Rlly? Here again??
You should be excited today. It is Wednesday and Wednesday means weekly analysis.
Today is even more exciting than usual, if it could be. Last weekend, in Matosinhos, Portugal hosted the European Champions League final 4. Damn good games.
Hockey gods give us extra time on almost all the games. Which means 10 extra minutes of good damn hockey. Portugal was the main character not only due to the location, 3 of 4 teams were Portuguese, and Benfica was the favorite to get the cup with them.
SPOILER ALERT, it did not happen.
Spread the roller hockey word
As a reminder, Follow this steps:
- Take a look at the video:
- Read and think about the analysis.
- Match the analysis and the video. Min 0:28
Today we are not analysing a goal, weird isn’t it?I saw this goal opportunity and I decided to keep the series from behind the cage, but giving it a small twist. I'm going to talk about the goal keeper as well.
Because Mali, Porto’s keeper is a bit different to the average goalies.
As all the plays we analyse about playing behind the goal cage, the attackers move the game from 7 to 0, as fast as they can. Looking for that accordion movement, opening the defence and then compressing the defence again.
As they compress defence moving the ball back to 7, one Benfica player stays in 0, for two reasons: getting one defender out of the equation; and giving the option of a long distance shot. Killing two birds with a stone.
There is something to note, Ze Miranda (Benfica Nº3) when he gets the ball on 0 he starts skating through the wall faster than a cannonball looking for the space and giving the sense of danger to the defence, saying to them “if you get relax I’m going in”. Ze Miranda is smart not skating towards the middle because it is covered by the defender on the weak side and his defender.
Check this out, Ze Miranda, passes the ball to 7 and instantly cuts in to 9. Now there are 3 things to look at: