Middle Box First

1. Mark a pitch 15 metres wide and 20 long with a mini goal at each end and a 5 by 5 metre box in the middle. Three against three. With more players, run more pitches side by side.
2. Before your team can score, one of you has to receive a pass inside the box.
3. The other team may not step into the box until the ball has arrived there. Then they can come in.
4. The receiver has two touches in the box, then passes or carries the ball out. From then on your team can score, until it loses the ball.
5. After a goal, the other team starts from its own end line. Play 4 minute games, then change opponents.

Everything turns on one pass and one arrival. Arrive in the box too early and the defenders are waiting at its edges; arrive as the pass is played and the first touch is yours. Because nobody can come in until the ball does, the receiver has a moment to look before it arrives and choose where the first touch goes: out of the side nobody is guarding and on towards goal, or back to the passer, then away to take the return pass. The passer chooses between a teammate already standing in the box and one who is about to run in. The defenders cannot block the box itself, so they choose what to take away instead: press the passer, stand on the receiver's way out, or follow the runner before they get there.