Young soccer players quickly learn rule No. 1 of defense, which is to stay between an offensive player and the goal at all times. By the time you reach the high school level, you'll need to deepen your understanding of the basics of defending and build a more sophisticated understanding of your role in concert with your defensive teammates.
Basic Tactics
If you are the defender closest to the ball, press into the attacker's space. Slow him down. Try to steer his dribble toward the sideline and away from the center of the field; discourage passes toward the center by positioning your legs and torso to block this option. Watch the ball and not his face to know the attacker's plans. Attempt to intercept the ball, to get to the ball as your opponent does, to apply pressure via shoulder charges and to lure the defender into exposing the ball, writes Dean Conway in "Soccer Calling: A Handbook For Youth Soccer Coaches."
Coverage
If you are the second-closest defender, mark your nearest attacker but shade over to support your teammate, Conway advises. If you are the third-closest defender, don't get drawn in too close to the action and look around to determine where the attacker might send a pass and move toward that space to take away that option.
Formations
Understand your role in a 3-4-3 or a 4-3-3 formation, both of which describe the number of defenders, midfielders and forwards, respectively. If you are playing a 3-4-3, you'll be one of three defenders marking a right, center and left zone in front of the goal. You'll pick up a player that enters your zone and communicate with your teammates about man-to-man marking if more than one player overloads your area. If you are the center back, you'll need to make good decisions; if you are the left or right back, you'll need speed and the ability to cover for your other two backs if they get drawn out of position. In the 4-3-3, with four defenders, you'll be responsible again for a zone, with the exception that two players rather than just one cover the central area in front of the goal, working either side by side or with one in front, called a stopper, and one in the back, called a sweeper.
Advanced Strategy
When the ball begins to come down the field, check with your teammates that you are holding a horizontal line, advises Soccer Bible.net. This limits gaps behind the offense that strikers can use to play the ball onside and forces them away from the goal. Bend the defensive alignment, be it three or four players, into a diagonal shape if a speedy striker gets past the horizontal line, so that the nearest defender covers the sideline area and the others stay in formation to guard the center and the weak side. Keep your shape by showing restraint unless you know you can win the ball or have backup coverage from your teammates, recommends Debra LaPrath in "Coaching Girls' Soccer Successfully."
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