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Barcelona 8-2 Huesca. How it happened September 7, 2018

Posted by michaeltomlinson in FC Barcelona, Spanish soccer, Tactics.
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How does a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute turn into an 8-2 loss? On Sunday Huesca gave managers, players, and fans alike a crash course on how to make that happen.

Barca’s 8:

  1. They say a first goal is a sign of things to come, in this case, it was a lightly defended Lionel Messi at the top of the box, with just one man to beat. Messi, of course, slalomed past the now stumbling and falling defender and slotted his effort into the bottom left corner, with his wildly inferior right foot.
  2. An abundance of space, not just for Messi, but for everyone in a Blaugrana shirt, and especially down the flanks set up the second. Undone by an own goal, Huesca allowed a Jordi Alba run with plenty of space, but with very few teammates in-tow. So instead, the industrious fullback, from just outside the goalmouth sent a short pass off the foot of Jorge Pulido, and past the keeper.
  3. Same story as the second, far too much space to run into for Jordi Alba. Not to say work didn’t need to be done, but once Coutinho beat three defenders with a perfectly weighted 25-yard ball it was a simple low cross from Alba to a neat and tidy finish from El Pistolero. Suarez’ first goal of the 2018-19 campaign.HALFTIME 3-2 Barcelona (Huesca brought one back right before half)

     

  4. Just seconds being saved by the head of Huesca’s goalkeeper, Werner, on a rocketed volley by Messi from 6 yards out, Huesca was again beaten by the through ball. This time Suarez connected with Dembele straight into the left side of the box where the French international calmly placed his shot far post.
  5. Inventive pass from Messi dinked over the top of 3 defenders just outside the box to an on-coming Rakatic who sent home a picture-perfect half-volley from a tough angle 15 yards out.
  6. Coutinho with a through ball from the defensive half, beating a horrifically positioned Huesca center-back pairing. Messi gathered some 40 yards from goal beats a defender on his hip and slides one past Werner’s left to the bottom right corner.
  7. Did I mention Jordi Alba had a lot of space down the left? Well he did, a simple run past, um no one and a lead pass from Messi led to a tight angled tap past the keeper.
  8. PENALTY! Just what the game needed. Suarez taken down by the goalkeeper, Werner in the corner of the box. Like every Gerard Pique moment later in the game was itching to score, but alas Suarez took his own pen and ended it.

Is winning with proactive soccer a bigger accomplishment than winning by counterattacking? December 10, 2011

Posted by Alex Tomchak Scott in Chilean soccer, Spanish soccer, Tactics.
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I got to thinking about this after reading the final paragraphs of Nicholas Rosano’s excellent article about Universidad de Chile and its coach Jorge Sampaoli on SB Nation.

(Counter-attacking) has proven the recipe for teams outside of Argentina and Brazil to compete for the big boys in South America’s premier competition, but Sampaoli’s team seem intent on trying something different.

If Universidad de Chile can take down the big sides in Argentina and Brazil in both the Copa Sudamericana and Copa Libertadores while playing (proactive soccer), it will be a fantastic accomplishment.

I suppose it is; I certainly accepted it automatically on reading that, but then I got to struggling for a reason.

Attacking soccer is harder to pull off. It mostly centers around ball possession, and when you think about it, ball possession requires not only skill and tremendous teamwork, but also morale. You need to have confidence in your own ability and the ability of the teammate you’re passing to in order to play possession football successfully. So a coach needs to:

  1. Excavate players who are technically proficient enough to keep control of the ball
  2. Create an environment in which those players are familiar enough with their teammates’ movement to anticipate where they should pass the ball on the field.
  3. Devise a system that allows those players to exploit their talents.
  4. Inspire those players to belief in not only themselves, but also their teammates and the system they’re playing.
  5. Do this better than his opponent.

This is enough to make you wonder why people do it at all, but the answer is easy: proactive football played well enough is more effective. It also might explain why Barcelona is so successful: players who have grown up together or in the same system will more readily anticipate their teammates’ movement, and the shared experience will make it easier to motivate them. That very upbringing also emphasizes technique. When you throw in a coach who also has the same background, you’ve got far readier ground for a world-beating side. At almost any other club, you’d need to start pretty much where Barcelona was at the beginning of the 1990s to get where Barcelona is today.

Cole does poorly, but there’s probably still hope for him. August 16, 2010

Posted by Alex Tomchak Scott in English soccer, Tactics.
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Joe Cole pretty much flopped against Arsenal Sunday. I have reason to believe he will still come good though. Zonal Marking, the nets’ premier footy tactics site, asks whether Cole’s three-game suspension will be the end for him. “If [Liverpool] reshape [to Hodgson’s preferred 4-4-2] and find success under a different shape,” the site’s author writes, “then Cole’s much-hyped central playmaker role may have lasted only 45 unhappy minutes.”

I’m more skeptical. (more…)