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Are knuckling free-kicks a fad?

By on April 30, 2015

It’s free kicks like his mesmerizing effort against Eibar that help make Cristiano Ronaldo so famous. Back up three yards into “the stance.” Deep breath. Puff up chest. Then unleash in incredible effort feared not only for its power or accuracy alone, but also for its unusual spin (or indeed lack thereof) and unpredictable dip. This particular effort dove so sharply that the Eibar goalkeeper fumbled it right into his own net.

However, success at these type of free-kicks seems increasingly rare. Ronaldo continues to take most of Real Madrid’s free-kicks, especially from distance, but for a long while he had failed to score any. From at least fifty-one free-kicks over a period of almost a year, Ronaldo had failed to score from a set-piece before Eibar. Were his free-kicks getting worse? If not — and his effort against Eibar affirmed he hasn’t completely lost his touch — then another reason for his drought could have come from outside agents. His free-kicks weren’t becoming worse, but the goalkeepers and/or defenders learned how to better stop them.

His club teammate Gareth Bale has also struggled to score a number of his similar signature shots. While at Tottenham Hotspur, he also perfected his dipping effort and scored countless long-range goals in the same fashion Ronaldo did at United. It bamboozled and made goalkeepers look silly. But Bale too has been through a shortage of these goals. Perhaps it is because Ronaldo takes Real’s free-kicks ahead of him — Bale scored a stunner against Israel for Wales not too long ago — or the more daunting thought: are knuckling, dipping free-kicks a fad?

The idea would be supported by Bale and Ronaldo’s stories; both monstrous over a dead ball in England but goalkeepers eventually adapted in Spain. Just like football tactics come and go, and these dipping free-kicks were a passing fad among many. The fact that they are also technically very challenging to pull off directly only adds to their difficulty.

Yet all this discussion leaves out a fact that is overlooked often: history. Giuseppe Meazza was the first to be known for his “dead leaf” technique, and after him Didi popularized the practice of dipping efforts. Pele could also hit them and later Roberto Carlos and Juninho furthered the line. If Bale and Ronaldo are only the latest in a long history, that would imply the fact that these efforts have never gone out of style and it is rather the extreme difficulty of mastery that accounts for these dry periods. This would be great news for Ronaldo and Bale, but it’s easy to reckon a bad turn of fortunes for goalkeepers.

Photo credit: Gordon Flood on Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.