Philosphy of field size in soccer

[Reb UT '70]

and what is college without some pretentious intellectualism.

One of the lesser known aspects of the game of soccer is the use of the size of the field. The laws of the game say the field can be between 100 and 130 yards long and 50 to 100 yards wide as long as it is longer than it is wide you can have some very different fields. This is so kids can play in any open space available. However, it also can make for a significant home field advantage. Here's how it works, a standard soccer play is for a mid fielder to take the ball up the field right along the touch line (out of bounds) using the line to shield the ball, and then pass the ball to a forward in the 18 yard box (the area where the goalie can touch the ball and a line drawn on the field). This play is practiced all day long in practice. On the narrowest of fields that pass is about 10 yd. on the widest 40 yd. This led to a lot of gamesmanship in some big games that caused a real stink. So the International match law says the field must be between 110 -120 long and 70-80 wide, pretty standard stuff.

The NCAA rules take into consideration that soccer in this country is often played on a football field and it says 110-120 long and 65-80 wide. That lets the gamesmanship come back into play, especially for women. If your field is at either extreme, UNT is the narrowest allowed UT is the widest, your kids will generally have a home field advantage because they are accustomed to making that pass with the correct "touch" that allows the other player to receive the pass and play the ball. In the women?s game there is another aspect. Women generally can't pass the ball more than 40 to 50 yd. but this does allow a switch field pass on a narrow field where an outside mid fielder can pass the ball across the field to the other outside mid fielder. That pass must go through a center mid on a wide field. This effects how you cover players and what your basic plays look like.

Of course the flip side is that you face a big disadvantage when you play on the opposite sized field. We have beaten UT on our field they have killed us on theirs.

You also choose which size field based on the type of player you have. If you have quick explosive players a short narrow field works to your advantage. If you have fast powerful players a large wide field will help. UNT has always had the room, and will at Liberty, to have the maximum sized field, the question is which will they choose. A good coach, like Hedlund or UT's Petrucelli will either recruit the type of player for the type of field they currently have or will change the size of the field for the players they have. I'm not a baseball fan, but I think they do something like this with the height of the wall at some parks.

Last years freshman class included a lot of 5'7" to 5'10" tall girls, which leads me to speculate that Hedlund might want to go to a wider field.