Southampton‘s James Ward-Prowse is fast becoming the free-kick specialist the Premier League thought it had lost for ever when David Beckham quit Manchester United to join Real Madrid.
Well, maybe the league hadn’t lost the essence of that supreme talent. The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba and Gareth Bale all knew how to find the net from a dead ball at the edge of the area.
But the sight of the ball curling from right to left, over the wall and evading a hapless goalkeeper and into the top corner, was Beckham’s trademark talent. Never again would we witness a player who could so masterfully caress the ball above a rabble of opposition players who already knew their fate and find that obscure corner of the goal inaccessible to even the greatest of keepers.
The aforementioned free-kick takers were different in this regard. Ronaldo and Bale – during the Welshman’s first stint at Tottenham – would seek to hit the valve of the football in order to alter its trajectory as it rocketed towards goal. Drogba would simply thunder the ball into the roof of the net. Outside of England, Roberto Carlos and Juninho Pernambucano were masterful in their art.
But the goals these players scored were impactful, almost brutish. There’s still nothing quite like a curling free-kick. It is beautiful to watch – largely because it’s a skill most of us as kids try to perfect, with varying degrees of success. It’s also such a straightforward way of scoring – and yet so few players can execute it on a regular basis.
Last month was the 19th anniversary of Beckham’s sublime winner against Greece to ensure England qualified for the 2002 World Cup. His stance, the angle of the TV camera, the sheer gall of every fan inside Old Trafford expecting him to score before he’d even kicked it – it’s the type of goal you know is coming as soon as the referee blows for the foul.
Of course, Beckham benefitted from a ball design that fit his way of striking. Lighter than those played in the 1980s and early 1990s, still using multiple panels for greater drag in the air, but not the fly-weight balloons we see today.
Just like Steph Curry going for a three-pointer with seconds to spare, or Jonny Wilkinson eyeing up a penalty kick, or Tom Brady launching an 80-yard inch-perfect pass into the hands of his receiver, the curling free-kick is a powerful symbol of inevitable success.
And what Ward-Prowse offered at Villa Park was a trip down memory lane for the 30-something football fan who tried to bend it like Beckham in the park every Sunday.
His first – just after the half-hour mark – was effectively a penalty kick with men watching in front, rather than behind. Just left of the D, a perfect spot to whip the ball in the inside foot and curl it out of reach of Emiliano Martínez. His second – this time dead centre – was just as accurate and left the goalkeeper flatfooted, watching and unable to move.
Two Premier League goals scored from a position some managers in the Champions League may consider futile. After all, only one goal of 386 in Europe’s elite club competition last season was scored from a direct free-kick. It’s just not the done thing.
Yet Saints fans aren’t surprised by the midfielder’s talents. After all, his second on Sunday saw him edge past club legend Matt Le Tissier for the most Southampton free-kicks scored in the Premier League (8).
“Not even remotely bothered he’s overtaken my free kick tally,” Le Tissier tweeted. “Couldn’t have wished for a nicer lad to beat it @Prowsey16.”
Le Tissier himself was certainly more crafted than Bale or Drogba when it came to taking a dead ball. But the former striker arguably didn’t have the absolute dead-eye that the likes of Beckham and Ronaldo made famous during their careers. And it’s something Ward-Prowse has in his arsenal.
Of course, Saints youth product is yet to deliver the masterclass of all free-kicks – Le Tissier’s scoop and volley against Wimbledon back in 1994.
But with the ability to bend it like Ward-Prowse, the 26-year-old doesn’t need to prove anything.
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/35TLwtt
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