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The Specialist: The Long Pass
Comments(30)
There’s nothing that gives a greater feeling of power than the ability to send the ball over 40 or more meters to an attacker at full speed who receives the ball on the “stropdas” (the tie) and enable him to score. Oranje had many many players in the past with that skill. In the 1974 team, players like Ruud Krol and Willem van Hanegem had that skill. Krol with the upper-side of the foot, De Kromme would send his banana-passes with the outside boot. Ronald Koeman was a master, just like Wim Jonk and Frank de Boer. Our current squad has John Heitinga, Gio van Bronckhorst and Wesley Sneijder with that skill.
In the Dutch eredivisie, Gibril Sanko of FC Groningen is one of the masters.
History
Dennis Bergkamp always had a pre-movement in the “wrong” direction. Jonk and De Boer knew that. This time, Dennis would sprint into the center channel, to mislead Argentine rock Roberto Ayala. Frank de Boer knew exactly where Dennis wanted the ball and passed the ball into space, behind and over Ayala. The ball traveled some 60 meters before Bergkamp picked it up out of the air. With one move, Bergkamp sent Ayala into the wrong direction again and used the outside of his other foot to score the most sensational goal of the WC1998. It was the 90est minute of the quarter finals in Marseille. The perfect goal and the perfect pass. A nation went berserk.
The Vision
Gibril Sankoh: “I started giving loss passes from the back when I was a junior. I have my sights always on my strikers. And I always had that sensitivity in my foot. Everyone always talks about the skill to kick a ball and in case of De Boer and Beckham or Van Hanegem that certainly is true, but my kicking technique isn’t that great and I do believe players like Krol or Passarella were mediocre kickers as well. It’s more the vision that counts. Over 60 meters, the ball doesn’t need to be perfect. The striker is moving fast, so whether he receives it on the chest or a meter in front of him doesn’t really matter when there’s space. It’s more like: how much space is there, where does the striker move to. For me, the ball is perfect when the striker gets a scoring opportunity out of the pass. Whether it’s on the “stropdas” or not, is less important.”
The Technique
Sankoh: “Someone with a good deep pass doesn’t need to have a good distance strike. It’s a different technique altogether. Shooting on target means you need to hit the ball with full force with the upper foot. Body bent over the ball to keep it low and all that. With a deep pass, you need more feeling and the body hangs back a bit, to give it the upward momentum. Ryan Babel has the ideal technique for a shot on target, but I don’t know if he has the vision and skill to give a long pass. Obviously, Ronald Koeman had both, but Frank de Boer didn’t have a rocket in his feet. I think Ronald was more the finisher and Frank de man with the pass. I think Van Hanegem couldn’t even shoot straight, haha…. And with a long ball, you hit the ball partly with the inside foot so you can steer it better. It’s a combination of feeling, vision, technique and force.”
The Psychology
Sankoh: “By now, opponents know what I can do, so they try to stop me giving the long ball. I’m fine with that. Because when they put pressure on me, our full backs get more space and we can build up through them. And you know you will get your chance to give the pass anyway. I don’t need much space and my striker colleagues are always sharp. They know that when I have the ball, I will look for that option. With my experience, I never get cranky when my passes fail. I try not to force it, but I will keep on trying, you know. To me, a game is a success only when I had one successful pass! I know as a defender, my job is to stop them from scoring, so the long pass is my icing on the cake.”
The Top
Sankoh: “In Holland, I think Twente player Theo Janssen is the best. His passes are very precise but also very fast and direct. He hits the ball with force. Reminds me of Ronald Koeman. Everyone always mentions Beckham but his long balls are different. He uses his body different, as if he slices them more. He hits them like he’d hit a cross. To me, Steven Gerrard is the big man, internationally. He can hit the ball over 60 meters without a problem, even when he’s moving himself, under pressure… He can do it all.”
The Training
“I train on it every day. I pair with a player or our keeper and we start giving eachother long passes. We start over 20 meters and move away 5 meters until we’re doing 60 meter balls. It’s not hard. Anyone can train it. It’s the vision that needs to develop and some players will never get it. I do see certain players – also at top level – doing it regularly in games and the ball never arrives. That means, at that level, that you don’t have it. So don’t try it! It means loss of possession. But normally, anyone can train on it. You don’t need a special skill. Did you know Jaap Stam actually had a great long pass? But at Man United he wasn’t allowed to do it and in Oranje they had Frank de Boer…”
Because we will never get enough of this goal 
Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 30 comments.
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must read!!
And the Dutch have started leaving Madrid. Huntelaar´s signing for AC Milan will be very positive but he will have to be very efective in Serie A otherwise he can have a difficult time but I am positive he will have a great year with Milan. Sneijder, Robben, Rafa and Ruud; get out of Madrid. About Drenthe, he seems to be in Pellegrini´s plans.
Posted from 
Mexico
Good choice for Huntelaar I think, although I hope Milan will get a lot better than what I saw of their pre season. I’m sure Huntelaar will help with that!
Posted from 
Netherlands
Agree. Excellent news.
I never believe anything reported on GOAL.COM until its confirmed by the clubs. It would be nice to see KJH move on to Milan!
G.evening guys…i strat this topic with apologies because it is not related to the thread started by Jan..
http://www.football-italia.net/aug5u.html
The news has been released just now that Hunteleer is a Milan player..
He will be in Milan tomorrow for his medicals according to the sources..
Now, i have always been a keen admirer of Hunteeleer. Unluckily for him, he has had to play in the shadows of his teammates RVN and RVP( for the national team)..I remember him playing only one match in Euro 2008 because all first choice players were rested against Romania and what a game he had..Even in Real Madrid, he scored scored and scored whenever he got chance( because of RUUD´s injury)..It is unbelievable that Madrid is discarding him with the signature of Benzema, for me, Hunteleer is and in future would be a more complete striker than Benzema who has yet to proove..In the long run, Hunteeleer has a great chance to emulate his great peers Van Basten and Gullit by lighting the serie A and improving his tactical awareness and the eye for the goal with the likes of Pippo Inzaghi beside him..In the long run, i predict a very succesful time for him at Milan which would benifit the club as well as his country..
Thoughts?’
Posted from 
Spain
@Rossonero: That is a nice post and I agree about the Hunter. He is a no nonsense player that knows where the goal is. Very RVN like or even San Marco like in his early days. He will do well at AC Milan.
Agree tutto with finnster, Hunteleer has a keen eye for the goal and Milan , i believe will be the right team for him to make that extra quality leap and become a household name..I have no doubt whatsoever that he will be a great success at Milan.
Posted from Spain
And i forgot to add the main point, Hunteleer will be the first choice striker for Milan in all important games.At 35, although a potent force, Pippo Inzaghi cant last 90 minutes in all matches..i reckon Pato and Hunteleer will be used from the start and Pippo will be unleashed for the last 30 minutes..It will be a devastating combo hopefully..I , for one was very much disappointed with Milan´s pre season games, although they were not that important..Hopefully, Hunteleer´s addition will do wonders..
Posted from Spain
Rossonero:
Huntelaar will be a huge success in Milan. I find it amazing how Madrid let him go and wanted to kicking him out without respect because when he played full 90 minutes with Madrid´s jersey he scored many goals. But suddendly Juande Ramos decided that Higuain was better and as we all know Raúl will play even if he is drunk. He will show in Italy his real talent to score and Milan is a team who needs a lethal striker like they have always had in the past and present. Strikers like van Basten, Weah, Schevchenko, Pipo and so on. Huntelaar is a player who will grow in Milan and Madrid is keeping old bastard Raúl and a mediocre Higuain and finally Benzema who is nothing compared to Huntelaar. I haven´t seen anything from Benzema in Champions League neither in the Euro 2008. His only success was in the French League which is a pretty bad tournament. No stars, no great players, no nothing.
Hopefully Huntelaar will score against Madrid when they play their preseason game in a few days. If Huntelaar proves his quality in Milan he will be in pole position to be Holland´s number one striker for the World Cup and hopefully he will achieve that.
Let´s do it Hunter!
Posted from Mexico
Hopefully Huntelaar can inherit van Basten’s number, so I won’t have to bother buying a new shirt.
Posted from 
Canada
O and in interviews with van der Vaart, he stated that he would like to go back to Ajax, just not at this point in his career, maybe in 3 years if him and van der Sar go back, plus a couple of young guys come up, we could make a nice run at the CL.
Posted from Canada
Loovens 8 – Played well enough for two centre-backs. The Dutchman allowed nothing to get past him, covering Danny Fox as the full-back headed down the pitch. Got up well for set pieces and generally had an excellent game.
Great news!! Go Hunter!
Welcome Rossonero !
Mario,my friend, i think that you’re not objective with the other madrid strikers – huntelaar is a different kind of player. higuain is more complex (and not mediocre at all),raul is finished (but he’s mr. real madrid),benzema is more like higuain (i haven’t seen him too often). this is one thing to like our players but it doesn’t mean that we should dislike their rivals – and these guys are not bastards,not like c. ronaldo or ibra (grrrr,i have to watch him instead of samuel eto’o…). actually i haven’t seen huntelaar too often perform well in serious competitions. and please don’t compare him to marco van basten. marco was unique,the all time’s best striker. he’s more like rvn but not the same level. he might be there one day but don’t forget that at the of 26 ruud was the already manunited’s goalmachine.
i’m happy as well that he goes to milan – and don’t forget that milan have clarence seedorf as well. serie a will fit him,better than la ligua. he’s a fighter and will be appreciated by gattuso. rino has already said that he prefers huntelaar to luis fabiano. his presence will be good for clarence too.
at the age of 26 ruud was already manunited’s goalmachine
i think it’s good that hunter will go to AC milan. I think it’s one of the best teams he can go to and be assured of first team football (although I think Arsenal would have been the absolute best option, AC milan is a good second choice). A lot of people were talkiing about Man U, but if he goes there he will be benched and berbatov + rooney will play. At AC, im sure that he will not start all the games, but most of them. It is a club with a good Dutch tradition, so he will also be welcomed there. Unlike Real Madrid, where are players were never given a fair chance (you must have cost at least 30 million to be welcomed…). I hope that Sneijder leaves….I don’t like the news of him staying at all. VDV go to Arsenal or also AC Milan!
Altho I would have liked to see vP and Hunter, I believe Milan is a better option for him with only Pippa in a similar mode. Arsenal has Bendtner (very similar) plus 3 more strikers available with Kalou another. Lets hope Raf gets a team he wants.
Posted from 
Singapore
Well, I agree with you Ferenc. But those 3 forwards that Madrid preferred instead of Huntelaar today are not even close to Huntelaar´s goal ratio. Raúl has been a legend for Madrid but he is not the one who was before and Higuain for me is a mediocre player, he is from Argentina but he is far away from being a complete striker like Batistuta was(well, Valdano will protect him). About Benzema, haven´t seen anything from him. What I´m saying is that I can´t understang how Huntelaar was treated in Madrid when he is better than those players.
I don´t compare Huntelaar to van Basten or Ruud because Huntelaar doesn´t play nicely and is not very gifted technically but as a goalscorer he is the best striker Holland has right now. He needs to gain some confidence and he will show it.
Actually I will stick to my guns and claim the Hunter still looks like a young San Marco. He just have not had a chance to show what he has got on the world stage yet. MvB took a bit to get going too in case you all forgot.
Will he finish like the best striker af all time did? I very much doubt it, but where he is at in his development he looks very much the business.
Finn, what a lot of people also forget is that vB hit the world stage in 88 and the final against Russia especially (altho 3 against England was his best performance). HOWEVER vB never scored for Holland again in a major tournament after that ! I believe Hunter can do better than that.
Posted from Singapore
Omg that goal makes me cry still. one of the most sensational moments. The american commentator ruins the moment with his way of commentating this as if it were a boxing match. The best was the dutch commentators going crazy and the english and french. They built up such an intense moment that i was over my couch.
Posted from 
Switzerland
Van Basten was seen as a super striker when he was 16 years old. Wim Kieft was a young sensational striker at Ajax (winning the European Golden boot when he was what, 20?) but news came that Ajax wanted to sell him soon because this young kid from Utrecht was making a name.
Van Basten was wonderfully skilled, fast and ferocious as a killer in the box. JC actually said that Marco would make an even better playmaker when he would be a tad older (like 29 years old) like JC himself.
We’d never know though…
Huntelaar isn’t fast and certainly not as stylish as Marco.
“and as we all know Raúl will play even if he is drunk.” – Mario
lmao! So funny but yet so true!
Posted from Canada
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they can get babel, but that is it i think