Soccer Positions
Each of the eleven different players on a soccer team play different soccer positions. The easiest to recognize is the goalkeeper. The other players fall into one of three categories--defenders, midfielders, or strikers/forwards.
Goalkeepers are the only players in soccer who can touch the ball with their hands. They can only do this inside their own goal area. They have to wear different color clothes so that they can be easily spotted. The job of the goalkeeper is to prevent the opposing team from scoring a goal by defending the goal area. Goalkeepers have to be quite athletic as the ball comes into the goal at high speed and at just about every angle. Many goalkeepers play close to the goal, but as in hockey it is possible for the goalkeeper to be part of the attack, and even score a goal. Goalkeepers usually stand with their palms up, hands to the sides. They have to be prepared to jump to either catch or deter high shots or to dive across the ground to pounce on a ball or block a shot.
Defenders hold soccer positions on the half of the field they are defending and make up the line of defense in front of the goalkeeper. The four defender positions are center-back, left-back, right-back and sweeper. The backs each play their designed area of the field--center, left, and right--much the same as fielders do in baseball. Soccer also has a position called the sweeper, who is free to cover any area of the field, wherever help might be needed. The sweeper literally is asked to sweep away the balls that the other defenders cannot manage to reach.
Next come the midfielders, who as you might expect, play the middle area of the field in-between the defenders and the strikers. Their job is to try and keep possession of the ball, taking it from the defenders and getting it up front to the strikers. There are usually three or four midfielder soccer positions on a lower-level team while professionals often have five defined midfielder positions: center, defensive, attacking, wide and winger.
The last group of soccer players are known as strikers or forwards. These players make up the team’s offense. Their purpose is to score goals. As with the midfielders, their positions are pretty much defined by the area they play on the field--center, left or right. In pro play, these players have even more definite roles as center-forward, striker, and deep-lying forward (2nd striker).
The center-forward’s only role is to score goals. Strikers have objectives that are a little different. They try to beat the defenders and get the ball in the perfect position for the forward to score. The third striker/forward position has changed in name over the years from deep-lying forward to center forward to second striker. The goal of the person playing this position is to be more on the attack, trying to make things happen so that either they can score themselves or set it up so that the striker can score.