Give Us Back Our Game

Helena Costa,
SL Benfica Soccer Schools:

Integrated training
methodology
8 No. 34 August / September 2009
 Women
In Portugal soccer is the main sport and its national team,
clubs and players are some of the top in the world. However,
when we talk about womens soccer in Portugal, the scenario
is completely different. Still, names like Helena Costa, are re-
vamping the Portuguese idea of soccer being a mens game!

By: Hugo Vicente

Working at the SL Benfica Soccer Schools for over eleven years,

Helena Costa earned the experience and the confidence that
made her take the first steps into the adult game. She starting
working with a mens amateur team and Helena was quickly invited
to the womens Premier League. After just three seasons, she won
the Portuguese National Championship and the Portuguese Cup
twice. The secret for Helena was that training sessions can
produce miracles

The differences between men and women

There are the obvious scientific differences between men and
women, especially in terms of pure speed and strength, but in the
game, and we are talking about a soccer game, I dont have a
different approach on the way I work. What can make me change
the approach and style of coaching are the player, team, the quality
and personality of the player, but definitely not the gender.
Still, after my experiences, I believe that women are more curious
and so they ask many more questions because they really want to
improve their game, while men are more willing to simply accept
their tasks. So, I simply coach soccer, and according to my view,
that process has to be based totally on the tactical side of the game
and in the decision making process. I also give a lot of importance
on the way my teams defend, because if we are good at defending,
we have more than a 50% chance of winning the game.

Zonal defending and Pressure

Usually all my exercises are totally game related and I dont
isolate any aspect, even though sometimes I can give more
importance to a certain subject. For example, I can create
exercises to work on zonal defense, especially in the beginning of
the season and if Im working with new players, but I believe, that
if there is something that you really feel is very important in the
way you play, that behavior has to be in every situation. In this
example, even if I create an exercise where my focus is on attack,
the zonal behaviors from the other team, still have to be there,
because that has to be part of the game.

So, for example, when Im trying to work on my defensive

organization, I try to create game situations where I always give
superiority in terms of numbers of players to the attack, so they
really have to put into practice all the defensive principles, according
to our zonal organization. And this happens the same with the
attack, if I want to work on the defensive principles of my attacking
players, then the philosophy is exactly the same, and what I want
to focus, on is always outnumbered, because if I make their life
easier in the practice sessions, we will be only preparing the players
to be successful in the exercises, not in the game, because in the
game things arent easy.
Still, the main characteristics of the exercises are that they all
happen in game situations, where anything that can happen in the

No. 34 August / September 2009 9

Women
important to me than the tactical side of the game, and the
decisions of the players.
For me practicing how to play is practicing decision making
according to the roles of the players and that will only be possible
creating game like situations where unpredictability is there,
opposition and a lot of other things that players cannot control,
which will in turn condition their own actions and decisions.

So for me, practice is nothing more than creating situations that

make the players understand what his happening around then, the so
called reading the game, and according to the strategy and game
principles decided for the team, teaching them to select the best
answers/decisions according to the different situations they face.

Preparing for a specific game

So when you are preparing for a game against a specific opponent,
you cannot simply isolate certain aspects just because they
happen more often, but, instead of that, you have to create game
like situations, where unexpected things can always happen, just
like in a game - but also, create conditions for the main
characteristics of your opponent to appear, and that is the only
way that you can make your players face situations, understand
them, and try to choose the best possible decisions to solve the
problems they are facing, according to that game plan.

This is where the quality of the coach, analyzing the situations,

game exists, and transitions will have to always be there. And this
is what I defend. Zonal Defense is all about organization, but also
about the players behavior, and that has to be in every exercise.
That is exactly the same with pressure. I can organize my team on
where to pressure, more or less, and create exercises to stimulate
more and more pressure, but the truth is, this is a behavior that
has to exist every time a team is not in possession or every time
a player loses a ball, so it is something that really has to be in
every exercise, every moment of the practice when those things
happen.
and even more important, on the way we communicate with our
players, in terms of feedbacks are very important. I am a very
demanding as a coach, and I cannot simply let something go when
I see something wrong. For that reason, especially at the
beginning of the season, I really make their life hard, but as soon
as things start to go according to my expectations, I drop the
frequency of my interventions and start to be more worried in
providing positive feedbacks to my players.
Still, I dont change the way I play because of an opponent. I believe
in my strengths and I try to optimize them to the maximum, so
usually, what we often do, is be more aware of the opponent

Attacking Organization and Decision Making

According to how I see it, I dont believe in working using shadow
plays, without any opposition. Why? Because if I am working on the
attack, I need to have defenders, and I want more defenders then
attackers. And in that case, it would be useless to ask my players
to pass the ball only there, and after that, only there, etc. in the
way I work, that is not possible, because it has to be the game, for
me, the game is the practice and the practice is the game.

Obviously we have our own organization, our own principles, our

own priority passing lines, but the final decision, is always with
the player. Still, they have to follow our principles, and for example,
I want my attackers to always create a passing line upfront, and
that has to happen, what doesnt have to happen is the ball going
to him, because the game is constantly changing, and it might be
a better option at that exact moment. So it is all about decisions,
and this is why I said in the beginning, that nothing is more

10 No. 34 August / September 2009


strengths and behaviors, so we arent caught unaware, and thats it.
According to the system of play, Im also one of the coaches that
will tell you that its something that I am not too concerned about.
To be honest, I usually prefer to play with two strikers, but for
example this year, with a less experienced team, I played 4-5-1,
because I wanted a better balance in terms of organization in the
midfield, but its all about the characteristics of the players and
the dynamics you can create with them, more then simply play in
this or that system, so, I can play in whatever system I think the
players fit best, but there is nothing more important than making
the players really believe in how they are playing.
I dont believe in working
using shadow plays, without
any opposition
Importance of technique and fitness
I am a fan of the so called integrated training methodology
because I dont believe in doing things separately. If I dont
separate the game to work on certain aspects of it, I surely wont
do that to work something that doesnt have anything to do with
the game. Once again, I might want to improve the technique of a
player, but I dont believe in simply doing it in terms of the
mechanics, for me that has to be developed in the game.
I can create situations where for example I am working mainly on
passing and receiving, or on a certain feint, but still, I dont isolate
No. 34 August / September 2009
Women
that aspect and work on it alone, I only believe in doing it in a
game situation, where that aspect might happen, but several
others will, and this is what makes you really improve your
technique, because this is the game.
Physically, I follow the same principles. As a coach, you have
soccer exercises, not those that have a ball just to motivate
players to work physically with more motivation, the perfect tools
to work on the physical capabilities you want, and you feel are
required and needed for the game, playing with time, space,
number of players, rest and work ratio, etc. For that reason, I
would rather spend my two hours of practice working on soccer, on
the way we play, because I know that physically they will be fit.
And a soccer game is something that people usually say is very
unpredictable because of the variables that can exist, and that is
why, the more time you spend on working on the game, the more
predictable you can make it for your own team.
So I always practice the whole game, and my concern is to try to
enhance certain aspects that I feel the need to improve on, but
that will always happen playing the game, with some conditioning,
but where anything can happen, where decisions have to happen
all the time and where intensity is always at a maximum.
I dont believe in creating exercises more relaxed because its
Friday and we have a game Sunday. For example in that case, the
exercise simply has less duration, but dont ask me to drop the
intensity. And why? Because the game is never relaxed. Intensity
has to be there always, because I want my teams to always play
at a high tempo.
11
4v4

Organization:
- Normal game of 4v4
- 3 goals on each side of the field; to create more opportunities and to
learn to use the width of the field (creating a strong and a weak side). This
ensures you have better attacking opportunities and clear defensive roles

Objective:
The main objective is to organize the defending team, creating pyramids and
diagonal lines based on the position of the ball and the player(s) defending it.

8v8
Organization:
- Normal game of 8v8
- 3 goals on each side of the field; to create more opportunities and to
learn to use the width of the field (creating a strong and a weak side). This
ensures you have better attacking opportunities and clear defensive roles

Objective:
The main objective is to organize the behaviors of the defending team,
creating pyramids and diagonal lines based on the position of the ball and
the player defending it, now with two defensive lines.

Progression:
- Add a defender behind the goal on each team. The attacking team's
defender can attack to create outnumbering situation
- While in the defensive process, he has to be behind the goals, and the
opponent is not allowed to score in the goal where the defender is
standing
- Trying to improve the transition

8v6 with goalkeepers

Organization:
Normal game, where white team can score on both goals defended by only
one GK but only after crossing the line of markers

Objectives: team of 8
- Zonal defending
- Switch to get away from pressure
- Every time the GK has the ball, he has to pass to one of the defenders.

Objectives: team of 6
- Organized Pressure: When the ball reaches the right/left back, team
pressures immediately with striker and winger on that side and the rest of
the team readjust to zone pressing.
- Transitions: fast break attack when ball is recovered

12 No. 34 August / September 2009