Happy Friday!  I hope you’re gearing up for a great hockey weekend getting started with this week’s Playbook.

The Pro League is back and so there was plenty of top hockey to browse through this week.  I was drawn to the clash between the England and Belgian men.  This game was a close and tight affair throughout with England leading by a single penalty corner goal for most of it.  However it sprang into life in the fourth quarter when Belgium scored two quick fire goals and England equalized with just thirty seconds left.  

I’m going to focus on Belgium’s second goal today because I think it showcases a great example of how to score deflected goals, not just technically - but positionally.  So, let’s have a watch below:

Let’s look at it technically first.  Obviously it’s a wonderful pass / cross into the circle - perfectly flat with a ton of ball speed, every attacker’s dream.  From there Nelson Onana does a great job getting his body & hands super low, allowing for an almost flat stick angle when tipping the ball.  

This image shows this really nicely.  When the ball played into the circle is flat, it’s so important to get your hands down onto the turf, this will give you the widest margin for error and the best chance of making the right contact with the ball.   Onana opens up his stick to almost flat, which means he will only get a glancing touch on the ball and the result is spectacular - flying into the top corner.

The second thing I want to draw your attention to is the positioning of the Belgian players in the circle waiting for the ball in, and the role it plays in the end result.  The image below shows the positioning as the ball is being played.

I have added the yellow arrow which shows the line from ball to goal.  Ronan Taggart, who works at Leap with me is a big proponent of these ideas and so I’m shouting him out here.  What is good from the Belgian forwards is the depth, layering and line of their positioning.  Let’s break those 3 ideas down.

DEPTH - as proven by the Onana the eventual goalscorer, having goal-line or baseline depth is absolutely essential to good positioning and your chances of scoring deflections.   Defenders get drawn towards the ball and so you can find space here and your chances of scoring if the ball gets through are very good.

LAYERING - in this goal we see forwards at different depths within the circle which Ronan would call multiple layers.   More importantly those layers are in-between the England defenders, so you see an alternate, red shirt, then white shirt pattern - like a nice Christmas Trifle (if you don’t know what this is, research English deserts and then make one, they are delicious)!   I digress, the layers again give Belgium multiple chances to make a deflection and create space in England’s defensive structure that they can exploit.

LINE - Belgium have two forwards on or very close to the Line I have drawn from Ball to Goal.  This is extremely important.  The more players you have on this line, the more opportunities you have to score.  But in fact the reason I described this collective positioning as good but not great - is that there are only two on this line.

If we look at the image below, when the camera scrolls out after the goal has been scored - we see an extra forward who was hanging out behind the post.  I think he could have come in closer to the penalty spot and added a third layer on the line that would have made this set up even more dangerous.

Now I’m being very picky - but the concept is getting multiple forwards close to the line to goal and then stacking them in layers with lots of depth.   If all three of these ideas are implemented within your team then you’ll score a lot more deflections like Belgium do!