Espanyol smart set piece goal vs Levante
After almost three months without any proper football training, it shouldn’t be a surprise that a few coaches have used that time away to draw up some effective set piece routines.
Since the resumption of football in mid-June, there’s been a deluge of football from across Europe every single day. That makes it hard to keep on top of it all, but this goal scored by Espanyol against Levante caught the eye for its simplicity:
Espanyol set up for the throw-in with three players bunched near the penalty spot, two on the edge of the box, one coming short, and eventual goalscorer David López standing practically on the goal line behind the front post zonal marker:
As the ball is delivered, López runs around the back of the player guarding the front stick to the edge of the six-yard box and flicks his header into the far corner.
Although it might appear to be a basic goal scored from a simple bit of movement, it’s the product of many different constituent parts working in tandem. The cluster of players situated toward the back post, the two lurking on the edge, the player offering a short option — they all combine to vacate an enormous expanse of space at the front post for the thrower to deliver the ball into:
Through some clever positioning, Espanyol have turned an often chaotic and crowded situation into what is effectively a 1-vs-1 aerial duel. López is isolated against the player guarding the front post and knows that if he can beat his opponent, he’s got a shot on goal.
The way Espanyol have set up gives the thrower a lot of space to hit and therefore a wide margin of error on his delivery. He sticks it right on the money and López executes an admittedly difficult header to score his third goal of the season.
It seems slightly counter-intuitive to start closer to goal and then move away in order to try and win a header, considering how much more difficult that makes it to generate power on the ball, but that’s why this routine works so well.
Levante don’t defend this especially well and are let down by how static their man at the front post is. All it takes is one player to switch off or fail to do their job properly for you to be in trouble when you’re put into 1-vs-1 situations.
