Cameroon goalkeeper Andre Onana left the tournament after an argument with the team’s head coach by Rigobert Song with. The dispute concerned Onana’s opening of the game and placement on the field. Song would have liked Onana to play more “conservatively”, i.e. with deeper and longer passes. As a result of the dispute, Onana did not continue the tournament with the team. This is where the game differences collided. Onana has a strong FC Barcelona and Ajax background, while Song wanted his team to play in a more straightforward manner.
Of course, in the next match against Serbia, Cameroon managed to score precisely in a situation that started with short passes by the goalkeeper Devis from Epassy until.
The team was also in trouble in situations that started with long passes and led to Serbian counterattacks. When we talk about opening with short or longer passes, we quickly run into a discussion about risks.
All game actions involve risk if done poorly. Situations started with long passes have their own risk, as do passes when opening with short ones. It’s all about balancing the benefit-risk ratio and reacting accordingly to the opposite action of the opponent. Each team tries to act according to its own principles and taking into account the strengths of its own players. In this article, we try to dive deeper into the claim that opening short would automatically be a higher risk.
Change of goal kicks to previous World Cups
The World Cup has seen a more versatile opening of the game than before. The graphic shows that more than half of the goal kicks in the tournament were given with a short pass. It has been striking that the majority of teams have used short openings, and it has not been the exclusive right of the big football countries.
Ecuador, Iran and Poland have been the only countries that have opened goal kicks only with long passes. All other countries of the Games have varied their own opening. Some of the teams have only opened with a short pass, despite the opponent’s high pressure, while some of the teams have built a variation of short, half-long and long passes into their play.
When you compare the target areas with four years ago, you notice that the proportion of long openings has dropped drastically. This is partly due to a rule change that came into force in 2019, which was intended to make it easier to start a ball-based team game. At least according to the statistics, it has been successful.
In terms of the game, goal kicks are significant situations, because goal kicks as stalled situations give the teams the opportunity to organize and create setups for the next ball control. The struggle is about space and ball control – this World Cup has also seen refreshingly different game plans to open the game against the opponent’s press with either shorter or longer passes or their combinations.
Short opening a bigger risk?
Now we know that the number of short openings is on the rise, but is it a more effective way to open the game in light of the statistics? Many coaches believe so, for example Brighton, who swears by ball control Roberto De Zerbi.
– For me, kicking a long ball and trying to win the second ball is like betting. I don’t like betting, so I try to coach my team to advance from the bottom, building the attack, De Zerbi has stated.
– The graphic shows the duration of Ball Control based on the target area of the goal kick. The darker the box, the longer the average possession has been. So, at least in that respect, De Zerbi’s point can be confirmed, that the short openings in the World Cup have clearly maintained possession of the ball more effectively than the long ones.
Often, opening with short passes is also associated with risks, because possible ball losses occur closer to your own goal. We clarified this risk-benefit ratio by measuring the value of Ball Control, that is, in other words, calculating the probabilities of Ball Control started with a goal kick and the attack after the opponent’s possession leads to a goal.
A darker color reflects a higher value, i.e. in the World Cup, the most productive goal kick target area has been short to the middle. Goal kicks given inside the box seem to have a better risk-benefit ratio than long and half-long shots.
However, the longest openings have not been the weakest in comparison, but if implemented with high quality, they would also seem to be a fairly effective way to open the game. In general, the goalkeeper’s long passes can have different goals when trying to stretch the opponent’s tight defense and open spaces between the lines.
This shows that when well organized, situations can be solved in different ways, but it is worth noting that, at least based on this tournament, short openings are not a greater risk than longer ones. The situation has been more the opposite in these games until now.
Less surprisingly, Spain have had the shortest goalkeeping openings of the tournament. It didn’t budge in this regard, even under Germany’s very aggressive high pressure. Let’s take a few clips from this match for further processing.
– Spain often drops in the opening Peter’s to the bottom of the midfield and Ascent comes from the tip to form a square in the center field. Germany tries to lock the game to one side and find direct opponents, so that Spain cannot create superiority. However, it wants to keep one player’s superiority in line, which always leaves Spain with a free player somewhere. Germany aggressively tries to exploit by doubling the player with the ball, Spain uses this skillfully by finding Pedri who is always free for a moment and thereby turning the game to a more favorable side, Nuutinen opens.
– Spain does not agree to open long, even though Germany presses 1v1 all over the field. It manages to counter the first press by using the wall for the third and then the drop of the oncoming attacker, but Germany’s Bottom works excellently by jumping and the Midfield controls the supports away, Nuutinen illustrates.
Spain will face Morocco in the quarter-finals of the World Cup on Tuesday from 17:00. Live broadcast on TV2, Areena and ‘s World Cup soccer coverage starting at 4:30 p.m.