Set Pieces

Yanks Abroad recently ran an article about the importance of set pieces at the World Cup, and Claudio Reyna also mentioned it in a recent press conference:

“There have been dangerous moments and goals from free kicks and corners already and we need to be fully aware of that at both ends of the field.”

Apparently 29% of goals at Japorea 2002 came from dead ball siuations, and the trend has continued at Germany 2006. There was England’s winner against Paraguay, for example, or Bravo’s first goal for Mexico today. The question is, do we have what it takes to defend and attack effectively from set pieces?

Here’s how I see it:

Good in the air- Eddie Pope, Oguchi Onyewu, Brian McBride, Eddie Johnson

Good in the air (but very unlikely to start)- Brian Ching, Gregg Berhalter, Carlos Bocanegra, Jimmy Conrad

Not sure- Clint Dempsey (he’s tall, and he’s score headers via well-timed runs, but can’t decide if he often wins contested headers)

Taking set pieces (no order of preference)- Eddie Lewis, Bobby Convey, Landon Donovan, John O’Brien

Looking at these lists, there’s no reason we can’t score from set pieces. But it’s slightly worrying that, depending on the starting eleven, we could be defending corners and free kicks with only Pope, Onyewu and McBride being strong in the air.