Set pieces are all about communication, because they’re all about deception. The guy sending the ball in from touch is trying to deceive 11 guys on the pitch about where it’s going and how; the guys on the pitch are trying to deceive each other about where they’re going and why; and everyone is trying to deceive the referee about what they’re actually doing and who they’re doing it to.
That’s why communication is paramount. Not just the stuff you can hear, but that other thing that great team mates have, that sort of telekinetic ability to know where each other is, where they’re going, what they’re thinking – with a look, a nod, a stare. With not even.
That’s because the challenge of defending set pieces comes down to having to look in three places at once. And as we only have two eyes, (both of which – Marty Feldman notwithstanding – tend to like to go in the same direction), this is difficult.
NYCFC 0 SKC 1
First, you need to be able to look at the man you’re marking to make sure you don’t lose him. Next you need to be able to see the ball – where it’s going, how fast, and with what characteristics. And third? You kinda need to be able to see where everyone else is on the pitch, especially your team mates – so you don’t run into them, don’t create the kinds of picks and blocks and obstructions that spring attacking players and result in goals.
You know, like what happened to NYCFC when SKC’s Ike Opara scored at Yankee Stadium, handing the Citizens their first loss of the season – and therefore, the first loss in their history.
Now, to be fair, it was a lovely, lovely goal by Opara. Beautifully timed, beautifully struck, beautifully finished. The fact that he managed to get Watson-Siriboe and Hernandez – two players who, before this match, had only been on the pitch together for 5 minutes – to run into each other to help him achieve it, frankly only adds to its beauty.
This is the kind of thing that happens when, in addition to losing two attacking players to international call-ups (Nemec and Shelton), you line up without David Villa (groin injury), Sebastian Velazquez (also a groin injury), Josh Williams (viral pericarditis according to the New York Post), and Shea Facey (well, you know).
In other words, NYCFC had a lot of players on the pitch who weren’t used to playing with each other. Calle and Mullins were up top replacing Villa and Nemec – Mullins getting his first full 90, Calle getting his first start. Balouchy got his first start since the Orlando match. Watson-Siriboe got his first start ever for NYCFC, and Poku, McNamara and Taylor all got their first playing time. That’s a lot of guys not used to anticipating what each other can and will do on the pitch – defensively, as was demonstrated in the first half goal by Opara, and offensively as was seen throughout the game.
That last point was because New York were missing their finishers – players of admittedly entirely different style and quality, but each whose first inclination when they touch the ball is to put it on net. Yes, yes, Mix Diskerud scored NYCFC’s first goal, and yes, yes, yes, Mullins scored the second goal of the home opener. But vocabulary is important and there’s a fundamental difference between someone who can score a goal and someone who is a finisher. NYCFC didn’t have one on Saturday and while there was some really lovely passing between Mix and Brovsky, and some terrific play by Grabavoy and Mullins and McNamara, no one could put it actually in the net. And that severely limits your chances of winning.
Should fans be worried? That the Citizens have taken only one point out of the past two games – games against teams in the bottom half of the Western Conference? That NYCFC have been held scoreless now for 186 straight minutes? That they’ve slipped to third – two points and two places behind cross-river rivals NYRB?
No, no, and no. They should be aware of all these things, they should keep an eye on them, but they shouldn’t be worried. Not yet
Now, if they take fewer than four points from their back-to-back games against bottom dwelling Philadelphia – games in which one assumes Villa, Nemec, Shelton, Vazquez and either Williams or Facey are back on the pitch – then yes, then you should start to worry. The schedule has been very kind to the Citizens thus far, and they need to make hay while the sun shines.
And if they don’t?
Then they’ll find that the Third Rail will have some choice words for them – words that are understood in any language.
