Goal Scoring

A Gift From The Universe...Or Geographic Superiority?

Great Goal Scorers Aren't Born; They Are Well-Located

Mark Taylor presents a nice statistical representation of the difficulties of scoring goals when he compares direct free kicks to open play chances.  Given that a direct kick must be taken 18 or more yards from goal, and five years of EPL data show that teams convert those chances at about a 7-8% clip (he offers that the data set is so small we need another 5 years of data from the teams in question: all have been in the EPL since 2008) Taylor submits that the analogue in open play is a scoring chance within an arc extending out to 16 yards from the center of the goal.

Seems fairly intuitive.

However, as stat nerds scramble to say "duh," (eye-rolling optional) think about what that says about chances from inside 16 yards.  A team needs to take about 14 and a half shots inside that range to get a goal.

Fun & Interesting

Odds 'n' ends from the soccer world:

Men's National Team Friendlies this week:

USA v Belgium May 29th, 8pm on ESPN
USA v Germany June 2nd, 2pm on ESPN

Women's National Team v Canada 4.30pm on ESPNnews June 2nd.

BeIn Sport is carrying the Men's U-20 National Team at the Toloun Tournament in France, their final tune-up ahead of the U-20 FIFA World Cup in Turkey in 2013.

Bayern Munich play their final match of the year against Stuttgart in the DFB Pokal, the German Cup.  ESPN3 will carry the match at 1pm on the 1st of June.

3-Goal Defending (GKs)

The loneliest GK on Earth...

3-Goal / Endline Cross Scenarios

Goalkeeping Tactics - Video & Stills

If only attackers played some in the goal.  They would know the extraordinary pressure attacking the endline puts on a GK, and the defenders trying to cover for him/her.  Yet another instance where position-specification harms the game.  But let's do keep winning those meaningless tournaments, youth coaches - and keep demanding those results, parents!  Short term success is always preferred.

Here we see two excellent goalkeepers victimized by endline crosses, despite playing the situations pretty well.  Bearing in mind the speed at which the EPL and Bundesliga sides featured play (and if you don't watch soccer live, be it Villanova here on the Main Line, or Reading United AC, or the Union, you truly don't know) slight errors, while not forgivable, are a reality.

Decision Making In Football

Football Math
Does Decision-Making Trump All Other Skills & Characteristics?

"L'architetto"
Andrea Pirlo

"It's a simple game," an old coach once told me, "made complicated by the idiots who play it."

I suspect he was speaking about me, directly, but one can see his point across the whole of the game (I hope...)

Given that human performance has it's limits, speed, size, strength and so on are capped by the physics of the human frame, is it any surprise to say that the brain offers the greatest source of potential?  Given that the four men pictured in this post are all 5' 10" or shorter (5' 6" - Britton; 5' 9" - Modric; 5' 7" - Xavi) and none are possessed of the freakish athleticism of say a Bale or a Ronaldo, it would seem we're on to something.  Granted, there is a minimum standard of athleticism, and technical skill, but it's evident that the greats are distinguished by their choices as much as the execution of those options.

I wondered how difficult, really, is the decision-making component of this game?  11 players, one ball, one goal...

Combination Play

Chelsea Prove The Point

A couple themes that have been steady companions this spring with the LMSC teams:

1. Limit turnovers in our half
2. Use give and go, 1-2s, wall passes, whatever you want to call them often
3. Once a pass is played, the passer should move to offer to have the ball back
4. If an attacker can't get to goal with the ball, get as close to goal along the goal line as possible

It's not to say that sessions have been built around these notions (though the 1-2 thing it certainly is) but that they are coaching points I make often in a variety of settings.  Here, in a single attack, we see Aston Villa lose the game in the 88th minute to Chelsea's ability to take advantage of not one but two balls lost in the AVFC half, use two kinds of combinations to get behind the defense, and a "short cross" to create the goal.

The play in pictures after the jump:

Brad Guzan

America's Latest GK Success Story

While the uniformed bandwagon jumpers cling to the glories of the big spenders, true fans of the game, especially those who support American soccer (seriously...why do I have to go to training sessions and look at kids with other nation's jerseys?  Have we no pride?!) and the American players who are striving to make it in the top leagues around the world are talking about the recent announcement of Brad Guzan as the Aston Villa Player's Player of the Year and Supporter's Player of the Year awards (read the AVFC.co.uk press release here).

Here's a small homage to his outstanding season...and bear in mind that AVFC scored 45 so far this season, conceded 67 (a minus-22 goal differential) and still they voted Guzan the best in the team...how much impact must he have to be seen as so crucial to the squad despite such terrible numbers?

CLICK HERE

(some bureaucrat thinks I might make a ton of cash on embedding a YouTube video on my blog)

Enjoying The Supernova

Bayern Munich Get Some More Love

Lots of talk about defending lately, and about Bayern, but why not, with the Bayern Munich squad's domination of all comers this season!  Here's a nice look at how careful Bayern are with the ball, courtesy of OPTA Stats lovely "StatsZone" app (in case any armchair analysts want to get in on the fun).

When I coach my kids, it's a fine line between playing attractive football (keep it on the carpet, use skill and thought to get a result rather than brute athleticism and, shall we say, more direct methods of advancing the ball?) and being careless about doing ourselves more harm than good.  One topic that comes up a lot as I try to teach mastery of the very grey area of risk V. reward, is in the geographical sense; turnovers in our own half of the pitch.

Great teams, no matter their style of play, don't lose the ball in their half.  It's simply too easy for an opponent to counter attack when the distance to goal is less than 60 yards.  Add to that that virtually every offensive shape requires a team to space themselves more widely than when defending, and it's no surprise that this type of turnover can be particularly painful.

Here is Bayern Munich's first 32 games of the year, with turnovers in their half in blue, and turnovers in the opponent's half in red:

Ricardo Portillo

I'd Rather Lose Than Act Like You

In Memory, And In Honor, Of Ricardo Portillo

Fox News, among pretty much every other news outlet covered the story of Utah referee Ricardo Portillo, who passed away Saturday after being punched by a 17 year old GK during a game a week prior.

(Story here)

After the behavior of the Quick Boys and the spectators at the State Cup Final on Saturday, and the home fans at the Springbok's away game on Sunday, this news was particularly sobering to me.  I'm not going to get on my high horse for too long here, but for whatever impact it will have, I offer this thought.

Why do we insist on placing such importance on such an arbitrary activity?  Sure, anyone with half a brain will say "I know it's only a game...I want my kid to learn teamwork, and leadership...blah blah blah"  but over and over I hear teenage refs (Saturday) being sworn at "Jesus Christ, a foul is a foul" was one particularly enlightened mother's appeal, if memory serves; the coach of the opposing team subjected to cursing and accusations of dirty play (mind you, Steve is a pal of mine who teaches the game in a very similar way to me, so accusing him is accusing me, to say nothing of essentially attacking a person with whom I have a personal and professional relationship with based on mutual respect).  On Sunday I was much prouder of the LMSC players and families, as we all watched a Concord parent lose his mind over a non-call on a passback situation & an advantage call in their favor (the ref, to be fair, also got pretty heated...but we just won't help each other get out of this cycle, will we?) and then continue to spend the remainder of the game baiting the ref with foolish comments.

Knowing the "right" thing to say is not sufficient.

Just to be clear, whatever respect I have earned in the short time I've spent in the Philly area, I detest and am ashamed of those among us who act in anything other than a respectful and courteous manner toward all involved with a game.  I don't give a rat's ass what your bank account says, what car you drive, how many people you spend bossing around 9-5, or what you see when you look in the mirror each day, you're name is mud in my book if you won't conduct yourself with class.

I love this game more than most things, and the opportunities it offers to help kids grow into people they can be proud of and confident in, and the joy it offers- as well as the many gifts it has given me.  But no aspect of it is worth the loss of respect, the embarrassment of others, or threatening or endangering others that has occurred the past couple days both here and in Utah.  Think the LMSC events were a different situation entirely than the Utah one?  Then you're naieve and only fooling yourself.  These things (and I've seen it go like this, though thankfully never with such grave consequences) turn on a dime, going from standard operating procedure to completely out of control in a blink.

It's a great game.  But it's a game.  And it's a pretty stupid game if you think about it; 22 grown men in short pants kicking a ball around.  Ascribe it only the importance it ought to be given.  Nothing more.

GK - Reprint

Fulham-West Brom (2011-12)

GK Positioning On Offensive Corners...

&

Why Supporting MLS & USL Teams Is A Good Idea

Clint Dempsey scored his 16th goal in all competitions against West Brom in a 1-1 draw...what caught the eye of this GK coach was the corner kick shown below in pics.

The Fulham kick was cleared unconvincingly to the corner of the 18 where a Fulham player was able to control it and look for support back toward midfield:

Bayern Munich Defending

Turnover Management

FC Bayern Munich Offer Case Study In Controlling The Opponent's Starting Point

IF  you can get behind Alaba, Dante, Boateng & Rafinha,
you still have to beat this guy...

If you play good teams- if you are that lucky - having some control over where you lose the ball is essential to getting results.  For a team through 31 games who have scored 90 and conceded 15, this sort of control is crucial.  They just never hurt themselves, and when the opponent makes an error, FCB have more than enough talent to make it count.  27 wins, 3 draws.  1 Loss.  

For FC Bayern Munich, against Frankfurt, the screen grabs below show a tale of two halves.  In the opening 45 Bayern's takeaways are clearly higher up the field than in the second period.  The second half, after an early goal, Bayern are put under a great deal of pressure compared to the first half, as Frankfurt pushed the FCB defense deeper and consolidated their attacks much closer to the Bayern penalty area.

LMSC Notes

Everton v. Fulham

LMSC Weekly Notes

Quick Boys Advance To State Final;

Springboks Impress Again In Draw With Nike Rush (DE)

Everton's goal looks a lot like the give & go play and wing play worked on by my teams the last couple weeks.  It's quick in this video, but the combinations and movement will ring very familiar with the LMSC troopers.  Remember, while defending the give and go is simple...when done one-touch and with such intent by the attackers, even a solid mid-premiership team like Fulham will occasionally be defenseless in the face of such play.