Happy Holidays everyone - I hope you all are enjoying some time with your families, friends and loved ones.  With, I hope a little more time on your hands at this point in the year, here is the holiday edition of the Playbook.

Watching more of the Pro League these last few weeks I was drawn to an absolute goal-fest of a match - Netherlands vs Pakistan (Men) that finished 7-3!  There was a whole lot of fun & skill in this epic but what stood out to me was a pattern I picked up within the Netherlands’ goalscoring.

The Netherlands scored 5 of their 7 goals from open play, which in itself is a bit of an oddity but of those 5, 4 of them came with the goalscorer turning their back to goal at first, before shooting on the turn.  This is not just a pattern in this game but a trend I am seeing more often across the entire top level game and so something I think is worth digging into.

The protagonist of much of this finishing was Guus Jansen (21) who created one and scored two of the four goals we are analyzing along with Jorrit Croon (10) who scored the last.

Ok, lots to watch so let’s get stuck into it!

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Second Dutch goal of the match

Here we see Guus Jansen create the goal with some nice touches and then importantly a lot of strength with his back to goal to hold off the Pakistan defender, he then spins onto his forehand and hits a back foot shot (a topic we talked about in Edition 7) that gets deflected in at the far post.

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Third Dutch goal of the match

Here we see a different use of the body to create space to shoot.  The ball comes from the left onto Jansen’s forehand.  Now many players at this point would continue facing the goal, let the ball come across them and attempt a forehand shot at goal.  However this would have two big issues, firstly the angle would get much narrower / worse and the defender is coming in on a line to block this route to goal.   Instead, Jansen again turns his back to goal, using his body to protect from the defender before spinning inside (this time clockwise) and unleashing a reverse / backhand rocket into the corner.   The decision to turn his back and spin inside takes the ball away from the defenders’ path and improves this shooting angle.

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Fifth Dutch goal of the match

For this goal, Jansen finds himself one-on-one against the Pakistan defender Abu Bakar Mahmood on the edge of the circle.   Again a common decision at this point would be to try and eliminate Mahmood on the outside driving down his left foot (reverse stick).  This would be fine, especially if you want to create a chance for a teammate.  However again Jansen makes an elite goalscoring move, first taking the ball inside then turning his back to protect the ball (AGAIN) and ends by spinning strong with an emphatic forehand shot past the keeper.   By taking the ball inside first, Jansen ensured when he spun to shoot - he still had a great angle and was not pushed too wide.

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Seventh Dutch goal of the match

Jorrit Croon gets in on the act with this last goal.   Ghosting in at the back post his off-the-ball run is a big part of this goal.  However the finish again shows how protecting the ball with the body ensures you get a shot off.  If he had trapped the ball and kept his chest facing the goal, the incoming defender would likely have got a stick on the ball.  Instead, he turns his back which buys him the time to put a little reverse sweep high into the net.

This match was an absolute clinic on how to use your body to maximise goal-scoring opportunities, by Guus Jansen.  The space and improved angles he generates by protecting the ball back-to-goal is a lesson for all young forwards and as the opponents who play against him will attest, it’s a nightmare to defend against!!