Aussie teams are regularly lionised and glorified as the underdogs, a David fighting against overwhelming odds and tribulation of Goliath, and for good reason.
From Mark Schwarzer’s body-on-the-line stops to John Aloisi’s ice-cool penalty in 2005, Aussie teams have shown courage in spades. It’s therefore a pity that they are timid in one particular area of football: heading the ball.
It starts at the top. Coaches are afraid, and their fear infects the players. Clubs end up hamstrung because of this.
Consider this scenario. A keeper punts a long kick upfield from a restart. The players gather at the drop zone, waiting in anticipation. A scene repeated ad infinum in world football.
Yet here is where Aussie teams differ from their Asian counterparts. Whereas Korean and Japanese teams tend to chest the ball down or control the ball with their foot, Australians smack their foreheads against the ball.
This is not an isolated example. In every situation where the player has a choice between heading and controlling the ball, Austrlians head nine times out of ten.
Leaving aside the concern that excessive heading of the ball is linked to brain injury, there’s another problem with this: it’s a cop-out. It’s the easy choice.
It’s why Japanese and Korean teams have technique streets ahead of Australian ones – it’s because they take the harder option. They opt to control the ball. Sure, its stressful and high risk, but its precisely this pressure that allows them to develop the skill of controlling a ball under pressure.
And this is something Aussie coaches need to realise instead of reverting to dated tactics like, “Smithy, head the damn ball away!”.
jbinnie
Guest
Brainstrust- This comment is based on an opinion you have of a certain player. To go back to the era when the favoured deployment of players was 2-3-5, that is two wingers playing as wide ball carriers and providing excellent crosses of the ball, you will find many players credited with being excellent "headers " of the ball. Names that jump to mind are Tommy Lawton and Geoff Astle playing in top English football and Willie Thornton,Jimmy Millar and Billy McPhail all of who played with top Scottish clubs of the time, but probably the best known "header " was Sandor Kocsis who played for the great Hungarian team of the early 50's. You may not be aware of the fact but McPhail and Astle both brought cases to industrial court to try and prove the connection between heading a ball and neurological problems in later life. Both cases were found to be "non provable", even though there are many other cases of death having been listed as "dementia" or "brain tumors" among other players of that era.Diego doesn't appear to be on that list. Cheers jb.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
The best header of the ball was Maradona of course he is only really 5 foot 4 and lies about his height, so he didn't get to reach that many, but one particular header is better than any others. It was a diving header from the side hit in like a corner. Cant find that video though. This other one might not seem that difficult to the posterboy or the serially deluded, but it is incredibly difficult . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRNRr0kJz0w
BLACKTOWN
Roar Rookie
Is answer that the biggest star of last..well ever Tim Cahill was such a master at the art..
jbinnie
Guest
Chen - Haven't come across your work before but find this topic you have chosen to be strangely vague in it's reference to one of the most important skills in the game ,heading a ball. Medical science has been arguing for years over the long term effects of professional players constantly heading a ball and in effect, to the best of my knowledge, there has been 2 major court cases fought over this subject, without resolution. Now there are a couple of things that have to be remembered historically if any credence has to be given to the claims of players, or their wives. One is that in years gone by footballs were manufactured in a leather that absorbed moisture so that after a reasonable period of time the ball actually became much heavier and that factor, allied to the fact that the ball was also "closed" by using a lacing action, the ball sometime did have a raised part on it's surface that could cause cuts and grazes. As you are no doubt aware the ball is now "waterproof",retaining it's starting weight. and is inflated through a small ,self-sealing hole, so those arguments no longer "hold water". (no pun intended). So we come back to your discussion point.Heading a ball is an extremely good weapon for a professional football player who not only plays in defence but in fact can also be used in the attack mode.You see you appear to base your argument on high clearing balls which in fact only really occur when a defensive player is frantically trying to clear "his lines" but it shouldn't be forgotten that in today's "playing out from the back",the head can also be used instead of the feet to pass a ball speedily and accurately to a team-mate thereby commencing a retaliation attack. There is little doubt the skill of heading has gone backwards in recent years but close study of various techniques will show that it appears the skill is not being properly addressed at junior levels, with the result we have players in our top league still showing all that is wrong when heading a ball. For instance, the forehead should always,if possible, be used as the point of contact and the power should not be generated by the neck muscles but in fact the lower back and torso muscles should be brought to bear simply by body technique. Today there is a dearth of "good headers" in our teams .and so widespread is this problem that one has to look back to the lower grassroots level if one has to find the answers. Cheers jb.
At work
Roar Rookie
Pretty sure this quote is from the 70’s “Smithy, head the damn ball away!”.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
“This is not an isolated example. In every situation where the player has a choice between heading and controlling the ball, Austrlians head nine times out of ten.” Someone has collected this stat??? Hahaha
Onside
Guest
Does the quality of pitch conditions in Australia have an impact . I watched the Brazil v Oz game in Montpellier, and was envious of the beautiful surface of the pitch and imagined what the game might be like in Australia if our teams didn't have to co habit with rugby and rock concerts.