Wow! A Lightning Break
- aaronptighe
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
The scene is Old Trafford, Manchester. Title-chasing Man City have a free kick centrally outside United’s box. Let’s take a 1st-person view of Mbeumo’s fantastic lightning-quick breakaway goal.
(watch 35 seconds into video)
1st-person view:
I’m in a two-man wall. We have everyone back. Free-kick taker Cherki approaches the ball; it’s a chip. The ball loops over us to the right into the box. Look around: Maguire rises to meet it and heads the ball away with power. It’s coming towards me. If I can get turned quickly as it arrives, we might be able to break away fast. With Amad and me, we can burn up the pitch with pace. The ball is dropping. Amad is moving away to the right. It’s my ball. Let the pace of the ball take it past me as it bounces, and turn with it, facing up the pitch.
Cherki comes into tackle; flick the ball over his foot with my left foot into the space behind him. Yes! We’re clear. The ball has run to Fernandes’s feet. He’s on it. Now let’s go full pace into the space. City only have two defenders back now, retreating from the halfway line; we are clear to run at them, Amad to the right, Fernandes left, and I’m centre. We’ve reached the halfway line. The City defenders are retreating to my right, covering Amad’s side. The open space for me is the inside-left channel. OK, change direction now with a diagonal run to the left into that space in front of and across Fernandes, who is now central, running at them with Amad still sprinting forward on the right.
I’m reaching the edge of the D. Keep plenty of space now between me and the nearest defender, who’s at the edge of the box. Fernandes releases the pass. The ball glides across the grass like an arrow, cutting through the space perfectly between the defender and me, exactly to where I’ll reach it inside the box on a slight angle to goal. I can see out of the top of my gaze that Donnarumma in goal is covering the near post and centre, leaving the right inside-post area as my target. No need for a touch. The ball comes across me. Focus on getting up to the ball, with my right foot placed next to it to keep the ball down, and left-foot laces through the centre of the ball towards that right corner. Connect! Away the ball goes—perfect—it slashes across the grass beyond Donnarumma’s outstretched hand and rustles in the corner netting in front of a wild Stretford End. Goal!
What a lightning-fast break this was. Without doubt, the team had prepped for fast breakaways as a way to score against City. The players knew instinctively to attack with immediate, devastating speed. Mbeumo’s diagonal run to the left into the space was quite brilliant and gave the two defenders a difficult choice. The timing and accuracy of the Fernandes pass were wonderful, and that was an instinctive finish, something, as a professional attacker, you practise so much that you literally just have to visualise your target and hit it
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Aaron Tighe
Founder, One2Pro
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