PICTURE IT NOW: David Beckham pings in a trademark free kick in the closing stages of the World Cup final in Berlin on July 9. His team-mates miss the ball, but Gabriel Heinze, the Argentina defender, gets a touch and guides it into his own net. Minutes later, the final whistle blows, England win 2-1 and are crowned world champions.
Would you really mind that, again, Sven- Göran Eriksson’s men had had to rely on a set-piece to score? Would it really matter that “Heinze 87 (og)” was entered in the record books as the defining moment? As a nation rejoiced, erasing 40 years of hurt, I think not. No Englishman or woman would give a damn.
That’s the point. Leo Beenhakker, the Trinidad & Tobago coach, can pontificate all he wants about England’s over-reliance on set-pieces as a source of goals, but you can never be too reliant on them. They are an important part of the game, so you should use them to your advantage, especially because England have one of the most lethal dead-ball exponents in the world in Beckham.
As Beckham hunches over a free kick, you can almost see the opponents quiver. Most of them, even the best defenders in the world, haven’t a clue how to defend it. Neither have the goalkeepers. If, as is often the case, Beckham delivers the ball at pace — and with a degree of swerve, spin or dip — it is nigh on impossible to keep out. Just the slightest of touches, inadvertent or otherwise, and it will end up in the net.
We have seen it all too clearly in England’s past two matches. Jermaine Taylor headed in an own goal from a Beckham free kick in England’s 6-0 win over Jamaica at Old Trafford; Carlos Gamarra, the Paraguay captain, did the same in England’s 1-0 win in their opening group B match in Frankfurt. And look at Spain’s opening goal in their 4-0 victory over Ukraine in Leipzig yesterday: the corner was driven in accurately to the near post and Xabi Alonso needed only the faintest of contacts to score.
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And so what? A goal is a goal. Beckham offers much more, but at these times he is like a kicker in American football, someone like the legendary Jan Stenerud, of the Kansas City Chiefs, who came on to the pitch just for the field-goal and extra-point attempts. He was an out-and-out specialist, having honed his skills to perfection, and Beckham is cut from the same cloth. Roberto Carlos, of Brazil, and Juan Román Riquelme, of Argentina, also.
I would like to see, though, Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard take a few more free kicks for England. Invariably, it is Beckham who steps forward and he is the master. However, when a shot on goal is possible — rather than just providing an opportunity for a team-mate (or an opposing defender) — Lampard and Gerrard are equally capable of producing power and precision. That, too, can lead to deflections, the bane of the defender and goalkeeper, and prove similarly effective.
Beenhakker and his Trinidad & Tobago team will have to have done their homework if they are to nullify the “Beckham effect” today. The England captain’s free kicks can be defended, by practising over and over in training, by the players keeping their bodies together and following the line of the ball. By keeping on their toes, by not letting the England players, especially the elusive John Terry, get away from them, by not giving them that half a yard. It can be done.
Another solution is more obvious: don’t concede fouls anywhere within 30 yards of the goal, particularly in the wide areas. If you’re going to give away a free kick, make sure it is in the England half. Foul in the good areas, not the bad areas, not in Beckham territory. If Trinidad & Tobago do all that, they might have half a chance, but I doubt it. I don’t think they will be able to stop him. I’m not sure that any team can.