192ft2

Random Notes & Thoughts

Watching the game the last few weeks and days, talking with cool people with great minds - psych professors, coaches, players, and reading from some of the unheard of heros of the game on the web.  A few things crystallized, a few things that are of interest and importance.

In no particular order...

Keep It!

Gary Neville does a good job of analysis on Barcelona...this is 3 years old, mind you, but Barca generally have kept with it in the absence of Pep Guardiola.  And, it's become a much-copied approach in the last few years.  I think of my U13s who play on Barrack Hebrew's turf, and though we're young teams, the space we have to exploit is clearly far too restricted...playing possession is much easier in a larger space - yet another way in which the American game struggles to provide best-case opportunities for developing players.  Though it's not the worst thing to get used to playing in tight spaces...but that's easy enough for even the most novice coach to create in training.  We hardly need matches to bring that ability out in our players. Anyway, here's the video, well worth the 7 minutes.



Individuality

A great bit on MLSSoccer.com showed us the difference between an all-time goalscorer like Landon Donovan, and a guy who recently showed some serious class in Marco Di Vaio.  Check that out here...there's certainly more than one way to skin a cat.  The number of offside calls on those two boys is a fascinating comparison.

Marco Di Vaio scored against the Union last weekend, and shows how a forward might change things up by playing off-center, and find gaps in the back 4.  While we might expect him to go offside, in this case he pushes the line, but keeps himself safe.

He drifts way out of the middle of the park (the Impact are down to 10 men at this point) and finds the gap between the right center back and the right wing back.  As the play breaks from the middle, the center backs can't cover Di Vaio, and the wing back can't recover from his high position.  A little too comfortable with the extra player!  But the running by Di Vaio makes the play, as does the inch-perfect 50 yard pass (that's exact...pythagorean theorem and everything) and then the ludicrous nature of Di Vaio's audacious shot :

Di Vaio starts the play by creating space for his teammate to run forward into.  Di Vaio drifts into the space behind the Union right back, and his teammate can run forward to midfield- the assist is hit almost exactly from the center circle.  In the time it took to get the ball to that point, Di Vaio has run hard and pushed the Union center backs deep into their half:

Outside backs marked by the red arrow.

A great example of when a center forward wants to be somewhere other than center!

A Defensive Aside

Here's the penultimate moment of Di Vaio's goal.  He's been played in pretty wide...the angle to goal is a low-probability scenario, unless the defender does this:

The line from the ball to the post is pretty much the "passing lane," so to speak, that the first defender wants to be on.  As it is, he's too far away, and is seen here reaching out his left foot (the "weak" foot...blocking or tackling with the outside of a foot is never  preferable) to try to correct the error.  McMath, the GK, is well-positioned, and only the top far corner is a risk.  Di Vaio is too good, has too much time and space, and on a sodden day, late in the match, has the composure and fitness to set himself perfectly to hit the one space left uncovered.  Impressive shot, but at this level, poor positioning by the central defender.

Defensive Central Midfielder Par Exellence

Here's a nice play from Roy Carroll of the Union to set up Nogueira's goal in the 1-1 draw with Montreal.  Carroll drops in centrally as Montreal build the attack, but spies the winger being told by the central forward  to drop the ball; Carroll jumps into the passing lane, picks off the pass and the turnover at midfield turns into a Union counter attack:

The steal is set up by Carroll's hustle to provide a screen for the two center backs.  Look at the still image below: Carrol tucks in in front of the central defenders, and cleverly spots Di Vaio telling his winger to drop the ball to the holder (in the blue circle, we can see Di Vaio pointing) because the Union winger has blocked the passing lane from the ball to Di Vaio.  By dropping the ball, the Impact can, perhaps, find Di Vaio (dashed blue arrows), and/or give the two Impact players running up the center of the field toward the Union center backs time to offer options as well.  If Carroll doesn't steal the ball, the Impact will be 4v4 across the Union back line, and that's a great situation to have a holder in, on the ball facing up field!