Goal Scoring

Unique And Universal Attacking Methods

There Are A Lot Of Roads, But There's Only One Destination

After sharing this great video of Aron Johansson (USMNT/AZ Alkmar Wunderkind) in this space a while back, I had a request to revisit the movement Johannsson displays inside the penalty area.  He's hardly unique in this aspect; all goalscorers are live wires inside 18 yards.  They move and recycle, constantly adjusting to the ball's location and the angles created by the play on the ball.  Perhaps most importantly, goalscorers understand that the staggeringly vast majority of goals are last touched inside 9 or so yards from the goalmouth.  Be active, and be close to the frame.  Using Fulham/Norwich video, we can see a good example of movement and industriousness inside the penalty area below.  The other concept regarding movement discussed below is that of attackers' starting positions when their team is in possession.  Marco Di Vaio, Landon Donovan and Fulham's Kasami offer some thoughts on how an attacker might go about getting the ball in the first place.

In training the other night my boys used a simple 2v1 transition game to two goals to get a bunch of finishing work, and to underscore some 1st defender principles.  The main point made on the offensive side was simply that in a 2v1 situation, the player without the ball should be expecting his teammate to shoot and therefore should be making a beeline for the face of goal.  Several times balls ran off the endline at the back post with a player in the area, but just not completing the run - he'd run (metaphorically, at least) 114 yards of the field, then missed the goal for a want of a mere 6 more yards!  In Fulham's FA Cup triumph over Norwich (Jan. 14) Dejagah not only supports the quickly breaking attack, but sees his run through the penalty area (2nd goal of the game, about 53 seconds into the video below):

The first goal by Darren Bent sees a dummy (whiff?) by a teammate nearer Kasami, the player who crosses the ball, but both the whiffer and Bent work hard to make quick little adjustments, particularly as Kasami took a penultimate touch toward the endline which looked for all the world as though it would run off the pitch.  Very optimistic, trusting work by the two attackers in the area, as even the announcer can be heard to say he thought the ball was going to be lost by that touch.

So two goals, and two very fine examples of penalty area running.  But what of the initial stages of the attack?  With my girls squad, we had several conversations at training about, when in possession, the players off the ball  getting "on the other side" of the defender marking them.  Essentially, as the defender is marking one of our players, we want her looking at the ball and our player easing into a position out of her line of sight, typically behind her.  This forces the defender to either move deeper toward her own goal (at which point we move behind again until she either stops or we advance the ball) or give up marking our player.  Neither is palatable.

The trick is to keep a passing lane to the ball while located in a position behind the defender.


Here, we see some MLS data that show how Landon Donovan gets behind a defense as compared to Marco Di Vaio; two exceptional goal scorers doing things very differently. Go back and watch the Fulham goals again. 

The second goal (~50 seconds into the video) sees Kačaniklić coming back to the ball from an offside position. His timing, and that of the pass from his teammate, is impeccable, and there's a nice freeze-frame that shows clearly "Can-sha-knee-klich" was in fact onside.  This is Di Vaio's method, and it's easy to see how a player who plays "on the other side" of a defender can be caught offside so many times.  But, those defenders must have eyes in the back of their heads (or a sharp GK who communicates really, really well) to keep track of that attacker.  The defenders must be perfect...the attacker need only get it right once.

So, to conclude, we see that keeping the feet moving inside the 18 is a recipe for success; attackers can use differing starting positions to get behind defenders; and below, we see some of the world's best nicely analyzed as they move without the ball to create opportunities for their teammates.  Another player who is notable for his running off the ball is Mesut Ozil of Arsenal.  He might be the most important player on that team simply because of how he creates space, time and chances for his teammates...often without the ball.

In this video Iniesta comes under the microscope...good stuff, but the 2 minute mark shows him drifting toward the center-right of the field (he tends to play left of center, usually) which has the effect of him being behind the defenders relative to the ball.  The defenders are all looking toward the left side of the Barca attack (the top of the screen) and so Iniesta is behind them, effectively.  Point being, the game is played in 360 degrees, and Iniesta, like all great players, finds space where the defenders aren't:

Here's another analysis of Barca (it's tough to find film on other teams' movements...I'm not solely paying attention to the Catalans, it's just that they have achieved so much they get broken down a bit more than most!) which shows some more of the work the players do away from the ball.  It shows how selfless players have to be, how much work is done without the ball, and the havoc it causes for a defense.  Many, many other players and teams replicate this...but you have to have a keen eye and take your attention away from the ball to catch it!