a real match. Besides the entertainment value of juggling, it's actually a good way to practice a number of other soccer fundamentals, such as ball control, trapping, dribbling and so forth.
 
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Fundamentals of Playing Soccer – Passing 

Passing is undoubtedly THE most important soccer skill you'll need to posses if you want to become a good player. Sure, no one will ask you to striker perfect crosses if you're a central defender and no one will ask you to be able to put inch-perfect through balls for the attackers if you're a goalie, but a decent passing skill is essential for any position on the pitch.

 
Obviously there are many types of passes: short balls, long balls, crosses, curved passes (with an inward or outward curve), hard passes, through passes, safety passes and so forth. They all have a common basis in the way you hit the ball and the way you coordinate your eye-foot mechanics to get the right direction and speed on the ball. 

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Fundamentals of Playing Soccer – Receiving

It doesn't matter if you have great shooting, passing or dribbling skills as a soccer player, if you can't get hold of the ball in the first place. Receiving the ball, or trapping it requires good eye-foot coordination as well as a trainable skill to apply a little force in the direction from which the ball is coming from, in order to stop its acceleration and settle it down. 

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Fundamentals of Playing Soccer – Shielding

Shielding the ball requires a combination of anticipation, balance and body mechanics, all added next to a good physique. Sure, even a skinny guy can shield and receive a ball well enough given the right technique to do so, but physical prowess is an advantage in many cases. Shielding is most important for strikers who need to protect their position in order to receive the ball and defenders, who will often find themselves in the situation of shielding the ball until it goes out of play (if the opponent touched the ball last) or into the hands of their goalie.  

Fundamentals of Playing Soccer – Shooting

Other than heading the ball in the net, shooting will be your only and main way of scoring goals. Your shooting skill will consist of two variables: power and accuracy. If you can fit them both in even better, but they don't necessarily have to be trained as a pair. For example, in close range situations, a striker might want to shoot hard, with little regard to accuracy. An alternative would be to accurately plant the ball in the unguarded corner of the goal, without printing too much power to your shot. For long range shooting on the other hand, a combination of power and accuracy is vital.

Shot training is usually emphasized by strikers and central midfielders but don't take that as a rule of thumb (some of today's best shooters play on neither of these positions, take Roberto Carlos (Left Back) or Cristiano Ronaldo (Winger) for example).

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Fundamentals of Playing Soccer – Tackling

Usually we think of a tackling as a sliding charge for the ball (and sometimes for the opponent's feet) but even stealing the ball from an opposing player while on your feet is considered a tackle. Actually, standing tackles occur far more often in a soccer match, but sliding tackles stand out more since they usually produce either a spectacular steal, or an ugly foul.

Learning how to tackle correctly is crucial for defenders and defensive midfielders but any player on any given position on the pitch will be required to produce a tackle every now and then, so this skill shouldn't be skipped by forwards or offensive midfielders. 

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Fundamentals of Playing Soccer – Throw In

A throw in occurs whenever the ball goes out of bonds on the sides of the pitch, rendering the team who didn't touch the ball last possession. Admittedly, throw ins don't bear as much tactical importance as free kicks or corner kicks, to compare them to other static moments in the game but you can build a few tactically rich moments around a throw in. For example, a team might use throw ins to advance in a rugby-like yard-by-yard way, by constantly throwing the ball further, shielding it and allowing the other team to push it out for another throw in.

 
If you have a player with good strength, you can allow him to turn throw-ins near the opposing team's box into accurate crosses (one example that comes into my mind now is Riise from Liverpool, whose throw-ins near the opposing team's box are cheered by Liverpool's fans like corners). 

Fundamentals of Playing Soccer – Corner Kicks

Corner kicks, just like side free kicks offer a good scoring opportunity from a set position. A corner kick allows you to bring as many players as you want in the opponent's penalty box (of course, you'll want to keep at least 2 defenders back as "guards") and the player taking the corner kick will also have time to make the best out of his cross.

There are several types of corner kicks, including low crosses, high crosses, short corners, second post crosses and so forth. But the type of the cross is not the only tactical variable a coach can change during a corner, since you can also figure out a new way to position your attacking players in or outside the opponent's box. Corners usually favor teams that have predominantly tall and strong players, with good heading skills. 

Fundamentals of Playing Soccer – Clearance

Usually, when hearing of a soccer clearance, we picture some defender kicking the ball high into the sky, far away from his own goal, to give his team time to regroup or get a breather. Although that's the most popular form of clearance, this soccer fundamental also consists of "escorting" the ball out of play (through shielding for example). One other type of clearing you'll probably see often with defenders is the "safety clearance".

If a defender has his back towards the play (as in he's facing his own goal) and has no safe way to turn or pass the ball, he will rather simply kick the ball out of play (preferably conceding a throw in and not a corner) than risk losing it in that hot area and placing his goalkeeper under fire. 

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