British Foosball Association

How to Play - Player Skills

Basic Defending

Defending is the art of placing your men between the ball and the goal. Sounds so easy, but is actually so complicated.

This section covers the basics of defending against the common attacking shots, and describes some of the tactics that can be used to exploit your opponents’ weaknesses.

1. Stagger the Players
2. Defending Attacker Shots

Sounds obvious - because it is - but don’t put the goalkeeper behind the defender! Staggering the players up to one ball’s width apart will substantially increase the area of the goal that your players are able to cover at any one moment. A standard position will have the defender covering the direct path between the ball and the goal, and the goalkeeper slightly staggered slightly further away, in the direction that the anticipated shot is likely to go.

When the Ball is in Free Play

The standard blocking strategies apply when the ball is up the other end of the table. Place your staggered goalkeeper and defender bars to cover the near post (to the side the ball happens to be). Swap posts if the ball moves to the other side etc. If the ball is near the opposition midfield (5-bar), try and cover the straight shot.

Top defenders will adopt specific tactics against certain players, and according to the type of shot being set up. Knowing the signs of the various shot setups is therefore important, and they are described in the attacking skills section.

It is always necessary to cover the direct path to the goal as the attacker sets a shot up, in order to prevent opportunist tap-ins. The attacker can relax, as he has control, but the defender must stay alert at all times.

"after all, Ron, it only takes a second to score a goal!" 
   					K Keegan

Pull or Push Shot (aka. Drag shot)

The basic formation is to place the defender immediately in front o the ball, and stagger the goalkeeper to the side the ball is going to be dragged. Only ½ covering the ball with the defender is sufficient to cover the straight shot, and the extra ½ ball’s width can put that much more pressure on the attacker.

1. Against a slow drag shot it is possible to race the attacker to the corner, as the keeper starts further over. Faster drags, however, can usually not be raced. Moving both bars slightly in and out (continually opening and closing gaps) ensures the attacker has no clear shot to race you to.
2. If the attacker is angling shots across the face of your defence (off a short drag), swap your players over so the goalkeeper is covering the straight shot and the defender is covering the dragged shot.
3. If the shots are going long and square, position your defender to cover the far post, and force the attacker to shoot shorter. Disrupting the attacker’s rhythm is the best way to beat a one-shot wonder.
4. If the attacker helicopters over a centrally placed ball (and could drag either way) then you should try to avoid eclipsing your players in order to change the side you are covering as this will be when a good attacker will shoot.

Defenders should practice multiple ways of defending drag shots, and need to be able to adapt their defending style to suit the opposing attacker.

Pull/Push Kick (aka. Tap-Bang)

The Tap-Bang is most effective when used in combination will dink shots and fast winger drag shots. Defenders therefore need to be able to react when the attacker throws in a sneaky winger shot. Two main strategies for defending the Tap-Bang are detailed below:

1. Position the keeper on the post, and the defender nearest the ball just inside the keeper (on some tables it is important to tilt keeper forward and defender backwards, in order to cut out the gap through the middle of the players).
2. Position the defender to cover a wide-player shot to the near post (tilted slightly back). Place the keeper more towards the middle/far side of the goal (depending on where the attacker’s tap-bang likes to go).

Be careful that the gap between the keeper and defender isn’t wide enough to hit a shot through easily. The size of this gap depends partly on the table type.

If they keep hitting the Tap-Bang to the far post, don’t be afraid to start “cheating” (i.e. place defender or keeper further over, again to disrupt te attacker’s rhythm). This opens up the dink shot more, but as it is usually slower it can be easier to react to.

Snake Shot

The Snake shot has the advantage of being able to go either way (or straight) at great speed (cannot be raced). Most good snake shooters are also able to vary the length of the shot, and will score if any gap is visible for any length of time.

The best snake defences work by continually opening and closing gaps, such that by the time the attacker has seen the gap you are already closing it. A good way is to wiggle the goalkeeper and the defender bars back and forth (try not to create a predictable oscillation), with the players staggered ¾ to a whole ball’s width apart. Many players swap the goalie and defender over every 3rd or 4th movement, in order to disrupt the attacker’s rhythm.

Most snake players have a direction that they prefer shooting. Try to see which way they prefer, and cover this side of the goal more often. Whilst a good snake cannot be raced, a weaker one will often have one side that can be.

Pin Shot

The pin shot defence bears some similarity to that for snake shots. The pin shot generally involves a smaller sideways movement of the ball.

Most players seem to find fast pull pin’s easier than fast push pin’s, so set the players up to cover the pull more. If the attacker prefers to push, adapt your defence accordingly. The keeper typically has more time to move to block the shot, and so will usually be used to cover the side you believe the attacker is most likely to shoot.

If the attacker is consistently scoring round the outside of the defence, stagger the players more and increase the width of the player movement. Although this increases the gap between the players, it can be hard for pin shooters to shoot straight down the middle.