Throw Ins

Recently I have found myself smiling at all the fuss that Stoke City’s Rory Delap has caused with his thunderbolt throw-ins. His ability to hurl the ball into the penalty area has had managers and players bleating on about how ugly and unfair it is of the Potters to do it. The fuss made seemed to be in direct relation to the havoc that had been caused by this simplest of tactics. It ‘aint pretty but how unsettled have the Premiership big boys been by it all?

'The human sling', was how Everton manager David Moyes described Delap after Everton won 3-2 at Stoke despite twice succumbing to the midfielder's long throw-ins.

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill looked bewildered as he tried to explain how you defend the missile that led to Stoke's last-minute winner.

“I have never seen anything like this in my life,” said Chelsea’s manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, who professed to be less concerned by the aesthetics of the Republic of Ireland midfielder’s throw than by its effectiveness and consistent threat. “If you are making goals, it’s more beautiful than not making goals,” the pragmatic Brazilian said.

It is certainly not a new tactic. Tranmere Rovers had a player called Dave Challinor (who went on to captain Bury ;-)) and it was reported in 2000, by the BBC, that he hurled the ball a world record distance of 46.34m. Over 46m!!! In reality that is much further than the majority of us could kick the ball and would, in effect, mean that just about any throw-in conceded in the opposition half could be chucked into the area like a corner kick. Just imagine being able to throw the ball from the goal line pretty much to the half way line.

One of the major problems for defenders is that their opponents cannot be given offside from a throw-in and as such they can pack the six yard area and prevent the goalkeeper from coming out to collect the ball. This means that, inevitably, the ball is bouncing around in a very dangerous area and often goals are conceded from chaotic passages of play.

Law 15 states

A throw-in is a method of restarting play.

A throw-in is awarded to the opponents of the player who last touched the ball when the whole of the ball crosses the touch line, either on the ground or in the air.

A goal cannot be scored directly from a throw-in.

Procedure

At the moment of delivering the ball, the thrower:
• faces the field of play
• has part of each foot either on the touch line or on the ground outside the touch line
• holds the ball with both hands
• delivers the ball from behind and over his head
• delivers the ball from the point where it left the field of play

It also states that if an opponent unfairly distracts or impedes the thrower then he should be cautioned for unsporting behaviour and that all opponents must stand no less than 2m from the point at which the throw-in is taken. In reality this means that the throw cannot be blocked and, if it is, it is an automatic yellow card. However, if you are thinking of always jumping up in the way of a throw, click onto the link below……still wanna block it?

http://footballinfinland.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/great-throw-ins-of-our-time/