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)
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LeBron James got the last laugh on Sunday night as he sank two free throws in the final 3.9 seconds to lift the Los Angeles Lakers over the Phoenix Suns, 116-114.
James may be in the twilight of his career, but he showed he still had some fight. He was battling with Suns forward Dillon Brooks throughout the night. The two got into multiple skirmishes as the intensity was turned up a notch.
Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks fouls Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Phoenix. Brooks was ejected from the game after the foul. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
As the game came down to the wire, Brooks hit a clutch 3-pointer to put the Suns up one point with 12.2 seconds left. James ran through him and knocked him down. Brooks got back up and stuck his chest out to ever-so-gently tap James.
A referee came over to stop the conflict from escalating any further. Brooks was ejected from the game.
“I just like to compete,” James said of going up against Brooks, via ESPN. “He’s going to compete. I’m going to compete. We’re going to get up in each other’s face. Try not to go borderline with it. I don’t really take it there. But we’re just competing and did that almost all the way to the end of the game.”
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Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks (3) and Los Angeles Lakers forward Lebron James (23) react after a turnover during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Suns star Devin Booker supported Brooks’ intensity.
“Yeah, I mean there’s history there,” he said. “I love to see it. People always say everything’s too friendly in the NBA and then Dillon comes around and now it’s too much. So like I said, I’d rather it the other way — that it’d be too much.”
James scored 26 points on 8-of-17 from the field. Luka Doncic led Los Angeles with 29 points and six assists. The Lakers improved to 18-7 with the win.
Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) looks to shoot over Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, front left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
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Brooks had 18 points in 25 minutes. Booker led the team with 27 points and was 13-of-16 from the free-throw line. Phoenix is 14-12 on the year.
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Who’s going to beat them?
Who’s going to stop the unstoppable offense? Who’s going to score on the persistent defense? Who’s going to outwit the coaching genius?
Who can possibly halt the Rams on their thunderous march toward a Super Bowl championship?
After yet another jaw-dropping Sunday afternoon at a raucous SoFi Stadium, the answer was clear.
Nobody.
Nobody can spar with the Rams. Nobody can run with the Rams. Nobody can compete with the Rams.
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Gary Klein breaks down what went right for the Rams in their 41-34 victory over the Detroit Lions at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.
Nobody is talented enough or deep enough or smart enough to keep the Rams from winning their second Super Bowl championship in five years.
Nobody. It’s over. It’s done. The Rams are going to win it all, and before you cry jinx, understand that this is just putting into words what many already are thinking.
The Rams’ second-half domination of the Detroit Lions in a 41-34 win should again make the rest of the league realize that nobody else has a chance.
The Seahawks? Please. The 49ers? No way. The Eagles? They’ve been grounded. The Bears? Is that some kind of a joke?
The Patriots? Not yet. The Broncos? Not yet. The Bills? Not ever.
The Rams trailed by 10 points at one juncture Sunday and then blew the Lions’ doors off in the second half to clinch a playoff berth for the seventh time in nine seasons under Sean McVay, setting them up for the easiest ride in sports.
With a win in Seattle on Thursday night — and, yes, they should beat a team that just barely survived Old Man Rivers — the Rams essentially will clinch the NFC’s top seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
That means they have to win only two games at SoFi to advance to a Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. That means they can win a championship without leaving California, three games played in the sort of perfect climate that gets the best out of their precision attack.
And as Sunday proved once again, they’re good enough to win three essentially home playoff games against anybody.
“I love this team,” McVay said.
There’s a lot to love.
They have an MVP quarterback, the league’s most versatile two-headed running attack, an interior defense that gets stronger under pressure, and the one weapon that no team can match.
They have Puka Nacua, and nobody else does.
Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua is tackled by Detroit cornerback Amik Robertson during the second half Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Is he unbelievable or what? He is Cooper Kupp in his prime, only faster and stronger. He caught a career-high 181 yards’ worth of passes on yet another day when he could not be covered and barely could be tackled.
“He’s unbelievable,” McVay said. “He’s so tough, a couple of times he just drags guys with him … he epitomizes everything we want to be about … he’s like Pac-Man, he just eats up yards and catches.”
Pac-Man? The Rams even score on their old-school references.
In all, it was another Sunday of totally fun football.
They outscored the league’s highest-scoring team 20-0 at one point, they outrushed the league’s toughest backfield 159-70, they racked up 519 total yards against a team once thought destined for a championship.
And they did it with barely a smile. With the exception of Nacua repeatedly banging his fist to his chest — can you blame him? — the Rams are steady and steadfast and just so scary.
”All we want to do is go to work and find a way to be better,” said Matthew Stafford, who likely answered the crowd’s chants by clinching the MVP award with 368 yards and two touchdown passes. “It’s a fun group right now but we understand there’s more out there for us.”
Lots, lots, lots more.
This year a similar column appeared in this space regarding the Dodgers. By the first round of the playoffs, one just knew that they were going to run the table.
The same feeling exists here. The Rams look unrelenting, unfazed, unbeatable.
“Guys just kept competing, staying in the moment,” McVay said.
This moment belongs to them. One knew it Sunday by the end of the first half, which featured a Stafford interception and a struggling secondary and Jared Goff’s vengeful greatness and a 10-point Lions lead.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford passes in the first half of a 41-34 win over the Detroit Lions at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Then the Rams drove the ball nearly half of the field in 30 seconds in a push featuring Stafford and Nacua at their best. Stafford connected with Nacua on a brilliant 37-yard pass in the final moments that led to a Harrison Mevis 37-yard field goal to close the gap to seven.
“Right before that I told the guys, ‘Let’s go steal three,’” Stafford said.
Turns out, they stole a game.
“One of the key and critical sequences,” McVay said of that late first-half hammer, which led to a dazzling third quarter that finished the flustered Lions.
“We never panic,” Blake Corum said. “Because we know … what we have to bring to the table.”
What they’ve increasingly been bringing is a running attack that perfectly complements the awesome passing attack, as evidenced Sunday by Corum and Kyren Williams combining for 149 yards and three touchdowns.
The Lions’ more vaunted backfield of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery? Seventy yards and one score.
“We push each other to the limit,” Corum said of Williams.
Rams running back Kyren Williams stiff-arms Detroit Lions safety Erick Hallett II during the first half Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Potentially disturbing was how one noted Ram may have pushed past his limits, as receiver Davante Adams limped off the field early in the fourth quarter after apparently reinjuring his troublesome hamstring.
To lose him for the playoffs would be devastating, as he frees up space for Nacua and is almost an automatic touchdown from the five-yard line and closer.
Then again he’ll have a month to heal. And the Rams still have a bruising array of tight ends led Sunday by the touchdown-hot Colby Parkinson, who caught 75 yards’ worth of passes and two scores, including one inexplicable touchdown in which he clearly was down at the one-yard line.
The Rams got lucky there. But even if the right call was made, they would have scored on the next couple of plays. The way the Rams attacked, they could have been scoring all night.
“You knew that it was going to be that kind of game where there was some good back-and-forth,” McVay said. “You needed to be able to know that points were going to be really important for us, and our guys delivered in a big way.”
Just wait. By the time this season is done, McVay’s guys will have delivered a trophy representing something much bigger.
It rhymes with Strombardi.
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Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes will be out for the rest of the season as he suffered a torn ACL on Sunday in a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, according to multiple reports.
Mahomes’ knee buckled while he was scrambling and as he was getting hit by Chargers defensive end Da’Shawn Hand. He was helped off the field and he limped to the locker room. An MRI reportedly confirmed the extent of the damage.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes grabs his knee after being injured during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025 in Kansas City, Missouri. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)
The quarterback wrote a message to fans as word of his injury trickled out.
“Don’t know why this had to happen,” Mahomes wrote on X. “And not going to lie (it) hurts. But all we can do now is Trust in God and attack every single day over and over again. Thank you Chiefs kingdom for always supporting me and for everyone who has reached out and sent prayers. I Will be back stronger than ever.”
Chiefs coach Andy Reid offered a gloomy outlook for Mahomes as he spoke to reporters following the loss.
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Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Odafe Oweh (98) sacks Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) during the second half at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Dec. 14, 2025. (Jay Biggerstaff/Imagn Images)
“… It didn’t look good,” Reid said when asked whether he knew if Mahomes’ injury was serious. “I mean you guys saw it. We’ll just see where it goes.”
The loss to the Chargers also meant the Chiefs will not be making the postseason. Kansas City made it to the AFC Championship each season since 2018. They made it to the Super Bowl in each of the last three seasons, winning two titles in that span.
Mahomes will finish the season with 3,398 passing yards and 22 touchdown passes.
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Kansas City is 6-8 on the year.
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