On Closer Examination: Space Invaders
You can attack with the ball and you can attack without it.
Breakdown and analysis of particular plays happening during the 2014 World Cup.
Soccer has a term for losing complete sight of the player you are supposed to be marking, it’s called “ball watching,” and it’s often the leading cause of those hair pulling “HOW-DOES-SOMEONE-EVEN-GET-THAT-WIDE -OPEN?!” types of reactions people have when a goal is given up or if you’re a Miami Heat fan. But sometimes it’s not just the players on the field that get caught ball watching, it’s us too, the viewers.
We follow the ball in soccer because it’s the plot device which moves the story forward…or sideways and backwards if a team prefers a slow and elaborate build up. But like other team sports requiring a ball or similar object, a lot of the interesting world-building stuff happening in the “story,” is actually happening away from or ancillary to it. And in soccer, that interesting stuff is space.
Observing what’s happening away from the ball or in space during a match is a lot like a having a giant map of Westeros (and Essos) in front of you while watching Game of Thrones. How is this space being defended? How is this space being attacked? Whose that? Wait, how did that guy end up there? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DOESN’T ANYONE SEE WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN?! These are the types of questions that should be asked during Game of Thrones’ episodes and in soccer matches.
Empty space behind a defensive line, in the flanks, or between the defender and midfielder lines is soccer’s mana from heaven. The game becomes interesting when you see players attack those spaces with the ball. And it becomes deceptively brilliant when you see how and why players attack those spaces without the ball.
Let’s take a look at attacking players exploiting space from some of the World Cup matches over the weekend.
CHARGE!
Costa Rica deployed 5 men on the back line in their opening match against Uruguay, which looked liked 3 center backs holding down the middle of the defense and 2 wing backs dropping back even to complete the 5 man back line. Four men stood in front of them in the midfield.
Costa Rica had enough men to mark Uruguay’s 4-4-2 and was usually afforded a free CB acting as a kind of free safety in a cover defense. But the takeaway is that Uruguay could theoretically boss part of the midfield and attack the center of the defense if it could exploit the space between the CMs and CBs, especially on a quick change of possession, which occurred in the 1st half with the Costa Ricans being dispossessed in the midfield and with both CMs in no position to recover. This left a generous swatch of space for Uruguayan midfielder, Cristian Rodriguez, to attack. He obliges, and the Costa Rican right WB is called upon to step up and challenge Rodriguez (his actual mark), exposing a bit more of that back line. Again, there is no CM in front of Rodriguez to provide any sort of meaningful help defense on this play.
Rodriguez attacks the space like a point guard running hard off a screen and diving towards the paint with the ball. He’s also running at a flat defensive line, which will react by collapsing in on him. But there are two Uruguayan players who will attack space off the ball to help balance this play. In essence, they are the release valves to the Costa Rican pressure. It’s the kind of thing that’s probably invisible to the masses newly infected with World Cup Fever, but to the more advanced viewers, it’s another facet in which to analyze the game. It’s like being that friend that’s always picking up notes of chocolate or honey in their beers and then proceeds to voice their findings out loud to everyone and no one in particular at the same time; soccer fanatics do that with off ball movement. But it’s those space clearing and space eating runs that happen throughout the match in a matter of seconds that really brighten the contest. Basically, it’s the game within the game that we find interesting.
So the two players to observe, are Diego Forlan at the ST position and Martin Caceres playing LB.
Forlan moves horizontally from one Costa Rican CB to another. It’s a coy little run that opens up a bit more space for Rodriguez to rush and it also forces the defense to reassess its points of reference on the field; they’ll need to quickly sort their marks and the changing space they need to defend. The more you can get the defense moving and continually working like that, the better. Caceres’ run is a little more straight forward. Since the right WB is closing down Rodriguez, his entire flank is now exposed. Caceres sees this from the center line and blitzes 50 yds down the left side in a supporting run to make himself a viable option to play a cross in.
Rodriguez’s charge at the heart of defense draws in four defenders (and the ref) and opens up the option to play Forlan in on goal.
But Forlan actually ends up breaking to the outside. I think he’s reading the CB’s (that’s closest to him) movement as defensive run to cut off the possibility of a splitting through ball by Rodriguez(which would have been awesome) and to close down a shooting lane, but I think he’s also making sure to stay onside, so he slides horizontally along the defensive line. Either way, he frees up enough space for Rodriguez to lay the ball off to him for a decent look at goal. It ends up being deflected, but it’s the kind of look that is the result of attacking space with and without the ball.
Daniel Sturridge, Wide Receiver.
Let’s take a look at space being attacked that actually leads to a goal. This one is Daniel Sturridge’s half volley against Italy.
The part I really like in this goal scoring play, is Sturridge’s run. It’s sneaky good. But we’ll take a quick look at the great setup before the finish.
Raheem Sterling turns with the ball at centerfield and is surprised to find a passing lane big enough to land a commercial airplane. Luckily, he only needs to pass a ball, which he does, beautifully. Wayne Rooney, has also recognized the space and takes off immediately, leaving behind Italy’s napping RB.
Rooney’s only touch is a perfect shoulder height cross that dips right into the path of Sturridge at the far post, which he introduces to the back of the net on a great half volley.
But let’s rewind the tape a little bit. If we watch Sturridge begin his run, once Rooney is played into the flank, you see what amounts to a something like a “skinny post route” in American football. So the Italian CB, Gabriel Paletta, is actually kind of like a safety in this comparison. Sturridge does Paletta dirty by masking his post route as a straight run to goal. Paletta reads this a striaght run and then turns his attention to tracking the ball. He needs to find his point of reference on the field to properly defend, but he is about to get caught ball watching. It only takes a second for Sturridge to bend his run to the far past and create an acre of space to bury the cross. It’s a pretty play. I mean, the through ball, the cross, and the finish are all top shelf, but my favorite part is that deceptive run by Sturridge. Yes, really. I guess it’s kind of like eating an amazing meal at a restaurant, but being weirdly fixated on the design of the plate. Oh well.
Random observations from other World Cup Games
- I really like Colombia’s home kit
- Same goes for France’s home kit
- In Arjen Robben’s 1st goal against Spain, he actually makes the same run as Sturridge. It’s just turned up to 11.
- During the Argentina game, I turned away from the TV to grab a slice of pizza behind me and in the 3.1 seconds it took me to do that, Messi put two defenders on the ground and the ball in the back of the net.
- Papastathopoulos
