Pulling off Soccer Moves & Tricks during normal matches?

Pulling off Soccer Moves & Tricks during normal matches?


Watching pro players like Ronaldinho & Cristiano Ronaldo pull off moves and tricks effortlessly during matches makes us wonder, if it's actually all that practical to perform these tricks during normal matches. Sometimes if its a competetive match & your team is 2-0 down, its highly recommended not mess it up with tricks ( unless if you're ronnie !) . Simple moves like the dragback or even the ever effective body dummy can be usually done without much risk, though from our own experiences, it is best to makes sure that you have really mastered the trick or move before implementing it in your game.

For a few weeks, we picked a trick, such as the dragback and kept practising everyday until it could be done effortlessly, then gradually increase the speed and start doing it during training or so with someone pressuring for the ball. At this point the confidence and commitment level is quite high so it's more into the technical bit such as feet placement and angle of attack.


After some time, the trick can be easily done during matches, but not excessively as it might be anticipated by the defending player once its done too often. During play, never hesitate or have second thoughts when you're about to do a trick or move as it can almost always result in failure.

Confidence is the key here, you can even sometimes end up injured by not giving it your all when pulling off a move. Anyway, we'll try putting up some pics at the end of the week to show some tricks.

Freestyle Football is trendy nowadays, but how and where it evolved?

Freestyle Football is trendy nowadays, but how and where it
evolved?

In this day and age, we often see freestylers perform
ridiculous and yet amazing tricks and moves not only on TV
advertisement but on the internet as well. Whenever I play
footy with my fellow friends, they enjoy doing fancy
footwork regularly which sometimes makes me envy and
sometimes amazes me as well. At the time, I wondered how and
where it all began.

I took the initiative to ask a couple of my friends and
browse through forums. Most of them thought freestyle
football came from Brazil because a lot of amazing skillful
kids and players out there who can do bizarre tricks that
are not even in the book. But some say it came from Holland
probably because of Edgar Davids' background and how he used
to play at the backyards with his friends.

Where it began remains unknown and mysterious among us
football fanatics. Prior to the late 90s, players like Pele,
Johan Cruyff, De Stefano and others all juggled a ball for
practice to improve their control techniques (touches,
balance, coordination).

After that, freestyle football really took off in the early
80s when Diego Maradona displayed his mastery in control
(juggle a ball, an orange, a golf ball, a tennis ball etc)
and performed in half-time shows during Argentine Clausura
matches. In fact, one of his famous skills of all time was
the Maradona 7 where a player juggle the ball with the right foot, then the left foot, followed by the right thigh, then
the left thigh, subsequently the right shoulder, then the
left shoulder and finally the head.


While Maradona became successful and popular, others tried
to follow but failed. His brilliance inspired Hao Young Woo,
a South Korean who worked extremely hard to develop his
juggling skills and eventually earned a reputation as a
football entertainer and inspired new generation such as
Abbas Farid as well.

As the years gone by, most freestyle players were Mr. Woo
inspired, preferring to juggle and control the ball using
all parts of the body only. Until the early 21st century,
Touzani and Nelson were among the new generation of
freestylers preferring fancier tricks with different
combination and variations of around-the-worlds and other
lower body tricks. Both Touzani and Nelson and other
freestylers compete in Amsterdam for the MOTG (Masters of
the Game) competition in 2003.

Back in the days of Pele, Maradona and Cruyff, the word
"freestyle" was unknown and no one has ever heard that word
before in the world of soccer at least until the late 90s.
Then, in the late 21st century, Nike came in as they
launched an advertising campaign promoting the players and
the competition. One of campaigns is to allow participants
to submit their own video clip and receive feedback
worldwide at NikeFootball. Thus, opens the door for the
likes of Touzani and Abbas Farid to display their skills
worldwide and become more popular.

In addition, other service companies such as You Tube,
Google Video, Yahoo Video, Metacafe, Grouper, iFilm and
others provide similar websites that allows you to upload
your own videos including your own football clips. So that
other would-be freestylers are able to submit their own
video as well.

Although recent changes made throughout the decade
especially the internet have raise it's popularity, people
are yet to know the origins of freestyle football and will
continue to speculate it.

Ronaldinho's Amazing Trick

Ronaldinho's Amazing Trick

Undoubtedly the current best player on the planet. His soccer skills and tricks are simply breathtaking and worth watching over and over again. Some of his tricks are included in this video including his favourite and trademark move the elastic band known as the flip-flap.

The Step-Over

The Step-Over

One of the most eye catching dummy tricks in modern day football, although players from previous times have put this to practice ( such as Maradona, Pele, Carlos Alberto etc..), in the game today, almost every team has one or more players who can pull off this eye catching trick. This masterful trick is done to create two very important resources in the modern game, time and space. It is possible to sometimes send the defender in the opposite direction by pulling off this trick. Players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Robinho and for that matter Ronaldo ( when he was much lighter..) are one of the many who have this skill in their books and are sometimes very difficult to defend against when they pull it off. In our experience it is best to start practicing for this skills by practicing with an immobile ball on the ground moving your foot around or rather moving your foot over the ball ( either instep or outstep) as if you are about to push to one side instead you step over it. Then as you progress, start dribbling slowly and practice it, increasing speed as you get better. Movement of the body can also deceive a defender when performing the step over… and for the record, Robinho was actually booked once for performing too many step overs because the referee deemed it to be un-respectful, how bizarre..

Robinho's Wonderful Solo Goal

Robinho's Wonderful Solo Goal


Date: 15 December 2003

"Match Against Poverty" Friendly : Ronaldo's Friends v.s Zidane's Friends

Result: Ronaldo's Friends 4:3 Zidane's Friends

Venue : St Jakob Park Stadium, Basel, Switzerland

In a friendly football match, team "Ronaldo's Friends" were trailing 1-0 until the 25th minute when Robinho produced one of his trademark moves and scored a wonderful goal. He dribbled past a defender inside the box with a simple step-over and applied a cool finish with his left foot.