Is it an M-Drop or The Brescia Zone?

The main differences between the M-Drop and the new Brescia Zone

A while back I saw a question on Reddit asking for help tracking down USA vs Japan from the 2020* Olympic to show a proper M-drop for their team.

But what looked like a classic M-Drop was not an M-Drop.

It’s a defense I’ll call the Brescia Zone because A.N. Brescia came up with it to beat Pro-Recco a couple years back.¹

Then every pro team added this defense to their arsenal and every national team at the Olympics had some form of this defense too. Even Japan.

Classic M-Drop

The classic M-Drop usually involves the point defender dropping back on to the center forward and the two flat defenders moving into the gaps up top.

It looks like this. Wing defenders are pressed, point defender is dropped, and flat defenders are in the gaps up top.

Two defenders up top are very mobile, moving laterally to put pressure on the ball, and trying to get out on a breakaway on any shot or turnover.

The Brescia Zone is different.

Brescia Zone

The point could drop back or one of the flat defenders but instead of stacking on top of the center forward the original center defender and the drop are on the each side of the center forward.

The two remaining flat defenders drop back into shot-blocking positions. They are not up in the gaps putting pressure on the ball nor looking to get out on the breakaway.

The wing defenders are dropped back a little two. They are no longer pressing the deep wings.

It is a heavy field backing zone with no one on the back of the center forward.

Below is the number of field blockers each position is directly facing not including the goalie.

The Brescia Zone looks easy but it is harder to implement than the classic M-Drop.

First, you need to be consistently effective shot blockers. If one defender is not doing their job then the whole zone can break down.

Second, you need to be good communicators on defense. The zone requires passing off drives to each other which requires effective communication. Everyone, including the goalie, needs to be talking with each other to make sure everyone is in their correct zone-blocking positions.

It is not a defense designed for breakaways and quick goals like the M-Drop.

The M-Dorp works well in high school and lower levels because you can exploit weaker shooters. If you have a good goalie that can make a block and a good quick counterattack pass you have a quick striking offense coming right out of your defense.

The Brescia Zone is designed to shut down the center forward not to push a quick strike. It is going to slow things down and make the game about who has a better 6 on 6 offense.

1. I can’t remember if this was the Italian League Championship or the Len European Championship.