Question: I would call myself an intermediate player. None of my friends wants to practice with me. They just want to play. But I got to get better in 3 months time. Visiting one of my friends at his hometown and I promised that i will beat him. He's very good!

Answer: 
If by beating him, you mean dribble pass him then you will probably want to work on your ball handling and control, your dribbling speed and management of space. Beating him in terms of beating his team, will be better to train with a team, learn passing, positioning and team motivation. 

* I play daily, it improves my stamina, and my team work skills but drills improve my individual skills and I perfect them on the field against others.

How to train to beat a man: one to one? 
 - Work on your first touch. To beat someone, you will need to know how to receive the ball. Hence your first touch is crucial. In my college tryouts, like 60% were sent home on the first day due to the first touch. 
 - If you watch the great dribblers (Neymar, Messi, Ronaldo, CR7 and many more) you will realize the ball during their dribbles seems glued to their boot. This comes from years of training on control. Get a ball and good cleats/adapted shoes and start working on your control. [Here are some good exercises](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pPWe8Rjl9U).

After controlling the ball, you will need to be able to do short quick runs with the ball at your feet, because not only you will need to dribble a defender sometimes, you will need to escape once you dribble him. Learn to run fast with a ball, this will help you when playing counter attacks and catching the defenders off guard.

* Learn to manage the space around you. play within little areas, maneuver within the small space. This makes you a great striker and dribbler. Watch the little space cr7 and Messi use to dribble past multiple defenders.
* Juggling is key because sometimes you receive the ball in the air, and have to handle it> Juggle as much as you can. This will help you in your ball control too.
* practice positioning by playing for a team, watch videos of how to play for the specific position you want to go for. For example: I am a winger, I play out wide when we are attacking to give more options and when we are defending, I give more support in the center to cut opponents from winning the midfield battle. Know your duties, position yourself well, make sure you are at the right place at the right time. This comes with playing in a team.
* Work on your passes with teammates, work on your shots individually and then during games because shooting to a goal without the pressure from the defender and shooting to the same goal with the pressure of a defender are two different things.
* Keep fit, know yourself well and use your abilities to your advantage. for example: I am super fast, I have super stamina, during games I easy tire my defender by running through and through. I have been to games where the defenders swapped places like four times because they were exhausted. I slack when i have to track back since I know that, I play for positions that don't need to track back a lot.
* Have fun. Be fair play, learn more about your teammates during the match. Recognise their choices and adapt your play to make them and you comfortable. People love to play with me because of that, they will love you for it.
Yes,when playing soccer(playing in a team!) regularly will help improve your skills,there are other things that you should do:

1.***Exercise*** regularly to keep your body fit.

2.*Watch **Dribbling** tutorials online,and practice almost all of them everyday.The chances are that you will master at least some of them, which will make you a very skilled player.*

3.*Do a lot of **Freestyle**.Start with juggling,try to ATW,and then practice a several lot of moves.Never get disappointed if you cannot do a certain move.It's not easy as you think it is!*

Do these things regularly,and you will make a very good *soccer* player.Good Luck!

**Edit**:Have a look at Sean Garnier videos to get a feel of what dribbling is,to know what sort of moves you got to practice.