In the CPL’s short history, there have been a lot of great goals scored, leading to the popular social media tagline “CPL: Bangers Only.” But among those bangers, a rare goal keeps occurring at an abnormal rate: the Olímpico. Josh Healey dives into the phenomenon.
This story was first published at OneSoccer.ca on Sept. 3, 2024.
Forge FC’s Tristan Borges can boast he’s done something Lionel Messi has yet to achieve.
Borges has done it twice, in fact, as has Atlético Ottawa’s CF Montréal loanee, Ilias Iliadis. Vancouver’s Ayman Sellouf has also done it. And don’t forget to add Forge’s skipper Kyle Bekker, Vancouver’s Vasco Fry and the Atlético Ottawa pair of Ollie Bassett and Kevin dos Santos to the list of Canadian Premier League players with a leg up on the Argentine superstar.
So what do all these players have over Messi? They’ve scored an olímpico, something which has continued to elude the 37-year-old football legend but remains much more frequent in the CPL compared to almost anywhere else in world football.
Make no mistake: olímpicos are being scored in the CPL at an unusual rate.
Per an MLS spokesperson, there were 10 olímpicos scored in that league between 1996 and 2022, including highlight-reel goals from David Beckham during his time with the LA Galaxy in 2011 and Thierry Henry with the New York Red Bulls in 2012. Somehow the CPL boasts nine olímpicos since 2019, an average of nearly two per season with far fewer games being played. This is not normal.
Olímpicos are happening at an increased rate in the CPL and they’ve also featured in key moments, including Borges’ jaw-dropping winning goal over Cavalry FC in last year’s playoff final, where the North Star Cup was on the line.
But club executives and players alike are struggling to explain the reasoning behind the olímpico feast CPL fans have been fed over the last number of years.
“I don’t know the science behind it,” laughed Halifax Wanderers sporting director Matt Fegan when asked. “There’s a lot of great goalkeepers in this league, I wouldn’t want to chalk it up to that. There’s also a lot of windy stadiums.”
Bekker, who scored his olímpico against the now-defunct FC Edmonton in 2022, was equally unsure of the explanation.
“I really don’t have a good answer for you,” he said. “Maybe it’s something that comes with a little bit of inexperience in the goalkeeper position but ultimately, anytime you’re seeing an olímpico, it’s a ball that’s been well struck. It’s difficult service, it’s putting it on top of them and surrounding the goalie with bodies.”
So what is an Olímpico?
Cesáreo Onzari scored off a corner kick against Olympic champions Uruguay in 1924, resulting in the act forever being dubbed a “gol olímpico” or olímpico as it is known today.
Simply put, an olímpico is a goal scored directly off a corner kick. It’s a feat of skill and, increasingly, a game of deception between kick takers and goalkeepers, with a dozen decisions contributing to either glory or another flubbed corner.
Given an olímpico’s place in the lore of the game, Felipe Cardenas, a senior writer for The Athletic, said its impact can be felt beyond the scoreline.
“You punish your opponent from a mentality aspect when you score an olímpico,” he told OneSoccer. “You’ve essentially undressed your opponents. It’s always going to be considered a very skillful decision based on deception and being cunning and self-aware. It’s very difficult to do.”
So difficult, in fact, that Cardenas has studied and written about Messi’s obsession with adding an olímpico to his goal-scoring resume. But it isn’t a play reserved specifically for football’s elite: olímpicos have been scored at every level of the sport, from youth games to the UEFA Champions League.
Messi has attempted to replicate Onzari’s goal countless times across his career. Somehow though, he hasn’t been able to marry his abundance of technique and intent for that perfect corner kick, two things Cardenas said are integral to scoring the highlight reel strike.
“When you’re aiming to score an olímpico, I think technique is everything,” he explained.
“You’ve got to really strike the ball in a specific way, everything from the right velocity to the right spin. Are you going near post? Are you going far post? The kick-taker is doing something very deliberate. He’s looking to put the ball into one of the most obviously dangerous parts of that six-yard box.”
When you nail down the technique, players will then be able to act with intent.
“A lot of it has to do with the positioning of the goalkeeper and the kick taker’s own level of deception. Essentially, can you draw the goalkeeper out?” said Cardenas.
Messi clearly has both technique and intent and that’s perhaps where an element of luck factors into play. Wind or miscommunication from defenders can make the difference when it comes to going for goal. Mistakes, inevitably, happen.
And when asked about the disproportionately high numbers of olímpicos being scored in the CPL, Cardenas said clubs are more likely to be aware of attempts than other leagues and that defenders will watch for the signs.
“Okay, we play in a league where the olímpico is more common than perhaps anywhere else in the world, we have to be prepared for it. I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw teams in Canada become more aware of that particular opportunity on corners,” he said.
Changes in defending the goal
Jan-Michael Williams is a former CPL netminder and the current goalkeeper coach for the Halifax Wanderers. He was also the first goalkeeper to concede an olímpico in the league:
Williams said the way players defend set-pieces, and specifically corners, has changed considerably, which could be resulting in more olímpicos.
“Over the last 20 years, clubs have defended corners differently. They usually had a guy standing at the back post and a guy standing at the near post. The player standing at the back post helped a lot in terms of that ball being flighted over the goalkeeper and heading the ball or clearing the ball off the line,” he explained.
“Nowadays, over the last five or six years, they’ve strayed away from that. A lot of teams don’t even have a guy on the post. If they do, they’ll have somebody on the near post and not somebody at the back. Teams are attacking corners with more players, with five, six, seven guys in the box. Players are defending zonally and man-to-man.”
The tendency in world football toward zonal marking is something Cardenas also remarked upon.
“I think because of the evolution of zonal marking, it’s debatable whether (marking the posts) is the right way to go. I think some coaches and some players like it, others don’t. That has led to less and less protection at the near and far post,” he said.
However, not marking the posts is only part of the olímpico equation.
Williams said he stresses to all of his goalkeepers the importance of their first step on a set piece. He added it’s important to maintain a neutral position and if you need to gain momentum, make short quick steps on the spot versus going off your line and using energy to go forwards or laterally. Goalkeepers who concede olímpicos, Williams noted, tend to have their first step or their first few steps in a forward motion.
“Once the ball is hit well, it’s got a little bit of height and goes towards that back post, it’s really hard to switch your posture and body to make those steps backwards to get that save,” he said.
Goalkeepers can move off their line on corners for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, they’re fighting traffic and are moving to get a better view of the kick taker. They may be reacting to an attacker’s run to the near post. Or, in other instances, they’ve simply mistimed their movement. All can create an opening for a kick taker to go for goal.
As the Wanderers’ goalkeeping coach, Williams said he tries to teach his guys to play the moment versus assuming what a kick taker is going to do based on previous set pieces. Focusing on the past often proves costly.
“It’s something that’s so unforgiving for goalkeepers,” he said, adding defenders in the league can be just as guilty of making assumptions on a corner but their mis-marking won’t end up on a highlight reel in the same way.
“If you look at some of the teams who concede corners, especially in this league, you’ll find that the players, zonally, are leaving the zone because of the traffic in front and are opening up that space for the attackers to come in and knock the ball into the net,” said Williams.
In a small league like the CPL, familiarity can play a part, too. Looking at Iliadis’ first olímpico in August (yes, he recorded two in a single month), he scored against Pacific’s Sean Melvin, who was his teammate last year in Ottawa. Cross-pollination between the league’s eight clubs all but ensures that most kick takers know the opposing goalkeepers very, very well.
“It may be something that they’ve seen and picked up on in training and decided to go for because I’m not sure it was something they just decided to do at that moment,” said Williams. “There’s a familiarity there.”
Anomaly or here to stay?
When asked about the future of olímpicos in the CPL, Williams said it’s something he expects to remain, although the frequency is unpredictable.
But coaches are paying attention, be they responsible for set-pieces or goalkeeping.
“It’s something every single goalkeeper coach in this league looks into, especially when they concede,” said Williams. “Luckily for me, I’ve spoken so many times about it — and it’s something I hammer down with my goalkeepers — because I have conceded in this league on the same type of goal.”
Williams added, as a member of the goalkeepers’ union, he’d like to see fewer olímpicos conceded in the league but knows it adds a level of excitement.
“The players in our league are brave enough to try so kudos to them,” he said.
Be it the CPL or the highest rungs of the sport, olímpicos remain a feat of skill, the type of goal that ends up being replayed again and again. They’ve made an impact in the CPL’s short lifespan — literally helping Forge to hoist last year’s North Star Cup — and continue to be a victory in the perennial game between kick takers and goalkeepers.
And if they continue to be scored at their current rate, it’ll be sure to draw more eyes to the league.
“It creates a buzz,” said Fegan. “The more exposure for this league, the better. If that’s what it takes to get it on The Athletic talking about us more, that’s great.”
All highlights courtesy of OneSoccer