If you’re for something to buy for Christmas or you just need some coaching manuals there’s a lot out there.

I can personally recommend these three books by my colleague Michael Beale, Chelsea FC Youth Development Officer. I’ve read all his books – they’re a must-have for any budding coach who wants to advance their team.

Coaching defending to young players is difficult, kids are brought up to think that scoring is everything. Perfect Defending is a new coaching manual containing a series of fun drills that focus entirely on defending. the 67 drills and games in Perfect Defending cover the complete range of defending skills and techniques to help your defenders improve in every department.

64 Small-Sided Football Games is a compilation of games tried, tested and proven with both grassroots beginners and top youth players in professional academies. If you are serious about soccer coaching, you need this book in your kit bag.

Football Attack! contains 80 shooting drills that teach an array of skills, techniques and strategies to give your team an edge. They offer a solution for nearly all attacking problems  They mirror game situations, helping your players make the right decisions in matches  The drills train your players in a range of attacking positions  Every drill requires at least 1 shot at goal! 

In my last blog I wrote about how Ronaldinho was once again looking the complete player and how he created space for himself and the team.

What it means to be a player like that is a lot of hard work! However much skill a player has and however good their positional sense is, you can be sure these players work hard at every exercise they do.

At the Nike Academy, coach Dean Smith refers to it coaching the four Rs. Receiving the ball, Releasing the ball, Retaining the ball and Running with the ball.

You have to make sure you are coaching your players in each of these disciplines. In my coaching publications I make sure I cover each of these with exercises designed to give you the tools to get your players to practice each of them,

Watch Dean coaching his Nike team

I want to get results from all around the world on my blog so click on the heading then post your results in the comment area..

Ronaldinho gave a timely reminder to the Brazil coach Dunga that he is back on form. In the recent Champions league match playing for AC Milan against Olympic Marseille.

There’s been a lot written about how poor Ronaldinho’s form has been over the last couple of seasons but seeing that game is a pretty mouthwatering preview of what we can expect in the World Cup, if he gets picked by his international coach, but if he keeps this form up I can’t see him being left out.

How his team mates didn’t score from some of the passes he made I don’t know. What I lke is the way he creates space by skillful turns and skillful passes. When I write about passing the ball into space for players to run on to it is sometimes hard to get the point across, Ronaldinho does it for me in this game.

Show your players how Ronaldinho uses skill to create space for himself and then he plays the ball cleverly into space for players to run on to rather than to the player. He will often target an area to pass into where there are no players but where one of his team mates can be first to the ball.

It’s a masterclass in how a player can make a team play exciting attacking soccer. Watch this clip of him in the game:

This is a goal that I have to put among my favourites because of the build up and movement all over the pitch and the run off the ball by Theo Walcott to create the space for the goal.

There are so many coaching points in this clip it is worth showing your players.

Watch Walcott’s movement at the end of the move which drags Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, two of the world’s most experienced defenders, to create the space that allows Samir Nasri to score this goal.

It is the perfect example for any young player to watch, Walcott does not touch the ball yet has a big hand in creating the goal and Nasri explodes into the space to score.

Also look out for a great hook turn from Cesc Fabregas. The movement all over the pitch is very good.

It was pretty horrible playing in the wind this weekend and you have to think about your tactics because goalkicks, long through balls and clearances will all be affected depending on whether you are playing into the wind or not.

I have a load of tips for playing into the wind on my Better Soccer Coaching website.

Whether your players are kicking into the wind, or with the wind, follow these tips to keep youngsters’ shots, passes and goal kicks accurate.

Playing into the wind tips

Tell your players to keep it tight — short passing skills are needed into the wind. Any long balls will be held up by the wind and you will soon find you’re up against a fast breakaway attack.

In training drills practise holding the ball up — get your players to play balls into the attacker with his back to goal, creating opportunities for your midfielders to run with the ball.

At goalkicks, tell your goalkeeper to play out to the sides — a long kick down the middle would be suicide.

Playing with the wind tips
Tell your players to resist the temptation to blast long balls into the opposition half — your forwards will soon get tired of the ball going straight out of play.

But do let your goalkeeper unleash some long balls – get your forwards to cause chaos with the bouncing goalkicks by heading them towards goal.

Tell your forwards to test your opponents’ goalkeeper with high accurate shots.

Watch the highlights of this 2002 World cup qualifier between the Faroe Islands and Luxembourg. Wet and windy conditions provide some great moments!

And watch this tornado during a youth match

It was raining this weekend, it was muddy it was windy. Who in their right mind would be a goakeeper on days like this?

I always like to warm my goalkeeper up so they are ready when the match starts, on days like this weekend it is more than vital to do so. And you want to warm up the use of their feet because in these conditions it is the footwork that will often be the deciding factor when the ball is played in with the rain, wind and mud making handling treacherous.

I use this warm up all the time in the winter – and often during good weather as well! It’s so easy to set up and you can get a couple of dads to help out while you take the rest of the boy for other warm ups.

It’s one I got from Mike Toshack the goalkeeper coach for the Houston Dynamo. All you need is a goal and two cones with a couple of dads and balls.

Set it up like this:
Put two cones 5 yards in front of a goal in the centre, 4 yards apart creating three ‘goals’
You need a goalkeeper and two players or helpers
First helper passes to goalkeeper in the middle goal, who must pass firmly back with their right foot.
The goalkeeper then moves to the ‘goal’ on their right to save a shot from the second helper.
The goalkeeper then moves back to the centre goal to play a pass with their fet and sd so on. After 5 shots to the right the goalkeeper must then move to the goal area on their left.

You want to see the goalkeeper moving quickly between the goals.
Keep their hands and head steady.
Be on their toes ready to react to the ball.

Watch this clip of Mike Toshack the goalkeeper coach for the Houston Dynamo putting his players through the drill.

I always like to end my coaching sessions with a competition of some sorts that the players look forward too and lets them take their minds off the technical side of our sport and allow the fun side to envelope them for 10 minutes.

It ends the session on a high and all the players usually want more of the same. I know it makes them want to come back for the next session which is great news when you’re the coach.

So I use games like this end of training finishing drill which the US National Team use with their players.

It’s a simple miss and you’re out, score and you get another turn exercise. You are also getting players thinking without realizing it. Should they place it or go for power. Which technique will they use. They will all want to win so they will concentrate.

Watch this clip of the US team playing the exercise at the end of training.

Defender Steve Cherundolo is captain of the US team and plays for Hannover 96 in the German Bundesliga. He said: “When it matters I try and concentrate a bit more and score a few goals. It was fun.”

The winner of the drill this time was forward Jozy Altidore. He said (with a big grin): “I always want to be number one!”

Watch it here:

Author: Andre Botelho
Source: articledashboard.com

Trapping is one of the most important elements when it comes to caching, drills
, about soccer skill drills. Let me give you a brief insight into the same.

It is very important for the coach to teach, drills
, players how to use the foot to ‘capture’ balls descending, near or on the ground. For this, the players, drills
, should get in front of the ball.

They should learn to extend, drills
, the leg and foot forward of the body, anticipating the arrival, drills
, of the ball. When the ball meets the foot, the coach needs to teach the players how to pull the leg back to slow the ball, or ‘cushion’ the ball.

The ball will carom off the foot and out of control, drills
, of the player if they do not pull back their foot. If you are coaching a team of younger, drills
, players, it is better to start with the inside of the foot.

An expert coach knows that this is the largest, drills
, and most forgiving area of the foot and it will make the younger players learn the things more comfortably.

However, if you are, drills
, coaching a team of more advance players,, drills
, you can practice trapping with the instep or top of the foot and both inside and outside of the foot.

You should teach the players how to eventually advance to using the shin and ankle for higher or wildly bouncing balls.

The, drills
, thigh has a larger size and contains higher fatty tissue. Therefore, an expert coach knows that thighs could, drills
, be a very effective method for trapping both, drills
, slow and fast airborne passes below the chest,, drills
, drills
, . Have, drills
,, drills
, the player get in front of and square, drills
, to the incoming ball.

Teach them to stand on one foot and raise the other knee and thigh to meet the ball. Once contacted, the players should quickly drop the knee, allowing the ball to shortly ’stick’ to the, drills
, thigh. This practice should be continued until the ball, drills
, rolls from the thigh to the feet.

When it comes to, drills
, teaching trapping while coaching soccer skill drills, the theory for the chest theory is the same as the thigh, but execution is slightly different.

I have a lot of volleying practice sessions, but few of them are just for one player. Running and volleying usually means there needs to be a server who throws or crosses the ball to the volleying player, and that often means a lot of wasted time with overhit crosses or balls at the wrong height.

It takes hours of training to perfect the volley and you don’t want to spend too much time on it at your coaching sessions but this is something the players can do on their own.

In this exercise it is down to the player to flick the ball up then volley it. It’s a great game to give your players for homework that they can do in the back yard or down at the park.

Set up two goals 60 yards apart. 10 yards from each goal put a couple of cones, players run at jogging pace from one set of cones to the next, flick the ball up at the cones then volley it into the goal. Turn around then repeat the drill.

If you’re not sure of the technique check out my coaching publication Soccer Coach Weekly where I explain techniques in my Skills School column.

Watch the Dutch striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar doing the exercise in the clip below:

Quick counter attacks are one of the ways you can make sure your young team makes the most of winning the ball.

Catching a defence out when the team has won the ball relies on quick thinking and accurate passing. Defenders will struggle to keep up with the ball so an accurate pass and a quick thinking attacker can combine to create good goal scoring opportunities.

Young players can get over excited when they win the ball and just kick it in the general direction of the goal. You need to get them looking and thinking about where to put the ball to cause the most damage to the opposition.

Try this drill with your players, you score points by hitting targets a bit like being at the driving range with your golf clubs hitting different distances. In this video the coach uses baskets to hit but you can make target areas out of cones.

By Dave Clarke
At the ripe old age of 35 its amazing that Ryan Giggs is still good enough to win the PFA player of the year award which he did in April this year. One of the reasons for his longevity is that he is constantly on the training pitch going through his paces.

One of the best training exercises for any winger is the training he does so he can get pinpoint accuracy on his crosses. His delivery in to the box is the right weight and direction almost every time.

The secret behind his success is this little exercise.

If you look at the diagram the coach had split the penalty area up into very tight squares numbered one to ten. When he called out a zone to Giggs the player had to cross the ball so it landed in that square. It was a very precise exercise, the coach had a lot of balls and played it to either position 1 or position 2 for Giggs to run onto and cross first time to the called out zone.

As I was coaching under 15s I could use all the zones but for younger age groups you could just shout near, far and penalty spot. There is also an opportunity to practice cutbacks where the player is crossing the ball back to the edge of the penalty area for players running in.

For players who cannot cross the ball very far it is good practice for them to run onto the ball and cross it using a good technique – they will soon progress.

Can your players hit the target? I don’t know whether my U9s can because they won’t try. They had 16 corners at the weekend and not one shot from those corners. It was so frustrating, they passed and passed and passed, right in front of goal, it was almost as if they were too shy to shoot. Of course I love a good passing move, but from a corner I want them to be more direct – I want them to shoot!

So at my training session tonight I will give them target shooting practice.

The way to do it is to put some balls just outside the penalty area and get your players to shoot at goal from there.

Watch this clip of Wayne Rooney practicing shooting from outside the area and get your players doing the same thing.

By Dave Clarke

Fast feet, dribble, pass then finish. Now that would be impressive, but follow my tips for giving players fast feet, then get them to do the drill at the end from Pierre Barrieu the fitness coach for the US national team and you will find your players are able to do this on match days.

1. Obstacles

Use cones, kit bags, flag poles, players bodies, tracksuits and balls. Put them all on the ground as alternatives to specialist ladders. Make the players move through these obstacles, making sure they do not step on any.

2. Fast feet adventure courses

Set up courses which require lots of different footwork skills. Each player can be timed over the course, with seconds added for failure to complete a section correctly. For instance station one could be jumping back and forward over a kit bag six times, followed by a zig-zag through cones, then running backwards through some poles.

3. Slow, fast, slow

Sometimes footwork can become repetitive, without challenging the player. Change the rhythm of the footwork session by changing the pace of the activity. A fast foot exercise can be made harder by using small hurdles or poles laid flat on the ground and players have to go at different speeds through them.

Watch this clip of Pierre Barrieu the fitness coach for the US national team, with Charlie Davis and Michael Bradley from the US team. You can set this up and play it with your team:

By David Clarke

I’ve been focusing my young players on controlling high balls this weekend. It’s a skill that players need to set themselves up for a shot at goal. I can remember Eric Cantona of Manchester Utd and Leeds fame commenting that every night he threw balls high into the air and controlled them as they hit the ground.

At Barcelona they have a great drill that covers these points

Bringing down high balls
Close control
Setting up the shot
Accurate shooting

All you need are four cones a ball and a goal with target areas marked out. Put a couple of cones a few yards in from the posts on either side of the goal and call these the target areas. Put four cones in a 10 yard square around the penalty spot so the penalty spot is in the middle.

Players must start with their back or side to goal
Juggle the ball three or four times then kick high
Keep the ball inside the zone
Finish in the target areas either side of the goal

Watch how Barcelona coach it here:

Being in control from the touchline is not easy for coaches of young players. But few coaches take as much care during the vital minutes of the match as they do with the pre-match preparation.

ON MATCH DAYS MAKE A DIFFERENCE

1. DO find the right moment.
Information needs to be given when players are most receptive, in other words when they can concentrate on what you are saying. That is not in the middle of the game. Talk to them at the half-time break. Youth teams suffer the most from parents shouting out meaningless parents, confusing the main message you want to deliver. Your team needs to avoid conflicting messages.

2. DON’T micro-manage the game.
Some coaches feel it necessary to talk players through every move. This is potentially destructive because it stifles their instinct for the game and stops them using their skills (which probably exceed the coach’s). Positive encouragement will give players confidence. Psychologists tell us that it is better to say “hit the target” than “don’t miss”.

3. DO break the game down into chunks with achievable targets.
No shots on your goal from the opposition for the next ten minutes, keep play in their half of the pitch.

4. DON’T get distracted away from the game.
Talk to spectators and the other coaches afterwards. Your players need your full attention. Create a bubble for you and your team. Make sure at half-time the bubble continues.

5. DO watch first, worry later.
Keep your emotions under control – panic, anger, frustration and fear are all mind killers. Players depend on the coach to be the coolest head on the pitch. Observing from as many different watching angles as possible will enhance your perspective on the game.

6. DON’T argue with the referee.
It distracts the players and draws attention to the possible shortcomings of one person rather than the game in hand. It is also unlikely to have a positive influence on the outcome of the game and is not in the spirit of the game anyway. Referees and umpires of all levels and abilities will rarely change a decision once it’s been made and it may even turn them against you.

7. DO create and refer to a checklist.
When the game starts, as a coach you should be able to read effectively the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses and alter your strategy accordingly. Use a simple checklist with the tactic you will apply to counter strengths or exploit weaknesses. For instance, identifying their best player may change the way they are marked, or noting whether that player is left or right sided.

The lines on a soccer pitch can be used for more than just a match. You can make some great games up just by getting players to follow the lines and turn at right angles. Players have to control the ball running in straight lines on a pitch and it works well for your training sessions.

Check out this game, which helps players get used to changing pace and controlling the ball. It’s great fun for the players and good for their fitness too.

Watch the clip and get your players running around the lines:

I’ve had such a lot of feedback since I did my original blog The six best soccer (football) songs ever that I’ve had to come up with another six just to keep everyone happy. And, yes I know, there are a lot more.

Comment below with your favourite and I may do more…

Anyway here they are:

1. Best song GIVE HIM A BALL AND A YARD OF GRASS by Sultans of Ping – nominated by my publisher Kevin Barrow
see video at the bottom of the blog and sample lyrics from it

2, Best song in an advert UNDERDOG by Kasabian _ nominated by coach Pavl Williams
Click here to watch the Sony Bravia advert with Kaka

Or watch the full version of Kasabian Underdog

3. Best World Cup Song THREE LIONS by The Lightening Seeds
Watch Three Lions by The Lightening Seeds

4. Best Crowd Song MAS QUE NADA by Sergio Mendes
Watch the Brazil team in the Nike ad with Mas Que Nada

Watch the official Sergio Mendes version of Mas Que Nada

5. Best Ex Player Song DIAMOND LIGHTS by Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle
Watch Hoddle and Waddle on Top of the Pops

6. Best Club Song A SONG FOR LEICESTER CITY – only because it mentions the best young English manager in the game: Simon Grayson and England hero Emile Heskey.
Watch a Song for Leicester City (Billy Joel style)

My publisher Kevin Barrow brought the Sultans of Ping song to my attention after I had done the first Best Soccer (football) song collection and I have to admit it is a classic

Here’s an extract from their lyrics:

“Give him a ball & a yard of grass
He’ll give you a move with perfect pass
Give him a ball & a yard of space
He’ll give you a move with godly grace”
Here’s their video:

As coaches we have all been through a period where we haven’t won for a few games and we begin to doubt what we have achieved. Losing is a part of sport that we all must accept and I include myself in that.

However hard we try to achieve a winning team you must be realistic and accept that losing is something that happens to most coaches. Remember that for every game you win opposite you is a coach and team that have lost, so try to respect that and not be over enthusiastic in your celebrations.

I know sometimes it isn’t easy to keep your emotions in check. I can remember after losing three games in a row how fantastic it felt to win again and so did my players. Coaches must try to set an example to their players in victory and in defeat because young players are easily influenced by your reactions.

Watching Maradonna when Argentina won a place in the World Cup in the recent qualifying matches diving full length onto the pitch is a good example of what you shouldn’t do. When my team won the U10 title having been second all season I could easily have done the same. Thankfully I can look back at the occasion and see photos of smiling coaches not idiots!

Watch these clips, one of Maradonna when Argentina beat Uruguay to claim a place in the 2010 World Cup against the odds, the second clip shows the moment Argentina score (goooooooooooooooooooooal!) and Sir Alex Ferguson when his team scored twice in the final minutes to help them on the road to winning the Premier League in England in 1993.

Covering for the goalkeeper was brought sharply into focus on Sunday when our U14s ‘keeper felt ill at half time and said he couldn’t carry on. The game was a close one we were losing 2-1 but from my position as assistant referee (I get all the best jobs!) I felt it was certainly winnable.

We had therefore to change goalkeepers. My son used to play a lot as goalkeeper but hasn’t played in that position since the summer, but he was the best replacement. He was also instrumental in holding the ball on the left wing and playing it through to the attackers. The other thing he is good at is winning the ball off defenders high up the pitch which creates problems for the opposition, so to move him from there to goal gave two problems, filling that role and getting him to refocus on goalkeeping.

The match became difficult because the ball was quickly coming back at our defence with no one there to hold it up. Also my son was not coming out to get the ball like he would if he had been practicing more often.

The game turned when we went 3-1 down and there was no way back. There are a number of coaching points to be made here.

Make sure you give your reserve goalkeepers time in goal. With the U9s I play them in goal for a half every other game. It keeps them ready in case our main goalkeeper is unavailable or injured.

Goalkeeping gives central defenders a different view of the penalty area and makes them good at positioning themselves so that they can defend attacking shots if the goalkeeper has gone missing.

In this clip from the Champions League final 2008 between Chelsea and Manchester United, John Terry is in the ideal position to head the shot over the bar when his goalkeeper had gone to claim the ball and lost it. In the other clip Rio Ferdinand goes in goal and nearly saves a penalty after the Manchester Utd goalkeeper had been sent off. And another of Man Utd’s John O’Shea going in goal.

Central defenders get a good tactical view when they stand in for goalkeepers and it helps their defensive positional sense.

By Dave Clarke

There is no reason for it, but how often do you see players who are scoring freely for the team run up and miss the penalty? It happens a lot in youth soccer, but it also afflicts the professionals.

Sometimes it’s the whole team that can’t score. Leeds United have missed 8 of their last 9 penalties using different players. Their leading score got 33 goals from open play but couldn’t score when put on the spot, this included a vital penalty in the play-off final against Millwall which Leeds went on to lose – watch the penalty below.

Penalties should be money in the bank, unless the goalkeeper makes an outstanding save players shouldn’t miss.

But now researchers think they may have an explanation for why the players miss them. A study shows players who ‘rush’ penalties have the biggest failure rate. Those who respond fastest to the referee’s whistle are much more likely to miss than players who pause briefly before starting their run up.

To work out why some players miss, researchers from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences studied the time it took players to complete a kick. They found those who started their run up less than two milliseconds after the referees’s whistle scored only around 57 per cent of the time. A millisecond is one thousandth of a second. But those who took more than a second to respond hit the back of the net more than 80 per cent of the time.

Psychologists call this phenomenon ’self-regulatory breakdown’. It is a natural form of human behaviour, where someone feels such intense distress from a situation that they do whatever they possibly can to end it _ even if it is harmful to their performance.

So according to the scientists it’s that easy. Take your time…

Tell this to your players it may help them to know that even the professionals are scared when they have to take one.

This is my penalty advice:

• Keep it simple
• Tell them to make up your mind early which spot of the goal they’re going to shoot at – and stick to it. Ideally take four to six steps in the run-up
• Disguise their intentions – for example, approach the ball as if aiming for one corner but strike the ball to the opposite corner
• Head down, eyes on the ball when taking the shot
• Body over the ball and non-kicking foot alongside to keep the shot under the bar
• Whether high or low, aim for the corners – a ball struck with enough pace will be unsaveable
• Hit the target – miss the goal completely and there’s no possibility of a rebound for the penalty taker or their team-mates

Watch this great penalty into the top corner by Digeo Forlan in the last minute of the Equador/Uruguay World Cup Qualifier. He had to score to keep Uruguay’s World Cup hopes alive. See where he puts the ball then watch these penalty misses, Beckford for Leeds and Robert Pires tries to be clever with Thierry Henry and causes a mix up for Arsenal:

Watching matches in the Premiership, especially the Arsenal 6 Blackburn Rovers 2 game it was interesting to see how balls of different weights set up chances. The hardest of these is the short pass for a player to run on to.

When the weight of pass Is right the ball takes out defenders and stops the goalkeeper claiming it by being in the right place for the attacker to pounce. It is something to get your players practicing at home against a wall so they get used to hitting the right areas with the right weight whether it is a long or short pass.

Tell your players to try to pass with themselves while dribbling down the side of a wall. They should start around 5 or 6 feet away from the wall, pass the ball at an angle to the wall and recieve it back, take a few touches, then pass again… and so on. If they have a wall that is long they can run along it passing at an angle to run on to or if it is a short space pass back and forth.

If you haven’t got a wall use a piece of wood held in place with stakes. Put down three markers, one at 5 yards one at 10 yards and one at 15 yards. Hit passes against the board that reach the three distances to help players get used to the weight of pass.

This is how the professionals do it in the clip below:

By David Clarke
I wrote an article in Soccer Coach Weekly last year about defenders holding their line once the first attacking ball had been headed away. It’s a bit like holding lines on a battlefield. If the defenders don’t all step up following the ball, or they go at different speeds the defensive line is not as effective.

Here’s the best way to set up a practise session to get defenders to keep the line together and move as one thereby denying space to the attacking team. At 11-a-side it also means you can experiment with offsides.

How to play it
Set this up in half of the pitch – it’s a good exercise for all ages, and for 7-a-side as well as 11-a-side – use only three defenders
for 7-a-side games. Have two wide players to cross in balls and you stand in the middle to give a variety on the angle the ball will come in. All balls are aimed at the central defenders.

Defenders step up behind header
Tell the two wide defenders to push in as soon as the central defender moves forward to attack the ball so that the amount of space for the attacking team is shut down – look for co-ordination
of movement between the back four to cover the space behind the player.

© Soccer Coach Weekly

When you’re a striker you need to hit areas of the goal that the goalkeeper is not going to reach. That means the four corners. Top right, bottom right, top left and bottom left.

So you need to get your strikers hitting these areas in training so they can do it in matches.

My U14s have missed two penalties this season because they hit the ball straight down the throat of the goalkeeper. They need to be making the goalkeeper work hard, because it’s a big goal and if players can hit the corners the goalkeeper is going to struggle to get there.

Watch this clip of Wayne Rooney hitting balls at the corners of the goal and get your attackers doing the same.

Michael Owen’s goal for Manchester Utd against Manchester City was an excellent goal for a number of reasons. I’m always going on about control and passing, receiving and knowing where players are. Well this goal was a great pass and finish.

With the clock showing time was indeed up a desperate ball into the box from Manchester Utd was easily cleared by the City defence. A big up and under with no real hope of a goal scoring chance. It relies on the luck of the bounce, not skill.

The next ball is played with fabulous vision and the right weight to thread it through the City defence to Owen. That was an outstanding pass under pressure by Ryan Giggs. That wasn’t relying on luck, it was a well-timed pass aimed at splitting the City defence open – and it did.

Then there is the finish. Owen controls and with the outside of his boot shoots past the goalkeeper into the net. A cool finish. And yet Owen could see a defender coming quickly at him and the goalkeeper coming towards him. Not the easy chance he makes it look.

In injury time in the first half ex Manchester Utd forward Carlos Tevez has a similar chance. He hit the post.

Here’s the goal so you judge it yourself: