Ezra Fischer, Author at Dear Sports Fan

One thing to watch: Corner Kicks in the Women's World Cup

Have you been watching the women’s World Cup? I have. And so far, the tournament has been extremely entertaining. Going into the tournament, some feared that this would not be the case during the Group Stage of the tournament. They feared that the expansion of the tournament from 16 to 24 teams would bring back the 10+ goal drubbings that were a feature of the first few women’s World Cups. Additionally, the 24 team setup whereby four of six third place teams qualify for the Knockout stage could easily rob the Group stage of some of its drama. So far, they have been wrong. Except for a couple games, the new additions to the tournament have held their own against more established teams, and the extra qualification slots so far have given more teams more motivation, not less. Play has been fast, wide open, and, frankly, wildly exciting at times. One tactic has jumped out at me during the first week of competition. It’s something to watch for as the tournament goes on.

A corner kick is a type of set piece that is given to an attacking team when the ball goes over the goal line of the goal they are trying to score on and it was touched by the defending team last. When this happens, play stops, the ball is placed at the corner of the field, and the attacking team gets to do whatever they like with the ball. Generally, teams use corner kicks to cross the ball, in the air, into the area in front of the goal while attacking players try to get free from their defenders, leap to meet the ball, and head it into the net. The biggest defensive threat to a corner kick is the goalie, who can come out, and thanks to her ability to use her hands, way up high on the ends of her arms, should be able to out leap even the strongest attacker. For this reason, a perfect corner kick is traditionally one that’s placed just too far away from the goalie for him to be able to get to. If you can imagine this perfect location as a shallow semi-circle around eight to ten yards away from the center of the goal, you’ll get a sense of where most corner kicks are aimed. Attacking players set up in a loose clump a few yards outside of the target area so that they can sprint quickly and erratically to a spot on that semi-circle in an attempt to get away from the defender marking them.

The goal that Thailand scores on a play that starts 10 seconds into this highlight reel is a good example of a traditional corner kick attempt that was sent marginally too close to the goalie. Thailand scores anyway, but it’s a good example nonetheless.

In several games during the Women’s World Cup, I’ve noticed an entirely different tactic on corner kicks. Instead of having players set up so they can run to a position on that mythical perfect arc, teams are choosing to clump them all right around the goal mouth instead. Once they are set up, the player taking the corner kick swings the ball in a curve towards the goal, trying to either score directly from the corner kick or in any chaos that results. Scoring directly from a corner kick is not unheard of, but it’s very rare and players who do it often admit later that it was unintentional. U.S. National Team member Megan Rapinoe said as much about the goal she scored this way in the 2012 Olympics. I’ve seen teams assign one offensive player to stand right in front of the goalie on a corner in an attempt to slow him down (I loved being that player when I played soccer) but to focus the entire corner around the idea is new to me.

Sweden relied on this tactic in their first game against Nigeria. They scored two goals early in the game off of corners. The second, at around the 30 second mark, is the best example of what I’m describing:

So, what’s this all about, will Sweden try this against the United States, and will it become a trend throughout soccer? My guess is that this tactic is one tiny symptom of the relative youth of women’s soccer as an international sport. Teams that know their opponent has a shaky goaltender may try this tactic a few times to see if it works. Any truly top-flight goalie is willing and able to shove people out of their way to get to the ball. Goalies tend to be determined crazy people (written affectionately as a former goalie) who will not be denied. A goalie like Hope Solo, long thought to be the best in the world, will stop teams from trying this tactic simply by stepping on the field. I do not think we’ll see Sweden or any other team try this against the United States. Nor do I think this will become a trend. Relying, as the tactic does, on the relative inequality in talent and skill available to different national teams, it will rapidly disappear. As the tournament goes on, only the best teams will remain and they all have good goalies. As the years go by and women’s soccer continues to grow throughout the world, the talent, skill, and resource gaps between countries will get smaller and smaller, making this tactic less and less effective.

Who are the 2015 Women's World Cup coaches in Group D?

The other day on Facebook my friend and Dear Dear Sports Fan Fan, Natty, asked me about the backgrounds of coaches in this year’s Women’s World Cup. I had no idea! So, I decided to do some research. Over the next few days, as the teams all play their second games in the Group Stage, we’ll be profiling their coaches. We’ve covered Group A, Group B, and Group C so far, here’s Group D.

Australia – Alen Stajcic

The 41 year-old Alen Stajcic already had 12 years of experience coaching women’s professional soccer when he was offered the job of coaching Australia’s national team in 2014. The child of Yugoslavian immigrants, Stajcic grew up watching soccer with his father and playing on youth teams. He made it to the semi-pro level before having his playing career ended by a knee injury. In addition to growing women’s soccer, Stajcic believes that he and men’s national team coach Ange Postecoglou are responsible for expanding and improving soccer as a whole in Australia. Unlike most coaches, who believe that players thrive on consistency and knowing their roles, Stajcic doesn’t mind more than a bit of uncertainty. In the past 26 matches, he’s used 26 different starting lineups. I’m usually a fan of unorthodox behavior, but that seems too weird even for me.

Nigeria – Edwin Okon

The Nigerian Football Federation seems to be a complete mess. In 2012, they gave control of the women’s team to long-time Nigerian player and coach, Kadiri Ikhana. Later that year, he resigned in some combination of disgrace and exasperation. The job of coaching the women’s team was given to Edwin Okon on an explicitly temporary basis while they looked for a “substantive coach.” Three years later, he’s still coaching the team but it’s unclear whether that’s because he turned out to be “substantive” or whether the federation simply forgot to do anything about it. Okon is either running a wonderfully long con-game against the world or he’s a little bit off his rocker. It’s one thing to repeatedly claim that God is on your side but it’s another thing to claim (and have the claim backed up by your players) that you “know nothing” about your upcoming World Cup opponents. Seriously — read Jeff Kassouf’s article in Equalizer Soccer entitled, “Nigeria Insist They Know Nothing About Sweden.”

Sweden – Pia Sundhage

Pia Sundhage has been involved with women’s soccer on an international scale since 1975 when she made her international debut, playing for her native Swedish national team as a 15 year-old. She had a 21 year career as a professional and international player and even began coaching before she was done playing. She spent three years in the early 1990s as a player/manager for the Swedish club team Hammarby. Once her playing career was finally over, she took a series of assistant coaching jobs in women’s soccer that eventually led her to the United States and the (then) brand new Women’s United Soccer Association. She got her break (pun warning) when she was offered the job as head coach of the Boston Breakers where she won the league title in 2003. After the league folded, she went back to Sweden but took a few of her favorite players with her, including then U.S. National team captain Kristine Lilly. That eventually led to her being asked to coach the U.S. women’s national team, a job which she held from 2008 to 2012. As the U.S. coach, Sundhage opened up the field for her players, giving them freedom and flexibility to experiment with. Many of the current U.S. players still credit her with the development of their games. She left the U.S. team in 2012 to return to Sweden and coach their national team. Sundhage is a mercurial figure, almost a soccer savant, but a friendly one. If you want to learn more about her, read Sam Borden’s excellent profile of her in the New York Times.

United States – Jill Ellis

Coaching is in Jill Ellis‘ blood. Her father, John, was a soccer ambassador for the British government and later head coach of the women’s national team for Trinidad & Tobago. Ellis, who was born in England and moved to the United States with her family at age 15, was a great striker for her college team, William & Mary, but never played professionally or internationally. Instead, she followed her father’s footsteps into coaching. The year after graduating from college, she began to travel from college assistant coaching job to college assistant coaching job until she got a shot as head coach of a brand new soccer program at University of Illinois in 1997. Only two years later, she moved again, this time to UCLA. Ellis quickly transformed UCLA into a soccer power-house, making the Final Four eight of twelve years she coached there. During her time at UCLA, she also worked with the U.S. national team, as an assistant coach of the senior team and head coach of the under-20 and under-21 teams. She left UCLA in 2010 and has worked solely with team USA since then, as an assistant under Pia Sundhage and during the brief tenure of Tom Sermanni. In May of last year, after firing Sermanni, the U.S. soccer powers that be finally turned to Ellis on a full-time basis (she had served as interim head coach twice) and offered her the job of head coach.

Ellis is a true hire from within and as is the case with many internal promotions, she receives criticism for not being a big enough figure. It’s only human nature, I suppose, to find it easier to buy into a dramatic outside hire than a simple promotion, and Ellis’ quiet disposition doesn’t do her any favors. She has a reputation for not being able to win on the biggest stage. Despite going to eight Final Fours at UCLA, she never won a National Championship, nor was she able to lead either of the junior U.S. teams to junior World Cup championships. Her tactics have also come into question, whether it’s her choice to bring a relatively older team to the World Cup or her decision to play Carli Lloyd out wide, or her choice to go with four offensive minded midfielders. It’s all part of the job for the head coach of the U.S. team but Ellis seems to get it worse than other managers have. She’s got as much at stake during this World Cup as anyone. Win, and it’s all good. Lose, and a big portion of the blame will be heaped on her.

For more information about Ellis, who is a fascinating character, read Steven Goff’s article in the Washington Post and Graham Hays’ defense of her in ESPNW.

Who are the 2015 Women's World Cup coaches in Group C?

Cameroon – Enow Ngachu

Enow Ngachu is a 40 year-old former soccer player (at what level, I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure that if he had played on the national team or a major club, there would be more of an internet record of him) and gym teacher. He has coached the Cameroonian team since 2004 which makes him the third longest tenured coach in the World Cup. He led Cameroon to its first Olympics in 2012 and now to their first World Cup. One thing is for sure about Ngachu — he knows how to play the media game. In the lead up to their game against Japan, he told reporters that his players idolized the Japanese team growing up and that all the pressure is on Japan. Two classic coaching media moves.

Ecuador – Vanessa Aruaz

At 26, Vanessa Aruaz is not only the youngest coach at the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada, she’s the youngest person to ever coach a World Cup team, men’s or women’s. By the age of ten, Arauz knew she wanted to be a coach. By 22, she was graduating from the Ecuadorian Higher Institute of Technical Football with the second highest G.P.A in her otherwise all male class. Three years later, after coaching the Under-17 and Under-20 women’s national teams, she was given control of the senior level national team, just in time to qualify for the World Cup. For more on Aruaz, read Kade Krichko’s profile of her in Vice Sports.

Japan – Norio Sasaki

Norio Sasaki isn’t afraid to put himself in the spotlight by making and talking about controversial decisions. In the 2012 Olympics, he instructed his team not to score against South Africa so they could play their next game in the same location instead of having to travel. In the lead up to this World Cup, he took the most famous and well-regarded Japanese player in women’s soccer history, Homare Sawa, out of the lineup, making people think her international career was done, and then put her back in. The 57 year-old coach, who likes to compare himself to Steven Spielberg, has coached the Japanese team since 2008 and led them to a 2011 World Cup victory in the aftermath of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Later that year, he was awarded the 2011 Women’s Best Coach award by FIFA.

Switzerland – Martina Voss-Tecklenburg

Although this is Switzerland’s first women’s World Cup, coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is no stranger to the biggest stage. As a player for her native Germany, Voss-Tecklenburg played in the first three World Cups: 1991, 1995, and 1999. After retiring as one of the three best Germany players of all time, she went right to work as a coach of women’s professional teams, winning two national cups and one European cup with Duisberg. A sense of her place in history and well deserved confidence oozes out of Voss-Tecklenburg in every interview. She spoke about the progress of the women’s game to FIFA.com, and shared her plan to make the Quarter-Finals with UEFA.com. So far, the Swiss team has looked every bit as good as their coach expects them to be. In their first game of the tournament, defending champions Japan needed a very late and questionable penalty kick to beat them 1-0.

Sports Forecast for Friday, June 12, 2015

Sports is no fun if you don’t know what’s going on. Here’s what’s going on:

For email subscribers, click here to get the audio.

You can subscribe to all Dear Sports Fan podcasts by following this link. Music by Jesse Fischer.

Two stories about mountain climbing and life

I answered a question on this blog about whether basketball is a selfish sport. I argued that while basketball isn’t a selfish sport, it is the team sport where selfish behavior is easiest to fall into and to observe. In this way, basketball is actually a very good setting to learn lessons about the balancing selfish desires and selfless behavior. Sports in general are wonderful settings that reveal their participants’ natures while teaching them how to become better people. Keep the idea of sports as a character shaping and revealing activity in your mind as you read these two amazing articles about women who to climb mountains. If basketball is a test of balancing one’s selfish urges, rock climbing seems to demand an almost perfect understanding of how to push yourself as hard as you possibly can to meet your goals without pushing too hard.

After the Seven Summits

by Alyssa Roenigk for ESPN

Nepali men have been climbing Mount Everest and helping other people climb Everest for decades, but it wasn’t until recently that a team of Nepali women decided to do the same. Once they did it, they looked for a bigger challenge, and found it in a legendary rock-climbing challenge to climb the highest mountain on all seven continents. Once they did THAT, they needed an even bigger challenge. As fate would have it, the Earth provided them with that challenge in the form of a giant earthquake and an even bigger rebuilding effort.

The women kept their heads down and trusted in their training, climbing approximately five to 10 hours a day. When they felt too cold to take another step, too tired or too discouraged, they sang songs, told jokes and encouraged one another. They climbed slower than they thought they were capable of climbing and sometimes slower than their legs wanted to move. If they had learned anything in the course of their training, it was that the most dangerous element on Everest is not altitude or falling ice but hubris.

Shailee led the group into a field, where they waited for the aftershocks to subside. “When we felt it was safe, we began walking back toward the city,” she says. “At first, everything appeared normal. Then I saw it was gone.” The vertical space Dharahara Tower had filled only hours earlier was now nothing but blue sky. “Then,” Shailee says, “we walked into a nightmare.”

For the next several days, the women gathered at a makeshift headquarters in Kathmandu, bringing with them the focus and determination that had carried them to the tops of mountains. They tapped into a network in the climbing and outdoor communities to organize volunteers, collect supplies and kick-start fundraising efforts to bring rice, tarps and medical personnel to far-reaching villages such as Maya’s and Nim’s, two of the hardest-hit districts in the country. Around them, the city of Kathmandu crumbled and the death toll rose to more than 8,000. Their friends and families lived in daily fear of mudslides, monsoons, starvation and illness.

They had never imagined this was how they would put to use the skills and strengths they had developed and uncovered within themselves over the past eight years, but they knew this was now their calling.

Unclimbable

by Eva Holland for SB Nation

Far across the world, in a far more privileged setting, three college students won a scholarship that would pay for them to climb the mountain of their dreams, the Cirque of the Unclimbables. With them, they brought a portion of the ashes of their friend who had died recently on another mountain top. Holland masterfully weaves the story of her own intersecting trip into that of the three climbers.

When they told me about Cole, they were matter-of-fact. Their friend had died while climbing, they said, and now here they were: climbing. They weren’t here because of his death, and they weren’t here despite it. They would continue to live their lives in the face of risk, just as he had lived his. But it was clear that the avalanche that had taken Cole’s life added another emotional layer to their journey, another bit of weight on their shoulders as they climbed.

“He was totally a guy who just went for it all the time,” Hannah said. “He wouldn’t come up here and do four pitches and say, ‘Oh, I’m tired, I’m going to leave.’”

I’d never spoken to a group of 22-year-olds who were so self-aware, so keenly attuned to their own feelings and motivations and those of their teammates. Really, I thought, most adults of any age could envy the trio’s ability to reflect on their own choices and the emotions behind them. All three were thoughtful, and unblinkingly honest about their fears, their insecurities, their sense of failure or accomplishment. They looked young, maybe younger even than they were, but they spoke with the calm confidence, even wisdom, I might expect in someone much older.

I tried to imagine having to make life-and-death decisions under the weight of all the burdens they were carrying on this trip: wanting to prove themselves to the climbers back home, at least some of whom thought they were in over their heads; wanting to support each other, no single climber wanting to be the one who held the team back; wanting to satisfy their own natures, their own sense of pride as athletes; and wanting to honor Cole, to have an adventure worthy of him.

I couldn’t imagine it.

Who are the 2015 Women's World Cup coaches in Group B?

Germany – Silvia Neid

Silvia Neid is a living legend of German soccer. She is considered to be among the best German players ever (she appeared in 111 games for their national team and scored 48 goals) and is by far their winningest coach. After her playing career ended in 1996, she became an assistant coach. In 2005, she took over as the head coach, and has not looked back. She was at the helm (do teams have helms?) when the German team won the 2007 World Cup and also for a less successful run in 2011. All good things come to an end and the 51 year-old Neid has announced that she will be retiring in 2016.

Ivory Coast – Clémentine Touré

Clémentine Touré gave up a chance to coach in the 2007 World Cup when she resigned from a position on the Equatorial Guinea staff to take the position as head coach of her native Ivory Coast team. She was an accomplished professional, playing on club teams in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, as well as 22 times for her national team. As you can see for yourself in this CCTV video about her, Touré, who came from a family of coaches is confident in and proud of her position as a female coach.

Norway – Even Pellerud

Did I already use the phrase “living legend” in this post? Perhaps I should have saved it for Even Pellerud who is entering his fifth World Cup as a coach (there have only ever been six!) Pellerud was a solid but uninspiring as a player. He played for a few teams in the Norwegian professional league but never for his country’s national team. He has had much more success as a coach. He led Norway to medals during the first two women’s World Cups, silver in 1991 and gold in 1995. After that, he tried his hand at coaching men at club teams in Norway and Denmark but didn’t have much success. In 1999 he took over as head coach for the Canadian women’s national soccer team and led them to the 2003 and 2007 World Cups. Now, at 61, he’s back with team Norway, although it seems like eventually, he’d like to get back together with his adopted country of Canada, where his family still lives and he still has deep ties.

Thailand -Nuengruethai Sathongwien

Nuengruethai Sathongwien is the first female coach of the Thai women’s national soccer team and she took over just weeks before the 2014 Asian Cup which doubled as the qualification tournament for the World Cup. Believe it or not, that’s just about all I could find out about Sathongwien. As amazing as it sounds, the internet seems just not to know very much about her. She has no Wikipedia page, no twitter handle, no website. As much progress as the women’s game has made things like this are a reminder of how far we still have to go. It’s inconceivable that a World Cup qualifying men’s coach would be even one tenth as unknown as Sathongwien. It’s possible that she is overshadowed by the team’s manager, Nualphan Lamsam, a charismatic insurance company CEO and “well-known socialite” who has no previous experience with soccer.

Who are the 2015 Women's World Cup coaches in Group A?

Canada – John Herdman

A 39 year-old English native, John Herdman had no playing career to speak of. He formerly coached the New Zealand women’s national team from 2006 to 2011 before being brought on as head coach of the Canadian team. Cathal Kelly in The Globe and Mail described Herdman as his team’s “emotional bellwether, hype man and head of psy-ops. He’s a warm, chatty fellow. He’s also a little odd, in an endearing way.” He is the only coach in Group A with World Cup experience as a head coach having led the New Zealand team in the 2007 and 2011 World Cups.

China – Hao Wei

Hao Wei was a fringe player on the professional and international level for his native China. Following his playing career, he took his first coaching job as an assistant with the Chinese club team he had been playing for. From there, he moved to an assistant’s role on the Chinese national women’s team and was promoted to head coach in 2012. The 38 year-old is the team’s fifth head coach since 2007.

Netherlands – Roger Reijners

At 51, Roger Reijners has had a longer coaching career than the rest of his competition in Group A. After a solid professional career in the Dutch Eredivisie, Reijners went directly into coaching and ended up coaching both his former teams before becoming head coach of the women’s national team. Is a fast talker.

New Zealand – Tony Readings

Tony Readings came to New Zealand from his native England as a solid professional player who wasn’t quite good enough to find a permanent spot in higher level English leagues. As a coach for the New Zealand women’s program, he coached the Under-20 side and was assistant to now head coach of Canada, John Herdman, at the senior level before becoming head coach himself. Now 39, he’s coaching in his first World Cup.

Sports Forecast for Thursday, June 11, 2015

Sports is no fun if you don’t know what’s going on. Here’s what’s going on:

For email subscribers, click here to get the audio.

You can subscribe to all Dear Sports Fan podcasts by following this link. Music by Jesse Fischer.

Soccer 202: Culture

Have you graduated from our Soccer 101 course? Blown through our Soccer 201 course on positions and logistics? Have your diplomas framed and on your wall? Great! Here’s your next challenge. Soccer 202: Culture is a five part email course with information about many of the more curious aspects of the culture surrounding the world’s favorite sport. Good luck!

What do the 20 most common strange soccer terms mean?
Why do soccer fans whistle?
Why is soccer so liberal?
Why do players blame the ball?
Playing good vs. playing well

Are there rules for what color soccer goalies can wear?

Dear Sports Fan,

Are there rules for what color soccer goalies can wear?

Thanks,
Emma

Dear Emma,

FIFA, the international organization that coordinates soccer matches between countries and international tournaments like the World Cup, is rightfully getting a lot of flack these days for being unimaginably corrupt. They deserve every bit of the criticism they get and it’s okay to believe that and also take a second to marvel at the complexity of their task. They need to coordinate soccer games between 209 member associations, each with its own rules, customs, and yes, colors. Team colors and goalie colors are one small example of something which seems like it should be simple and indeed is based on simple principles, but which has a relatively complex set of rules that dictate how it works.

The principle that governs what color soccer goalies can wear is that they should be “clearly distinguishable from the Colours of the Playing Equipment worn by the outfield players of his own team, the outfield players of the opposing team, the goalkeeper of the opposing team and the Match Officials.” Goalies play by different rules than other players. Most obviously, they can use their hands to touch the ball within their own penalty box. It makes sense to want fans, other players, and the referee to be able to easily distinguish them from normal field players. Shirt color is a great way of doing that.

In practice this principle can be harder to meet than it seems. Shirt color is also the primary distinguishing factor in telling one team apart from its opponents and that is the first priority when it comes to choosing colors. In order to avoid a situation where both teams wear the same color, each team has a primary and secondary uniform. For example, Brazil plays primarily in a yellow jersey but also has a blue one for times when they play against teams like Colombia or the Ivory Coast which also use yellow as its primary color.

Brazil: === | ===
Colombia: === | ===
Ivory Coast: === | ===

The matter of which team gets to play with their primary color and which team gives way is dealt with by always designating a “home” team even if a game is played in a neutral location. The home team always gets its choice of uniform. If they want to play with their primary uniform, which they usually will, the other team has to go to its secondary uniform. The reason why all of this is germane to a goalie’s uniform choices is that in order to wear a legal and distinguishing color, a goalie has to avoid the color of their team, the opponent’s team, the opponent’s goalie, and the referees, who also, it must be said, wear shirts. Using our teams above, this means that goalies in a game between Brazil and Colombia in Brazil could wear anything but yellow or red, but if it were in Colombia, they could wear anything but yellow and blue. If the Ivory Coast hosted Brazil, goalies couldn’t wear yellow or blue, but if Brazil was the home team, they wouldn’t be allowed to wear yellow or green. This complexity scales up and up when you consider a World Cup with 24 or 32 teams and the up to seven games against unknown opponents that teams have to be prepared for. And you think it’s difficult to pick out your clothes in the morning!!!

The way that FIFA handles this is by allowing/requiring goalies to have three different colored shirts prepared and registered before a tournament. For the 2015 women’s World Cup in Canada, here is how FIFA describes this requirement. “These three goalkeeper kits must be distinctly different and contrasting from each other as well as different and contrasting from the official and reserve team kits.” Basically, if you’re the goalie on Brazil’s team, you must have three colored jerseys that aren’t blue or yellow. This way, whether Brazil plays against Colombia at home or away, the two goalies combined will be guaranteed to have at least two shirts with color other than yellow, blue, and red. In the 2014 World Cup, referees had a choice of five different colors to help them stay away from any of the colors the teams and goalies might have chosen to wear.

It’s all very complex in theory and I’d love to see a mathematician model out how many different possible combinations there are, what the minimum number of options required is, and maybe even where the ideal contrasting colors fall on a color wheel. In reality, it’s easier than it seems to avoid non-contrasting colors for goalies because most countries stick to relatively mundane colors for their uniforms. There aren’t too many countries that stray from normal blues, reds, yellows, greens, blacks, and whites. A goalie could easily bring a single jersey that contrasts with every team in a World Cup if she’s willing to wear hot pink.

Thanks for your question,
Ezra Fischer

Emma asked me this question while watching a soccer game at the Dear Sports Fan Viewing Parties Meetup group. We’re open for new members! Join here.