The Passing into Space

Mastering the art of passing into space is very important if you want to perform well in games with fast tempo. To describe an example of passing into space imagine that you are the player without ball. The first step is to initiate the pass by performing a run into space. Second, your teammate who has the ball must pass it with accuracy and precision. Third, the whole point with the pass into space is to receive the ball while performing a run, so that you can keep running towards the goal.

So how do you initiate a pass into space? Well, you could just shout to your teammate to pass the ball and opponents will have no problem with taking the ball from you, or, you could perform a V-run (This is the Swedish term and may vary depending on where you live) and trick your defenders. More clever players will perform a V-run before receiving a pass into space, while other less smarter will run directly into defenders offside trap.

To perform a V-run take few steps towards the ball holder and pretend that you are going to receive a pass, but instead of receiving the ball turn around and run towards the opposing goal. The defender that marks you will not have a clue of what is going on. I know this because I used to play in defense and a V-run was the worst thing I know because it was so hard to defend against, especially when you played versus fast and quick players.

You may have noticed that professional players often perform V-runs to avoid offside traps. One of the best players in the world when talking about avoiding offside traps is Filippo Inzaghi, but he is also the record holder of most offside running’s in the world (just kidding : - ) and Manchester United’s coach sir Alex Ferguson said that Inzaghi was born in offside : - )