Attacks From the Left: Valencia vs Bayer Leverkusen

Ballack Looking Extra Bad Ass with the Face Mask

While Chelsea were busy dropping points in Belgium, the other two teams in Group E, Valencia and Bayer Leverkusen, battled it out at the Mestalla stadium. Bayer could have topped the group with a win but luckily for Chelsea, Valencia took all three points with two second half goals in a 3-1 game.

What caught my eyes in that game was... no, not Michael Ballack's awesome face mask, which made him more bad ass than he already is. And no, not the second fastest goal in the Champions League, scored by Valencia's Jonas with 10 seconds on the clock (a terrible pass from the Bayer goal keeper is all you need to know about this goal).

What fascinated me was the fact that two goals scored on the night, one from each side, came as the results of attacking plays from the left side. Ballack ran down the left flank and crossed for Stefan Kiessling's equalizer in the first half. Jeremy Mathieu bombed down the left wing to provide the assist for Roberto Soldado's goal. 

I guess it is not too unusual for a team to attack from a particular flank, but as you know already know Genk also scored against Chelsea from the left-sided build up and we have Jose Bosingwa marshaling the right side of Chelsea defense. So, I think these two goals were worthy of our attention. Plus, now that we didn't get all three points against Genk, we would actually have to do something against either Valencia or Leverkusen: we should know why they scored and conceded. Here's how those goals were scored.

Ballack to Kiessling

Picture 1.1 Ballack Runs to Receive A Pass on the Left

When the ball was played out to the left wing of Bayer's attack, Ballack (yellow square) was allowed to run unmarked behind the Valencia defender who was stepping up to the ball. The Bayer player in possession, then, slipped the pass into Ballack's run. Goal scorer Kiessling (red square) is at the D. This is actually almost identical to the build up of Genk's goal. The player in possession is Kevin de Bruyne and Ballack is Camus; the two Valencia defenders are Bosingwa and Ramires (see Picture 2 here).

Picture 1.2 Ballack Crosses for Kiessling

Ballack (yellow) who, as we all know from his time at Chelsea, has a sweet left-foot cross, delivered for poorly marked (or not marked at all) Kiessling (red) in the Valencia box. Terrible marking + accurate cross = goal. Pretty simple stuff.

Mathieu to Soldado

Picture 2.1 Mathieu Runs to Receive A Pass down the Left Flank

If you have read my previous post -- Valencia's Threat from the Left, in which I analyzed how his runs and crosses created plenty of chance for Valencia to score against Barcelona this season --, you already know the danger Jeremy Mathieu can pose to the right side of opposition's defense. Here he does it again.

Mathieu (yellow square) sneaked in behind his marker to collect a well-executed chip pass from a teammate. You could blame the Bayer defender for slack marking but you can't deny the quality of the pass. Meanwhile, goal scorer Soldado (red square) is near the D, sandwiched between two Bayer center backs.

Picture 2.2 Mathieu Crosses for Soldado

As expected of him, Mathieu (yellow) put in a curving lowish cross. Soldado (red) did well to run ahead of his marker and tapped the ball into the net.

                                                                * * * * * *

So, what did we learn from this particular post? Well, for one, we learned that other teams make mistakes and concede goals from those mistakes just like we do. It doesn't justify making the mistakes but it definitely helps to know that we are not alone. Both Bayer and Valencia are capable of making defensive mistakes, which Chelsea must take full advantage of. Because if we don't, this is my second point, they have the quality in their attack to capitalize from our own defensive errors. That is all for now.

      

Question? Comments? Concerns?

Carefree, wherever you may be...