The Corner Conumdrum

First of apologies for no post since last Friday, a pub orientated weekend followed by a football orientated start to the the week meant I have hardly spent any time near my laptop in the last four days.  Last night I went to The Hawthorns for the chilling excitement of an FA Cup Third Round Replay match with high flying West Bromwich Albion playing host to bottom of the table Queens Park Rangers.  I was chilled to the bone but I wasn't excited at all and like most of the fans around me I was disappointed with both teams not wanting to be there, whose poor performances were only separated by a late headed goal from a corner.

This corner and others during the match made me quite angry for two reasons, firstly when the goal was scored there was not a man on one of the posts and the header went right where he would of stood and secondly nearly half of the corners taken where short, none of which came off. These are two of my greatest peeves.

For me two men on the post would be the first thing I would get any football team to do at a corner, it doesn't leave you shorthand if you are going to man mark or zonal mark as the taker is unmarked and leaving a man up front means the attacking team have to leave two men behind to deal with him.  This is such a simple instruction for a team to follow and it will save them from conceding some goals, not have a man on the post cost West Brom last night but did save me from 30 more minutes of that match.  West Brom though aren't the only team that have conceded goals from corners which where easily avoidable, two of the goals Ajax scored against Man City were the result of a near post header of a corner beating Joe Hart. It would pushing to say that this alone caused Man City to go out of the Champions League but it certainly contributed.

With regards to short corners I do understand that they are trying to create a better angle of approach toward the goal or draw another player out of the box to leave more room but it is so rare that you see these plays come off that I am amazed by the sheer number of corners which are taken short.  I guess it also increases the chances of the cross going is as well but the only example of that I can remember of that is when Maniche scored for Portugal against the Netherlands in Euro 2004, a fantastic game by the way.  The only successful corner routines I have ever seen which didn't involve just crossing in first time was Udinese's routine where the corner was passed back to a man on the touchline but 18 yards back, they scored many goals from this routine until the player got marked.

I will a far happier man when every team has two men on the posts and no-one ever takes a short corner


Trivia Questions 6

Q: Who were the only team in the English Premier League not to score a single goal from a corner all last season?

Trivia Questions 5

Q: Bradford are two goals up and one game away from getting in to the League Cup Final they would become the second fourth division team to reach the final, who was the first and who did they lose to?

A: Rochdale lost 4-0 on aggregate to Norwich City in 1962 League Cup Final