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:

He played the ball back to a player out of the frame...at the time, I hadn't counted closely, and assumed it was one of two players held back at midfield:

It was, as it turned out, Stockdale, the Fulham GK, pushed high up the field for just such an occasion.  He cleared the ball to the top of the West Brom 18 and provided a second bite of the apple to the Fulham attackers.

As a quick aside, it is things like this that are a great argument for taking young players to live games; on the TV, where Stockdale started from (where was he when the corner itself was hit?  Did he move much to support this particular back pass?  Did he do the same thing on all the Fulham corners?) is unknown.  Watching games live is, as yet, the only way to see what all 22 players are doing, and for a young GK, seeing this sort of scenario live adds far more to the young players knowledge base than merely watching games on TV.

So get out to the MLS games, and see what you've been missing!