Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s topic addresses the issue of dealing with crosses.
When working on crosses it’s easy to think in terms of “a cross is a cross is a cross” but the reality is a driven ball is very different to deal with than a lofted ball and a far post cross is very different to deal with than a near post cross.
It’s not unusual to see a server out wide with a bunch of balls and play balls into the box
The keeper goes out and tries to collect the crosses.
While this is better than not doing the crosses the reality is we must take more things into consideration.
In the diagram below you can see different angles the servers can play the balls from.
Crosses should be hit from each of these angles. Some should be served as driven balls, some should be served as lofted balls. Some should go near post and some should go far post. This will start to make the crosses more realistic rather than having them played from the same spot every time.
Next have the server start further out
The server dribbles to one of those spots and then serves the ball. Since the keeper doesn’t know which spot the server will cross from he has to adjust accordingly.
Next add attackers in the box making runs. This makes the situation even more game realistic.
Next add a couple of defenders.
Now we have keepers dealing with different type of crosses (flighted balls, driven balls, near post balls, far post balls) from different angles and with different situations based on attackers and defenders. This is MUCH more effective than simply standing out wide and hitting balls into the box.
Have a great day
Lawrence
