With a Southeastern Conference-best 16 players recording a point this season, it was only natural for Florida to find a new way to generate goals last weekend.
Through 52 corner-kick opportunities, the Gators relied heavily on playing short passes off set pieces. But for the top offensive attack in the SEC, the results were mixed, with just two goals in 11 games.
So after using a Thursday practice to work on its execution, the team came out with a new look in matches with Vanderbilt and Kentucky last weekend and, for the first time, began to regularly fire long balls into the box.
“We’ve spent some time on corners and worked on our set pieces in a little bit different way [last] week,” UF coach Becky Burleigh said. “We worked in the run of play, opposed to just having a day where we work on set pieces. It helps them see it in a little more realistic way.”
The switch was effective last Friday against a surprised Commodores’ defense that allowed junior Erika Tymrak and fellow midfielder Holly King to score both of the Gators’ goals on plays started by aerial services. Of the four times the team has scored on corner kicks, three have come from long passes.
“We usually do short corners, but we thought we’d mix it up because we have really good people who can finish in the air,” Tymrak said.
In either method of playing the corner kick, UF’s personnel taking the kick rarely changes. Nearly every time, the Gators have their two creative leaders in Tymrak, who has a team-high nine goals and four assists, or freshman midfielder Annie Speese (five goals and four assists) take the set piece.
“Annie Speese serves a great ball in, so we’re lucky to have that, and Holly King had an amazing goal,” Tymrak said.
On the long corners, Florida has also flourished when it targeted senior Lindsay Thompson, a 5-foot-8 midfielder, at the near post for a low-risk, line-drive pass. In a three-pass setup in the 36th minute, Thompson controlled the Tymrak service and found freshman Havana Solaun at the top of the box. Solaun then assisted King’s goal.
Florida found the back of the net on a similar corner-kick opportunity when it was trailing and desperate for a goal in the 68th minute of a 4-3 loss to FSU on Sept. 9. In that instance, Thompson intentionally let a long ball from Speese roll past her, leaving King open in the middle of the goal line for the score.
“We call it the garbage area,” Tymrak said. “We just have to clean it up. If the ball goes in, take a quick touch and look up, slip somebody (a pass) or shoot it. It’s pretty successful.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Florida midfielder Erika Tymrak scored a goal off a corner kick against Vanderbilt, one of four goals scored on set pieces this season for the Gators.
