July 27, 2016
Earl Gardner/Philly Soccer Page
Union assistant coach B.J. Callaghan is tasked with drawing up set piece plays.
As the focus shifts to Real Salt Lake on Sunday night, the Philadelphia Union finally get a bit of a breather.
There aren't a ton of positives to take from last week. The 2-2 draw against New York was a hard-fought home point. The penalty shootout loss in the U.S. Open Cup was tough to swallow. And in Montreal, a tired team just got hammered.
It might sound weird, but the Union were due for that kind of loss. Every team gets clobbered at some point, even title-winning clubs like the 2012 Los Angeles Galaxy, which lost 10 of its first 18 games, then got blown out 4-0 in Seattle before ripping off a seven-game unbeaten run in the fall.
The USOC elimination, paired with Saturday's 5 to 1 loss, gives the Union time to reset and refocus on qualifying for the playoffs. They were given two days off to start this week, which provides us with some time to take a look at some recent dead ball clips.
I noticed this free kick routine from the Chicago game back on June 22nd, but never got around to writing about it.
This one is really unique, but it looks to be derived from the "offside wall" design that the Union used earlier this season. You may remember the Tranquillo Barnetta goal against Orlando, where teammates lined up behind the opponent's wall, then moved forward in an attempt to unsight the goalkeeper.
In this case, it's immediately flagged offside. My best guess is that the linesman felt like Ilsinho influenced the play as he came from an offside position, even though he didn't touch the ball. You can see him sort of raise his arms in confusion after the play is blown dead.
For this restart, Philly has three players standing more than ten yards offside. Chicago doesn't seem to know how to approach this setup, so they deploy a line just inside the penalty area adjacent to a two-man wall.
You can see from this angle how spaced out the Union players are. There are basically two lines of three players each, with Chris Pontius and Richie Marquez standing to the left of the dead ball. Brian Carroll is in a vertical line with Fabian Herbers in the middle of the area. Ilsinho and Ken Tribbett are off-screen in the same positions as the other four guys.
When the ball is struck, you can see the three offside players start to move forward in an effort to reach the line. Meantime, the guys at the top of the 18 are moving in the opposite direction. Barnetta floats a ball to Tribbett, who attempts to head across goal for a teammate.
The play doesn't come off, but it's certainly clever. I didn't see them try this one in July, so I'm not sure if they scrapped it because of broken mechanics, or just because they had other things they wanted to try instead.
The Union tried a couple of dead ball routines in the Open Cup loss to New England.
This one took place about 14 minutes into the game, when C.J. Sapong was brought down just on the edge of the penalty area.
There's a lot of initial jostling going on before referee Sorin Stoica sorts out both teams. This one is designed with a line of three players in an offside wall just behind New England's wall. They are slightly staggered and blocking the view of the goalkeeper.
This time, instead of only moving the wall forward, Marquez, Sapong, and Tribbett (the three tallest players) also move sideways before the ball is struck. Barnetta, positioned on the opposite side, moves horizontally in the same fashion.
The result is Tribbett getting caught on the end of the Revolution wall, and Roland Alberg striking him with a low drive to the far corner. It's hard to tell from the video, but it looked like the ball would have found the net if it hadn't hit Tribbett on the way in. Scott Caldwell also looked to be in the way.
For both of these free kicks, you can see that the ultimate goal is to unsettle the goalkeeper with movement and misdirection. These set pieces didn't find the back of the net, but the Union are clearly dedicated to spending time in this area.
