ACC Semis

Terps Take What They're Given

Byline Service Wins ACC Semi-Final

Clemson lost a narrow semi-final to Maryland on a goal that was so very close to prevented.  A tough goal to defend, for sure, but a little more composure might have generated a save that defines a season. Interestingly, Maryland turned around 48 hours later and scored on a byline service against UVA to win the ACC tournament title.  Interesting pattern.

Here's the breakdown in still images, the pass arriving to the shooter (yellow arrow below) by a byline cross from the shooter's right and a knockdown by a defender at the top of the 6 :

The Takeaway

The Clemson GK, Andrew Tarbell, failed to force the byline service high (his teammate touched the ball at the top of the six), very similarly to his UVA colleague who allowed Patrick Mullins to hit a bank shot off a UVA defender inside the six yard area (more on that here) and then the young GK missed a couple key cues.  First, GKs have to be positively chilly.  A keeper who moves in a rush is a keeper begging to be beaten.  Urgent but composed, in the words of one of my favorite coaches.  Cool under pressure.  As a great pilot once said after he was fished out of the Hudson River: 

“It felt as if the bottom had fallen out of our world. I could feel my pulse and my blood pressure shoot up, my perceptual feed narrow, because of the stress. But I had the discipline to focus on the task at hand in spite of it.”

"Perceptual feed."  Also known as "tunnel vision."  In moments of stress, human vision literally narrows...it's the phenomenon known as weapon focus effect, the tendency of crime victims to become so focused on the weapon present that they cannot process any other stimulus (critical to eyewitness assistance in solving/prosecuting crimes).  Tarbell now knows of what Ol' Chesley speaks.

Look at this close-up of the goal mouth as the shooter receives the ball:

The shooter (red arrow) is about to strike the shot.  Between him and the right half of the goal (defender's right) are four Clemson defenders (orange stars) and two Maryland attackers (red stars).  Add to that pile-up a fifth Clemson defender running at the ball (orange arrow), who, coincidentally, over-pursues as well; he fails both to close down the shooter or block the shot.

But it's the keeper we're looking hard at here.  The orange double arrow on the goal line shows how much open net there is...and it ain't much.  The odds of the shot going through six or seven bodies to the right half of the goal are so ridiculously slim they're not worth discussing.  AND there isn't any chance that the GK could cover the far half of the goal under any circumstances...never mind when there's four players already standing on the goal line.

If he simply set his feet here, that orange double arrow represents what...six or seven feet of the twenty-four total horizontal feet of the goalmouth?  That's a shot with pretty darn good odds for any GK, let alone a guy of Tarbell's ability.  Look at the video and we can find a couple reasons why he didn't get it quite right:

1. Tarbell gets lured out by the initial pass into the area; he thinks about going for the slightly loose first touch on the byline, but realizes he can't get there.  Crucially, he goes to ground anyway, and immediately puts himself at a disadvantage on the subsequent play
2. As the ball ricochets to the penalty spot, Tarbell has to recover his position, but if you watch his eyes, he should have seen how many players were standing in the goal mouth - he clearly looks toward the crowd to see the ricochet - his "perceptual feed" is way too tight.  All he sees is the ball
3. On the shooter's first touch, even as badly as things started for Tarbell, he's well within the goal mouth and covering the vital, exposed portion of the goal
4. Tarbell fails to realize he's covered what he needs to; his teammates have covered the rest, and he's in a position to make the play.  It's not his athletic ability, his size, his footwork, or anything else that lets him down; it's his mental game.  Realizing he made an error in leaving his feet in the byline service situation, he compounds the mistake by going into a panic (that there's 13 seconds left in OT no doubt fueled that fire) and trying to correct the mistake rather than just making the next play.

Look at this still for emphasis:

Sauers, the goalscorer, is just about to make contact...by contrast, Tarbell is well inside the post and positioned well to make a play.  Except that he's sprinting so momentum is killing him, he's fully upright, so there's no way he can get to ground quickly, and that leg you see (black sock)?  That's his left leg, so he's all crossed up; there's no way he can make any save...he could get lucky, but he isn't going to make a save.  Sauers' shot goes right where Tarbell's feet are in this frame.  In Tarbell's mind, he's trying to cover where he isn't, because that's where shooters shoot - away from the GK.  Except that Sauers is looking at a wholly different picture.  The only bit of goal that's even close to open to him is the side Tarbell's on...it's not a great option in the shooter's head, but it's better than attempting to thread the needle through the seven other players on the left side!  If only Tarbell had seen that, had the composure to play the odds just a bit more coolly.  

It's a big ask...but hardly impossible.  

How does a GK learn to do this?  Thousands of reps in byline service play...lots of high pressure training where outfield players are involved, helping to cut down angles (as the defenders did here), screening the GK making even simple plays massively challenging, players crossing the field of vision perpendicular to the path of the ball (esp. on crosses), and the like.  The ball is the task at hand, for sure, but the GK has to manage the context of the entire penalty area simultaneously.

That's the job.

For folks looking for a great read on how psychology affects people's performance in life-or-death situations, I genuinely can't rave enough about this one: Deep Survival is an eye-opening exploration of how the human mind works when the stakes are high.  While it deals with wilderness survival, the potential application of his work to any situation where decisions have to be made under pressure is very clear.  Tarbell could have his own chapter after this goal!