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The most aggressive set-piece team in the world plays in Minnesota

The most aggressive set-piece team in the world plays in Minnesota

Yahoo4 days ago
Not many soccer players are as passionate about dead balls as Anthony Markanich. Then again Minnesota United, under the 33-year-old first-time head coach Eric Ramsay, don't play soccer like most teams.
'All the guys get really excited about set pieces, especially myself,' Markanich gushed last Friday after scoring a goal off a long throw-in by the center back Michael Boxall for the second time in a week. 'I told Boxy I love when he has the ball for throw-ins and stuff – I get so excited about that.'
The wingback's match-winner against FC Dallas marked the third straight game Minnesota have scored from a long throw into the penalty area. It was their sixth throw-in goal before the MLS All-Star break – which falls about two-thirds of the way through the season. That's as many as Brentford's famous long throws produced all last season in the Premier League.
Even though they're chucking more balls into the box than any Major League Soccer side in at least a decade, long throws might not be the Loons' most distinctive set piece routine. They've also borrowed a page from Sean Dyche's playbook by bringing their goalkeeper up to wallop free kicks into the opposition's box from around the halfway line, where almost any other team would tap the ball sideways to resume ordinary midfield possession.
Minnesota's oddball tactics aren't just outliers in MLS. According to an analysis by Soccerment, a soccer data company, they take more long throws and deep free kicks than any other club in 30 of the world's top leagues, from the Bundesliga to the Brasileirão. The low-budget overachievers sitting third in the MLS Western Conference just might be the most aggressive set piece team on the planet.
Ramsay's commitment to putting any possible dead ball into the mixer may look strange, even old-fashioned, but there's evidence to support continuing to do it. Across leagues, seasons and playing styles, long throws into the box are twice as likely to lead to a goal in the next 30 seconds as other throw-ins in the final quarter of the pitch. The same goes for deep free kicks into the 'Dyche Zone' at the top of the opponent's box, which are twice as valuable as other free kicks taken between the edge of a team's defensive third and the halfway line.
Like the Moneyball-era Oakland A's, Minnesota found an analytical edge out of financial necessity. Ramsay's squad ranks 26th out of 30 MLS teams for player compensation, which has put an expensive passing game all but out of reach. 'It's not that we're a club that is unwilling to spend, but since I've been here, there's been a real efficiency drive,' he said. 'Ultimately where we use set plays, it comes from wanting to squeeze every advantage that we possibly can from the group of players that we've got.'
Ramsay joined the MLS side last year from an assistant role at Manchester United, where he studied how teams like Brentford, Newcastle and Dyche's Burnley used direct set pieces to punch above their weight in the Premier League.
'Obviously it's not escaped my attention that teams with smaller budgets can out-compete teams right at the top end through set plays,' he said. 'It was one of the things I looked at from afar and thought prior to coming in that we could find an advantage.'
In the Twin Cities, he found a squad well suited for long set pieces. Their strengths are a sturdy defensive line and a pair of tall strikers who excel on fast breaks, so there hasn't been much downside to bypassing midfield possession for booming free kicks from the goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair or throw-ins from the New Zealand international Boxall, who can hurl the ball 30 yards from a near-standstill.
'I think particularly when it comes to how we use throw-ins and deep free kicks, we probably give away between five and 10% what would be very easy possession in order to be high value in those situations,' Ramsay explained. 'If we wanted to have 47% of the ball consistently, we could do it like that. We would just choose to use set plays in a different way.'
Their unstoppable long throw-ins can look hilariously easy. Markanich's two goals last week came from near-mirror image throws to a trio of Minnesota players jostling for position at the near corner of the six-yard box while he waited behind them in the center of goal and the striker Kelvin Yeboah peeled off from the penalty spot to help hunt for a flick-on header. 'Everyone's just wanting to flick the ball on,' Markanich said. 'I think everyone knows their roles, especially on set pieces.'
Deep free kicks have more tactical variety depending on where they're taken, but every set piece starts from principles that Ramsay rattles off like a pop quiz: 'Do you have the right number of players in the contact area? Is the thrower or the set piece taker able to, with a real degree of accuracy, put the ball into a certain spot? Are you really well set for the second contact, and are the players on the move for the second contact?
'How is it that when the ball breaks to the edge of the box for a second, third or fourth phase, you can recycle the ball in order to get a second or third chance and continually upgrade the quality of your opportunity as you go?'
This is the big idea behind Ramsay's set pieces: not that they'll score every time from a perfect routine, but that by using each stoppage to cram a bunch of bodies and the ball into a small area around the opponent's goal, his side can force errors, win second balls and string together chance after chance, set piece after set piece, always ratcheting up the pressure.
New phase-of-play data from the livescore app Futi supports this line of thought. (I co-founded Futi with the data scientist Mike Imburgio, who consults on Minnesota's recruitment but isn't involved with set pieces.) Though only 14% of Minnesota's throw-ins into the box produce a shot, they lead to another set piece 20% of the time. Similarly, 45% of the team's deep free kicks reach a second phase where the ball bounces around the box while the defense is still disorganized. The Loons haven't managed a single shot in the first phase of a Dyche Zone free kick but they've scored three goals during those dangerous second phases, plus another from a subsequent corner kick.
Add it all up and the value of Minnesota's aggressive set pieces is astonishing: their 10 goals within 45 seconds of a long throw or deep free kick represent nearly a third of the team's season total. Though their entire squad earns about half of Lionel Messi's salary at Inter Miami, Minnesota are perched above Miami in the Supporters Shield standings and doing a pretty good job of recreating Messi in the aggregate just by lobbing dead balls into the box.
Related: The Club World Cup has shown MLS the cost of capping ambition
Fans have bought into a style that might have been a tough sell if it weren't so hard to argue with results. 'There's a bit of an aura around us in set plays, particularly at home,' Ramsay said. 'Our crowd are wild for set plays. At corners, every single member of the crowd is swinging the scarf around.'
After years of decline, long throws into the box are on the upswing in MLS and the Premier League. A new generation of managers such as Eddie Howe and Graham Potter are reconsidering deep free kicks, which like Dyche himself had fallen out of fashion as too 'pragmatic.' What looks exotic now may one day be as normal as putting kickoffs out of bounds near the corner flag or building out of the back from a short goal kick.
'I don't think anything we do is rocket science. I don't think it will take the opposition long to work out what sits behind our success,' Ramsay said of his team's extraordinary set piece record after the win in Dallas. 'But stopping it is very different.'
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Mets' Starling Marte ‘didn't miss a beat' in return from injury
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Mets' Starling Marte ‘didn't miss a beat' in return from injury

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Crystal Palace at CAS: What could club argue as they try to win back Europa League spot?
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And so Palace are taking their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), asking the so-called 'supreme court' of worldwide athletic endeavour to overturn UEFA's decision. Palace have also named Nottingham Forest and Lyon in their appeal, as their fellow Premier League side have been elevated from the Conference League to the second-tier Europa League at their expense, while their disputed stablemates from Ligue 1 have been left in the Europa League, as their higher domestic league finish of the two sides trumps winning the FA Cup. Steve Parish, Palace's chairman, will not mind which of those clubs CAS demotes, as long as what he views as the 'terrible injustice' of his team being removed from the Europa League is reversed. He believes he must take this fight on for Palace's players, staff and fans, as well as others who might find themselves in this position one day. And he clearly thinks this would not happen to a bigger, established side, so there is an 'us versus them' element to his crusade. Having said all that, how could Palace go about persuading CAS? It was then International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Juan Antonio Samaranch who first realised global sport needed an in-house method for washing dirty linen, as the regular courts are expensive, potentially embarrassing and painfully slow. With the IOC willing to pay for it all, housing it in Lausanne, the Olympic Movement's Swiss home, made sense. Advertisement CAS opened in 1984 and, initially, three-person panels picked from a small pool of experts nominated by the IOC, its president and Olympic federations made decisions about commercial and disciplinary arguments. The system worked pretty well until 1992, when the International Equestrian Federation found a German rider named Elmar Gundel guilty of doping his horse and banned him. 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Palace's starting point is likely to be that Textor, whose Eagle Football Group still contains his controlling stakes at Brazilian side Botafogo, Belgian's RWDM Brussels (rebranded from Molenbeek earlier this year) and Lyon, did not have what UEFA calls 'decisive influence' at Selhurst Park, and that they have never been part of his multi-club group. Advertisement This, you would think, is supported by the fact he has just sold his 43 per cent stake in Palace to Woody Johnson, the billionaire owner of the NFL's New York Jets and former U.S. ambassador to the UK. Furthermore, that 43 per cent stake only gave Textor one of four voting shares at Palace, with Parish and two other American investors, David Blitzer and Josh Harris, also holding one each. As Textor has previously explained to The Athletic, decisions at Palace very rarely, if ever, went to a vote, as Blitzer and Harris are silent partners who trust Parish to run things. 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Dr Antoine Duval is the head of Asser International Sports Law Centre in the Netherlands and a seasoned watcher of CAS's decision-making. He believes it's possible the CAS panel will disagree with the CFCB assessment but says the 'quality of the evidence provided by Palace about its internal management structure and the role, or lack of it, of Textor/Eagle will be crucial'. Textor's voting rights will be a key consideration for CAS, but so will his financial contributions and influence on recruitment and commercial strategy. For example, he was a strong advocate of appointing Oliver Glasner, the Austrian head coach who led Palace to their FA Cup triumph, in February last year, although he recently insisted on UK radio station Talksport that the notion he 'made the hire (at Palace) happen… that's not true at all. I tried to get him at Lyon — if he spoke French, he'd be there. I told UEFA that a suggestion is not decisive influence. Nobody tells Steve (Parish) what to do, he's as stubborn as anybody.' Palace, no doubt, will say the only player to be transferred between them and Lyon was centre-back Jake O'Brien in 2023: beyond some young players going on loan to Molenbeek (including O'Brien, earlier in his career), they had no other transactions with an Eagle Football Group club, despite Textor's frequent suggestions. Advertisement But Dr Gregory Ioannidis, an experienced campaigner at CAS and an associate professor at Sheffield Hallam University, is not sure this will be enough to sway the panel. He believes Palace will try to argue that a 'more flexible and purposeful interpretation of the regulations' should be applied, with the club's lawyers asking the panel to think about what UEFA is trying to achieve with its MCO rules, fair competition, and whether the English side pose any threat to that legitimate aim. 'But if the panel decides the rules are clear, and therefore a strict and literal approach needs to be applied, the chances for a successful appeal will be minimised,' explains Ioannidis. While each case is considered on its own merits, precedents can be helpful, and two CAS panels have recently made very quick decisions on MCO cases involving Slovakian team FC DAC 1904 and Drogheda United from the Republic of Ireland. Both were blocked from playing in the Conference League by the CFCB and then lost their appeals, DAC unanimously and Drogheda on a majority verdict. The two cases were different but both argued they simply did not have enough time to create the separation UEFA requires between them and their MCO sister clubs. As MCO groups have proliferated across Europe, UEFA has given owners two options: reduce your stake in one of the clubs that want to compete in the same competition to less than 30 per cent, step down as a director and halt whatever player-trading strategy you are pursuing with the two teams, or put one of into a blind trust, so you have no influence over day-to-day operations. Crucially, UEFA moved the deadline for doing one or the other of these workarounds from early June to March 1. DAC, Drogheda and Palace all missed this memo. However, in both the DAC and Drogheda cases, the CAS panels backed UEFA. Advertisement 'What is of immense importance here is the panels' findings that the current regulations do not require evidence of actual influence, but rather only the possibility of such influence,' says Ioannidis. 'This, in conjunction with the finding on the procedural aspect of submitting the changes in the club's ownership structure on time (or not), may cause serious difficulties for those arguing Palace's case.' Parish has explained in recent interviews that Palace were too busy playing Championship neighbours Millwall in the last 16 of the FA Cup on March 1 to be thinking about what might happen if they were to win the whole thing and play in Europe for the first time in their history, but Duval says the deadline argument is doomed. 'It seems to me that a possible argument about the new deadline has already been rejected, thus the main focus will probably be on whether Textor had decisive influence,' he says. And while Palace will come armed with evidence that shows Textor was routinely ignored, UEFA's lawyers will no doubt point to the letter CFCB chair Sunil Gulati sent to the club licensing managers at UEFA's 55 member associations last May which spells out what 'decisive influence' means. A literal reading of that document — the 30 per cent shareholding threshold, significant financial support, being a director, the ability to influence recruitment decisions and so on — would suggest Palace's legal team are going to have their work cut out. Given all that, it might make sense for Palace to make a more general argument that a strict application of the rules in this case simply make no sense, as there is obviously no threat to the integrity of the competition, which is the entire point of article 5.01 in UEFA's rulebook, the regulation that deals with MCO clubs. And there is some encouragement here, in that the concepts of fairness, integrity and sporting justice are all enshrined in Swiss law. But there are risks attached to this approach, too. 'Swiss law does protect such principles and both CAS and the Swiss Federal Tribunal (where any appeals over a CAS verdict are heard but rarely upheld) have ruled accordingly,' says Ioannidis. 'However, I wouldn't run this argument, because the panel may take the view that it is precisely for these principles that UEFA's decision may be upheld, as the other clubs in the competition acted promptly and ensured they followed the rules and deadlines.' Advertisement That said, the Drogheda case shows that one of the panel disagreed with his colleagues. The written judgment has not been published, so we do not know why they disagreed but it is possible the Irish club's plea for a more common-sense-based assessment of the rules was persuasive. Palace may think that if they can do the same, they are halfway there. 'Not everything is negative for Palace,' says Ioannidis. 'I would argue that the intention of the regulator is to ensure fair competition. As such, the fact that Palace may have realised their mistake and acted in compliance with the rules, albeit late, shows a genuine and honest approach to the legitimate aim pursued by UEFA. 'In this instance, it would be fair, just and reasonable for UEFA to allow Palace to be admitted to the Europa League.' Another possible line of attack for Palace is the apparent inconsistencies in the application of UEFA's rules — and this is where the decision to make Forest a party in this appeal is intriguing. 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Inside Leeds' Germany training camp: Full-blooded challenges, paintball, and singing
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New York Times

time40 minutes ago

  • New York Times

Inside Leeds' Germany training camp: Full-blooded challenges, paintball, and singing

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The Germany international met the first of his colleagues on Sunday before undergoing his medical and the final stages of his £17.3million transfer on Monday, July 21. Stach was kept out of sight as the invited media descended on Harsewinkel to watch a full-blooded training session. No matter how often you watch these professional athletes, who have had to fight and scrap for every inch to get to where they are in their careers, their competitive edge and desire to conquer every aspect of training never fails to surprise. Advertisement The players started with warm-up exercises led by sports scientist Jack Pullan. After a variety of stretches on mats across the complex's basketball court, they gathered around Farke and his coaching team on the grass. Assistant coach Christopher John was celebrating his birthday. Farke and fitness coach Chris Domogalla led the squad in a round of applause for him, and after that, the footballs were not in play straight away. Domogalla split the squad into quartets and they rotated through a variety of drills involving hurdles, cones and poles. It's all done with the aim of preparing the players' bodies for what's to come in their intensive session ahead. Captain Ethan Ampadu found himself initially grouped with compatriot Joe Rodon, Sam Byram and new boy Sebastiaan Bornauw. Humour is central to trips like these and crucial for building the bonds that will have these footballers running through brick walls for each other over the next 10 months. 'Is this the stiff and fragile group?'Ampadu said to Domogalla. Byram's injury history and status as the squad's oldest outfield player should not be lost on anyone. For Farke, too, his quips throughout the week, and one assumes throughout the whole season, are central to building his own relationship with the players. The 48-year-old is the boss, make no mistake, but he has been around dressing rooms long enough to know how to manage morale. 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'Keep the ball on the floor, the ball does not bounce, no hectic, guys,' says Farke. The manager talked about body shape and having the players relax. In one amusing moment, as Chambers went to pass to a colleague, his effort snapped one of the training poles. 'Not only do you try to hurt my players, but my poles, too!' Farke shouted and put a hand on Chambers' shoulder, smiling. The level of competition ramps up as Eddie Riemer, Farke's right-hand man and stand-in at Bramall Lane when the manager was banned from the touchline last season, reorganises the groups into small-sided games with two teams aiming at two mini goals apiece. The team in possession could only score once it successfully completed seven consecutive passes, while the team pressing was encouraged to win the ball back and then score at the earliest opportunity into their designated nets. Rodon has built a reputation at Leeds as someone with their heart on their sleeve, never shy about expressing how he really feels about something. In one amusing moment, as Jayden Bogle put the ball between his legs, Rodon threw his head back and, with an exasperated tone, moaned: 'Oh, f*** off.' This was training, but any time a player made a mistake or felt hard done by a coach's decision, they would be furious. Farke was watching one of the teams that included Rodon, Ampadu and Daniel James. When things began to bubble over, he could be heard saying: 'Three Welsh players in one team is always dangerous.' The German has repeatedly glorified his Welsh players' roots over the past two years. He adores their fight and spirit. There were signs of how Bornauw has settled with his new squad as he wheeled away from one poor miss with a Yorkshire impression of '******* hell, man!' No quarter given in training today. I will always underestimate how much they want to win every minute aspect of training. Look out for Bornauw's improving English impression and Rodon's nutmeg reaction. #lufc — Beren Cross (@BerenCross) July 21, 2025 Largie Ramazani was never too far away from the needle that lurked in every exercise and had the players facing off with one another. In one particular moment, when something had gone against Wilfried Gnonto, it was Ramazani, Ampadu and even Farke, teasing the Italian. As Bornauw limped away with what we came to learn was a thigh injury that will rule him out for a fortnight, Riemer again divided the squad into four teams for a tournament. Illan Meslier, Karl Darlow, Alex Cairns and Rory Mahady marshaled a full-sized goal each as the outfield teams rotated between them, across two small pitches. Advertisement This is where the fight for goals and wins really ramped up. Ramazani was central to the most eye-catching flashpoint. As he grappled with Bogle for the ball, the winger ended up tearing the full-back's bib, pulling half of it off his back. Riemer whistled and, as he stopped play, Ramazani swivelled to boot the ball at the already-floored Bogle. A penalty was awarded, with the squad gathering to watch it. Bogle vs Darlow. Farke: 'No rebounds!' Rodon: 'All day, Karl. All day!' Ilia Gruev, apparently the most placid member of the squad, went to stand by the ball in an effort to put Bogle off. Ampadu marched over to carry the Bulgarian away. At Leeds United training in Germany. The footage speaks for itself. Ramazani had torn Bogle's bib to give away the penalty. 'Shitbag.' #lufc — Beren Cross (@BerenCross) July 21, 2025 Ramazani, being calmed by Gnonto: 'Watch him f*** it now, s***bag.' Bogle tucks it in the corner and Harsewinkel's residents can hear the roar. Ampadu runs up to Ramazani's face: 'You s***bag!' It's impossible not to laugh at how petty this all is and it must be like this year-round. These are the little moments, no doubt forgotten by the players hours later, which forge their connections, their will to fight for each other when it matters. Aside from that tete-a-tete, there was some superb quality on show. Followers of the club's social media will have seen Darlow's full-stretch parry of James' volleyed rocket. Piroe sent Rodon, Ao Tanaka and Gruev sliding out of the way with one chop of the boot before finishing one of his many goals. 😍 SAVE! @KarlDarlow — Leeds United (@LUFC) July 21, 2025 Harrison and Lukas Nmecha were spotted firing shots at Mahady after the session had finished, squeezing in their extras as club security chief Martin Sykes and kit manager Chris Beasley returned on their bicycles, beaming. Several of the official and expensive Premier League footballs had been lost in the woods behind the pitches. Sykes and Beasley were not to be denied. Advertisement Once the media had been sent packing from that session, club footage would later show Stach got involved in an afternoon knock-around. His transfer would be finally announced on the Tuesday morning. Operations manager Matt Robertshaw said he couldn't help but marvel at his height when he saw the midfielder stood with Meslier at one of their meals. The media had their first look at Stach when he arrived with the squad for Tuesday's friendly against SC Verl. His international clearance had not been received in time, so he watched from the stands with Bornauw, Isaac Schmidt (calf), and Brenden Aaronson, who only arrived that morning after prolonged summer service with the USMNT. There was no access for the media on Wednesday, but we learned this was a key day of social bonding for the players. Aside from a players-against-staff paintball match (Farke not included), which the former predictably took very seriously, there was a raft of initiation songs for any employee to have arrived since last year's Germany trip. Among the players, this meant Tanaka, Ramazani, Schmidt, Nmecha, Bijol, Bornauw, Gudmundsson, Sean Longstaff and Stach were on a chair singing what they desired. The song choices have remained a closely guarded secret, but the Swedish left-back is understood to have been the keenest to get up and get on with his. While this was all unfolding, United executives were accelerating their pursuit of goalkeeper Lucas Perri. It was a move that came together far quicker than any of them expected. Hannah Cox, head of football administration, and Adam Underwood, sporting director, had been in Germany at the start of the week to get the Stach deal over the line. They then flew back to the UK, not expecting any further deals during the training camp. They had to fly back to Germany once the Perri talks entered their final stages. A second significant transfer of the week represented an outstanding week for the club, which was entirely worth the air miles. Perri arrived with his family on the Thursday night, had his medical on the Friday, and signed off on the final bits of paperwork before the club got ready for his announcement on Saturday morning. There was a minor administrative delay, but while Perri was taking in the Paderborn friendly, the announcement was set for that evening. Advertisement Perri was in the stands as Leeds faced a far sterner challenge from the 2 Bundesliga outfit. Luis Engelns, Farke's 18-year-old son, began in the heart of the home midfield. There was nothing over the line, but a couple of firm Ampadu challenges on the teenager caught the eye. There was a knowing grin shared between father and son as the latter walked past the away dugout following his second-half substitution. It proved a valuable test for Leeds at the end of their third week of preparation for the new season. Farke will take a lot more from the forthcoming matches against Villarreal and Milan. We will only see the real impact of a week like this next May.

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