A Soccer Defender is Like an NFL Cornerback

I came to this analogy as I watched my daughter play soccer yesterday. Her natural position is right defense aka right halfback. She's on the small side, but plays a very physical game and has average speed. At one point in the game, the opposing forward on her side was the same size, but was faster. Over and over again this girl would get behind her and then receive a pass and streak for the goal. Our coach had told my daughter to play between the forward and the ball and she was just doing what she was told.

That was a mistake as any NFL cornerback could tell you. Once a corner gets beat by a faster wide receiver who is going deep, they are in real trouble.

The concepts are very similar. You're trying to intercept passes or tackle your opponent. Once I made this connection, the game looked much more familiar. I've never played soccer outside of some PE classes decades ago and although I've coached it, my knowledge was less than some of the girls on my teams. This analogy made the game more enjoyable.

Despite repeatedly beating her, my daughter's forward never scored. On some breakaways, she was able to catch up as the girl slowed to dribble the ball and on others our goalie made the save. My conclusion was that, just like an NFL cornerback, when playing against a faster forward, you need to give them a substantial cushion. This makes even more sense in soccer than football as a soccer forward can't do anything meaningful with the ball until they can shoot on goal. So long as you're between them and the goal, you're in good shape.