When it comes to soccer, there are hundreds of methods that soccer players use in order to avoid the opponent’s players and surpass them in order to score a goal. One of the most common ways to do it is by dribbling through the defense of your opponent’s team.
But, what exactly is dribbling in soccer?
Dribbling in soccer is a maneuver in which a player tries to surpass the opponent’s players by controlling the ball left and right, up and down in order to not allow the opponent’s players to steal the ball while passing them. Dribbling is one of the hardest maneuvers in soccer and only skilled soccer players can pull it off.
This skill has been around since a very long time and it has been heavily used by midfielders and attackers in order to penetrate the opponent’s defense without having to keep passing the ball back and forth between the team players all the time in order to score.
Here’s what dribbling in soccer looks like
How important is dribbling during a soccer match
Dribbling is one of the most important skills, if not the most important skill in soccer. If a player knows how to dribble past the opponents, then they are definitely a great soccer player.
A great dribbler can be a gift to their team and a nightmare to the opponent. Here are some of the main reasons why dribbling is extremely important in soccer.
1- Dribbling can help a player surpass the opponent’s defense
If your team has the ball inside the opponent’s side of the soccer field, but your opponent is using a very good defensive position against you, then your team players will have to keep passing the ball between each other until the opponent’s defense makes a big mistake that you can exploit.
The thing is, big defense mistakes do not happen regularly during a soccer game, especially if you are facing a great opponent. How do you penetrate the opponent’s defense in such a scenario? You simply use dribbling.
If there is only one soccer player on your team who has mastered the skill of dribbling past defenders, then this player will be the key to break your opponent’s defense.
If you are that player, what you need to do is dribble past the defenders that you encounter, then the rest of the opponent’s defense will have to leave their position and run towards you in order to stop you. This will give room of your other team players to act freely because you’ve sucked the opponent’s defenders towards you.
All you need to do now is to pass the ball to one of your team players and they will get a much better chance if the ball reaches them because now the opponent’s defense isn’t as strong as it was before you chose to dribble through them.
You can also decide to score yourself without passing the ball to any player if you are confident enough that you will be able to penetrate the opponent’s defense by yourself.
Here’s a clip of Lionel Messi, arguably the best dribbler in soccer history, scoring a goal all by himself by dribbling past the whole opponent’s team defense.
Such dribbling skills can be of a great help for the team.
2- Dribbling skills can influence the opponent’s tactics and formations.
Yes, you read that right. If you play on team A, and you are a great soccer dribbler, then Team B’s manager might have to change their usual tactics and formation just to be able to adapt their defense to your capabilities.
As mentioned before, a single player with good dribbling abilities can disrupt the whole defense plan of the opponents.
A team coach might decide that they want to place more defence players on the side that the opponent’s dribbler plays on.
Such a change in the opponent’s plans might give your team an advantage because the opponent isn’t used to playing with the tactics and formations that they came up with just to adapt to your team’s dribbler.
Thus, having a good dribbler on your soccer team can help a lot during any soccer match and against any opponent.
3- Dribbling is one of the most entertaining soccer maneuvers to watch.
Watching your favorite soccer player dribble past 4 ~ 5 defenders to score a goal can be one of the most satisfying things that you ever watch in soccer.
Watching soccer players dribble is beautiful. I know many people who just watch soccer games that include good dribblers because they want to enjoy the dribbling moves on screen.
As I have mentioned in many of my earlier articles, soccer is meant to make money. The more entertaining soccer is, the more money the industry will make.
You won’t believe how many people buy tickets to Barcelona, Spain just to watch Lionel Messi dribble during a soccer game.
Same thing with Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, and others.
With that said, dribbling is a huge contributor in making the game more enjoyable and as a result more profitable.
To sum up this article.
In simple words, dribbling is the ability to move past the opponent’s players without losing the ball. Dribbling is one of the most important soccer skills in the game. It requires a lot of talent and focus, and it is very helpful for teams and players on so many levels.