Secrets of the world’s best goal scorer | Sport

Even a fraction, it was heard Miroslav Klose wish.

If the German striker legend had been blessed with even a small piece Harry Kane from kicking technique, goals would have been scored by any standard.

– If I had even five percent of it, I would probably have scored 30 goals in the World Cup, Klose admired Sakslaislehti Welt’s by.

The promise sounds tough because Klose is one of the greatest national team strikers of all time. His 16 goals in the World Cup is a record number.

– His finishing is as accurate as a tennis player’s serve. He does with his foot and ankle what a tennis player does with his hand. The position is always the same, but he moves the leg in different ways. Goalkeepers cannot predict the direction of the shot. It’s fascinating, Klose continued, like a famous artist following the brushstrokes of another maestro.

Kane was the fourth best scorer in the European Championship qualifiers. He struck eight times, and Belgium came out on top Romelu Lukakuof Portugal Cristiano Ronaldo and France Kylian Mbappé.

England scored 22 goals in the qualifiers, so Kane completed more than a third of the hits. He was held scoreless only twice.

– Nothing is a coincidence, and no one can score such a number of goals without a terrible number of repetitions over the years. This is where the certainty of performance with which he hits the ball comes from. Bets don’t very often go where it hurts, Urheilu’s expert Erkka V. Lehtola tells.

Another thing is in the eye, which can recognize the movement of the ball accurately.

The very first qualifying goal made Kane alone the number one in England’s all-time goalscoring statistics. At the end of the qualifiers, he had 62 goals from 89 matches. Wayne Rooney has fallen short of nine hits, even though he had time to play more than 30 international matches.

– I knew it wouldn’t take long, but it was fast. A wonderful man, an incredible goalscorer, an England legend, Rooney wrote on Twitter.

Basically, the attacker’s starting points for scoring are better, the faster he gets the ball off his feet. The minimization of touches and the efficiency of each touch make the actual act of scoring a goal a short-lived performance.

Kane’s efficiency is at its peak. He doesn’t need to put his foot back very much to get a huge amount of speed on the ball. Not that power is the most important thing to him.

– One could talk about a calibrated scale, where power and precision are in extreme balance. He recognizes what kind of solution fits the situation. Are you in a hurry to load faster or can you use more time wisely, Lehtola describes.

– He uses the inside edge a lot and hits the ball on a large surface. It brings performance reliability. Still, he gets enough power. It’s also a big deal that he’s not trying to entertain or make art, he’s just putting the ball in the bag. He calculated coolly. He passes the ball past the keeper instead of trying to charm the crowd.

Despite his reputation as a goalscorer, Kane is not one-sided. He has one main task, but he also toils in wide areas and participates in the game far from the goal.

In the best case, both sides come together, as in the 1-0 goal in the qualifiers against Ukraine. Kane dropped lower, got the ball, and continued it to the other side. Immediately after the change of half, he started from the back towards the goal, towards the back post and behind the defenders.

The focus was spot on, as was Kane’s running. He pushed the defender towards the center with his body and at the same time extended his left leg in the path of the ball.

– Kane is pretty relaxed and doesn’t run hard. He would probably score outrageous amounts of goals if he could create even more chances for himself, explains Lehtola.

– Still, he is athletic in the way that he can shoot from really good positions. He has a strong understanding of where he is and where goals are scored from, as well as how to position himself in front of the goal.

Kane’s movement has a certain wanderer’s fault. Many strikers create their positions with explosiveness, but Kane moves more thoughtfully. The area of ​​action is wide and the ability to create situations for others by pulling the defenders close before the breaking pass is world class.

England’s squad is so full of attacking power that Kane has also been useful as a decoy. This was especially true in the qualifiers against North Macedonia, against whom Kane scored two goals, but was about to score a couple more.

The t-shirt went everywhere. To apply, initialize, finish.

Lehtola wonders how Kane’s shooting technique has been shaped exactly the way it is. In today’s elite football, coaching is more specialized than ever. In addition to the throw coaches, there are, for example, separate kick coaches.

At the same time, there is one’s own desire and insatiability in the background. Lehtolakin states that, if anything, you can practice the shot anytime anywhere without a single other person.

– He gets tired sometimes because he wants to practice finishing in the afternoon and we say that now would not be a good time, but we could do it the next day, who coached Tottenham Mauricio Pochettino told in 2017.

– Sometimes in the end I admit that it’s ok, maybe half an hour of finishing practice, even if we have to invite two or three goalkeepers from our academy for that.

A few years ago we got a glimpse of what Kane’s obsession means in practice. The striker shared a video from Tottenham’s training ground on his Twitter account.

With the coach, Kane set goals for a duel with the French national team defender Hugo Lloris against. He received the pass with his back towards the goal, went around the obstacles set up as a defender and shot with pinpoint accuracy into the back corner.

Back in place, same situation all over again. The corner changed, the ball into the front corner. Then the direction changed, but the ball was in the goal again.

The fourth shot didn’t sink as Kane missed the target. The song of the birds was interrupted by a pained roar. The gaze turned to the sky, then to the grass. The pause before the next replay was the longest, as if Kane had spent the whole time going over the situation and practicing the mental image of a cleaner hit.

The London-born player’s home was for a long time in Tottenham, whose academy he was recruited to as a young boy. Before that, he had tried out at Arsenal and Watford. At Tottenham, he went through a long loan cycle in the lower league levels.

– I was probably at the bottom in Leicester. I just couldn’t find a place in the team. I remember sitting in my flat thinking how could I ever play in the Premier League at Tottenham if I can’t even play in the Championship at Leicester, Kane later recalled.

The breakthrough came in the 2014–15 season, when Kane scored 21 goals in the Premier League. In the following season, he won the goal crown. The 100-goal scorer scored the second-lowest number of matches in the Premier League and the fourth-youngest.

Despite his achievements, Kane shared a trophyless path with Tottenham. Despite having the best striker in the world and a group that reached the Champions League final, the club has not won a trophy since the 2008 League Cup.

Last year, Kane finally had a change of scenery. The transfer had been long awaited. The destination was Bayern, Germany’s supreme ruler. It so happened that Bayern was completely without trophies. The last time this happened was in 2012.

So the situation this summer is familiar. England are the biggest favorites, but there is a heavy mental burden on their shoulders: 58 years since the men’s national team’s only prestigious championship.

– Kane is important as a calm, experienced player who usually doesn’t get emotional. He will surely calm England, who have a lot of younger players who might get emotional. Even a lot of superstars go overboard, and it can infect young people. Kane is the opposite example and keeps the team balanced, Lehtola estimates.

In the previous European Championships, Kane’s four goals were not enough. The championship was close, as the final was decided in a penalty shootout. Kane sunk his own company, but everyone else failed.

For years, he has been the most reliable in the world, especially in penalty kicks, although he has usually done everything exactly the same way.

Kane puts the ball on the spot, and pulls up his socks. He takes a deep breath, glances at the goal one more time, and is ready to go. First he leans forward, then comes sharp dance steps in place. Finally, a few steps forward and a shot in a well-decided direction.

– He doesn’t make a decision in an instant or change his mind. Harry decides on the penalty kick even before the match. After that, he practices that exact shot for 3-4 days, coached at Tottenham Jose Mourinho told For Talk Sport.

In the qualifiers, Kane scored half of his goals from the penalty spot. The formula was always the same. Apart from the direction and trajectory of the ball, nothing changed.

The worst change happened against North Macedonia when Kane decided to shoot into the top left corner. All other dots were directed to the right side of the goal. Maybe the 6–0 situation of the match already made him tear up.

Kane’s shooting technique is best seen in the slow motions from the 1-1 equalizer against Italy.

Keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma there is no information about where the shot is headed. When the ball leaves his foot, he is pushing in the opposite direction. From the angle of the front view, it can be seen that Kane does not even glance in the direction of the goal after starting.

This season, Kane surprised with a new pace, reported the British newspaper Times in May.

– Goalkeepers often jump to my spots in time, so I’ve been working on this. One more tool, slightly different penalty kick. I’ve noticed that most goalkeepers go for corners quickly, so when I see it I can shoot to the other side, Kane said.

Now Kane can choose between two styles.