You’re standing there on the sidelines, feeling pretty confident about how your team is performing. The second half whistle kicked off a few minutes ago, and your side has the run of play. A seemingly innocent tackle, at least from your point of view, by one of your central midfielders catches one of your opponents high on his leg and knocks him violently to the ground. Before you can open your mouth, the official has pulled out a red card and sent your player off the field. Your team is now forced to play with 10 men against 11 for the next 40 minutes.
What do you do?
First of all, every situation is different. Even in the described scenario above, the corresponding strategy would depend on where the game was being played, where your team is in the standings, your opponent and your current form. It also depends on the level we’re talking about, as the importance of a result is entirely different at the collegiate or professional level than it is in a high-level club or high school match. In other words, there are no simple, cut-and-dry answers.
However, a likely move to make right off the bat might be to substitute a forward for a midfielder and line your team up in a 4-4-1 formation. If you were down a goal or two or desperately needed three points due to your team’s situation, you’d obviously take more of a chance in a 3-4-2 type of system. But, in most cases, taking away a striker is the best move to make.
It’s important that the lone striker is a player who will both work on and off the ball, and will defend once the ball is lost. In the midfield, the tendency might be for your two central players to sit back and defend more than look to attack. But that would only play into your opponents’ hands. Instruct your attacking midfielder to pick and choose his spots, but still look to create when in possession of the ball and to look to orchestrate counterattacking opportunities.
You don’t want to take your team away from how it usually plays. That is, if you’re an attack-minded team that looks to get fullbacks involved and pushes midfielders into the box when in on the run, don’t all of a sudden instruct them to launch balls up the field and sit back and defend. Being down a man will just force your players to be wiser in their decisions with the ball, particularly when it comes to getting fullbacks involved up the flanks.
Often times, teams playing down a man rally around their situation. Each player covers a bit more ground, plays with a bit more determination, and acts a bit more unselfish both with the ball and with run-making. It can sometimes backfire against the team playing with a full lineup. UCLA head coach Jorge Salcedo acknowledged this after his team went up a man early in the second half of a game against San Diego State on October 6, 2006, with his side leading 2-1.
“Oftentimes in soccer you see a guy get a red card and each of the 10 men knows he has to work that much harder to try and get a goal on the board,” he said. “I thought for a bit they might have a shot at tying the game again.”
Salcedo’s squad got an additional goal to win the match comfortably, but it does not always work out that way for the team playing with a one-man advantage.
An extreme example of playing down a man was seen in the 2006 World Cup when the US National Team earned one point from a 1-1 draw despite playing with nine men against Italy’s 10 men for all but two minutes of the second half. Daniele De Rossi was sent off in the first half for a vicious elbow to the head of Brian McBride, while both Pablo Mastroeni and Eddie Pope were issued red cards for the Americans. Bruce Arena adjusted his lineup by substituting in a centerback (Jimmy Conrad) to take the place of a midfielder (Bobby Convey), and by putting in a fresh two-way player like Beasley in for Clint Dempsey.
Even though the US was down a man and playing with what appeared to be a 4-3-1 system, they continued to attack Italy in the second half, and nearly pulled out the match on two different occasions courtesy of the efforts by McBride and Beasley.
In the same World Cup, Italy was also forced to play down a man for all but five minutes of the second half in its Round of 16 match against Australia. Yet, despite losing Marco Materazzi in the 50th minute, the Italians were able to advance to the quarterfinals on a penalty kick in stoppage time.
Playing down a man isn’t ideal, but it is hardly an impossible situation. The important thing is to keep your head, make a few adjustments and not panic. More times than not, the red card will galvanize your remaining players enough to give your side the necessary boost it needs to achieve the desired result.
