Most Dangerous Nations on Free Kicks in Germany?

[Sempre]

Brazil--Juninho (a real maestro), Adriano, R. Carlos
and Ronaldhino. Expect tons of inventiveness from their
set-pieces.

France--Zidane and Henry both have the class to score
on free-kicks. If France qualify.

England--Beckham is often said to be the best at these,
but his prowess for striking them is in some decline.

Lampard and Gerrard both are powerful, though not subtle,
free-kick takers. I do not expect England to score goals
from free-kicks at the WC, but the potential is there.

Argentina--Riquelme is nifty from set-pieces. Heinze, IIRC,
can use his left boot for power.

Italy--They have been scoring an inordinate number of
goals from set-pieces. Pirlo struck two beauties vs.
Scotland at the San Siro, Totti scored a free-kick and
a pk vs. Belarus in Italy (and then in Belarus hit two
rasping free-kicks that required great saves from the
'keeper) and Miccoli hit one vs. Finland last year; Mauro
Camoranesi, an underlooked player, has quite a good
shot and is menacing from free-kicks. Dangerous.

Please feel free to add your thoughts/ predictions on
nations that have an added offensive threat with their
free-kick takers.

[SirManchester]

Germany has Ballack to take all the free kicks, however Schneider, Deisler, and Frings are also known to take them and score frequently from them.

The Czechs have Rosicky and Heinz, and Hopefully Nedved.

[Adidas343]

Brazil - Juninho, Adriano, R. Carlos, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo.I doubt you'll see Juninho play much in the world cup, he is shear class in free kicks though.

England - Beckam is inconsistent in his freekick shooting, every Real Madrid game he hits the ball into the wall, however, his crosses from set pieces are excellent.

Netherlands - Van Der Vaart, Van Bommel, Davids. Van Bommel is dangerous on set pieces especially his crosses. Van Der Vaart will be a threat.

France - Zinedine Zidane. One of the few free kick masters in the world though he doesn't take many with Real Madrid.

[DerMongerer]

Uruguay (assuming they even make it) with Chevanton and Recoba (who I consider to be one of the top 3 FK takers in the world. Given that they are an attacking side, I don't think it will be overly hard for them to draw a few free kicks.

[Benton]

The Germans and Brazilians in order are always the most dangerous from set kicks. Always.

[rapscallion]

Juninho is Brazil's best free-kick specialist. But how much playing time will he get? Roberto Carlos has always been overrated.

Japan - Shunsuke Nakamura could be the best dead-ball specialist in the world.

[Rakim_22]

Roberto Carlos has always been overrated.


Yes but that wondergoal he did in 97 where the ball swerved, dipped, and curled its way into the back of the net makes him deserving of some recognition.

[Ombak]

Yes but that wondergoal he did in 97 where the ball swerved, dipped, and curled its way into the back of the net makes him deserving of some recognition.He's hit one or two decent ones recently too (for BRazil at least - including the one in the losing effort to Argentina).

[schafer]

England will definitely be a threat from set pieces. With Beckham's delivery (he doesn't score as much anymore, but his indirect kicks are top class) and John Terry, who is a huge threat from set pieces, England will definitely be a team to watch. Campbell is very good as well, and if Crouch makes the squad, they will have another aerial threat.

Germany is also dangerous on set pieces, Ballack and Klose are both very strong in the air. Brazil will be dangerous on direct free kicks, but Juninho won't always be on the pitch, and Adriano is their only real aerial threat, IMO.

[JinJin]

Netherlands - Van Der Vaart, Van Bommel, Davids. Van Bommel is dangerous on set pieces especially his crosses. Van Der Vaart will be a threat.

I would add Wesley Sneijder to that list, another FK specialist.

Japan - Shunsuke Nakamura could be the best dead-ball specialist in the world.

Very underrated by the rest of the world, Celtic fans will get to know his FK's well this year, he also had that cracker of a goal against Brazil at the Confed cup.

[Portista69]

Portugal- Deco, Simao, Figo, C. Ronaldo :cool:

[Danson's Magic Hands]

England will definitely be a threat from set pieces. With Beckham's delivery (he doesn't score as much anymore, but his indirect kicks are top class) and John Terry, who is a huge threat from set pieces, England will definitely be a team to watch. Campbell is very good as well, and if Crouch makes the squad, they will have another aerial threat.

This is very true in theory, but I cannot remember the last time we scored from a Beckham corner. In fact, we very rarely get clear headers on goal from corners these days. It needs to be worked on.

Lampard scored one from an indirect free-kick at the Euros, but I can't remember any of those since then, either.

On the other hand, Beckham may arguably not have the success rate from direct free kicks he used to have, but he's always going to be dangerous.

[Hrvat]

For us Srna scored some incredible FK goals in this qualifiers (Bulgaria, Sweden) but we'll be even more dangerous after FK crosses. Tudor and Simunic are every defense's nightmare when it comes to headers.

[Excape Goat]

Yes but that wondergoal he did in 97 where the ball swerved, dipped, and curled its way into the back of the net makes him deserving of some recognition.

Two seasons ago, Beckham missed liked three freekicks in one game. I meant three kicks that were nowhere near target. In the 2nd half, Roberto Carlos took over for one kic. Normally, R.Carlos got all the long distance ones and beckham the short one). This one was very short.

BANG.... Roberto Carlos shot straight into the net liked a bullet. The ball was straight and damn fast.... no curl at all. I had never seen a freekick so straight before. I thought that it was impossible to do it. This one was the anti-1997 one.

[socks]

just curious....who takes Mexico's free kicks?

[R9magia]

The most dangerous of all I think will be Brasil.

At this moment Juninho Pernambucano is the best free kick specialist in the world,it almost seems like he scores on half of his attempts.
Ronaldinho has stepped up this season on free-kicks unbelievably,almost to the level of Juninho,I think this season he already has 5 goals on free kicks including the one in the Champions League against Udinense and the one from 30 meters out against Betis in the Supercopa.

Roberto Carlos is different from the other ones,he is not somebody you expect to score a lot on FK's,but think about all the rebounds he creates from his FK's that end up being goals. but there is one thing about R.Carlos,when he gets the perfect hit on the ball,he can score from anywhere and you never know when he will score,so that in itself makes him dangerous. Adriano can also score but I don't he will get many chances with Ronaldinho and Roberto there,and if Juninho is in the game he will be taking them all.

Because of all of this I think Brasil is the most dangerous for WC 2006.
As far as set pieces it has to be Germany.

[Bertje]

We(Holland) have a few players who can be considered specialists. We have van der Vaart, Robben, van Bommel, Sneijder and van Persie.

Of these in my opinion Sneijder can be the best with both feet but he tends not to put enough power in his freekicks, piss him off though and he will give you an amazing shot. Then you have van der Vaart and van Persie where van der Vaart is better at crossing the ball onto another player for him to head it in and van Persie has an amazing touch. He sometimes lacks some power though. Robben is a good crosser and like van der Vaart best at serving onto a player's head, Robben's freekicks are harder most of the time though. Finally van Bommel who I think as the hardest shot but the others all have a better touch.

[Milosartisian]

I actually think that Mexico should be in the list among the most dangerous, they score a fair amounts of their goals via Free Kicks, and they have plenty of options.

just curious....who takes Mexico's free kicks?

It depends, if Jaime Lozano is playing, he takes the kicks. He is scary good in short distance. I would say that he has a 50%+ chance of scoring in short distance kicks, which is huge.

Others:

Ramon Morales (scored against Argentina in Copa America, remember?)
Pavel Pardo (World class in my opinion, he can either put it in the net or set a forward for a header )
Rafa Marquez
Hector Altamirano (not sure if he is going to the WC, but in long distance is very good. See Santos - River Plate in Libertadores Cup)
Cuauhtemoc: He still takes some shots, but he is not that good in my opinion (in the free kicks department, that is)

[jcmartins]

I'm not sure how Tevez is doing in this area at Corinthians but he did pretty well at Boca and even for Argentina during the Copa America, a couple times he came in as a sub and scored a goal from a freekick.. it looked perfect at the time but haven't seen or heard anything else about it.

[1900AFCA1900]

We(Holland) have a few players who can be considered specialists. We have van der Vaart, Robben, van Bommel, Sneijder and van Persie.

Of these in my opinion Sneijder can be the best with both feet but he tends not to put enough power in his freekicks, piss him off though and he will give you an amazing shot. Then you have van der Vaart and van Persie where van der Vaart is better at crossing the ball onto another player for him to head it in and van Persie has an amazing touch. He sometimes lacks some power though. Robben is a good crosser and like van der Vaart best at serving onto a player's head, Robben's freekicks are harder most of the time though. Finally van Bommel who I think as the hardest shot but the others all have a better touch.

Our specialsts? Van Hooijdonk and Yildirim... :)