http://worldsoccerreader.com/2009/06/25/anatomy-of-a-goal-dempseys-insurance-tally-against-spain/ A very in-depth analysis of Clint Dempsey's goal against Spain in the Semi-Final of the Confederations Cup "Clint Dempsey’s Wednesday goal sealed a potentially watershed victory in the history of United States soccer. When the 26-year-old attacker put a wayward Sergio Ramos touch past Iker Casillas, Dempsey tallied the shocking culmination of events that included a horrible Albert Riera pass, three fifty-fifty balls won by the U.S. within three seconds, some lazy defending by an all-world back and two fortunate bounces from an ill-advised cross. In this Anatomy of a Goal, we look at all the events that led to Dempsey’s fifteenth international goal - the goal which sealed the United States’ 2-0 victory over Spain in the semifinals of the Confederations Cup." Thought this might be something some of my fellow soccer nerds would be interested in.
Indeed, a good find - repped. I was shocked how open LD was after that pass from Benny. Maybe he was too and that's why he hesitated. Regardless, a great play. Thanks for a good read.
He always hesitates in the box - he's just not an instinctive scorer. I enjoyed the breakdown of the goal and the moments leading up to it, but I think he was unnecessarily harsh on Donovan. Shooting from 18 yards at a tough angle on the best keeper in the world is not necessarily a better play than hitting it low and hard across the goalmouth. Especially when you've got two forwards crashing hard and another attacking mid waiting at the penalty spot for a sloppy clearance.
Agreed. It's true there was a wee bit of luck involved, but that's what you hope for when you crank in a low hard ball like that. I mean, Spain couldn't deal with it, after all. It couldn't have been that terrible of an idea. Admittedly, had he shot immediately he might have been able to score near post, but realistically a shot there would have likely ended up with a corner kick (or a goal kick). One of the reasons you play crosses in like that are to put the goalkeeper out-of-position.
I thought the reason Donovan hesitated is because the pass from Benny was not weighted quite right. If it has been firmer, LD would have met it mid-stride. As it was, LD had to slow down and I think was caught in a slightly awkward situation in terms of balance and angle.
Interesting. But Bradley was not playing a DM role, as the analysis says. Clark was playing it. Bradley was playing CM.
I thought he hesitated because that's pretty much what he does in international games. For the last few years he has almost always chosen the killer cross over the killer shot.
Casillas was in position -- that's a hard shot. Should Donovan have taken it? Yes, probably. The passing angles were tough -- after the touch, Dempsey was definitely covered on the far post, and Jozy was only very briefly open at the penalty spot (and that opening comes from the diving defender). Feilhaber was somewhere out of the frame around the 18. After his touch and once the shot angle became too severe, I would have liked to have seen Donovan take another dribble towards the end line and draw it back to either Altidore or Feilhaber for a hard shot. Of course, it's easy to pick at a player's decisions when you can pause.
If Donovan takes that shot it's probably saved, it was a good percentage play by him to cross it accross the goal. I will say this (from a Spanish perspective) if Puyol is playing the right back, that's not a goal. Sergio Ramos has been playing awful all year with lazy play after play, the US rightly picked on his side to attack (not just this goal but in general).
I agree with this, and playing the ball behind the charging line of Spanish defenders, whether intentional or not, was a great help in scoring the goal. Because they were crashing so hard towards their own net, they were only able to put minor touches on the ball as it came across, rather than dealing with the cross decisively. As it turns out, they just set it on a platter for Dempsey.
And, you know, the Sergio Ramos mistake, when he stops the ball and turns clockwise allowing Dempsey to shoot (turning counterclockwise would have shielded the ball) was stupid. Yes, Riera and Ramos made mistakes, I'd even say Capdevila's run was far from perfect (he should have kept more to the left), but the final mistake, when Ramos stops the ball and turns without putting his body between him and Dempsey, and does so taking a whole half second to do so, that was the crucial one IMO.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5K0o6m5snA"]YouTube - CONFEDERATIONS CUP 2009 SPAGNA USA 0 2 DEMPSEY ESPANA USA 0 2 DEMPSEY 24 06 09 NickenBlack07[/ame] The only obviously better play would have been a first touch cross from Donovan to Dempsey's head at the six yard line. That's the run he made and he had a couple yards on Ramos. But he didn't read it and his cross worked out pretty well.
Really good stuff, the kind of analysis I would love to see during a broadcast. I may disagree with parts of it, but it's thorough enough to allow us to evaluate each and every relevant decision made leading up to the goal. I'm struck by just how many seemingly minor, split-second decisions are crucial to whether the play develops or not. By ignoring those split-second decisions, both on and off the ball, even well before anything threatening has occurred yet, we've already limited ourselves to an incredibly narrow understanding of the play. And yet so much of the analysis on this forum focuses on the very end of each play, on the players closest to the ball, and to the decisions that play out slowly and methodically enough for us to make sense of them in real time. Not that I'm blaming anyone, because who has the time to break down each and every event like this? But, it does highlight for me how difficult it is to assess each player properly at this level.
But he's a wonderful set-up man. That is damned good too, although it doesn't tend to score as many kudos as the finisher does. Every team needs both.
Agreed. That said, I think he'd be even more effective as a set-up man if he more often kept the keeper honest. I'm sure his early attempt from about 25 yards out played a part in Casillas coming out so aggressively to cut the angle. A Concacaf or MLS keeper might have been a little more aware of Landon's tendencies and played for the cross.
Donovan should've either shot (I screamed at the TV when he didn't) or cut the ball back to Altidore, who held his run and was wide open at the spot. Watch the replay - its tough to see on the one linked above, but there's another angle out there that shows it better. What Donovan did was pretty clearly the worst of his three best options. But, tough to argue with success. Watch beginning at 2:20: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlJkJ2XzjiE"]YouTube - Spain - USA 0-2 All Goals & Highlights 6/24/09[/ame]
Loved the goal breakdown, but my key disagreement is Donovan was not beating Casillas near post at any point in that sequence. Maybe this guy hasn't seen much of Casillas. None of Donovan's options were great, so he decided to put it in the mix and see what came out of it.
Recalls WC'94 in the Cotton Bowl, where Spain led Korea 2-0 at 84', and drew 2-2. At 90+x', Korea held the ball at Spain's box top center, Spain's entire defensive line scrunched up into the middle like a wall, and Jung Won Seo strolled down the box right edge unnoticed, received a simple inside-out entry pass, and scored near post. (The Hangul characters in the scoreboard are, respectively, "Han Guk" (Han Country = Korea (nowadays, they write "Dae Han Min Guk")), and "Su Peh In" = Spain). [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgyqtJfpHTc"]YouTube - World Cup 94: Spain v. Korea[/ame]
Yes, and I don't agree completely with that analysis. There was a series of errors, but those happen all the time: losing a 50/50 ball, getting a bit lazy, leaving one side open, etc. The crucial mistake is, still, for me, the one Ramos did in the end: stopping the ball, not shielding it (assuming Dempsey was not right there) and taking a long time to stop and turn. That was the goal. Well earned by Dempsey, Feilhaber and Donovan, yes, but made possible thanks to that big error.
If Donovan were a first rate striker, like Messi or Ronaldo, he could have scored easily by putting it either up in Casilla's left corner, or breaking to his left and putting it up in Casilla's right. But he's not. He's an ok striker, nothing more, facing one of the best keepers in the planet. I don't see Landon scoring that one. So he chose the fastest alternative --turning to Jozy took time, sending it high took time too (to calculate), so he sent the quickest: low pass, and luck favored the brave. Everything from there went perfect: deviation by Pique, so the ball was too far back for Ramos to control it easily, Ramos stopping the ball and not shielding it quickly, Dempsey reading the play fast and stopping a milisecond before Ramos did.
Agreed. The Ramos tee-up is a once-in-a-quadrennial conflation of random events -- which is exactly what makes it fun to micro-analyze I agree with Farley's main point, that Ramos was already sunk by that time due to earlier events. Dempsey's reverse. Dempsey did begin reacting to Pique's deflection sooner (by maybe 0.3 seconds) than Ramos did. Dempsey could see that the deflected ball is behind him in any case, so he's already adjusting. Dempsey's two feet. Dempsey uses both feet to plant and reverse his direction. Ramos overworked. In contrast, Ramos was perfectly caught in two minds. The ball was close enough to touch with one foot, but too far for him to kick it with power. I agree with Farley that Ramos's instinct was to not let the ball keep rolling, which is probably non-faultable. So he committed one foot -- his right foot -- to the ball. First mind-boggling result: his little touch perfectly stops the ball. Ramos can't split. Ramos's goalward sprinting momentum pulls his body away from the ball. In fact, it's exactly enough to drag his hips about 2m past the now-stationary ball -- just beyond the reach of his toes! If he were a gymnast/judoka, perhaps he could have done the splits and still maintained contact. Ramos's one foot. Ramos stops himself with only his left foot/leg. That's surely slower than Dempsey's two-legged reversal -- and, as noted, Dempsey had a head start. So as Ramos is still decelerating toward his goal (away from ball), Dempsey is already accelerating away from the goal (toward ball). Their hips pass each other, going in opposite directions! Dempsey is winning that race. Ramos's slow turn. Ramos's final mistake was that, having stopped the ball with his right foot and planted his left leg behind him, he then steps forward and squares his hips, so as to play the ball with his trailing left foot. In other words, he tried to rotate his left foot from 7 o'clock all the way to noon -- but at about 9 o'clock, the alarm went off . Had he immediately stab-poked the ball with his ball-ward right foot, he could still have outraced Dempsey. Dempsey in the grass, alas! Dempsey's final moment of physical brilliance was that he used the attacker's-privilege of not staying vertical. He got nearly horizontal during his two-footed reversal (for bonus reversal power), never rose up more than a lunge-crouch, and then went horizontal to the ground again to get the plane of his leg through the ball. He ends up lying on his side on the ground. In marked contrast, Ramos's spine was ramrod-vertical while sprinting, stopping the ball, reversing, and trying to play it. That's probably correct by both players. A defender can't afford the habit of falling down in his own box because the risk probably outweighs any reward. (Contrast to ice hockey, where the puck hugs the ice, and diving in front of your goal can be a great defensive resource.) Conversely, a forward can afford this because the reward justifies everything, and the risk is essentially nil (in that your sprawl almost never results in a coast-to-coast fast break and goal the other way). The most recent similar poacher's goal I can recall is Seol Ki-Hyeon's WC'02 goal at 88' vs. Italy (at ~0:40). A flat header across the box causes some confusion, just skims over a leaping #15 Mark Iuliano's head, and falls unexpectedly to #2 Christian Panucci, who was not anticipating the untouched trajectory. Panucci awkwardly right-knees the ball straight up off the bottom of his right arm, and in backpedaling to avoid the handball, he loses his balance, and falls backward away from the ball. The ball richochets straight down, and is momentarily bouncing with its shadow motionless, just as Seol arrives to harass Panucci. Seol, like Dempsey (and Ronaldo in that Nike "What if you asked God" commercial from an eternity ago), does not waste time in collecting the ball -- he just shoots through it as-is. Poach! [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptVjmXQLQBA&feature=related"]YouTube - Korea Vs Italy 2002[/ame] So, what could Ramos have done differently in that instant? I suppose one way he could have gotten some power on the ball was to instantly leave his feet and do a while-flying-backward toe poke or outward crescent kick with his right foot (or both feet if he is a stud -- in for a peseta!). That would maybe punch the ball out to the top of the box (for Altidore to pounce on it, so even this isn't a great idea), and maybe Ramos could have done a backward-somersault to regain his feet quickly. But, see, that is such a bizarre move that no defender ever practices it -- heck, you might not have ever seen it, at any level. I can't blame Ramos for not thinking to try that in the heat of the moment. It's the kind of move that a defender could fail at only once in his career
1. I agree with the posters who say Donovan's not beating Casillas with a near post shot. Perhaps, he could have adjusted his run to meet Feilhaber's pass and had a better shooting angle. Certainly, there was considerable traffic. 2. I do not see a pass to Jozy as a good option. Again, too much traffic and too many defenders even if the pass is completed between Jozy and the goal. 3. It is sometimes difficult to tell from certain camera angles the reads, in this case Donovan, might be considering. Certainly, he wrongfooted Ramos with the pass. 4. Ramos, at one time, considered the best right back in the world, clearly makes a couple of bad decisions. It was surprising he did not appear aware of where Dempsey was or the immediacy surrounding the situation. Often this is a concern for great players, occasionally things are taken for granted that an ordinary player would know that quickly needed to be sorted out. 5. Props to each of the players, I believe there were three, who won the 50-50 balls. It is occasionally amusing to see posters here who diminish work rate. Props, particularly to Bradley who won the third one and delivered the great one touch to Feilhaber who also observed the channel to run into and deliver the pass. A lot of players would have chosen a run down the left flank where there was less resistance waiting.