Arsenal’s two goals against OL Lyonnes were chaotic, but also related to the plan
One of the great things about sport is that it is generally a blend of deliberate strategy and unplanned chaos. “Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth” and all that. But that quote implies the chaos always works in the opposite direction to the plan.
Sometimes, the plan creates the situation, and the unexpected knockout blow makes the plan look clever. Arsenal’s equaliser in their 2-1 win over OL Lyonnes was, frankly, a daft goal. Mariona Caldentey passed a free kick into the box, Stina Blackstenius couldn’t quite reach it in time, but OL Lyonnes goalkeeper Christiane Endler took her eye off the ball, let it run past her, and defender Ingrid Engen, in trying to clear the ball, ended up turning it over the line for an own goal.
Endler and Engen seemed so rattled by this concession that they were also the two players involved in the mix-up for the second goal, turned home into an empty net by Olivia Smith. That free kick for the equaliser was the turning point. Although a freak incident, it was actually very similar to a corner Arsenal played in the first half.
In that moment, Caldentey looked up, assessed the situation, and raised her right arm. Then, rather than whipping the ball into the middle, she sidefooted it along the ground. Leah Williamson, making a run around the pack of players from the far post to the near, couldn’t reach the ball, and it was cleared.
An irrelevant incident in isolation. But then came the free kick. There’s the same pattern here.
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