A Small-sided Soccer Game for Individual Skills And More

I've been bouncing around an idea for a small-sided soccer game that would emphasize some of the basic ball holding and dribbling skills. As a bonus, I think it will help with opening up the paradigm of the back-pass and emphasize the need to cover for the keeper when she comes off her line.

It's a 2 v 2 game on a fairly narrow field with wide goals. Each team has a keeper and a field player. Here's the catch...if the field player makes a back-pass to the keeper, the keeper can shoot or pass the ball, but she cannot dribble nor can she have the ball stolen from her by the other field player. She's kind of like a moving safe zone.

I'm thinking this will work on passing to space from the keeper to the field player. The field player will have to learn to hold the ball and dribble past 1 v 1 pressure (something we need to work on). If she moves the ball well up field, maintains possession, and then back-passes to her keeper for a shot from the center, the defending keeper will have to come out strong (something we need to work on) and the defending field player should cover for her (something we need to work on).

We'll give it a shot.

-Bill