Crossing the Ball - 101

[bdiddy]

So far this year i've noticed very few of our players having the proper ability to put a quality cross in consistently. Even on set plays, in the span of 5 minutes last night against the Islanders, I saw Brennan, Cronin and DeRo miss, come up short on about 5 or 6 crosses. This is not just a problem last night, but a problem in most games.

Lots of work down the wings, good overlapping runs, good presence in the middle of the field then bang, too short, off a head, bang, way too long, no chance.

Plus, i'm not sure what you guys think, but all the crosses sent in had no pace. They were lightly crossed balls, with no pace that let many of the defenders attack and kick the ball away, as our guys stood their hoping that it might slip through.

The only real quality crosses I saw last night came from Chad Barrett, he had a couple that came in fast and accurate that caused problems. Overall i'm pretty impressed at his ability to cross a ball fairly accurately more often than some of our other team members.

Guevara is usually a very solid crosser, we could have used him last night too.

But once again, this is about crossing the ball, not last night's game.

Diddy,

[MG42]

lol, if I see another chest high cross hit the first defender I don't know what I'll do.

[Carefree]

Chad has impressed me a few times with his running crosses recently. IMO he plays a lot better on the sides than in the middle. Wynne also had a few good ones last night and in Columbus.

Robbo, Brennan and DeRo were pathetic in their passing last night. The worst I've ever seen. Practically all their forward passes (and a few back passes too) got intercepted.

And what is up with Cronin and his mortal fear of shooting the goddamn ball??? Twice last night he had a direct shot on goal but he just froze, looked around for a teammate to pass to, and got the ball stripped away. He's a gread defensive mid, but he needs to work on his attack more.

[Chevy]

The crosses were chest high because our front line last night were all 5'5". lol.

[billyfly]

What is this "crossing" you speak of?

[BleedRed]

Just because crosses are short and not always dipping into the box doesn't mean they aren't good crosses. It also depends on the ability of the striker to control or flick on the crosses coming in. At one point of the game Brennan sent in 3-4 great crosses in the time span of 2 minutes and nothing was done with any of them. The positioning of our strikers is also at fault I would say.

[Steve]

Yeah, our attack got predictable.

Robbo gets the ball, passes to Jimmy, who runs down the flank, puts a cross in that... hits the first defender. I lost count of the number of times that happened. Seriously, the first defender? Even if the cross isn't pinpoint accurate, or fast, it has to at least get to the box and open the possibility of a good bounce.

[BleedRed]

It hits the first defender because there is no forward in front of that defender...

[rocker]

Barrett's quick cross to De Ro was very good. really short backswing on his kick, but he hit it hard and accurately to a running De Ro.

[Krasno.pL.]

Turf

[OHARARULES]

Our shitty crosses last night had no target! they were blind useless crosses into the box! What's up with the garbage set plays in the corners. I was struggling to understand that at all.. I think it's time for MO to release the "interm coach" title from Cummins.. and give the title of Coach to someone that can do the job.. ARGH I am still so frustrated from last nights performance..

[STB]

Why can no TFC players cross ?? Because we have no wingers.

We have had no proper wide men since the heady days of Mr Andy Welsh

If we dont have wide men in the squad we should be playing neat long balls to Gerba and Dichio so dero and guevara can run onto the knock downs.

Last night we had 2 naturally wider players in Wynne and Brennan and everyone else likes to play through the middle, no wonder attempting a 451 didnt work as it relies on good delivery

[jabbronies]

Mr Beckham believes no one in the league knows how to cross. That's why he wanted to start up that ball crossing training session.

[bdiddy]

As much as Mr. Beckham is kind of annoying, it's true, there aren't that many quality players that can send a strong cross into the box and have it be dangerous on any level of consistency.