Introduction

Welcome to the Warriors NXT 2013-14 team page. Here you will find information we share about how we play and soccer in general. Each week during the season the News Update section will be updated with what has changed on the page. The Weekly Training and Weekly Keeper Training sections will be updated each week. And, randomly through the season other parts of the site will be updated and then the News Update section will reflect that. The page is maintained by Coach Sam with input from the entire coaching staff. 

News Update

This page is no ready to begin the season. Each player should read everything on this page through the "pre-season" accordion. It will review the different styles of defensive play we learned last year. The goal of this reading, our pre-season training sessions and our first formal week of training is to get us back to where we were when we finished last year. 

Team Overview

Warriors NXT 2013-14 is a cohort of 3 6th grade soccer teams from the Brookline Soccer Club. Our teams are Fulham, Porto, and Roma. We play 9v9 games with a size 4 ball within the Boston Area Youth Soccer league.  You can find our schedules in BAYS from this page by looking for your team under the Brookline Soccer Club Teams section. 

Our Vision

Provide a fun and rewarding developmental soccer experience for 5th and 6th grade boys that progresses them towards their soccer goals whether that ranges from playing at Brookline High School or creating a life-long love of the Beautiful Game.

Game Model

During the 2024-2025 the teams successfully trained and played games using our Game Model as the framework for how we approach the game. Sam and coaching staff created the Game Model (combination of philosophy and framework) for that training year and have updated it for this season. It is a living document that will be updated throughout the season to reflect our understanding of how we play. 

We will share the most current version of our Game Model here. It lays out everything from our vision, culture, style, and more. As part of this I want to highlight the culture we have built and will maintain. 

Culture

The B6 cohort has multiple teams with a tremendous range of players with a diverse relationship with the Beautiful Game. Our goal is to make all of them welcome while creating a culture that enables all of them to reach their soccer goals. Additionally, the coaching staff firmly believes that we are developing more than just soccer players. We are developing future citizens and leaders within our community and the values  they develop on the soccer field are critical in their development as young men.

Warriors NXT Values

• Respectful – we treat everyone with dignity
• Focused – when we are at practice or a game we are talking and thinking about soccer
• Supportive – we support each other as players and people
• Growth Mindset – we strive to get better
• Warrior Spirit – we play with intensity and we always strive to win and never give up

Our expectation is every player should be familiar with all of the subphases.

Sub-Phases

Attacking in the flow of play sub-phases:

Build up out of the back

In this sub-phase we safely pass the ball around our defensive half of the field away from the opponent building out of our back. The purpose is to safely and consistently cross the midfield line to start our attack into our attacking half of the field.  

Attacking by probing and analyzing

We will generally play this sub-phase for the first half of the game to test and analyze our opponent's defense. We combine dribbling and passing and our attacking patterns to attack the opponent from our left, center, and right to find their defensive weaknesses. We try to attack from the left and the right with crosses and ground attack via dribbling and passing. Ideally we also get some cutback passes from the left and the right to see how their defense handles that too. Lastly, we will likely shift to a low-block for 5-10 minutes to test the opponent's ability to handle our team counter-attack.  The scoring zone is the area of the field in front of the opponent's goal which is the width of the 6 yard box up to the 18. This part of the field leads to the highest chances to score when we take a shot. 

Attacking by targeting, disrupting, and scoring

We generally play this sub-phase during the second half after we have learned what the opponent's defensive weaknesses are. We then narrow our focus on one or two weaknesses and use our attacking patterns of play to exploit those weaknesses and create a lot of goal scoring opportunities. 

Team counter-attack

Often when we play a low-block we are doing so in order to enable our midfield to regain possession of the ball so we can rapidly launch a counter-attack with 1-2 midfielders and 2 forwards to get into the scoring zone and create a scoring opportunity before the opponent's midfield get get back on defense. 

Local counter-attack

When we conduct a high-press our intent is to regain possession of the ball in our attacking half of the field. When we regain possession of the ball in that manner our first thought is to conduct a local counter-attack with the player regaining the ball and maybe one other player. The player with the ball's first look is to immediately attack towards the opponent's goal. The purpose of this immediate local counter-attack is to create a scoring opportunity before the opponent's midfield and defense have time to reform. 

Defending in the flow of play sub-phases:

Low-Block

In this sub-phase our midfield and defensive lines play a zonal pressure, cover, balance defense.  Our defensive line sets itself along our 18. Our midfield line sets itself about 5-7 yards on top of the defensive line. Each line plays compact pressure, cover, balance. The forwards allow the opponent to cross the midfield and then force them into a smaller and smaller space on the field on either the left of the right side. Normally we like to turn the opponent to our right side. We will likely low-block for two reasons. The first one is to prevent the opponent from getting shots inside our scoring zone. The second, and often more important reason, is for us to create counter-attacking opportunities. 

Mid-Block

The mid-block is very similar to the low-block except the midfield line sets itself just on our defensive side of the midfield line. The defensive line forms up about 7-10 yards behind our midfield line while the forwards try and turn the other team to our right and make the field smaller and smaller for them. The purpose of this is typically regain possession of the ball around the middle of the field and then attack by probing or attack by targeting depending on the style we are playing at the moment. 

High-Press

When we high press we are switching to a man marking system centered around the opponent who has the ball. We are trying to gain possession of the ball on the opponent's side of the field. We try to gain possession of the ball and immediately attack towards goal. We frequently do this when the opponent has a goal kick. Our forwards try and turn our opponent to our right. Our midfield line positions itself to contain the ball in our attacking third. And our defenders position themselves to prevent an opponent's deep attack on our goal.

Weekly Training

We expect each player to read through and watch the training material by week. This will help them better understand our training and training focus for the week. 

Pre-Season

Prior to our first practice in September I expect each player to complete this section. The purpose of this study is to refresh our memory on everything we learned last year. By the end of last year we were doing very well and shifting formations and styles of play to best match the tactical situation. We want to regain that level of play as quickly as possible. As such, please go through this section and recall how we played last year. 

We learned and played several different styles of play or what we call sub-phases in our game model. The ones I want to review are:

• Low-block
• Mid-block
• High-press
• Corner kicks

Low-block

Please re-watch this video. 

Mid-block

Please re-watch this video. 

High-press

This is a new video I created to cover how we conduct a high-press against an opponent's goal kick.

Here is a video I created about how we high-press against an opponent's throw-in. I can't emphasize this point enough. To be successful as soon as the ball goes out in the opponent's half we have to man mark or double team every opponent within 15 yards of the ball. Then we need to leave some space for him to throw the ball back down the field towards his endline. 

Corners

Here is a video reviewing how we offensively and defensively take corners.

Week 1 Game on 6 September

To be published

Week 2 Game on 13 September

To be published

Week 3 Game on 20 September

To be published

Week 4 Game on 27 September

To be published

Week 5 Game on 4 October

To be published

Week 6 Game on 11 October

To be published

Week 7 Game on 18 October

To be published

Week 8 Game on 25 October

To be published

Week 9 Game on 1 November

To be published

Week 10 Game on 8 November

To be published

Weekly Keeper Training

This Fall season in addition to the basic keeper skills we are going to be focusing on three areas:

• Communication. Especially with your defense. 
• Distribution. This includes over hand throws, bowling, field passing, punts, and side-volleys. 
• Owning your box. Being aggressive coming off your line whether it is 1v1 or taking on a cross. You own the box. 

We will also focus on different kind of saves and keeper movement and positioning. 

As we go through the season, remember that it is essential for you to keep working on your skill as a field player. As a keeper you need to work twice as hard as the other players. You need to be a good field player AND a good keeper. 

Pre-Season

To be published

Week 1 Game on 6 September

To be published

Week 2 Game on 13 September

To be published

Week 3 Game on 20 September

To be published

Week 4 Game on 27 September

To be published

Week 5 Game on 4 October

To be published

Week 6 Game on 11 October

To be published

Week 7 Game on 18 October

To be published

Week 8 Game on 25 October

To be published

Week 9 Game on 1 November

To be published

Week 10 Game on 8 November

To be published

General Soccer Stuff

This section is full of interesting soccer videos and articles to enhance the players' learning. Nothing here is "required", but it has some cool information and learning.