Dortmund U17 5v4 Build-Up in a Hexagon

This is the last part of a Borussia Dortmund U17 session published by the FIFA Training Centre. The coaches use it regularly because the small area makes build-up hard on purpose: players make errors and are punished straight away, and the game throws up a transition every few seconds.

The blues have the overload, five plus the keeper against four, but in a 25 m by 20 m hexagon it only counts if they create it on purpose. Two movements create it. The 6 plays between the two lines of the 2-2, so the reds have to close ranks around him. The full-backs push right up onto the last line, which pushes the back reds back and makes it harder for the reds to stay compact. With the reds pulled in and pushed back, the space appears where the press cannot cover it: out wide for a full-back, or in front of a centre-back when the front pair drop.

The animation shows both. In the first rep the keeper plays the right centre-back, the near red presses, and the centre-back finds the 6 dropping in between the two front reds. Both close on him, so he plays out to the right full-back, who beats the jumping red inside and scores. In the second rep the front reds have dropped, so the left centre-back carries into the space; that brings a red out, the 6 is free between the lines, the back reds close ranks and the left full-back is free on the last line.

The third rep is why Dortmund value it. The 6 receives with his back to play, takes a touch to turn and is tackled. The reds go straight at the full goal and score before the blues can recover. A team that keeps a lot of the ball meets opponents who sit deep and wait for exactly that turnover, so the players furthest from the ball have to stay alert and drop in at the right moment: that is the resting defence the game trains alongside the build-up.