Wonderful article from the Defensive Minded Blog about Barcelona defending system at corner kicks. What is interesting that it stated that according to a study, that Barcelona is on average, the team with shortest heights in Europe. Despite that shortfall, Barcelona was always a solid defense team that is very difficult to score goal against, especially from corner kicks.
It says that Barca got two tall defenders, Pique and Puyol. So, how they are organized?
- Pique(red)defends the near post.
- Puyol (blue) patrols the penalty spot zone.
- Xavi (yellow) stand in front of Pique to cut the low flat corners.
- Iniesta (black) always stand at the edge of the penalty box, free alone, to prevent the cut- back corner to the shooters.
- The other defenders patrol the penalty box zone to deal with knock-downs in case the initial ball is not cleared.
- Barcelona do not put any players on the goal line at either posts, so, it is very easy to create an offside trap after the initial ball is cleared.
I found this article and tactic, and Barcelona big success in general very inspiring to the teams with medium body and physiques, like Middle Eastern or Asian ones. It inspires that such teams can use their mental skills, tactics and confidence to overcome some shortfalls.
I am hinting directly to my national team, Saudi Arabia, which suffers to much from corner kicks and cross balls. It is the number one problem for our team and reason for heavy losses in many WCs. Last time, we had a very decent defense, especially at corner kicks was the 1994 one, that qualified to the second round.
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