Offenses in Second Quarter of Italy 1 Australia 0 World Cup Game
2516 mis-pass???-- Perrotta, had Australian 6 yds behind him, and two AUS players one 6 yds in front of him, the other 8 yds in front of him, he was 40 yds from the AUS goal, in the middle of the field, a team-mate 10 yds to his passed him a nice easy roller; he was facing to the middle of the field when he got the ball then he turned to face the AUS goal. I myself in this situation would have been sorely tempted to flip the ball in the air and start a forward air-dribble, keeping the ball off the ground but under control as I moved forward. Perrotta moved forward with the ball a couple of yds slowly, moved as if he was going to chip pass it forward, moved forward another couple of yds slowly, the man behind was still not on him, he then actually did chip the ball forwards attempting to hit a team-mate 20 yds away from him to his and in front of him on the front line of the Australia penalty box. His chip was low and intercepted by an Aussie. In the area that he passed to there were 3 Aussies and 3 Italians, plus on the side of the field there was an Aussie 10 yds away from this 3 on 3 group, and near Perrotta there were 3 Aussie defenders. After Perrotta passed his intercepted pass he began jogging towards the goal as if his supposed idea was that the pass recipient might get it back to him.
I felt here Perrotta was tired and or trying to keep out of trouble with the simpletons. What we had here, was that in the area of this offensive attempt, there were 7 Australians and 4 Italians. This in the context that the Italians had been looking less fit than the Australians, seemed the Australians had been dining on broiled fish and tangerine juice whereas the Italians had been subsisting on wine and pasta with meat sauce. In this kind of situation I would have felt that the thing for me to do were I in Perrotta's shoes, would be to gamble, get the ball in the air, air-dribble in the general direction of the AUS goal, and hope that something unpredictable lucky and fortunate happens. I am convinced that forward air dribbling often produces lucky, fortunate, unpredictable results that surprise the defense. What you need in a 4 offense players vs 7 defenders type situation, is luck, and surprise.
2919 AUS chance chipperfield drills air ball right at goalie, it would have been easy for me to air dribble ball to a little before shooting--there was a cluster of Italians and Australians gathered 12 yds in front of the Italy goal, waiting for an air ball to descend to them. Luckily for Chipperfield the air ball bounced out of the group in his direction he was to the of this cluster of Italians and Australians. The ball was moving slowly from Chipperfield's right to Chipperfield's about 5 yds in front of Chipperfield as Chipperfield charged it, he reached it after it bounced once and sent in a Wheaties Box Photo style shot, jumping in the air to shoot it when it was about two feet above the ground, and 12 yds from the Italy goal. He fired a bouncer directly at the goalie, the goalie fumbled it for a moment and grabbed on to it before an Aussie could get it away from him. Had the Aussie gotten there a tenth of a second earlier, he could have hit it back to Chipperfield who could have scored on the rebound.
In this situation had I been in Chipperfield's shoes I would have been tempted to air dribble the ball forward at least a couple of yds before doing something with it, I would then have a better shot on the goalie--and I would have the option of lobbing it in 10 yds for the fellow Aussie who almost got the ball away from the goalie after he stopped the shot. A goalie is more than a symbolic presence, a goalie is a real presence, a presence to be respected and to be taken seriously, goalies are hard to beat. And though the 12 yards in front of the goal looks like a short distance from the point of view of the camera at midfield, twelve yards, 36 feet, can look like from here to eternity, from the right angle, it is a signficant distance, a few but not most of us have the gift of being able to shoot long distance shots well.
3110 Australian player Culina buries Australian team-mate Bresciano in right corner with two Italians right on top of him. What is the point of this?--Culina had ball 55 yds from Italy goal on right side, nearest 6 yds away. There were 3 Australians, one on the side of the field, one in the middle, and one on the right (Bresciano), lined up on what is called in American tackle football the 35 yd line, they were all approximately on the line that runs from the point on the right sideline 35 yds from the right corner, to the point on the sideline 35 yds from the corner. On this line also were 4 Italians, and then 2 Italians in the general vicinity of Culina. The Ausralians were outnumbered 6 to 4 in this situation, against the very strong defense. The Australian on the right on the 35 yd line, Bresciano, began running forward and towards the right sideline, chased by the marking him and another also because Culina telegraphed to the Italians that he was about to pass towards the right sideline. A very simple pass and he can't get it off without telegraphing to the Italians that such is what he is about to do. Culina passed the ball to this streaking fellow Australian and this Australian who got the ball got buried in the right corner of the field, stripped of the ball, Italians retained possession.
Seemed this whole Austalian Culina passes to Bresciano play was set up like an American tackle football pass, one Australian began running on a diagonal forward and to his right and the other Australian passed to him, as if it was a set premeditated play--but what a brainless set premeditated play. 4 Australians vs 6 Italians, and the choice is to bury an Australian in the corner with two Italians right on top of him. The better play would have been, for Culina to hit the fellow Australian in front of him in the middle of the field 30 yds from the Italy goal with a pass, then run at this guy he hit with the pass, have the guy hit it back to him, then Culina would have the option of getting the ball easily in the air as he ran towards it, or keeping it on the ground as he continued the forward dribble towards the goal. The man who passed it to Culina would after passing run forward making himself a target for Culina's next pass.
3130-3220 AUS off
3148 Wilkshire, midfielder of Australia, got ball middle of field, directly in front of outside corner of Italy penalty box, 35 yds from goal. Nearest was 8 yds in front of him. He dribbled forward slowly then passed a roller 10 yds in front of himself to an Australian running from the middle of the field to the of the field, the Australian passed back to Wiltshire there was nothing else he could do. Wiltshire got the ball back, but now the defender was right on top of him pressuring him, the passing exchange had not improved his field position, he was in almost the same position he was before he passed and got it back, still 35 yds from the Italy goal. Under pressure, he passed into the middle behind an Australian, the Australian retreated to get the ball, this Australian passed to a man on the right even further away from the goal than he was as the retreat continued. Now an Australian Culina had the ball, 50 yds from the Italy goal, whereas this incident started off with Wiltshire having time and space 35 yds from the Italy goal.
This imitate-England style passing back and forth with short passes, here accomplished much less than nothing, what the imitators fail to realize is that when England engages in such short passing they do not do it for sport, or because it looks elegant, they derive advantages out of it. You could also say that here Australia was imitating Brazil, Brazil often paradoxically goes on long slow retreats featuring passes here and there. However Brazil is a team that can gain advantage from eating up large amounts of time, it is a team that excels at retaining possession f the ball, it is a team that produces lots of goal scoring opportunities for itself, it is a team that is often ahead, it is an unusual team, it is the number one ranked team in the world, compared to #44 ranked Australia, which here was taking on one of the best defenses in the world.
Anyway to continue the narration of the incident, the Australian Culina under pressure passed backwards yet again to an Australian near the midfield line, 60 yds from the goal, compare this to Wiltshire having had the ball time and space 35 yds from the goal. Australia then passed the ball around near the midfield line, one of them then sent in a pass into the middle that went straight to an , Australia retained possession.
The problem here was that Wilkshire looked like he was desperate to be blameless in the eyes of simpletons. To have the ball time and space 35 yds from the goal of a team with a strong defense such as Italy, is not an opportunity to be wasted. Had I been in Wilkshire's shoes I would have been tempted to commence a forward air dribble. There was an open Australian in the center of the field 20 yds from the Italy goal, the ground pass to this man was blocked, but had he the skill Wilkshire could have gotten the ball up in the air and chipped it to this open man, then run forward looking for a rebound. There were 4 defenders and only 3 Australians in the middle of the field. In such situations one should attempt to create situations that result in surprising lucky outcomes, outcomes that create situations different from the typical situations Italy's strong defense has handled well in the past. Then again I might have taken a shot at simply attempting to beat the defender on the ground dribble.
I really feel gifted on the ground dribble, I can always feel this ground dribbling gift in my leg and foot, even as I sit here and write. This is the annoying thing, what I am really good at is the old fashioned ground dribble attack, but in order to put it into practice, I have to spend an hour getting to the game, a couple of hours playing, an hour getting back, and what do I get? People who I am ten times as good as, not passing me the ball, vilifying me if I dribble, low quality opposition, touch the ball four times in four hours, thus I drill by myself instead. But that is what I am really good at, approaching the defender with the ball on my left foot, the ball on the ground, and beating him with the ball on the ground.
At this point one might ask, why attack when the defenders outnumber the players on offense anyway. In answer, first of all, what happened in these situations is that although the players on offense were outnumbered they went ahead and attacked anyway. The alternatives I have proposed to what they did, likewise involve outnumbered attack. Teams attack when outnumbered, because the advantage of waiting for team-mates to catch up, can be outweighed by defenders rushing back to help out on defense, because the players on offense, cannot see these defenders who rush back to help out because they are looking in the direction of the opposing team's goal.
3258 Italy's striker Toni, 12 yds in front of Australia goal, got a long air pass sailing at him from 30 yds away, from in front of him and to his right as his back faced the Australian goal. The ball was somewhat inaccurately passed, Toni had been facing the Australian goal, he had to turn around and chest the ball because the pass was underled. Toni did a fine job of chesting the ball to his while keeping it airborn, swiveling counter clockwise with his body and kicking the ball with his right foot but he kicked it into an Australian defender who was marking him. The defender did a good job of courageously blocking the shot without getting himself hurt. If Toni here had headed the ball forward and to his right a couple of yards after his fine chest trap ( the ball bounced off his chest to a point above his head to his ), he would have been moving in the direction he was already moving, whereas he would have caught the Australian moving towards him, as opposed to in the direction he was moving. These Australian defenders are good their existence is more than symbolic, one has to assume they will be there to block shots, no matter how good the trap that precedes the shot.
These are both tough defenses. It is the kind of game that turns people off of soccer. Both offenses are failing. Yet it seems much of the soccer world rejects every innovation for offense.
3708 nice head pass attempt by Australia Captain Viduka.
Australia makes pretty plays, but their passes are always off to the extent that nothing comes of it, not even a convincing shot on goal. These pretty plays, time after time, featuring a pass that is off to the extent that the end result is unimpressive, might impress the simpleton that does not mean these plays are wise. If Australia lacks the passing accuracy necessary to execute these pretty plays, which appear to be imitations of the higher ranked teams, it should resort to some other kind of offensive methods. The fact these pretty plays are a fairly accurate replica of what is done by the high ranked teams, does not mean they are wise approaches to the problem of scoring goals for Australia.
3730 Australia opportunity
3945 ITALY opportunity
Italy is not getting much time and space with the ball, tightly marked by AUS, not getting ball near Australia goal much.
4335 australia's chipperfield gets ball time space
4345 australia offense long pass attempt
4411 Australia offense, their Captain Viduka in middle, his back to the Italy goal, 30 yds from the Italy goal, got ground pass, there was an unmarked Australian in front and to the of Viduka, jogging towards a spot where there was no , Viduka could have set this team-mate up with a ground or a chip pass, if I was this team-mate I would have loved to have had Viduka set me up with a head high pass or a bouncer in this empty spot in the middle of the field just 30 yds away from the goal. Man, I could have then easily air dribbled off the header 10 yds in the air, then maybe 5 yds on a bounce, there would be just one to beat for me.
4435 australia offense--ball was crossed in by Wiltshire to the Australian forward, I think it was Cahill, just 6 yds in front of the Australia goal. Cahill(?) had two Italians bigger and stronger than him right on top of him, he was sandwiched in between them, he missed the ball and the behind him headed it out, the ESPN announcer started shouting about how "Australia nearly punched in the first goal of this match". These cross and header plays are over-rated. Again, the simpleton sees importance in balls moving at high velocity near the goal, but fails to see the importance of say how a defender getting beat on the dribble 35 yds from the goal could set up a goal.
4445 australia offense-- Culina had ball time and space, nearest at least 10 yds away, 45 yds from Italy goal on right side. He sent in the stereotypical Aussie pass to the right wing Strijovski, who under pressure, marked, crossed the ball in, a hard line drive to an Australian 15 yds from the Italy goal, to the right of the Italy goal, who had his back to the Italy goal, and a big strong right on his back. The headed the ball away. The target of this pass from Strijovki was in an almost impossible situation, the line drive pass would have been tough to handle even if it had been accurate. Strijovksi would have done better had he passed it to another Australian, who was in the right middle area of the field, 25 yds from the Italy goal, jogging towards an empty spot in the defense. Also when Culina at the beginning of this incident had passed to the right sideline, he had a man open in the right middle area, if he had hit this man in the middle, and led him well, this man could have scooted easily into the Italy penalty box with the ball. Seems Australia brainlessly, robotically, passes to players near the sideline in tough situations, far from the goal, while at the same time missing opportunities to hit players open in the middle, this in a game against a tough defense that has to be penetrated in the middle if goals are to be scored.
Relevant Statistics
As of June 28 2006, Italy was ranked 4th out of 36 World Cup teams in defense.
END OF SECOND QUARTER AND SECOND HALF
@2006 David Virgil Hobbs
I felt here Perrotta was tired and or trying to keep out of trouble with the simpletons. What we had here, was that in the area of this offensive attempt, there were 7 Australians and 4 Italians. This in the context that the Italians had been looking less fit than the Australians, seemed the Australians had been dining on broiled fish and tangerine juice whereas the Italians had been subsisting on wine and pasta with meat sauce. In this kind of situation I would have felt that the thing for me to do were I in Perrotta's shoes, would be to gamble, get the ball in the air, air-dribble in the general direction of the AUS goal, and hope that something unpredictable lucky and fortunate happens. I am convinced that forward air dribbling often produces lucky, fortunate, unpredictable results that surprise the defense. What you need in a 4 offense players vs 7 defenders type situation, is luck, and surprise.
2919 AUS chance chipperfield drills air ball right at goalie, it would have been easy for me to air dribble ball to a little before shooting--there was a cluster of Italians and Australians gathered 12 yds in front of the Italy goal, waiting for an air ball to descend to them. Luckily for Chipperfield the air ball bounced out of the group in his direction he was to the of this cluster of Italians and Australians. The ball was moving slowly from Chipperfield's right to Chipperfield's about 5 yds in front of Chipperfield as Chipperfield charged it, he reached it after it bounced once and sent in a Wheaties Box Photo style shot, jumping in the air to shoot it when it was about two feet above the ground, and 12 yds from the Italy goal. He fired a bouncer directly at the goalie, the goalie fumbled it for a moment and grabbed on to it before an Aussie could get it away from him. Had the Aussie gotten there a tenth of a second earlier, he could have hit it back to Chipperfield who could have scored on the rebound.
In this situation had I been in Chipperfield's shoes I would have been tempted to air dribble the ball forward at least a couple of yds before doing something with it, I would then have a better shot on the goalie--and I would have the option of lobbing it in 10 yds for the fellow Aussie who almost got the ball away from the goalie after he stopped the shot. A goalie is more than a symbolic presence, a goalie is a real presence, a presence to be respected and to be taken seriously, goalies are hard to beat. And though the 12 yards in front of the goal looks like a short distance from the point of view of the camera at midfield, twelve yards, 36 feet, can look like from here to eternity, from the right angle, it is a signficant distance, a few but not most of us have the gift of being able to shoot long distance shots well.
3110 Australian player Culina buries Australian team-mate Bresciano in right corner with two Italians right on top of him. What is the point of this?--Culina had ball 55 yds from Italy goal on right side, nearest 6 yds away. There were 3 Australians, one on the side of the field, one in the middle, and one on the right (Bresciano), lined up on what is called in American tackle football the 35 yd line, they were all approximately on the line that runs from the point on the right sideline 35 yds from the right corner, to the point on the sideline 35 yds from the corner. On this line also were 4 Italians, and then 2 Italians in the general vicinity of Culina. The Ausralians were outnumbered 6 to 4 in this situation, against the very strong defense. The Australian on the right on the 35 yd line, Bresciano, began running forward and towards the right sideline, chased by the marking him and another also because Culina telegraphed to the Italians that he was about to pass towards the right sideline. A very simple pass and he can't get it off without telegraphing to the Italians that such is what he is about to do. Culina passed the ball to this streaking fellow Australian and this Australian who got the ball got buried in the right corner of the field, stripped of the ball, Italians retained possession.
Seemed this whole Austalian Culina passes to Bresciano play was set up like an American tackle football pass, one Australian began running on a diagonal forward and to his right and the other Australian passed to him, as if it was a set premeditated play--but what a brainless set premeditated play. 4 Australians vs 6 Italians, and the choice is to bury an Australian in the corner with two Italians right on top of him. The better play would have been, for Culina to hit the fellow Australian in front of him in the middle of the field 30 yds from the Italy goal with a pass, then run at this guy he hit with the pass, have the guy hit it back to him, then Culina would have the option of getting the ball easily in the air as he ran towards it, or keeping it on the ground as he continued the forward dribble towards the goal. The man who passed it to Culina would after passing run forward making himself a target for Culina's next pass.
3130-3220 AUS off
3148 Wilkshire, midfielder of Australia, got ball middle of field, directly in front of outside corner of Italy penalty box, 35 yds from goal. Nearest was 8 yds in front of him. He dribbled forward slowly then passed a roller 10 yds in front of himself to an Australian running from the middle of the field to the of the field, the Australian passed back to Wiltshire there was nothing else he could do. Wiltshire got the ball back, but now the defender was right on top of him pressuring him, the passing exchange had not improved his field position, he was in almost the same position he was before he passed and got it back, still 35 yds from the Italy goal. Under pressure, he passed into the middle behind an Australian, the Australian retreated to get the ball, this Australian passed to a man on the right even further away from the goal than he was as the retreat continued. Now an Australian Culina had the ball, 50 yds from the Italy goal, whereas this incident started off with Wiltshire having time and space 35 yds from the Italy goal.
This imitate-England style passing back and forth with short passes, here accomplished much less than nothing, what the imitators fail to realize is that when England engages in such short passing they do not do it for sport, or because it looks elegant, they derive advantages out of it. You could also say that here Australia was imitating Brazil, Brazil often paradoxically goes on long slow retreats featuring passes here and there. However Brazil is a team that can gain advantage from eating up large amounts of time, it is a team that excels at retaining possession f the ball, it is a team that produces lots of goal scoring opportunities for itself, it is a team that is often ahead, it is an unusual team, it is the number one ranked team in the world, compared to #44 ranked Australia, which here was taking on one of the best defenses in the world.
Anyway to continue the narration of the incident, the Australian Culina under pressure passed backwards yet again to an Australian near the midfield line, 60 yds from the goal, compare this to Wiltshire having had the ball time and space 35 yds from the goal. Australia then passed the ball around near the midfield line, one of them then sent in a pass into the middle that went straight to an , Australia retained possession.
The problem here was that Wilkshire looked like he was desperate to be blameless in the eyes of simpletons. To have the ball time and space 35 yds from the goal of a team with a strong defense such as Italy, is not an opportunity to be wasted. Had I been in Wilkshire's shoes I would have been tempted to commence a forward air dribble. There was an open Australian in the center of the field 20 yds from the Italy goal, the ground pass to this man was blocked, but had he the skill Wilkshire could have gotten the ball up in the air and chipped it to this open man, then run forward looking for a rebound. There were 4 defenders and only 3 Australians in the middle of the field. In such situations one should attempt to create situations that result in surprising lucky outcomes, outcomes that create situations different from the typical situations Italy's strong defense has handled well in the past. Then again I might have taken a shot at simply attempting to beat the defender on the ground dribble.
I really feel gifted on the ground dribble, I can always feel this ground dribbling gift in my leg and foot, even as I sit here and write. This is the annoying thing, what I am really good at is the old fashioned ground dribble attack, but in order to put it into practice, I have to spend an hour getting to the game, a couple of hours playing, an hour getting back, and what do I get? People who I am ten times as good as, not passing me the ball, vilifying me if I dribble, low quality opposition, touch the ball four times in four hours, thus I drill by myself instead. But that is what I am really good at, approaching the defender with the ball on my left foot, the ball on the ground, and beating him with the ball on the ground.
At this point one might ask, why attack when the defenders outnumber the players on offense anyway. In answer, first of all, what happened in these situations is that although the players on offense were outnumbered they went ahead and attacked anyway. The alternatives I have proposed to what they did, likewise involve outnumbered attack. Teams attack when outnumbered, because the advantage of waiting for team-mates to catch up, can be outweighed by defenders rushing back to help out on defense, because the players on offense, cannot see these defenders who rush back to help out because they are looking in the direction of the opposing team's goal.
3258 Italy's striker Toni, 12 yds in front of Australia goal, got a long air pass sailing at him from 30 yds away, from in front of him and to his right as his back faced the Australian goal. The ball was somewhat inaccurately passed, Toni had been facing the Australian goal, he had to turn around and chest the ball because the pass was underled. Toni did a fine job of chesting the ball to his while keeping it airborn, swiveling counter clockwise with his body and kicking the ball with his right foot but he kicked it into an Australian defender who was marking him. The defender did a good job of courageously blocking the shot without getting himself hurt. If Toni here had headed the ball forward and to his right a couple of yards after his fine chest trap ( the ball bounced off his chest to a point above his head to his ), he would have been moving in the direction he was already moving, whereas he would have caught the Australian moving towards him, as opposed to in the direction he was moving. These Australian defenders are good their existence is more than symbolic, one has to assume they will be there to block shots, no matter how good the trap that precedes the shot.
These are both tough defenses. It is the kind of game that turns people off of soccer. Both offenses are failing. Yet it seems much of the soccer world rejects every innovation for offense.
3708 nice head pass attempt by Australia Captain Viduka.
Australia makes pretty plays, but their passes are always off to the extent that nothing comes of it, not even a convincing shot on goal. These pretty plays, time after time, featuring a pass that is off to the extent that the end result is unimpressive, might impress the simpleton that does not mean these plays are wise. If Australia lacks the passing accuracy necessary to execute these pretty plays, which appear to be imitations of the higher ranked teams, it should resort to some other kind of offensive methods. The fact these pretty plays are a fairly accurate replica of what is done by the high ranked teams, does not mean they are wise approaches to the problem of scoring goals for Australia.
3730 Australia opportunity
3945 ITALY opportunity
Italy is not getting much time and space with the ball, tightly marked by AUS, not getting ball near Australia goal much.
4335 australia's chipperfield gets ball time space
4345 australia offense long pass attempt
4411 Australia offense, their Captain Viduka in middle, his back to the Italy goal, 30 yds from the Italy goal, got ground pass, there was an unmarked Australian in front and to the of Viduka, jogging towards a spot where there was no , Viduka could have set this team-mate up with a ground or a chip pass, if I was this team-mate I would have loved to have had Viduka set me up with a head high pass or a bouncer in this empty spot in the middle of the field just 30 yds away from the goal. Man, I could have then easily air dribbled off the header 10 yds in the air, then maybe 5 yds on a bounce, there would be just one to beat for me.
4435 australia offense--ball was crossed in by Wiltshire to the Australian forward, I think it was Cahill, just 6 yds in front of the Australia goal. Cahill(?) had two Italians bigger and stronger than him right on top of him, he was sandwiched in between them, he missed the ball and the behind him headed it out, the ESPN announcer started shouting about how "Australia nearly punched in the first goal of this match". These cross and header plays are over-rated. Again, the simpleton sees importance in balls moving at high velocity near the goal, but fails to see the importance of say how a defender getting beat on the dribble 35 yds from the goal could set up a goal.
4445 australia offense-- Culina had ball time and space, nearest at least 10 yds away, 45 yds from Italy goal on right side. He sent in the stereotypical Aussie pass to the right wing Strijovski, who under pressure, marked, crossed the ball in, a hard line drive to an Australian 15 yds from the Italy goal, to the right of the Italy goal, who had his back to the Italy goal, and a big strong right on his back. The headed the ball away. The target of this pass from Strijovki was in an almost impossible situation, the line drive pass would have been tough to handle even if it had been accurate. Strijovksi would have done better had he passed it to another Australian, who was in the right middle area of the field, 25 yds from the Italy goal, jogging towards an empty spot in the defense. Also when Culina at the beginning of this incident had passed to the right sideline, he had a man open in the right middle area, if he had hit this man in the middle, and led him well, this man could have scooted easily into the Italy penalty box with the ball. Seems Australia brainlessly, robotically, passes to players near the sideline in tough situations, far from the goal, while at the same time missing opportunities to hit players open in the middle, this in a game against a tough defense that has to be penetrated in the middle if goals are to be scored.
Relevant Statistics
As of June 28 2006, Italy was ranked 4th out of 36 World Cup teams in defense.
END OF SECOND QUARTER AND SECOND HALF
@2006 David Virgil Hobbs
posted by David Virgil at 1:04 AM
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