Some people think it's easy to take a free-kick, while others think it's hard.

Strictly speaking, free kicks, like penalties and corners, are collectively referred to as set-pieces, not to mention penalties, and for many weaker teams, free kicks are usually an important means for them to score goals.

Even for some of the big teams, free-kicks are an important part of the attack.

We often hear this commentary in games: "Free kicks are an important means to break the opposition's dense defense, and the XX team must take advantage of this opportunity." ”

This is the main role of a strong team using a free kick - to break down the opposition's dense defense and avoid the embarrassment of not being scoreless.

So for any team, free kicks are a very important offensive tool.

There are many well-known free-kick masters in the world, such as Mihajlovich's hat-trick of free kicks in a single game, Becky's full moon scimitar beat Greece to send England to the World Cup finals, Juninho Jr. became a free-kick grandmaster in Ligue 1, and Albertini and Pirlo's leaf-falling balls were unique...... Including Ronaldo's elevator ball later, it has become a link that fans talk about.

So, what does it take to become a free-kick master?

From the videos of these people, you can't actually tell that they are ugly at all.

Becky's penalty stance is extremely backward, Cristiano Ronaldo's free kick is completely relied on the calf, Juninho's running distance is very long, and Pirlo's instep landing is extremely weird, if you really just rely on watching the video, you can't see anything in common from their videos, you can only find one commonality. That is, they all put the ball into the opponent's goal.

So watching the footage is not actually a good way to do it, Wenger gave it to Descartes, more because he has a free-kick trainer who has nothing to do, otherwise Arsenal would not have wasted so many free-kick opportunities.

He just hopes that Descartes can learn something from it himself, after all, everyone has their own understanding of football, some people are highly talented and have their own set of methods, and some people are so talented that they can't be famous no matter how you look at it.

In other words, Wenger's guidance to Descartes can only be a natural way.

It's a shame that no one can become a free-kick master with just a few videos. If only a free-kick were that simple. Among the millions of professional players in the world, there are no only so few free kick masters.

After several days of studying the footage, Descartes finally understood a problem, if it was to study it alone. It would be at least a few years before he figured out the trick of free-kicks.

It's not like he didn't practice free-kicks as a kid. But why haven't you been able to practice it? Is it because of the lack of talent?

Of course not. In fact, because of the environment in which he lived, no one could guide him in this regard.

If you want to get into the house, you must have unremitting efforts and clear guidance. These two points are indispensable.

Beckham was famous for his accurate long passes and exquisite free kicks as soon as he debuted, in terms of footwork and technique, I believe no one will agree that he is better than Zidane, and Zidane has also scored a lot of beautiful free kicks, but why when it comes to free kicks, the first thing that comes to people's minds is always Beckham instead of Zidane?

It's because he's professional!

Beckham's career goals are certainly not as good as Zidane's, but if you want to say that the free kick is directly scored, Qi Bald can't catch up with him, his full moon scimitar is not only unique, but also has become an eternal classic on the football field, and Qi Bald left people is "flying immortals", "Marseille slaloms", and not "Parisian free kicks", so when we talk about professional free kick masters between the two, we will only think of Beckham.

But few people know where David Beckham's free-kick skills came from.

It is said that as a child Beckham was Bobby. The top student at Charlton Soccer School, who showed a talent for free-kicks from an early age, was given a penalty, and his father, in order to better practice his free-kick technique, hung a discarded car tire on the wall and asked him to aim the free throw at the position inside the tyre.

Hard practice since childhood has led to Beckham's precise "Moon Scimitar", but without Bobby. Charlton School's teachers are professionally instructed and his technique would not have been so flawless.

This is the gap between Descartes and David Beckham, he has no lack of talent, but he lacks professional guidance.

Mr. Mankaard is a good and conscientious mentor, but unfortunately Pavia is not a club with full facilities, and even Arsenal lack free-kick training staff, let alone a small club that has been struggling in Serie B for many years.

So what Descartes has to do now is to find a professional free-kick master to learn from them.

The first thing that came to his mind was Rosicky, who was also training with him in recovery at the Kearney base.

Rosicky was Arsenal's second-leading free-kick taker, just behind Robin van Persie and even ahead of Cesc Fabregas.

After listening to Descartes' doubts, Rosicky told him very seriously: "I think the most important thing about a free kick is the landing point, and being able to accurately grasp the landing point is the best way." ”

So Descartes trained for a period of time according to his method, but soon he found that the landing point of the free kick is not so easy to master, the key is that this so-called "mastery of the landing point" method sounds very mysterious, everyone knows that mastering the landing point will greatly increase the probability of scoring a free kick, but how to accurately grasp the landing point?

Rosicky said that this can only be practiced for a long time, and there are no shortcuts.

Of course, this sentence is true, but the football field is not a training ground, the opponent's wall is different in height, short, fat and thin, the opponent's goalkeeper has different saving habits, and even the weather and wind are different.

So Descartes thought that this was only an important condition, not a necessary condition.

He believed that there was a basic thing in the free kick and he had mastered it. in order to get twice the result with half the effort.

So he didn't hesitate to ruin teammate Van Persie's pleasant beach trip and made a long-distance phone call to ask him for advice.

Van Persie laughed heartily on the phone, and then he told Descartes: "Kick the ball hard into the goal and God will do the rest." ”

Descartes hung up the phone in frustration, this sentence was not a joke by Van Persie, but his true feelings.

Van Persie's name is not bad, and he has a lot of power, so the method he said is actually his own experience, but this kind of thing can only be understood. There are no words. Nor did Descartes get any useful information from him.

Seeing that his body began to recover day by day, and the day of the new season training camp was gradually approaching, Descartes still could not find the key to the free kick goal, and he was a little anxious.

It just so happened that on this day that he was on the phone with his agent, Mr. Bonetto. So Descartes told him about his confusion. Who knew that Mr. Bonetto laughed as soon as he heard the question. Then he smiled and told Descartes that he might be able to help a little with this problem.

"Remember my good friend Mr. Blanchini?"

"Ugh. I remember......" Descartes said halfway, and his breath suddenly became short, because he suddenly remembered that Mr. Blancini had two famous world-class players, one of whom was Albertini, the grandmaster of the deciduous ball.

"You mean ......" Descartes' voice was filled with irrepressible excitement, and if he could be coached by Albertini, it would be something that every Italian player could only dream of.

"Yes, that's what you think." Mr. Bonetto's voice remained steady: "De Metrio [Albertini] has now stepped down from the Italian Football Federation, he is not currently on a post elsewhere, and I don't think he would mind mentoring the younger generation. ”

"That's great." Descartes cheered, and then said impatiently, "Monsieur Bonetto, when can I ask Monsieur Albertini for advice?" ”

"There's no need to rush." Mr. Bonetto's voice was a little teasing: "Let me catch up with my old friend first." ”

To Descartes' excitement, he received a call from Albertini that night.

"Hello, I'm Demetrio, Descartes, and it's a pleasure to meet you." Albertini's voice is full of magnetism, the 37-year-old former Rossoneri captain is one of the few world-class players in world football who has been insulated from scandals, and his career has been full of admiration and gratitude, and he is a representative of both virtue and art.

When Descartes heard this opening remark, he immediately straightened up and said seriously: "Hello Monsieur Albertini, I am Descartes, and I am glad to meet you. ”

"Hehe, don't be so polite, call me Trio, Descartes, my friends call me that." Albertini's voice did not pause, but cut straight to the point: "I heard you have some problems with free kicks, is there anything I can do to help you?" ”

"Of course, Trio...... Sir, I've been practising free kicks lately, but I can't find one...... Feeling, you are one of the best free-kick masters in Italy and I would like to hear something from you. Descartes pricked up his ears and listened carefully to Albertini's every word, which would be an inexhaustible treasure for him.

"Hehe, you're too polite Descartes, I'm just an ordinary player, I can't say anything, I can only tell you a little bit about my experience, in my opinion, the most important thing for a good free throw player should be a quality: power."

"Strength?" Descartes was a little confused, Albertini, including players like Pirlo, Juninho Jr., Beckham, has never been known for his strength, why did Albertini mention the term?

"Yes, power." Albertini's tone was full of unquestionable conviction: "There are many ways to take a free-kick, but in my opinion, the most basic thing is power. The process of taking a free kick is actually a process in which you get the ball to where you want it to go, in this process, of course, footwork is important, but the most fundamental thing is your strength. ”

"From my experience, if a player can kick the ball 60 meters away, then he can control the range of the landing point is about 30 meters, because if the distance is far away, he can't accurately grasp his power, and he can't accurately control the landing point, so if you want to make your free kick fall within 40 meters very accurate, you need to have at least the power to drive the ball 80 meters away, which is why I told you to pay attention to power in the first place."

Descartes thought about it and felt that what Albertini said seemed to make sense, he himself felt that his passing was not bad when he was in the game, sometimes the short-distance pass could even be accurate to the millimeter, but when training free kicks, especially the kind of long-distance free kicks, it was difficult for him to control the landing of the ball.

In the end, this is because of the lack of strength.

If he can really drive the ball 80 meters away with one kick, then when taking a free kick from 3 or 40 meters away, he can control his muscles and strength with full control, and achieve the goal of accurately controlling the landing point of the ball.

This is actually the same as shooting, the closer to the basket, the less power is required, and the more accurate the control of the landing point, and if it is replaced by a half-court shooting, it is already very satisfying to let the basketball touch the basket, who cares about controlling the landing point?

In other words, if the power is strong enough to easily throw the ball to the basket in the half, then the player will be able to choose the landing point and then control the landing point.

On the basketball court, it's called the feel, and on the soccer field, it's called the shooting technique.

The word technique is really deceptive, most people will think that the so-called shooting technique is the footwork, angle, and maybe the deception of the opposing goalkeeper before the shot, but few people will understand that the most important factor in this is power.

With enough strength, the speed is naturally fast, and the ability to control the football is naturally high, and a babbling child and an adult professional football player, even if they shoot in the same direction with the same footwork, the result will be completely different, how simple is this truth!

Albertini's words gave Descartes a sense of epiphany, no wonder he always felt that something was missing, it turned out that the difference was to use enough power to control the football.

Don't think that free-kick masters such as Beckham and Pirlo have never been known for their physicality, but if you look at their thighs, you will see that they are thicker than ordinary people and even many ordinary players, and this is a testament to their strength.

The most direct example is that after Beckham went to Real Madrid, he was put in the midfield position by Capello, and as a result, he ran an astonishing 127,000 meters in the whole field, which is the longest average distance of a player in the Real Madrid team.

Some people may say that this is good endurance, not good strength, but to say that endurance has nothing to do with strength, do you believe it?

Albertini's words finally allowed Descartes to open the door to the free kick, and it was up to him how to go and how far he could go. (To be continued......)