Gera’s goal v Hamburg: all about his run

(Tim’s post reminded me to post this. I’d meant to for ages now.)

Next time someone dismisses a goal as “bah, tap in” or somesuch, have a think about what went before that tap in.  Zoltan Gera gives a fine example of this:

Corner flies over from the left of the picture (right side of the pitch).  It falls to Etuhu.  Five Fulham players are in central positions.

Gera runs hard across the six yard box…

Beats everyone to the ball, swivels and taps home.

A simple goal to the naked eye, but think again about Gera’s run:

If he’d done the obvious thing and stayed still we’d have gone out on away goals.  But that run was priceless, a wonderful gamble that paid off, but which was really hard to see.  It’s one of the reasons we find it so hard to evaluate players: we see only a small proportion of what each does on the field at any given time.

Anyway, great goal, and not just a tap in.