Wasatch Soccer Sentinel
Joao Plata’s first goal of 2017 was more than just a moment of relief for the striker — it was a demonstration that his movement and understanding with the attackers around him is progressing at a real clip.
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First, we have to go back to a failed cross from Philadelphia and a nice bit of hard work from Tony Beltran. We talked about Beltran’s effort here and how his hard work makes a difference — and there’s no better place to start when we’re talking about this goal.
Beltran feeds Savarino on the left flank. Let’s move forward to the next pass.
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Savarino’s run up the flank is fairly uncontested, and he ends his run with a nice pass to Joao Plata. Here, we have four Real Salt Lake players visible. Tony Beltran is making a run up the right, but that leaves us with a five-on-six situation. Clearly, we score here, so let’s talk about how we get there.
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Plata drops the ball right to Rusnak, and Plata doesn’t push too far forward after receiving the ball. In fact, think of him here as tied to Rusnak with a rubber band. He’ll move forward when Rusnak does and not a moment sooner. That won’t stay the case, of course, but it’s important here because it keeps Plata (1) in a position to receive the ball, and (2) between the two banks of defensive players.
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There’s Tony Beltran streaming in. He’s receiving a pass from Rusnak, who waited well for an opportunity. He could have tried to force a pass, but this run is going to open everything up. No player is in a great position to deal with Beltran, so you can see a defender starting to break from his position.
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Here, we can see why it’s important that Plata has stayed where he is. Beltran zips a sideways pass to him, and this is where the magic starts. Important things to note here: Jefferson Savarino is keeping two defenders busy, one of which is also trying to pay attention to Plata. Look at that — Plata is completely free. He hasn’t even moved much, but he hasn’t had to.
From here, it’s just a bit of magic. Let’s just watch a video.
Notice how Plata broke that rubber-banding? He’s stayed free of too much defensive attention (which, frankly, is ridiculous — I know he’s been out of form, but ignore Plata at your own peril) and that’s given him the time and space to make a run. The finish is good, the cross is fantastic — but it’s the movement that makes the biggest difference.
