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Dissecting Haaland vs Van Dijk: When the league's best striker took on its best defender

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Dissecting Haaland vs Van Dijk: When the league's best striker took on its best defender

The best striker in the Premier League versus the best defender in the Premier League in a one-on-one showdown with millions of people watching across the world?

Liverpool vs Manchester City had far bigger things at stake on Sunday (it finished 1-1 for those of you who live on Mars) but those few seconds when Erling Haaland took on Virgil van Dijk were explosive and exciting. 

Two masters of their art had almost 3,500 square metres of hallowed Anfield turf to themselves. 

Haaland thundered towards goal, dancing around the ball with protracted step-overs and feints, desperate to tempt a challenge from the game’s most unflappable centre-half. But the Dutchman resisted, back-tracking towards his own goal, and though he ultimately could not stop Haaland from slipping away and taking on the shot, it was an effort comfortably collected by his goalkeeper.

Fantastic defending, or a slice of luck? The Athletic breaks it down, with the help of former Premier League strikers and centre-backs.

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The Premier League title race on The Athletic


So, the ball breaks, and you’re staring down a single defender, with the freedom of the pitch to work with. What is going through your head?

“Well, you’re weighing up who you’re up against”, the Premier League’s all-time top goalscorer Alan Shearer tells The Athletic. “If, for argument’s sake, you’re up against a guy who you know is not as quick, then the obvious thing you’re going to do is knock it and run it.”

“But he knows he isn’t going to do that to Virgil, because the Liverpool defender is one of the few people who can keep up with Haaland  even running backwards.”

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The solution is to unsettle Van Dijk, to throw him off balance with a series of twisting dummies and drives. During a five-second stampede, the Norwegian throws in three body feints, two changes of direction and one devastating burst of pace to finally break away from his defender’s grasp.

Haaland’s first move is to dart onto his right foot; this is across the defender’s body and away from where Van Dijk is trying to show him, but onto his weaker foot.

Note Van Dijk’s body shape — side-on and crouched low, able to shift his body weight if required. That stance, according to former Ivory Coast centre-back Sol Bamba, is crucial to the battle.

“Usually, if I was coaching a young defender, I would not tell them to turn their back to the ball so much. But Van Dijk never loses sight of where Haaland is — he is low on his knees and side-on, which means he is prepared to spring in any direction to follow his run.”

Seconds later, and Haaland has changed tack once again.

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“What he’s trying to do is go left, go right, go left, go right, and then try to get Virgil off balance to gain control of the duel. But the defender doesn’t dive in, he stands up the whole way,” says Shearer.

It is a move for which Van Dijk has become renowned during his imperious spell at the heart of Liverpool’s defence, famously warding Tottenham’s Moussa Sissoko onto his left foot during a similar break back in 2019.

Statistically, that shows through with the ‘true’ tackles metric, which combines tackles won and lost, as well as fouls committed while attempting a tackle, to measure how often a player looks to “stick a foot in”. Over the last five seasons, Van Dijk averages just 2.2 tackle attempts per game, but crucially, his success rate is up at a very high 61 per cent.

“He never dives in and that’s an art”, says Bamba. “It is so easy to be tempted to go in for the tackle, but if you dive in, someone like Haaland is just going to push the ball past you and beat you.”

“If it was me, I probably would have committed,” Bamba continues, “Neil Warnock used to say to us, ‘If the ball passes, the striker doesn’t!’.”

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“But it takes real discipline to back off like that. Van Dijk is clever, plays with his head and reads the game really well.”

The relentless Haaland continues to twist and turn even as the spaces continue to be shut down.

Having already turned Van Dijk around twice, the striker plants his right foot as if he is about to drag the ball over with his left, but instead ducks to the opposite side and continues onto his stronger foot.

Here we can see the subtle move in three frames, as Haaland nudges the ball underneath Van Dijk’s trailing boot and powers towards the penalty area.

The resulting shot, however, is weak, and Shearer puts that down to the defensive pressure.

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“Because he hadn’t had much joy in going left and right, Haaland is thinking, ‘Right, I’m going to run out of time in a minute, so I have to get my shot away pretty quickly’.”

“In reality, he would have preferred to be another three or four yards closer, so that’s part of Van Dijk doing his job and making the forward’s mind up to take the shot where he has done”

Having kept close to Haaland all the way through, the defender even manages to lean into the striker just as he is lining up his shot.

Off balance, forced wide, and with his angles narrowed down, patient defensive play and constant attention to the ball have minimised the probability of the world’s most lethal striker getting a clean shot away, an effort valued at 0.10 expected goals by Opta, essentially suggesting an average player would have a 10 per cent chance of scoring. Not a bad result from an intimidating one-v-one.

“He makes it so uncomfortable for him,” says Bamba, “He is so close to him for 40 metres, and forces him into a difficult shot.”

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“I would’ve fancied it in my heyday, yeah!” chuckled Shearer, asked if he would have enjoyed such a showdown in a massive game such as this. You can’t begrudge the confidence from a man with 260 Premier League goals.

But there aren’t many players in world football who can reliably beat Van Dijk in a one-v-one, as his latest titanic tussle showed.

“He would have believed in himself in that situation, Haaland, but it just didn’t happen”, said Shearer, “and that was more through really, really good defending than it was poor attacking play.”

Let’s hope we get a re-run again soon.

(Top photo: Premier League)

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Dodgers' Freddie Freeman was dealing with more than an ankle injury on way to World Series MVP

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Dodgers' Freddie Freeman was dealing with more than an ankle injury on way to World Series MVP

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Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman was all smiles as his team won Game 5 of the World Series against the New York Yankees.

A lot of their success had to do with his at-bats. 

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Freeman was named World Series MVP after he crushed four homers, one of them Game 1’s walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning, and knocked in 12 runs in 20 at-bats. 

It’s as impressive a World Series as you can have individually, and even more so considering what Freeman was going through physically. 

Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman reacts after making the final out during the top of the third inning against the New York Yankees in Game 4 of the 2024 World Series at Yankee Stadium. (Brad Penner/Imagn Images)

However, while everyone knew he went into the postseason with a sprained ankle after trying to avoid a tag, he was dealing with a different injury on top of it. 

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ESPN’s Jeff Passan revealed Freeman had a rib ailment he was also fighting through after feeling a “twinge in his rib cage when he took a swing during a simulated game” prior to the postseason. The Dodgers had a bye as the top seed in the National League, so they were staying warm with simulated games and other drills before facing the San Diego Padres. 

DODGERS’ FREDDIE FREEMAN WINS WORLD SERIES MVP WITH HISTORIC PERFORMANCE VS. YANKEES

Freeman initially tried to shake off the pain, knowing that the ankle was the real concern. However, the rib injury got worse during a live batting practice session at Dodger Stadium to the point Freeman “crumpled to the ground.”

After getting an MRI, Freeman found out he had broken costal cartilage in his sixth rib, an injury that can sideline a player for months. 

Freeman’s father, Fred, revealed to ESPN he didn’t want to see his son in pain, telling him not to play. 

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Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts

Los Angeles Dodgers Mookie Betts (50) and Freddie Freeman (5) celebrate after scoring against the New York Yankees during the fifth inning in Game 5 of the World Series Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in New York.  (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

“I actually told him to stop,” Fred said. “I said, ‘Freddie, this is not worth it. I know you love baseball. I love baseball. But it’s not worth what you’re going through.’ And he looked at me like I was crazy, and he said, ‘Dad, I’m never going to stop.’”

Freeman’s decision led to MLB history. His four homers in four straight games helped him break a World Series record with homers in six straight games in the World Series, dating to his 2021 championship with the Atlanta Braves. 

And Freeman entered the series with the Yankees without an extra-base hit in the postseason. He had seven singles and one walk against the Padres and New York Mets. 

Freddie Freeman celebrates World Series victory

Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman celebrates after the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in Game 5 to win the 2024 World Series at Yankee Stadium. (Brad Penner/Imagn Images)

Freeman launched his glove when Walker Buehler struck out Alex Verdugo for the final out in Game 5, and if he was still dealing with pain, he likely wasn’t feeling it as he celebrated with his teammates after capturing his second ring. 

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Boys' water polo: City Section playoff pairings

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Boys' water polo: City Section playoff pairings

HIGH SCHOOL BOYS WATER POLO

CITY SECTION PLAYOFFS

(Games at 3 p.m. unless noted)

OPEN DIVISION

Semifinals

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November 8

#4 Birmingham at #1 Palisades

#3 San Pedro at #2 Cleveland

DIVISION I

First Round

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Monday

#1 Granada Hills, bye

#9 Santee at #8 Van Nuys

#12 Panorama at #5 University

#13 Roosevelt at #4 Venice

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#14 RFK Community at #3 Venice

#11 Marquez at #6 Banning

#10 Reseda at #7 LACES

#15 Maywood Academy at #2 Eagle Rock

Note: Quarterfinals Division I Wednesday at higher seeds, Semifinals Nov. 8, Finals Nov. 13 at LA Valley College (Division I at 5:30 p.m., Open at 7).

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Revisiting Travis Hunter’s high school exploits: ‘He’s the best skill kid I’ve ever been around’

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Revisiting Travis Hunter’s high school exploits: ‘He’s the best skill kid I’ve ever been around’

Daniel Shoch stepped up in the pocket and rolled out to his right. The quarterback at East Coweta (Ga.) High School — under pressure all night — saw his receiver open for a split second.

But there was a problem. Travis Hunter was on the other team.

“I threw it to where I thought only my receiver would be able to break on it fast enough to get back down to the ball,” Shoch said.

Predictably, this did not end well for East Coweta.

Hunter broke on the ball, snatched it out of nowhere and took it 70 yards the other way for a pick six on that Friday night in September 2021.

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“I came to the sideline, our two backup quarterbacks, I remember them saying, ‘Look dude, that’s the No. 1 player in the country. We were standing on the sideline saying, ‘Throw it. Throw it. Oh crap, there’s Travis Hunter,’” said Shoch, now a student at the University of North Georgia.

Three years later, Hunter, the two-way sensation at Colorado and a Heisman Trophy hopeful, is still the best player in the country, or at least the most dynamic. He has played 844 total snaps (414 on defense and 430 on offense), 210 more than any other player in college football this season, according to TruMedia. His impact is unprecedented in the modern era.

No one in Georgia is surprised.

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For those who had the privilege of competing against Hunter when he was the nation’s top recruit out of Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, Ga., in the Class of 2022, this was only a matter of time.

“That’s the thing people don’t understand,” said Lenny Gregory, Hunter’s head coach at Collins Hill and now the head coach at Gordon Central (Ga.) High. “We saw (this) every day in practice.

“He’s like a human matrix.”


In the summer of 2018, Gregory received a call from someone at the local recreation department’s football program. There was a rising ninth grader, “a really athletic kid,” who had mentioned he’d be enrolling at Collins Hill in the coming weeks.

“So I met him on a Monday morning,” Gregory said of his first encounter with Hunter. “And I asked him, ‘Are you a baller?’ just kind of messing around with him. He just kind of, not rolled his eyes, but he just gave me this look and he says, ‘Baller? You haven’t seen a baller until you’ve seen me.’”

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Gregory, taking note of Hunter’s confidence, told the 15-year-old to show up the following morning for a conditioning test.

All of Collins Hill’s players had been training together since the first week of June and spent every Tuesday running 200-meter dashes to prepare for the dreaded fitness assessment. To pass the test, players would need to run a series of six 200-meter dashes, each in 32 seconds or less. They’d have a one-minute break in between each run.

“So I said, ‘Are you in shape? Are you going to be ready to do that?’” Gregory said. “(Hunter) goes, ‘Oh, no problem, Coach. I can do that easy.’ And so I’m thinking, ‘Yeah he’s gonna run one or two and be throwing up everywhere.’”

The next morning, Hunter ran his first 200 with the Eagles defensive backs — a group of fast, athletic and experienced players.

“He smokes everybody. Bam,” Gregory said. “And I thought, ‘He’s done. This kid ain’t gonna be able to finish.’”

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Then the second 200 came around.

“Boom. Smokes everybody. And I walk up to him, I say, ‘Are you all right?’ And he’s just standing there and he’s not even breathing hard. At all,” Gregory said. “And he goes, ‘Coach, this ain’t nothing. Let’s go again.’”

By the end of the test, seniors were splashed out on the track, exhausted and in pain.

Hunter, meanwhile, ran every 200-meter dash in 28 seconds or less, shattering the 32-second requirement.

“I’ve been doing the conditioning test for 20 years and I’ve never seen anybody do this,” Gregory said. “I’m like, ‘This guy is going to be special.’ I knew it right there.”

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A few weeks later, Gregory and his team traveled to play Marietta High School, one of Georgia’s top programs at the Class 7A level.

Hunter was still raw as a freshman, but Gregory had already seen enough.

“We were warming up and we didn’t really have a chance to win that game. They were much better than us,” Gregory said. “But I remember pointing out Travis to my dad, who was standing (with me) before the game and I said, ‘You see that kid right there? That kid’s going to be one of the best players in the country. He’s unbelievable.’”


Hunter’s freshman season was relatively quiet, but he exploded onto the scene in the talent-rich Atlanta area the following fall.

As a sophomore, he finished with 49 catches for 919 yards and 12 touchdowns as a receiver and seven interceptions as a defensive back. He took another step as a junior, with 137 catches for 1,746 yards and 24 touchdowns on offense and eight picks on defense. He missed one month of regional play as a senior due to injury but still caught 85 passes for 1,284 yards and 12 touchdowns to go along with four interceptions.

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“I’ve been coaching for 20 years or so and he’s easily the most dynamic player that I’ve ever come across in high school football,” said Philip Jones, the head coach at Brookwood (Ga.) High School. “It’s not even close.”

Jones first faced Hunter when Brookwood played Collins Hill to open the 2021 season at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, but he’d previously watched him dominate — on both sides of the ball — in 7-on-7 games over the summer.

“He’s scoring every time he touches the ball,” Jones said. “At one point, he’s so wide open he catches it and he does a backflip in the end zone.

“Coach Gregory, who was his coach in high school, I saw him afterwards. We’re eating lunch and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, Coach.’ It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before just watching a kid do that. And then coach Gregory didn’t even say anything really. He just kind of took his hands like he was wiping off crumbs or whatever off his hands and he just looked at me and was like, ‘Just get him on the bus, Coach. Just get him on the bus.’ He was like, ‘That’s my only job this year. Just get him on the bus every game.’”

Hunter dazzled in that 2021 opener, catching 13 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns while also intercepting a pass thrown by current Alabama backup quarterback Dylan Lonergan. Oh, he also threw a 28-yard touchdown pass on a reverse in Collins Hill’s 36-10 win.

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“This. Kid,” Philips said. “In-sane.”

Two weeks later, Collins Hill played Greenville Christian Academy, a small private school from Mississippi, in the annual Atlanta Freedom Bowl. Greenville Christian coach Jon Reed McLendon said it felt “surreal” when his players found out they’d be playing against Hunter, whose highlights they’d already devoured on YouTube.

McLendon and his staff made sure to stress to their defenders that week in practice that they’d need to know where Hunter was at all times. Sure, he was dangerous on defense — “You’re almost just holding your breath, just hoping that disaster doesn’t happen,” McLendon said — but the idea of Hunter running loose on offense?

“It doesn’t necessarily matter if you cover him or not,” McLendon said. “That to me, was a little scarier.”

Greenville Christian played zone coverage that night, deciding that it was better to make sure not to let Hunter beat them with big plays. They rushed three and dropped eight as though they were facing an Air Raid offense.

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The strategy worked … sort of. Hunter caught only four passes for 28 yards and no touchdowns, but Collins Hill won the game, 37-22.

McLendon looks back on the game with mixed emotions.

“On one hand, you’re really proud of the fact that our defense did a good job that night of limiting him,” he said, laughing. “But because it’s so special, just as a guy that loves football, you almost would’ve liked to in-person been able to see more of it.”

Alpharetta High School coach Jason Kervin joked he’d be happy to send McLendon some of Hunter’s highlights after Collins Hill beat his team in 2020 and 2021 by a combined score of 72-22.

“When we played them in the playoffs (in 2020), I said (to our defensive coordinator), ‘Look dude, I don’t care where they put him, we’ve got to double him. … Give everybody everything else they want,”‘ Kervin said.

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“(Hunter still) scored the first two drives of the game. You don’t stop a kid like that.”

Hunter capped off his career by leading Collins Hill to the first state championship in school history. He was committed to Florida State for much of the 2022 cycle but — in one of the biggest recruiting shockers ever — flipped to Jackon State on the first day of the early signing period. He played one season in the SWAC before following Deion Sanders to Colorado.


Gregory has been fielding calls over the past few months from NFL teams about Hunter, who is almost a lock to be a top-five pick in the 2025 draft. The coach has made it clear to anyone who asks that as long as Hunter stays healthy, nothing is stopping him.

“I think the kid could play both ways in the NFL,” he said. “He’s the best skill kid I’ve ever coached or I’ve ever been around that I’ve been able to work with. And I coached in the Under Armour (high school All-America) game, like, seven times. So I’ve seen NFL guys and I’ve seen a lot. But I’ve never seen anybody like him as a skill player.”

No one has.

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“We’ve played against Will Anderson and Justin Fields and those guys,” said John Reid, the head coach at Georgia powerhouse Rome High School. “You’re talking to a guy who’s seen some really good players. … But the Hunter kid is different.”

“I coached George Pickens and Marlon Humphrey,” said Kervin from Alpharetta. “I know what a first-round draft pick looks like in high school and you don’t mess around with those kids, I can tell you. Guys like that are gonna make you look stupid.”

As Colorado heads toward the final third of its season, Hunter is on pace to once again earn first-team All-America honors and is very likely to be in New York in December as a Heisman finalist. Last Saturday, Hunter caught nine passes (on nine targets) for 153 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Buffaloes to a win over Cincinnati — their sixth of the season, ensuring a trip to a bowl game in Sanders’ second season.

Across the country, those from Hunter’s home state of Georgia continue to cheer from afar.

“I think that he’s a Hall of Fame player. I can’t see how he couldn’t be,” Gregory said. “Just stay focused and keep doing what he’s doing and he’ll end up putting one of those gold jackets on.”

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(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images; courtesy of Travis Hunter)

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