Tactics: Indirect free kick in the box

[danielmak]

In one of the Copa Sudamericana games last week (I think Union Espanola-Sport Huancayo) the ref awarded an indirect free kick for a back pass. As you would expect the team awarded the free kick did the same thing I think most teams do: short pass that is blasted into a swarming group of defenders most of whom left the line before the ball was even touched. I know this tactic has worked but I can't really remember how many times I have seen it work. I know that it mostly does not work. Taking a free kicks that close (in this case just at the outer corner of the six yard box) isn't easy but I would think that other tactics might work better:

(1) The team that earned the free kick should line up players in front of the wall of defenders to (A) block the views of those defenders, (B) prevent those defenders from moving off the line so quickly, and (C) ideally distort the keeper's ability to get a good angle. The attacking players could either jump or duck once the ball is in play as we see attacking players do from time to time during direct free kicks.

(2) Instead of playing the ball to the side, which is easy for the defending team to reach, how about playing the ball back. I get that doing this increases the distance to the goal but at least the team awarded the free kick has a chance to hit the net instead of blasting into a wall of bodies.

(3) Instead of passing the ball and then shooting, blast the ball toward the side of the goal where there are less defenders and hope for deflection off a teammate.

These are just three suggestions, none of which I have ever seen used. Of course, there might be a good reason for not using any of these tactics, but what most (all?) the teams are doing now don't seem to work either. Has anyone seen an approach that ups the percentages of success with indirect free kicks in the box? Or does anyone on this board who coaches have a different tactic besides the short pass/blast into the wall failure?

[Amor de Cosmos]

Sadly, indirect free kicks in the box are so rare these days I doubt many teams have a strategy for them.

The one I used to use with my kids was the "body/bodies in the wall." Pick a couple of your least easy to intimidate players and make sure they stand in the wall with defenders. Have them move out of the wall toward the goal as the ball is about to be kicked. Have your best player take the kick and have her/him aim for the gaps. The ball will either hit one of the oppo players with a decent chance of deflecting into the net. Alternatively it'll go through the gap and hit the goalie (who is unlikely to hold it) and one of the players running in will score. Either way enough chaos will ensue with a decent chance of a goal being the result.

[tee rex]

I mentioned this on the Bundesliga thread a while back, when Leverkusen had one and failed to score. I was only half-joking in suggesting that players have now become conditioned to respect the ref's 'magic spray', and do not encroach over that line in other free kicks, so perhaps the ref should still use the spray to mark a line on the goal line. as an extra deterrent to defenders encroaching. The temporary line is somehow more authoritative than the permanent one.

[denishurley]

I can't recall the last time I saw an indirect free kick awarded for obstruction in the penalty area. Imagine the outburst from fans of the attacking side who wouldn't know the law.

[colinwasp]

I would suggest just hitting the ball as hard as possible in the direction of the goal and hope for a deflection off any player into the goal

[blameless]

When backpasses became outlawed in the early 90s - prompting a huge rise in the number of indirect kicks awarded in the box - the best option I saw was during the second season the rule was in force.

As danielmak says, most teams would roll the ball 2 yards sideways for someone to have a shot smothered by the onrushing defenders, but a couple of SPL teams tried blasting the free kick straight at the defenders in the 6-yard box: one (Dundee) scored on a deflection off a defender, and another (I want to say Hibs but I couldn't absolutely swear to it) had theirs saved by the keeper but an attacker tucked away the rebound; in both cases the defending players didn't suss that all they had to do was get out of the way, having seemingly forgotten the "indirect" thing.

[EIM]

Cantona went for a chip once and only narrowly missed

[pebblethefish]

We got awarded one in a school match once against a team we really didn't like. Basically, I was being asked, no, told to kick the ball as hard as I could at a bunch of people we really didn't like. With the express aim of hitting one of them. With the whole of my school cheering me on.

I'm not fully sure which of my actions in a former life earnest me this, but thanks Karma, that was great!

[hobbes]

Cantona went for a chip once and only narrowly missed

He ended up with an onion ring.

[imp]

How quickly you all forget. Alan Shearer for England v Georgia, 1997. About three minutes in.

[EIM]

He ended up with an onion ring.

Potato wedge would work better. Onion ring is far from a chip.

[Big Boobs and FIRE!]

Jaap Stam would ensure the ball is worked straight back down the field to the central defenders so that they can pass it to each other 36 times before aimlessly hoofing it forward.

He'd then complain that the players aren't carrying out his instructions whilst appologists in twitter complain that fans on twitter don't understand the game as they don't have UEFA B coaching badges.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Potato wedge would work better. Onion ring is far from a chip.

But you wouldn't have wedges and chips on the same plate.

[tracteurgarcon]

How quickly you all forget. Alan Shearer for England v Georgia, 1997. About three minutes in.

THRIKER!

Anyone know why the Georgian goalkeeper's shirt didn't have a badge on it?

[imp]

No. And the only reason I remember that goal so well is that I was watching the fag-end of that game in the English pub in Zurich, having just come from the Hardturm, where I'd seen Switzerland beating Hungary 1-0 thanks to a late Chapuisat goal. I almost got into a fight because I unknowingly stood in some English über-bloke's spot when I came in and he was off at the bar getting a pint - of course he had to be a twat about it and threaten me rather than the poncy European way of just asking me to move. I was urging Georgia to equalise just to ruin his evening, but instead came the second goal.

The Empire's final sinking is drowned out by the sound of Billy Brit's bibulous roar for a late Shearer goal at Wembley. "One day, son, we'll vote to leave all this European shit behind. Oi, you standin' in my fuckin' spot?"

[danielmak]

How quickly you all forget. Alan Shearer for England v Georgia, 1997. About three minutes in.

It's funny that the slight flick back led to a different result. With that said, England was clearly helped by the Georgians forming a wall at the goal line and not moving at all. I don't know if they could move fast enough given how quickly England took the kick, but clearly defenders today choose to rush the ball. I ultimately get that teams aren't going to spend a ton of time planning for an indirect free kick in the box when such calls are rare, but I would think that some plan would be useful. Then again, teams are awarded multiple throw-ins per game and except in the case of guys like Rory Delap there seems to be no plan with this either.

[Patrick Thistle]

This happened this weekend in the Welsh Premier League. Cardiff Met scored by blasting it at the Cefn Druids team who were all lined up on the goal line. It bounced off a defenders knee and went in.

It's the last game on this week's Sgorio (5.35pm Monday night) if you want to see.

(I almost went to this game. Gutted to miss that.)

[danielmak]

I watched France-Norway 1966 WCQ last week. France had an indirect free kick that nearly went in because the Norwegians took an approach similar to the Georgians in the link above. The Norwegians mostly stood still, although not lined up along the goal line. France didn't score. But one thing that was very different in that game (and the Germany-Sweden 66Q I watched the day before) is that the players weren't waiting around for the referee to blow the whistle to re-start. They got right to the free kick. And they were able to move quickly because the defending team wasn't standing on top of the ball slowing down the free kick as we see in contemporary games.

[Jah Womble]

Forgetting something from more than two decades back is 'quickly'?

[danielmak]

The day has been too long, so I'm a more dense than normal. But I'm not following the question. I was saying that the attacking team/side awarded the indirect free kick could actually take the free kick right away because all the shenanigans we see in today's game with the defending team did not feature in that game (e.g., standing in the way, tossing the ball to the side, arguing with the ref so the ref can't blow the whistle, starting a shoving match with the team awarded the free kick). In both games (and I have about 4-5 more DVDs from the 1966 qualifiers to watch over the next few weeks to see if there are any changes) all of the free kicks were taken right away, usually short passes, before the ref even signaled to re-start.

[mirko bolesan]

This happened this weekend in the Welsh Premier League. Cardiff Met scored by blasting it at the Cefn Druids team who were all lined up on the goal line. It bounced off a defenders knee and went in.

Another 'oddity' is that had the shot been from open play it would have been the Cardiff Met player who was credited with the goal. As it was an indirect freekick and took a deflection off a defender it's classed as an own goal.