France and England agreed to a peace settlement today settling for a 1-1 tie in a game that never really sparked to life. Two goals both solid efforts from Samir Nasri tying things up for France with a blast from just outside the box after an athletic effort by Joleon Lescott had given England the lead.
First the Nasir goal:
Obviously a well taken shot by Nasri with commentators giving England goalkeeper Joe Hart the benefit of the doubt saying he was “unsighted” on the shot. He may have been but his own movement took him further away from the line of the shot as he, perhaps in an attempt to get a better look, moves to his left and then is left stranded as the shot goes just beyond his reach at the near post.
Hart's initial position before shifting left.
Hart's shitfted position just as shot taken.
As you can see from the third and fourth images the shift in weight and distance probably cost Hart the save as he was just outside of reach of the ball as it past him.
Missed it by that much.
Hart’s original position was on the shot line and if he had not shifted his position to left (perhaps to get a better sight line – I’m not convinced) I believe he would have stopped Nasri’s shot.
Lescott’s goal against French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was one of those I like to goal a goal via omission of positive play by the goalkeeper. Either come or stay but don’t do either.
First the video:
Originally Lloris takes a good aggressive position and is actually moving towards Lescott and the point of contact before backing away:
Lloris a good four yards off line and perhaps three yards from where ball will end up.
But by the time ball arrives he is moving away from the ball and actually further away from the point of contact then when he started.
Finally by the time Lescott’s header is going by him he is still not set and in fact is leaning back towards his own goal.
In my opinion he could have easily challenged for the cross and punched it away from his initial position. This lack of aggressive play by the goalkeepers seems to have taken root in today’s game and has been seen on a number of goals in EURO 2012 already.
Again two well taken goals with nothing to be taken away from either scorer but in both cases minor errors by the keepers resulted in both chances going in.
Over the next few days we’ll try and keep pace with the ongoing games as well catch up on the goals in the opening games where keepers may have contributed, both good and bad to the result.
Please comments and thoughts welcome.