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More balls finding the net
Number of goals up compared to USA '94
Posted: Sunday June 28, 1998 12:44 PM
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Players like Ronaldo are taking more chances around the goal in this World Cup than at USA '94 (AP) |
PARIS (AP) -- Fast breaks. Strikes from the corner. Points in close
and in the air. Action, action and more action. A late-night rerun
of the NBA Finals? No way. This is the World Cup, soccer in the French
style. Officials said Sunday that a combination of cool weather,
gifted athletes and changes in coaches' strategies and players' roles had
opened up the tournament's offense like never before. Although
scoring was just about the same as for the last Cup in 1994, the head of
FIFA's panel that studies the nuts and bolts of soccer said the first round
was played at a quicker pace with an emphasis on going for goals. "We
are seeing more counterattacks and faster scoring," Gerard Houllier said.
"The one-on-one and other shows of athletic ability certainly are much
higher than in 1994. The players are playing harder and running faster."
Houllier, a former coach of the French national team, said more
teams had gone to formations that encourage offense, with the 3-5-2
featuring an athletic, play-calling sweeper the favorite. Four years ago,
when the Cup was held inthe United
States, most coaches favored a lineup with four deep defenders.
There's very little pressing on defense, he said, and the block formations
now used force attackers to dribble more, opening the field and the chance
of fast breaks. "In the United States, there were a lot of goals off
short passes," Houllier said. "Here, a lot of goals have been scored on
breakaways." Strikers such as top scorer Christian Vieri of Italy, Gabriel
Batistuta of Argentina and
Ronaldo of Brazil have made
their mark on the tournament. But Houllier and Jurg Nepfer, FIFA's
technical coordinator, said midfielders has suddenly become scoring
machines. In the first round, midfielders scored 47 times, or 37.3
percent of all goals, compared with 25.8 percent in 1994, when there were
fewer games. Strikers, who supplied 65.6 percent of the goals four yars
ago, were down to 52.4 percent (66 goals) this year, Nepfer said.
The average game has seen 2.63 goals, compared with 2.47 in '94 and well up
from the 2.28 goals-per-game average of the defense-dominated 1990
tournament in Italy. While the average score hasn't changed much
from '94, the average scoring play has. Goals from outside the penalty area
dropped to 13 or 10.3 percent, compared with 20.5 percent last time. Scores
inside the goal area, conversely, were way up, 33-15, or a jump from 16.1
percent to 26.2 percent. And corner kicks have produced 17 goals,
compared with just four at the same stage four years ago. "The teams
are very good at playing the ball in the air," Houllier said. All
this means that teams are going to the hole, rather than flopping around at
midfield in hopes something will develop. And Houllier said a drastic
change in the weather probably accounted for some of that. "It was
hot in the United States in '94," Houllier said. "Teams were very focused
on controlling the ball." While that summer in the U.S. cities was
boiling, France has been
unseasonably cool, making it easier for players to go all-out. And
they've had to, Houllier said, to beat a sterling bunch of goalies.
"The goalkeepers are playing better than in 1994," he said. "We've seen
some great saves and great, great plays by the goalkeepers. Teams from Asia
and Africa have made great advances in training their goalkeepers."
Houllier said the technical committee would try to pick the 11 best players
after the later rounds. For the time being, he said, there were a few
players who had caught his eye. In goal on the all-Houllier team was
Jose Luis Chilavert of Paraguay.
Among defenders, he picked Marcel Desailly of France, who "makes no
mistakes and wins all the loose balls." The top midfielder so far, Houllier
said, was Argentina's Ariel Ortega, "creative, an excellent passer." And
the striker, he said, would come from among a gilded trio -- Vieri, who
leads the tournament with five goals; Batistuta, who has the tournament's
only hat trick; and Ronaldo, who had two goals against Chile while
banging two other shots off the goalpost and the crossbar.
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