Mario and the Meat Grinder

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Many years ago I attended an MLS game. It featured a forward who was having a shocker. Every time he got the ball, he lost it, either by having the opposition defenders take the ball off him, or by misplacing a pass. His team’s attacks would flounder as soon as he was brought into them. He did not create space by clever positioning or astute runs, he seemed to be a dead weight, bringing his team down. I asked my friend Eric, who was there with me, why the player was in the team at all. Eric replied, after acknowledging that the forward was having a bad game: “The thing about Taylor Twellman is that he’ll go through a meat grinder if he thinks there’s a goal on the other side.” And sure enough, there came a chance which Twellman pounced on. After a corner the ball was loose in the six yard box. Three defenders and the goalkeeper all threw themselves at the bouncing ball but Twellman got there first, the ball ricocheting off his shins into the goal, the defenders kicking nothing but air and Twellman’s legs.

I thought of Taylor Twellman when I saw Mario Gómez’s goal against Real Madrid in the Champions League semifinal. The ball entered the six-yard box and a couple of players threw themselves at the bouncing ball but Gómez got there first and got the winner. While I like Gómez, he seems like an especially decent guy and he helped my beloved Stuttgart to their most recent Bundesliga title, he is not the complete striking package. He does not hold the ball up well, his finishing is far from clinical, his dribbling skills do not keep defenders rooted to the spot and his first touch is decent, but not special. In fact, in most regards, Mario Gómez is decent, but not special. Except for the fact that he will go through a meat grinder if he thinks there is a goal on the other side.

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Posted on April 22, 2012 via Run of Play with 18 notes

Source: runofplay