In the world of football there are two types of tasks: open tasks and closed tasks. Open tasks, predominantly perceptual, external regulation, in which prevails the election, decision-making in relation to the direct influence of other participants.
Often the football team is compared to a machine and this is a mistake, because the machine will automatically respond to the problem, and instead of this, football is constantly full of uncertainty, and therefore, players are all the time making decisions about the movement, passing and shots to be performed. We have a clear example in the last World Cup final, where a Spanish football player went on a counterattack against only one defender. In this case another forward was with him and the passing line was very clear, but he tried to dribble, taking a wrong decision.
Often the football team is compared to a machine and this is a mistake, because the machine will automatically respond to the problem, and instead of this, football is constantly full of uncertainty, and therefore, players are all the time making decisions about the movement, passing and shots to be performed. We have a clear example in the last World Cup final, where a Spanish football player went on a counterattack against only one defender. In this case another forward was with him and the passing line was very clear, but he tried to dribble, taking a wrong decision.
Must keep in mind that, previously to make good decisions, is important to gain a good level of individual technique. According to Vazquez (1981) technique is divided into individual and collective. Individual technique also separates the ball and without the ball. Here would come all the concepts of passing, raising the ball, driving, etc. While in the collective technique is related to the wall, which consists in giving a pass to teammate who will give you the ball back passing it to the space, the corners, and so on.
Returning to the same example of the counterattack from the Spanish team in the World Cup, we can see many signs of individual skills in the ball carrier. There is a good and fast driving skill, and previously a good uncheck to be able to receive the ball. In contrast, there was any sign of collective technique, since this player tried to solve the play by himself.
In this match, we found that Spanish coach used a strategy. Prevented the ball out to left deffender, placing an attacking player with a very good ability to press.
According to Manuel María Meléndez (1979) tactics is the sum of individual actions or coordination among several players for best results overall, which may motivate advantageous offensive situations. In the example we used above, a tactical situation is the time when the Spanish player decides to make the single action instead of making the pass. The tactic is instantaneous. In this case, closely related to decision making.
Therefore we can say that soccer is a very complex sport that requires mastery of various aspects in order to reach the elite, such, competence network, game system, besides those listed above.
Source: Educational Units for secondary VII – Football. Written by Jose María Yagüe Cabezón, Flaviano Lorenzo Caminero
Source: Technical concepts. Written by Santiago Vázquez
Source: Tactica y sistemas de juegos. Written by Manuel M. Falkowsky y Ernesto Enriquez F.