Sports
Pace, swerve, angle – the art of the ‘olimpico’, football’s (usually) rare phenomenon
Oscar Wilde once famously wrote that “to concede one goal direct from a corner is a misfortune, to concede two in eight days looks like carelessness.”
The thoughts of Oscar, noted corner-kick scholar, may have been rushing through the heads of anyone associated with Manchester United recently after they allowed not one but two ‘olimpicos’ — which, if you’re not familiar with the term, means scoring directly from a corner — in just over a week, in two different competitions.
The first came from Son Heung-min in that madcap Carabao Cup quarter-final against Tottenham, his corner sailing over second-choice keeper Altay Bayindir and into the net. The second saw Matheus Cunha flummox Andre Onana, with the help of some judiciously positioned Wolves defenders, in the Premier League on Boxing Day.
The olimpico is a relatively rare phenomenon. You tend not to get more than one a season, if that, so United managing to let two in over such a short period of time is fairly extraordinary. Although given their problems with defending set pieces and their general existential crisis, if you were going to predict which team this would happen to, it would probably be them.
The instinct is to write these goals off as flukes, misdirected crosses that rely on goalkeeping errors to go in, not genuine attempts to score by the corner taker. How can the attacker possibly mean it when they can’t see the goal?
That’s certainly true of some. However, many of them exist in a sort of grey area, where there’s intent from the corner taker and the attacking team, and the aim is ultimately reached, if perhaps not through entirely conventional means.
Former Blackburn Rovers winger Morten Gamst Pedersen, still playing aged 43 back in his native Norway, has made scoring olimpicos something of a signature move in the latter days of his career. He scored three of them in one season a few years ago, and claims he once scored five in one game, in his youth.
Pedersen celebrates a Premier League goal for Blackburn in 2005 (Paul Mcfegan/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
His contention is that even if the taker isn’t always ‘shooting’ per se, a goal is the ultimate conclusion of a well-struck corner anyway.
“If the ball can go straight in, it’s like a perfect free kick,” he tells The Athletic. “You’re aiming for the far corner, and loads of things can happen, the goalkeeper can get distracted. If it would go in anyway with nobody there, it’s a good corner.
“You see with what Arsenal have been doing this season: loads of the corners they’ve been scoring from, if nobody touched it, the ball would have gone straight in anyway.
“It’s about creating those situations as close to the goal line as possible. Anything can happen.”
This is a sentiment echoed by another olimpico specialist, the former Wycombe Wanderers full-back Joe Jacobson. He scored two in one game (as part of a hat-trick of set pieces) against Lincoln in 2019, and a number of others over his career.
Here it is!
One of the most incredible hat-tricks you’ll see. pic.twitter.com/N7jbaWsD9T
— Wycombe Wanderers (@wwfcofficial) September 9, 2019
“I don’t think I ever set out thinking, ‘I’m gonna hit it in the top corner’,” Jacobson says, “but there’d be plenty of times when the coach would tell me, ‘Get it on target, as if it’s a shot’, so that if someone gets a nick or anything it can go in.
“I think inswinging corners went out of fashion for a while — there were a lot of studies showing that if you do outswingers, then defensive headers don’t go as far. Now all of a sudden Arsenal have kind of made inswingers popular again.”
On some occasions though, the taker is definitely trying to shoot.
Megan Rapinoe famously scored directly from a corner at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, having done so nine years earlier in London. The first instance might not have been entirely intentional, but the second was. According to her, at least.
“I meant this one,” she told the media after that game against Australia in Tokyo. “I actually said it to Vlatko (Andonovski) and our assistant coach Laura Harvey yesterday. They were saying ‘Put it here, this is where we want to go, this is kind of the game plan,’ and I was like ‘Well, I might just shoot it.’”
Pedersen’s became so frequent and clear that his colleagues adjusted their movements accordingly.
“At one stage one my team-mate, who played centre-half, asked me before I took the corner, ‘Morten, are you going to shoot?’ I said yes, so he just stayed back on the halfway line.”
Pedersen would practise corners as if he was trying to score, even if most of the time someone would intervene before it got to the net. “When I played for Tromso at the beginning of my career, I would put a basketball hoop and board in front of the goal, and aim for that,” he says.
From a layman’s perspective, it seems that the secret to a dangerous inswinging corner is to get as much swerve on the ball as possible, so the taker must adjust the way they strike the ball accordingly. But Jacobson suggests that, while swerve is a factor, pace and delivery angle is much more important.
“You see loads of times where it’s a nice curly ball into the box and the keeper just plucks it out of the air. But when there’s pace on the ball and it doesn’t get too high, it doesn’t go too far above his eyeline, then I think it’s really difficult for the keeper to come and claim anything.”
Jacobson instead relied on the angle of his run-up to create just the right amount of curl, thus allowing him to concentrate on striking the ball as cleanly and as powerfully as possible.
“As with free kicks, I’d always stand at a right angle to where I wanted to hit the ball and where I wanted it to end up. I tried to hit over the top of the ball, a bit like topspin in tennis, and so it wouldn’t curl miles out and then curl back in.
“I’d over hit a lot and I’d under hit a lot, but when I got them right, the angle meant that I wouldn’t worry about where the ball would end up directionally. I knew that if I ran up at that right angle, the ball would end up in an area where I’d want it to end up.”
From a goalkeeper’s perspective, it’s pretty embarrassing for one of these to go in. But sometimes, when the penalty area is crowded and the taker gets the kick just right, there isn’t a huge amount you can do.
“They’re tricky because you have a lot of guys around you,” says Matt Pyzdrowski, the former goalkeeper and The Athletic’s resident expert. “The tendency for goalkeepers is to first go forward — your instinct tells you that you want to go forward to attack the ball, and get it at its highest point, so you get it before any of the attackers.
Bayindir initially moves forward… (Sky Sports)
… before trying to retreat and getting caught under the ball (Sky Sports)
“As a goalkeeper you want to resist that tendency to be a little bit more patient and I think the goal that Tottenham scored (against United), it’s very clear that the keeper bites very early. There’s a player who runs in front of him and he’s almost more concerned about the player in front of him. He takes a couple of steps forward and then realises the ball’s going over his head.
“Any time the ball goes over your head as a goalkeeper, it’s quite tough to retreat. I think it takes his attention away from the ball enough that he just misses it entirely.”
In Onana’s case, for the goal Cunha scored, the United keeper had attackers in front and behind him, making it extremely difficult for him to move anywhere. In that case, the finger of blame arguably points more at his defenders.
“Each goalkeeper is different,” says Pzydrowski, “but when I played I wanted the defender to be on the outside of the attacker so they can push the player into the goal, so it takes away that space. In this case, the defender (Manuel Ugarte) just doesn’t do a good enough job and he basically pushes the attacker into Onana.”
Onana, surrounded by Wolves players, is also beaten from a corner (Jack Thomas – WWFC/Wolves via Getty Images)
Teams train for these scenarios, but like anything, it’s difficult to recreate the unpredictability and intensity. Might these goals partly be the result of when teams practise corners? Pyzdrowski thinks it could be a factor.
“It was always the day before a game (that we would practise corners) where the intensity is lower. And any time that the intensity is lower in training, there’s just a natural tendency for the player to relax a little bit too much.”
When you watch any olimpico, the instinct is to assume that the ones that go in at the far post are intentional, and the ones that sneak in at the near post are lucky. But the truth might be exactly the opposite.
A perfect example is the game when Jacobson scored directly from two corners. The first snuck in at the near post, the second curled higher into the far.
“The second one obviously looks a lot nicer, but it was probably a bit too high for the near post, and it flew in,” he says.
“Wycombe’s assistant manager Richard Dobson, who was in charge of set pieces, always said try and whip it in the near post head high, because an attacker will get there, and if he doesn’t he’ll cause some chaos behind. It’s really difficult for a keeper to read it if there are players running across the ball.”
Pyzdrowski confirms that. “Where I always felt insecure was when I knew teams were trying to whip the ball in towards the near post,” he says. “Because you want to go forward and attack it, other players might get in the way and that’s where you’re a little bit more vulnerable.”
With more and more teams following Arsenal’s lead and whipping those vicious inswinging corners into the six-yard box, it may not be the last time this season that we see an olimpico.
And while they might look like flukes, there is often a little more to them than that.
(Photos: Getty Images; design: Will Tullos)
To find Cinderella stories at this men’s Final Four, you have to look at the name on the back of the jersey rather than the front.
For the second time in the history of the NCAA Tournament’s modern-day bracketing practices, all four top seeds advanced to the national semifinals. It will be No. 1 Florida vs. No. 1 Auburn and No. 1 Houston vs. No. 1 Duke on Saturday in the national semifinals, a perfect ending to a most chalky March Madness. Only one double-digit seed reached the Sweet 16, and all of the teams in the regional semifinals were from Power 4 conferences.
Where have you gone, Loyola Chicago and Sister Jean? Check the transfer portal.
Two of the very best players competing for a championship this weekend in San Antonio — Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. and Auburn’s Johni Broome — might not be where they are today if not for this new world order of college sports, with unlimited, unrestricted transfers and name, image and likeness compensation.
Clayton is the former high school football star from Florida whose passion for basketball led him to New Rochelle, N.Y., a hidden gem uncovered by Rick Pitino during his time at Iona. You probably didn’t even notice Clayton scoring 15 points for the Gaels against eventual national champion UConn in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Now, he’s being compared to Steph Curry.
“He’s obviously a blessing to have in our program, have on our team,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “He’s an incredible player, but outside of that, he’s a great leader. He’s been everything we could have asked him to be for this program since he got to campus two years ago.”
Broome, another Floridian, was the 471st-rated prospect in his recruiting class per 247Sports Composite rankings, not even good enough to get an offer from Florida Atlantic. To be fair, former FAU coach Dusty May put together a team good enough to reach a Final Four two years ago without Broome, so not being good enough for those Owls is no slight.
Instead, Broome landed at Morehead State and blossomed in two seasons in the Ohio Valley Conference before becoming the best player in the SEC in his third year at Auburn.
“Shoutout to Morehead State,” he said. “I think those two years of my college career have helped me become who I am.”
We’re not quite ready to declare the NCAA Tournament underdog dead. The trends are working against the mid-majors — specifically, relaxed transfer rules that turn every player in the country into a free agent every year.
For years, draconian transfer rules gave way too much power to schools and coaches. Not only did undergraduate basketball players have to sit out a season after transferring — a non-compete clause for non-employees — but schools could block athletes from going to certain schools, just because.
It was borderline shameful. Even Mark Emmert, the former NCAA president who was not exactly known for getting out in front of potential problems, knew change was needed.
“How complicated could this be?” Emmert said at the last Final Four in San Antonio in 2018. “It’s about students changing schools. And yet I’ve never seen anything that’s quite as intractable a problem as this one because you just can’t get agreement.”
Even back then, before the portal was a viable option for every player from superstar to walk-on, transfers were on the rise in college basketball, with instances increasing from 10 percent of Division I players in 2010 to about 13 percent in 2016.
The Villanova team that won the NCAA Tournament in 2018 started forward Eric Paschall, a transfer from Fordham. Surely, Rams fans were wondering what could have been as they watched Paschall score 24 points in the semifinal victory against Kansas.
Villanova, Kansas, Michigan and Sister Jean’s Loyola Chicago all started at least one transfer in the Final Four that season. There were a total of nine on those rosters, including players who were sitting out to comply with the NCAA rules of the time.
The Wolverines reached the title game with the help of Division III transfer Duncan Robinson.
According to the NCAA’s most recent reported figures, over 1,200 Division I men’s basketball players transferred after the 2022-23 season. Typically, there are about 4,200 scholarship athletes playing Division I men’s basketball.
This year’s Final Four teams have 20 scholarship transfers from other NCAA schools on their rosters, led by Auburn with seven. Florida has six, Duke has five and Houston has two, both from other Big 12 programs. Cougars star L.J. Cryer is in the Final Four for the second time after being part of Baylor’s 2021 title team as a freshman.
Florida, Auburn and Duke all have at least one starter who once played at a mid-major.
For Duke, that’s guard Sion James, a former three-star recruit from Sugar Hill, Ga. He played four seasons at Tulane before taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility all athletes received in the wake of the pandemic to become a glue guy for one of the most storied and prestigious programs in the country.
“I’d played a lot of college basketball games, but none in the tournament, and I knew that we’d have a chance to win a national championship,” James said. “And it’s cool being here, however many months later, just a few games away.”
The pendulum has swung hard toward player empowerment when it comes to transfer rules. It’s fair to say we might be in the too-much-ice-cream phase. Bouncing around the country and averaging about a school per season is probably not ideal for players with minimal pro prospects who would benefit from graduating from … somewhere.
Purdue coach Matt Painter made an interesting point earlier in the tournament about balancing the opportunity to get a degree with recognizing that for some players, college will be the last chance they have to make money playing basketball.
“I don’t think that’s a bad (thing) … like, why not?” he said.
Painter’s 2024-25 team, it should be noted, had no transfers, but former Boilermaker Mason Gillis is back in the Final Four with Duke.
Will Wade, who took the NC State head coaching job after leading 12th-seeded McNeese past Clemson in one of the few true upsets of this tournament, talked about selling his mid-major program as a place for players to develop into power-conference transfers. More and more mid-majors are recruiting that way, resigned to the fact that, yes, they are indeed farm teams for the big schools.
Maybe with a revenue sharing system coming to college sports, along with player contracts and something that replicates a salary cap for monied schools that opt into the system, the low-mid-major poaching will slow down. Probably not.
That’s not great news for the future of Cinderella in March Madness, but just last year Oakland, Yale, Grand Canyon, James Madison and Duquesne won first-round games as double-digit seeds. Then again, Morehead State made the tournament last year, two seasons after Broome left, and lost in the first round as a 14-seed to Illinois. Imagine what that team could have been with Broome.
We’re also only two years removed from FAU’s Final Four run. One of those players, Alijah Martin, is back in the Final Four with Florida. Others, from Michigan’s Vladislav Goldin to Arkansas’ Johnell Davis, came a win or two away from returns of their own.
Then there is Chaney Johnson, who played three seasons of Division II basketball at Alabama Huntsville before becoming a key reserve for Auburn.
Fans might lament the transient nature of college basketball, with mercenary players quickly coming and going, but this is Clayton’s second season at Florida. Broome has been at Auburn for three years, and it’s probably not a coincidence the Tigers only added three transfers this past offseason to a rotation with lots of multi-year veterans.
Thanks to NIL, Auburn fans have watched Broome and this core of players develop to be able to cut down the nets on the way to a Final Four.
“Man, words can’t even describe it,” Broome said after the regional final victory against Michigan State in Atlanta. “To stand on top of the ladder in front of all the Auburn fans still being there, traveling and witnessing it as well, and looking down and seeing my teammates, the whole Auburn family, it just means the world to me. To kind of be able to deliver for the Auburn family.”
And they all lived happily ever after.
(Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; Photos: Andy Lyons, Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
Sports
NFL star Trey Hendrickson rips Bengals' brass over 'poor' communication during contract negotiations
Trey Hendrickson has spent his past four NFL seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals. The star pass rusher has just one year remaining on his contract with the Bengals and recently requested permission to seek a trade.
Despite the trade request, Hendrickson hopes to remain in Cincinnati.
“However it shakes out, there’s nowhere I’d rather be,” he said in early March.
During the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, Bengals director of personnel Duke Tobin suggested the team and Hendrickson’s agent were making progress on a new contract for the star defensive end.
Trey Hendrickson of the Cincinnati Bengals before a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium Dec. 23, 2023, in Pittsburgh. (Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
However, Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn’s recent comments at the league’s annual meeting did not give credence to Tobin’s remarks. Blackburn’s words prompted a frustrated Hendrickson to call out the organization for an apparent lack of communication in recent months.
“That was a little disappointing, because communication has been poor over the last couple months,” Hendrickson told “The Pat McAfee Show” in reference to Blackburn’s remarks.
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“That’s something that I hold in high regard. They have not communicated with my agent directly. It’s been something that’s been a little bit frustrating.”
Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson after a defensive stop Dec. 19, 2021, at Empower Field in Denver, Colo. (Albert Cesare/The Enquirer/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Hendrickson added that talks with the Bengals have largely been “here and there.”
Hendrickson finished each of the past two seasons with 17½ sacks. His estimated base salary of just over $15 million for next season pales in comparison to his counterparts. Myles Garrett agreed to a record-breaking contract extension with the Cleveland Browns earlier this offseason. The deal will pay Garrett roughly $40 million annually.
Las Vegas Raiders pass rusher Maxx Crosby inked a three-year extension last month and will make an estimated $35.5 million per season.
Gardner Minshew II (10) of the Indianapolis Colts is sacked by Trey Hendrickson (91) of the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium Dec. 10, 2023, in Cincinnati. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
“I think he [Hendrickson] should be happy at certain rates that maybe he doesn’t think he’d be happy at,” Blackburn said Tuesday. “I think some of it is on him to be happy at some point, and if he’s not, you know, that’s what holds it up sometimes. So, you know, it takes him to say yes to something. And, also, we have all the respect in the world for him. He’s been a great player. We’re happy to have him. And so maybe we’ll find a way to get something to work. We’re just gonna see where it goes.”
Despite the latest turn of events, Hendrickson said the “line of communication” remains open on his end.
“They’re more than welcome to call me,” Hendrickson said. “I’ve had my cellphone, same cellphone number since high school. Open line of communication is always open with me and my agent. So, if they have anything they’d like to discuss, we’ve been nothing but willing to listen.”
Hendrickson made it clear he was looking for a long-term contract, not a short-term deal.
“We don’t have any desires of being highest paid or, you know, first in line,” he said. “I’m not going to go into all the details, but, like, there are things that I’m willing to do and willing not to budge on. I don’t think I want to play for incentives that will be out of my control. I don’t think I want to play (on a) short-term contract. … I would like to tell my wife, ‘Here’s where we’re going to live. Here’s where we’re going to build a family together.’ You know?”
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Don’t look now, but Bishop Alemany is getting hot in Mission League baseball. The Warriors won their fourth consecutive league game under first-year coach Randy Thompson on Tuesday, earning a 23-2 victory over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.
Thompson’s son, Brody, playing his second game of the season after sitting out because of transfer restrictions, hit his first home run and had three hits and two RBIs. Sophomore Chase Stevenson hit two doubles and two singles and had four RBIs. Jacob Ortega added three hits.
Loyola 14, Chaminade 5: The Cubs (10-4, 6-3) hit five home runs, including a three-run home run from Jack Murray, in the Mission League win. Davis Bender had an inside-the-park home run and finished with three hits and three RBIs.
Crespi 3, Sierra Canyon 1: The unbeaten Celts (14-0) received two hits from Nate Lopez, Landon Hodge and Gavin Huff and strong pitching from Tyler Walton and Mikey Martinez.
Harvard-Westlake 8, St. Francis 1: Jack Laffitte had two hits and three RBIs and sophomore Justin Kirchner threw six innings, striking out six with no walks for Harvard-Westlake.
West Ranch 12, Valencia 0: Hunter Manning threw a two-hitter with 16 strikeouts and one walk for West Ranch. Ty Diaz had four hits and three RBIs.
Birmingham 1, Cleveland 0: Freshman Carlos Acuna threw the shutout, striking out six and walking none. His scoreless innings streak has reached 25 consecutive scoreless innings. Otis Bush was the tough-luck loser. Birmingham is 6-0 in the West Valley League.
JSerra 4, Servite 2: The Lions scored two runs in the ninth to win the Trinity League game. Jax Janeski thew 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. Max Reimers struck out eight in 6 2/3 innings.
El Camino Real 2, Granada Hills 1: Luke Howe struck out five and pitched a complete game for the Royals.
Chatsworth 10, Taft 8: Daniel Chiclayo had three hits for the Chancellors, who opened a 10-4 lead.
Banning 1, San Pedro 0: Anthony Camarena threw the shutout with eight strikeouts for Banning.
Narbonne 14, Rancho Dominguez 1: Twaine Meadows went four for four with two home runs and seven RBIs for Narbonne.
La Mirada 11, Downey 1: Kevin Jeon had a home run and three RBIs for the Matadores.
Norco 8, Temecula Valley 0: Freshman Jordan Ayala threw five scoreless innings and Dylan Steward had three hits and four RBIs for Norco.
Gahr 9, La Habra 7: Bryce Morrison went three for three to lead Gahr.
Fountain Valley 9, Edison 1: Tyler Peshke hit a three-run home run to support pitcher D’Angelo Diaz, who threw six innings.
Huntington Beach 4, Corona del Mar 3: Trent Grindlinger hit a two-run home run for 11-1 Huntington Beach.
Los Alamitos 8, Newport Harbor 0: Tristan Dalzel struck out 10 and allowed one hit in six innings for the Griffins. Tyler Smith had two hits and two RBIs.
Viewpoint 12, Las Vegas Doral Red Rocks 6: Izzy Parsky struck out 15 in five innings and also had three hits.
Corona Centennial 13, Brea Olinda 10: Aiden Simpson had a home run and two singles for the Huskies while delivering three RBIs.
Mission Viejo 17, Beckman 1: Logan Marsee had four RBIs for the Diablos.
Softball
Norco 3, Esperanza 0: Coral Williams tossed a no-hitter, striking out six, for Norco in a Michelle Carew tournament opener. Leighton Gray contributed two RBIs. Norco also defeated Capistrano Valley 3-0.
Granada Hills 14, Valencia 4: Jas Soriano and Sam Esparza each had three hits for Granada Hills.
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