Video review is one of the essential elements of getting better at soccer. Players can get a look at what they’re doing well, what mistakes they’ve made, and how to get better. Sometimes, it’s tough to look at. Sometimes, there’s a very child-made-to eat-vegetables quality about it. But it makes players better. It can make us fans better as well.
So, come on a journey with me: 43 goals have been scored against Austin FC in 27 games so far this season. That’s 1.59 goals a game, though some games (I can think of two in particular) have skewed this rate. Should this rate hold, Austin would finish with 54 goals let in, not as dire as the 56 let in during the inaugural season.
If you’ve seen this exercise before via Chris Bils back in his Striker days, you know how it goes. The linked article was actually inspired by a comment Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff made in the midst of the team’s defensive struggles during part of last season, where he said the team reviewed all the goals scored against them the past 10 games. Chris decided to do the same, because that’s Chris.
We’ll split this into two articles because there’s a lot to get to. We’ll use the three categories Bils used to establish the game state when the goal happened: In defensive posture, set piece, and transition. We’ll also add a fourth out of necessity: WPIOOTBGW, when playing it out of the back goes wrong.
If it’s a goal resulting from an awarded penalty kick, we’ll look at the play that led to the penalty being given.
In some cases, there’s an individual or two you can blame it on squarely, but in other cases, there’s a fuller team breakdown where certain players might be where things break down, but it’s a salvageable situation if others step up to their capabilities. And then, sometimes, Denis Bouanga is on a heater and there’s not much you can do.
Let’s dive in. (The embedded links all go to MLSSoccer.com’s goal highlight videos, if you want to compare notes. Remember this is a subjective exercise. I welcome your alternate takes in the comments, as long as you’re nice about it.)
