So the Manchester Derby, United vs. City, was this weekend. It was a great match to watch. At the end, Robin van Persie got a free kick and City formed a few-man wall the appropriate distance away. When RVP kicked, one of the City guys in the wall put up his leg - the ball deflected and went above the goalie’s hands. It might’ve anyway, but that deflection certainly appeared to help.
During the post-game, one of the analysts said, in effect, “you never move when you are standing in a wall - that’s just a fact. You can end up deflecting the ball and screwing with your goalie, as we saw here.”
Is that an established fact of soccer? I am a novice so not sure, but it seems to make sense, but thought I would ask here.
Before a free kick is taken the goalkeeper will direct where he wants the wall to be with the very basic idea that it will ‘cover’ one part of the goal so that he can stand off to one side a bit, the side not covered. Obviously if the players in the wall then move all of the goalkeepers plans are redundant, not to say cracks could appear in the wall.
When someone is booting a ball very hard at your face or balls, then it all kinds of breaks down. The basic rules are not to approach the kicker before contact with the ball is made, and don’t use your hands. But yes, the goalie probably expects the wall he has placed to stand firm.
It was a shit attempt at a wall by Nasri. You don’t move - at most you jump (which is why some times the kicker will try to shoot under the wall). But twisting out of they way and throwing your leg up is pretty much exactly what you don’t do.
The timing (last minute of injury time) and the circumstances (his team clawed back from 2-0 down to tie the match) made it all the worse. For an Aresnal fan who still hates the way Nasri ran away for the riches at City it was a beautiful thing!
It was especially stupid by Nasri because RVP isn’t the type of player that’s going to blast the ball as hard as he can to get the goal. He doesn’t use the Cristiano Ronaldo method. Everyone knew that RVP would try to curl in the freekick, so the chance of Nasri getting hurt were minimal. I’m glad he did it!
When I stand in a wall the mantra I have to all the lads is “eyes on the ball”.
You have to make a conscious effort to watch it and, if necessary, let it hit whichever part it is heading for. If you look away you run risk of doing something similar to Nasri, a girly flinch that means you may not make solid contact.
In this case, wall is there to cover goalie’s left side. Anything on his right side - including small redirection - should be his to collect or bounce off. My initial reaction is that he simply did not see the ball until it was too late.
I think that’s part of it, and I’m sure Hart is a bit relieved that Nasri as taking all the heat. He definitely could have done better. That said, Nasri’s touch probably wrong-footed him a bit and messed with his view of the ball.
If the shot is otherwise on target, then the attacker gets the goal. If it had been heading high or wide, and Nasri deflected it toward goal, it’d be an own goal. That’s just the way it is.
I end up in the wall all the time, and I hate it. The girly flinch is pretty much my trademark move. I don’t mind getting kicked all over the place by defenders, but the ball heading straight for my beautiful face just brings out the coward in me.
I’m a decent amateur footballer but this is a big flaw in my game…