CHESTER, Pa. — When he was asked after the game about his team’s unique free kick setup, which consisted of Philadelphia Union players setting up a wall behind Orlando City SC’s actual free kick wall, Tranquillo Barnetta admitted he wasn’t sure what his teammates were doing.
“Actually I don’t know,” Barnetta said. “I wasn’t at the free kicks (when we went over it).”
But once he realized how the secondary wall set up by Union players distracted Orlando City goalkeeper Joe Bendik, he took the initiative to take the free kick.
“We talked at the second one with Leo (Fernandes) and Fabian (Herbers) because they are lefties who could take it and I said let’s wait to see where the keeper is positioned,” Barnetta said. “I saw that he was not comfortable because he couldn’t see the ball and then I said yeah come on I take it.
“You saw the keeper he had no view to the ball and it was a little bit confusing for them because they saw the wall was like offsides, but they stepped two yards forward when I shot it,” Barnetta said. “I think that’s a really good idea to take the view off the keeper.”
Manager Jim Curtin admitted the Union picked up on the secondary wall routine from another team, although he didn’t specifically identify the club.
“The second wall, if you will, the timing of that gives a distraction,”Curtin said. “Something we picked up from another team that was successful with it. It provides a little bit of a different look. We checked with the linesman on the first (free kick) they did when Tranquillo hit it way over. Just to make sure the wall wasn’t offsides and there wouldn’t have been an issue. It was good and the second time they executed it well. We were fortunate to get two fouls from the same look.”
The Union were able to take the free kick from 25 yards out thanks to the play of C.J. Sapong, who played a role in both of the club’s strikes on Friday night.
Sapong opened the scoring in the second minute thanks to a hustle play in front of the net in which he capitalized on a poor clearance by Rafael Ramos.
Although the Union looked like the better side for long stretches of the match, the team and its head coach continue to preach that there are plenty of things that need to be corrected moving forward.
“That’s the one message I have after five games,” Curtin said. “It’s still early, but we are a good team. We’re going to continue to get better. We have a lot to work on still. The bar can be raised.”
Achieving first place in the Eastern Conference at this point in the season also means little to the Union despite not being anywhere close to the top of the table in recent years.
“It’s better than being at the bottom of the standings, but it’s too early to look at the standings,” Sebastien Le Toux said. “It’s good that we won at home but we want to move onto the next game and get three points.”
I haven’t seen the play, but if the Union wall was in an offside position at the moment of the kick and was blocking the keeper’s view of the ball, that counts as gaining an advantage and should have been called for offside.
They certainly were in an offside position. I don’t know the fine print of the rule, but apparently you are wrong. Regardless, the free kick was inch prefect, off the under side of the bar and in. I’m not sure the pseudo wall actually had any influence on the play, or whether that influence would have mattered anyway.
I wondered why the GK barely moved. Now it is understandable; he didn’t see the ball until way too late. I like to see teams try new ideas on free kicks and have wondered why they don’t try more new ideas. For example, there are numerous times when I think that when there is a long wall the kicking team should try a pass to the outside of the wall to a teammate who runs onto the ball from outside the wall. One thing I don’t like, though, is short corner kicks. They probably produce nothing about 99% of the time. Almost always a total waste and often lead to the ball going backward and without a shot being taken on goal.
That was a beauty of a free kick! GOTW contender considering late game 3 point saver.
That was followed up by Blake’s SOTW two minutes later – check it out if you haven’t seen it!