The Specialist: The Free Kick

Every team has his specialist. Players who can weave magic from 20 or 25 meters. Curling the ball over the wall, exactly where they want them. Zico could do it, Platini, Maradona, Glenn Hoddle, Zidane, that bloke Beckham… We’ve seen some famous Dutch specialists at work too: Willem van Hanegem, Willy van der Kuylen, Pierre van Hooijdonk, Ronald Koeman, Frank de Boer and more recently Wesley Sneijder. We’ll look at this specialism with Eredivisie player Gregoor van Dijk of FC Utrecht.

The Trick

Throughout the whole history of football, players and coaches come up with new and creative ideas to gain a free-kick and execute them successfully. In November 2008 we saw a very creative one in Italy. Catania playing Torino. The home team got a free kick and placed a second wall of their own players behind the Torino wall. To obscure the sight of Torino’s goalie. But that wasn’t all. Plasmati, in the Silician wall, dropped his shorts exactly when his team mate took the free kick! Goalie Sereni was bamboozled and too late to stop the Catania free kick. The Italian ref allowed the goal but Dutch referee guru Dick Jol would have disallowed the goal. “It’s totally unfair to do this. You can’t come up with tricks like that to confuse the goalie. Next time, a player will unleash two white doves from his shorts or another will start vomiting on the goalie’s shoes. Not done…”

The World Champion

In 2004, Dutch international Ugur Yildirim, player of Heerenveen, won the Free Kick Master championship in Marbella. Chinese specialist Shen Si and one Zinedine Zidane finished second and third. The heavily sponsored event – Yildirim won a car among other things – was baed on three categories: free kicks from 18, 21 and 25 meters. In 2005, 2006 and 2007 the organization wasn’t able to repeat the event, but in 2008 another version was organized. Specialists like Del Piero, Torres, Deco and Podolski decided not to come. Barca player Rafael Marquez won the 2008 version. He pocketed 1 million dollars and is allowed to call himself the World Champion Free Kick Specialist.

The Technique

Gregoor van Dijk, son of Groningen icon Jan van Dijk, started his career at FC Groningen. He hardly ever took a free kick. “In those days, Groningen had it’s specialists. Edwin Olde Riekerink, Rene Eijkelkamp and later Hans Visser were the men. I just watched. These guys could shoot from every distance and angle. Amazing. I tried to copy them but I learned quickly that that doesn’t work. You’ve got to create your own style. Pierre van Hooijdonk had those long runs, but it didn’t do it for me.” At FC Groningen, Visser allowed Van Dijk one free kick one day. Van Dijk scored immediately and is labeled a specialist from that moment on. “Still, I don’t see it that way. I can only take them from 20 meters or so. And I want the ball to be a tad to the left of the goal. And it also depends on the goalie and what position he takes. Wapenaar for instance, leaves the near post free. If you can lift the ball over the wall, you have a chance with him. I envy players who can hit a ball from every distance, like C Ronaldo or Beckham. They don’t care where the ball is. I’d say these guys are real specialists.”

The Most Beautiful One

Van Dijk has a Top Three of Best Free Kicks. “Number three is Ronald Koeman’s free kick for Oranje against England, in 1993. It was special, because formally Koeman should have been sent off. He had pulled Platt’s shirt and should have been red carded. I remember that game well. But he was allowed to stay and then he got to take that free kick. The ball was placed on the edge of the box. Actually very hard to give the ball speed. So, Koeman basically chipped the ball over the wall, into the goal.” The second best is Pierre van Hooijdonk’s free kick against Freiburg for Feyenoord, in the successful UEFA Cup campaign. “That was an incredible free kick. Enormous distance, tough angle…an unbelievable precision free kick. There was only one way the ball could be scored and he did it.” Van Dijk’s fave is a Ronaldinho free kick. “And it’s not even a real beauty… It was against Werder Bremen in the 2006/07 season. What happened was, that Ronaldinho scored many free kicks high in the goal. So walls would jump up to get more reach to stop his balls. And what does Ronaldinho do? He hits the ball low over the ground. The wall jumps up and the balls flows through under the wall, into the goal. Sheer brilliance.”

Because it’s such a beauty:

Ronaldinho’s….

And a 5 minute highlights from Oranje-England from 1993 with Koeman’s goal: