1 v 1 to two goals

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 I picked up this game from a book decades ago and I play it every season with any age group from U8 on up. Depending on the level of your team you can use it as one way to comprehensively assess the individual abilities of your players. 

Anson Dorrance uses the 1 v 1 game it as a component of his "competitive cauldron." Players played a 1 v 1 tournament against all the other players on the team and eventually crowned a champion. His philosophy is rooted in the idea that the best team wins a majority of the 1 v 1 duels in a game. 

At our level, players need to gain confidence in dribbling past a defender or winning the ball from an attacker without kicking the ball away. The best way to do that is put them in repeated 1 v 1 situations after practicing some of the skills needed to be successful in attacking (controlling the ball, setting up a move, making a move and then accelerating away) or defending (close down the dribbler, don't dive in, choose when to try and win the ball, accelerate away). 

The two goals aren't really goals, but sides of the rectangle that makes up your grid. Instead of having one line that players can score on, there are two. Imagine that you are standing in one corner of the grid with your feet each on the lines that make up the corner. Those are the lines you are defending. The other player is doing the same thing at the diagonal corner (see image). The player with the ball tries to DRIBBLE over either of the two lines that are farthest away from them when he/ she receives the ball. The defender tries to TAKE the ball away from the attacker and dribble over either of the two lines that were farthest away when the ball was played to the attacker. 

Since the grid is a rectangle, one line will be closer than the other one and so that informs how the defender should pressure, but it also gives the attacker options about how to score. The key is to change direction and unbalance the defender. Once unbalanced, accelerate over the line to get a goal. 

You will see players struggle with all elements of this game, but it is really good at seeing who is getting it and who is still struggling. Players get instant feedback whether they score or get scored on and they get enough reps that they don't have time to focus on the past success or failure before getting back into the competition. 

Playing this game throughout the season is a great way to judge the progress of your skills instruction and the 1 v 1 tactics that you want to see from your players. It is also good at teaching players to be more confident in the 1 v 1 regardless of whether they are attacking or defending. 

Here is a link to the game activity. 

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