I'll admit that I've not played the game to any appreciable level, nor coached a side in my life. But I've watched a bit of the game in my time, and I can't think why this (below) is daft, or why I've never seen it.

When the attacking team, 1 down with barely minutes to go, gets a free kick outside the box, in Beckham/Ronaldo/Juninho territory, why do the defending team habitually form a wall just ten yards away, inviting the inevitable curling shot over them and into the net past an exasperated helpless keeper, as opposed to just standing en masse in the goal mouth? Eleven players across eight yards would only have to cover about two feet each. They could just stay there still the ball's eventually hit at them, it would be virtually impossible to get it in.

This is a daft question, isn't it, but I've never seen any team employ any such tactic, and I just wonder why. Has anyone ever tried it, and is that because it's been proved not to work?

The attacking team could pass the ball to the side of the wall and have a shot that bypasses the wall.

No, sorry, I meant all eleven players lined up in the goal itself? Along the line?

If they just stood there, I mean? Eleven players, along the goal line, in the goalmouth...they're all six foot something, it would take a hell of a shot - if they all stood their ground - to get one past that lot, wouldn't it?

The attacking team would presumably just bang in shot after shot as hard as they could - the shots would rebound back out and they could fire them back in again, and eventually the defenders would all be lying moaning on the floor having been hit in the head/nuts/solar plexus with the ball, and the you'd just pass it in.

So the reason this isn't used as a tactic is because professional players are all despicable cowards? I bet Carra would take one in the nuts for his team with a minute to go.

Nah - he'd get one of his hired goons to take it for him.

Only if little Davey Tommo wasn't there, like.

There is no reason and I will be getting my 8 year olds to do just that this weekend

Cavalry Trouser Tips wrote:

QUOTE:
Nah - he'd get one of his hired goons to take it for him.

Only if little Davey Tommo wasn't there, like.

And only if it was for Liverpool FC. Never, ever, for England.

He's a proud childhood Evertonian, after all.

The formation of a wall, to prevent the direct shot at goal has been around since the 1900's. Up until that point, one player would usually 'threaten' the kick, so to speak, on his own.

As players became more accurate, teams started to add extra players. Takers would try to either blast the ball at the wall, hoping for movement or deflections or strike the ball just above the heads of the wall. Because lofting the ball places backspin on the ball, players devised ways of putting topspin on the ball, usually by the classic toe-bung. Didi was the first real exponent of the modern method of taking free-kicks, placing side spin on the ball, which gives the swerve and the 'dip' due to the forces acting on the ball during its flight to the top-corner. Didi used the outside of the boot, however.

There has been occasions where goalkeepers have faced a free-kick without a wall; David James did so for Aston Villa once and Jose Luis Chilavert occasionally did it to unsettle a particularly adept free-kick taker. Peter Shreeves came up with the idea of a split wall; two players one side of the goal, three the other. That never took off really.

The rationale is that the wall, placed where it is, provides the taker with such a small place to aim for (about six ball widths wide, one-and-a-half high) that the taker may look for other ways for his/her team to score. with mannequins, a goalkeeper and practice, the lighter football boot with improved grip and the more responsive ball, has made what was once almost impossible up until the 1950's seem commonplace.

I once scored an amazing free kick in the last second of a power league game to make it 7-7. Sadly, it remains one of my top two footballing moments ever.

Outside of the boot, swerved low, around the wall, and zinged in off the post.