NBA

Can Football Learn From the NFL?

As England still comes to terms with a crushing 2018 World Cup semi-final loss to Croatia, many are reflecting on how well the team played throughout the tournament. A particular strong point for the young England side has been their prowess from set-pieces.

Kieran Trippier’s free-kick against Croatia set a World Cup record, with England scoring nine goals from set-pieces during the tournament. Russia 2018 in general has seen in a rise in set-piece goals, with a record 30% of total goals up to the quarter-finals coming from corners or free-kicks, bettering previous recent records of 23% from the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.

With set-pieces becoming increasingly important to international tournament football, not much has been written about what influenced England’s set-piece excellence under Gareth Southgate. England’s attacking coach Allan Russell has been praised by Southgate and his players, whom they credit for their drastic improvement in set-pieces.

Russell has spent his entire adult life within the world of professional football, yet Southgate has looked further afield for his set-piece influences. The England manager has spent time in the U.S visiting NFL franchise the Seattle Seahawks, has visited the last two Superbowl’s and has had numerous discussions with NFL analysts and NBA coaches to find out how their players find space in tight areas.

It was frequently seen in England World Cup games, when the team was taking a corner beforehand the players would quickly huddle together, before going into a line formation. As a casual fan of both football and American football this sounds much more like an NFL play then a football set-piece.

GETTY_Colombia-v-England-Round-of-16-2018-FIFA-World-Cup-Russia_SPO_GYI990944196jpg-JS417938365

England players set-up for a corner against Colombia using a move known as “the love triangle”. Nine of England’s 12 World Cup goals came from set-pieces. Photo copyright: Getty Images. 

With England showing how vital set-pieces can be in major international tournaments, will world football begin to follow the England example and adopt the mindset of an NFL franchise when it comes to set-pieces.

In the simplest sense a set-piece in football can be largely similar to an NFL play, a chance to score from a dead ball.  The NFL is constantly using shifts and motions to buy players space in tight windows, something that could prove massively beneficial with set-pieces.

Teams could use cleverly designed set-pieces where players disguise and then go in motion to fool opposition defenses, much like an NFL offense does. Football has tended to view American sports with a certain level of ignorance, dismissing it as not relevant to football.

What Gareth Southgate and England have highlighted is that in a time where set-pieces are becoming increasingly important in major tournaments, there is a lot world football can learn from American sports in how to create space in tight areas of the pitch.

By Jordan Wilkins find me on Twitter @JWjournalism.

Let me know your thoughts on this article in the comments section below. 

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Why NCAA should pay College athletes

First of all, I want to make it clear that I do not claim to be an expert on this subject or indeed have an abundance of expert knowledge on this subject. This is simply written by a regular college sports fans who doesn’t understand how it’s fair for Universities and head coaches to collect millions of dollars from college athletics, yet the athletes themselves are forced to live a hand-to mouth existence until they complete their degree or turn professional in their respective sports.

This is a topical subject at the present moment as a judge ruled in favour of student athletes only a few days ago that they can sell the rights to their names and images, with the money being given to them once they’ve completed College. Although it’s unlikely to generate mega sums for student athletes the opportunity to be given $20 000 dollars after 4 years of College is a lot better than current athletes receive. Lead plaintiff in the case Ed O’Bannon, former UCLA basketball star, stated he joined the lawsuit against the NCAA after he saw his image used in a NCAA licenced video game that he was not paid for.

The role of “improper benefits” and the rules sanctioned by the NCAA are constantly being challenged or broken by student athletes. A Notable example is include Reggie Bush being forced to hand back his 2005 Heisman Trophy, awarded to College football’s best player that year, for receiving “improper benefits” whilst at USC between 2003-2005. For many student athletes the problem occurs when Universities “boosters” get involved, “boosters” are linked to Universities and help with their funding. The problems however is that whilst many student athletes become nationwide stars they are not allowed to receive any benefits from their status.

Whilst the NCAA stance that student athletes are students first and University should only be about furthering their education is a very noble idea in principle, it’s hard to see past how NCAA athletics have simply become farm systems for professional sports such as the NFL,NBA or MLB. It does seem absurd in 2014 that whilst the Universities receive tens of millions of dollars a year from NCAA athletics, and coaches receive millions of dollars a year that the actual players themselves cannot even have someone pay for their breakfast as this would be deemed a NCAA violation under the “Improper benefits” policy.

Whilst I am not suggesting that College players should start being paid an astronomical amount, I simply feel they should be fairly compensated for their efforts with a modest salary that will allow them to have a slightly better existence whilst at College. For many players, they commit NCAA infractions for simple things such as having a meal paid for them or being given money for clothes. This is something most regular teenage students do yet when the NCAA are involved it’s deemed students are using their status for benefit, therefore forfeiting their amateur status.

In the last few years it has become common for College athletes to declare for the NFL or NBA draft increasingly earlier than in the past. Whilst many who follow College sports are trying to work out how to keep students in College for longer so they can complete their degrees, it seems simply that these students jump at the first opportunity they get to go professional and earn enough money to take care of themselves and their family. For College football players they have to wait 3 years whilst for the NBA players can declare at any time during their College career.

The final comment is that throughout the years their have been plenty of incredible College players who have been unable to convert their considerable talent into the money they deserve for an abundance of reasons such as injury or NCAA violations, and this is exactly why College athletes should receive a modest salary in a billion dollar industry as it seems highly unfair in my opinion that players such as Marcus Dupree, Melvin Bratton and Maurice Clarett should be have their dreams of reaching the NFL taken away and yet not be compensated for their previous efforts of playing in front of 60- 80 000 fans. If the University and Coaches should receive mega bucks benefits from College athletics, shouldn’t the players receive a small portion of that too.

Photo sourced from http://www.thesportspost.com , http://www.Cleveland.com and http://www.wisescholar.com

Photo credit goes to http://www.thesportspost.com , Julie Jacobsen and http://www.ap.org and http://www.wisecholar.com