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At the time of writing, Sydney FC are currently 1st in the A-League by 13 points and on course to become regular season premiers for the third time in four years. Sydney FC are dominating the league, scoring the most goals (34) and conceding the second least (12). As with any elite team, Sydney FC are attempting to make marginal gains in their strive for A-League success. A great way to achieve this that multiple teams worldwide are adopting is focusing on scoring from corners. Sydney FC have an average of 4 attacking corners per game, with an excellent conversion rate of 10.17%. In this article, I will analyse all corners in which Sydney FC have scored from as well as showcasing some corner routines which were not so great. I will also provide some interesting observations from their corners.

Goal Analysis

Adelaide United vs Sydney FC. Round 1. 2-3

This corner provides an example of how zonal marking can be countered. Here, two Sydney FC players begin their runs from deeper. This provides them with an ability to leap at speed.

At this corner, Adelaide are defending zonally in a 3-5 structure, with another player standing to the right of the penalty spot. Sydney have two players running towards the 6-yard box, due to the deeper zonal marking system these players are unmarked as they run. There are 2 players on both corners of the 6-yard box, this is to potentially stretch the markers and push back the defensive line deeper to create extra space for the target runners by or is just for more bodies in the box to receive the ball. Another 2 players are positioned in the middle of the 6-yard box. It is unlikely they will receive the initial ball due to Adelaide’s defensive overload in this area, although they are in a good position to get a flick on from a second ball if available. A player outside of the box is well situated to be on the end of a defensive clearance, letting him deliver the ball back into a dangerous area. This goal provides an example of her proper planning and research into how the opponents defend set pieces can result in an easy goal, and in this case, the game-winner.

Sydney FC vs Wellington Phoenix. Round 2. 2-1

This corner demonstrates one of the main downsides of man-marking, second balls. Often on the second ball from corners, defenders usually focus heavily on the ball rather than continuing the track their man.

At this corner Wellington have 6 players man-marking and 4 players marking zonally, with 3 of them being inside the 6-yard box. As the corner is taken, Sydney have a player running towards the near post zone in order to drag his marker. Another player is tasked with purely moving towards and standing at the back post, I assume this was intended to drag a marker with him or for him to be in a good position to attack the second ball. At this corner, the goal scorer’s marker loses him almost as soon as the ball is kicked. This combined with his technical skill and ability to get a shot of under pressure resulted in a goal for Sydney FC.

Sydney FC vs Newcastle Jets. Round 4. 4-1

Although this corner ends as an own goal, I’ll still count this as a Sydney FC corner goal. This corner displays a trademark Sydney FC tactic, a player running towards the direction of the corner taker in order to drag out one or multiple markers to create space for the initial attacking contact.

At this corner, Newcastle have 4 players zonally marking inside the 6-yard box and 3 players man-marking, with another player at the edge of the box. This corner perfectly shows how to NOT mark zonally. As soon as the ball is sent in, 3 Newcastle players who were tasked with zonal marking make an attempt to clear the ball, with all of them leaving their initial position, this completely breaks up their defensive structure. 2 Sydney players move towards both posts in order to attack the second ball, they make no attempt for the ball but are in perfect positions for the knockdown. This corner also demonstrates how to correctly manipulate markers using screens and dummy runs. One Sydney player stands and screens his marker, with another moving towards the corner taker. The screen blocks the opposition player from making an attempt at the ball and the dummy run drags out Newcastle players and creates a large free zone for the target player to have a free volley near the penalty spot. The 3 Sydney players standing close to each other before the delivery also disrupts the man-marking as it makes it hard for the opposition players to get tight to their man. The shot ends up being swung at by a Newcastle player, resulting in an own goal. Although the 2 players at each post were in great positions to receive the ball if the opposition player didn’t knock it into his own net.

Sydney FC vs Melbourne United. Round 6. 2-1

This corner shows how important is for both the attacking and defending team to maintain concentration after the initial shot from a corner. It also displays how correct man-marking is crucial to prevent a team from scoring.

This corner begins with the classic Sydney player running towards the corner taker to drag out a marker from the already poor defensive structure of Melbourne Victory. 2 Sydney players are located inside and on the edge of the 6-yard box, this disrupts the Melbourne defence as well as putting the players in good positions for the second ball. 3 Sydney players are situated in the middle of the box, with 2 of them making runs into the 6-yard box and the other moving towards the edge of the box. One of these players is the intended delivery target as all the other players are manipulating their markers in order for him to get his head on the delivery. This plays out perfectly for Sydney due to the lazy marking of the opposition. At the beginning of the corner, there is no one marking the target player, but he is soon picked up by a Melbourne player, albeit a poor effort at tracking his run. He gets his head on the initial delivery and it bounces up into the path of a teammate, who is unmarked and scores easily from on the second ball. This shows how crucial it is for defenders to constantly stay tight to their man until the danger is fully cleared. This corner also provides another example of how purely man-marking from corners is flawed.

Western United vs Sydney FC. Round 8. 0-2

This goal is a perfect example of how a well-rehearsed corner routine can lead to an excellent goal. All players here make excellent runs that do well to manipulate the oppositions defensive structure.

Western United are defending in a man-marking scheme, with one player on the near post. Sydney FC have three players starting in the 6-yard box. One player is tasked with standing near the keeper, disrupting his movement as well as blocking a defender moving for the ball. The 2 other Sydney players in the 6-yard box make identical runs towards the corner taker. These runs perfectly drag their markers away from the target delivery zone, the back post. 3 Sydney players are also standing in a line in the middle of the box. The first player in this ‘line’ feigns a run inside before moving towards the back post. This dummy run moves the marker and gives the player more room to move, he gets the initial shot which finds the back of the net. The second player in the line makes a wider run towards the back-post area to provide an extra body to connect with the ball. The third player runs inside, moving his marker away from the intended delivery area as well as putting himself in a good position for the second ball. This corner shows how easily a man-marking system can be manipulated just by making good runs, it also shows that the coaching staff have researched into how the opposition defends corners and built a great routine around this.

Sydney FC vs Adelaide United. Round 13. 2-1

Similar to the goal in Round 1, Adelaide United like to defend corners very deep with a mix of zonal and man marking. At this corner Adelaide had their whole team defending.

At this corner, Adelaide are defending extremely deeply in a zonal-oriented structure, with a few players man-marking. As with most Sydney corners, it begins with a player moving towards the corner taker in order to drag out markers. He takes a marker with him although Adelaide’s rigid structure means this movement doesn’t disrupt the defence compared to previous corners. 2 Sydney players stand inside the 6-yard box, with one player getting an initial shot after the defender misses a header. Similarly to past Sydney attacking corners against teams defending zonally, they set up with 3 players starting from deep. Beginning runs from deeper against zonal-marking gives the player time to gather speed, therefore being able to make a bigger leap and get more power on the ball, it is also harder for the defender to track the run of a player moving at pace. At this corner, the 3 players all had different roles. One player made an initial run before peeling off and standing just inside of the box, putting them in a good area to gather a defensive clearance and have a shot. Another player moves towards the back post and end up scoring after the keeper parried the ball in his direction. His movement was excellent as there was no Adelaide player in that zone, giving him a free shot. The other player who starts from deep makes a decent run, but the ball does not fall towards him. This goal shows how to well attack against a zonal-marking defence, through making runs from distance as well as trying to disrupt opposition players in the 6-yard box.

Short Corners (eek!)

Unfortunately, not all corners were good for Sydney FC. In particular, their short corners were poor. These include corners that were passed to players near the edge of the box. I classed 32% of Sydney corners as a short corner, with a conversion rate of 0%. This is a very poor number and you can see why through the few videos below.

Small compilation of poor short corners

Most short corners by Sydney seemed to be going well at the start of the routine before breaking down due to poor communication/organisation. Although this has been a particular poor part of Sydney’s corners so far this season, it wouldn’t be too hard to improve on in my opinion as some of these short corners were interesting routines that did have promise. An interesting observation that I made regarding short corners was that against Adelaide United who were defending zonally with all players back, Sydney FC opted for short corners. Perhaps Sydney’s short corners weren’t all about scoring directly, but rather keeping possession in order to capitalise on an unset defence after a corner, although no goals came after these types of corners.

Observations

• A large majority of Sydney FC’s corners were in-swingers. According to this paper from Paul Power, teams have a 2.7% chance of scoring from an in-swinging corner, compared to 2.2% from out-swingers or driven corners.



• Sydney FC’s conversion rate from corners is superb, scoring 10.17% of all corners. Thanks to the excellent Stuart Reid, I was able to see that the average A-League conversion rate is 2.87%.



• As you may have noticed, most corners involved at least one Sydney player moving towards the corner taker. This drags out defenders and gives attacking players room to move into. This tactic is easy and extremely effective, especially against man-marking.

Conclusion

Full credit must go to Steve Corica and his coaching staff for making Sydney FC such a threat from corners, they have obviously put a lot of time and effort into increasing their ability to score from here. As I said prior, making marginal gains in these areas can go a long way in the grand scheme of things. I am not able to give Sydney FC many recommendations on how to go about their set pieces through the rest of the season, other than looking into their short corners and perhaps increasing focus on organisation during these routines. Other than this, the team is ticking all the boxes regarding their attacking corners and I’m sure they will reap the rewards for this at the end of the season, and will cause other teams to further look at increasing focus on training well-rehearsed corners.

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