Anton Stach’s goal for Leeds in their recent victory over Crystal Palace was, in basic terms, fairly irrelevant. Leeds were already 3-1 up, the game was in the 10th minute of stoppage time, and Stach’s dipping free kick was simply the icing on the cake.
But in another sense, this feels like a particularly noteworthy goal, because of the nature of the strike, and the trajectory of the shot.
As Stach setup to take the free kick, the situation was very routine. Dean Henderson was guarding the far post, focusing on the danger of a curled free kick towards that top corner, or a cross-shot that fizzed across the players gathered in the box. His wall was set up to defend the near post. And, to a certain extent, Henderson was saying to Stach: go on then, have a go — if you can get the ball up over the wall, and then down again beneath the crossbar, from a position on the edge of the box where there isn’t much space to work with, fair play to you.
Stach took on the challenge — and he nailed it. But the significant aspect is not merely that the ball goes into the net. It’s that it hits the net only about one-third of the way up. Stach didn’t simply dip the ball under the crossbar — he dipped it several feet under the crossbar.
OK, you can question the Palace wall — the middle two players were a little slow to jump, but Stach still clears them, and then brings the ball down successfully.
All this is, first and foremost, about excellent technique. But it’s probably also about the new Premier League ball.
This is the first season of the Puma ball, branded as ‘Orbita’, after 25 years of the Premier League using Nike balls. And, much as players and managers are regularly mocked if they mention anything about the nature of different balls being used in different competitions or different seasons, this genuinely does make a difference to the flight of shots.
The Puma ball features 12 panels, whereas last season’s Nike ball featured only four. And, while there’s more to the aerodynamics of a ball than the simple number of panels, the general rule is that the fewer the panels, the more the ball ‘continues’ along its flight (although it may ‘wobble’ in the air). The more panels, the more air resistance and the more players can control the movement of the ball by imparting spin.
This season, Premier League players seem more capable of controlling the movement of the ball, in terms of lateral movement — but particularly in terms of vertical movement. In other words, there have been a number of goals comparable to that Stach free kick, where the ball has suddenly descended midway along its path.
The first example was Dominik Szoboszlai’s brilliant free kick winner in an otherwise flat contest between Liverpool and Arsenal at the end of August. Midway through its flight you wondered whether the ball would dip enough to go under the crossbar, but it descended and struck the inside of the post, three-quarters of the way up, before bouncing into the net past David Raya.
“It’s a very good strike, especially with the new balls and everything,” said Raya. “We still have to adapt. It’s going away from me so it’s harder to gauge and save it. It’s different to the Nike ball so we have to adapt to it. The grip is different, the kick is different. We just have to adapt after playing with the Nike ball for many years. It’s the same for everybody.”
Data broadly supports the idea that this ball is easier for players to control in these situations. The rate of free-kick goals is up — certainly not to historic levels, but there’s been a significant rise from recent seasons. In fact, there have already been as many free kicks scored in the first half of this season as in the whole of 2023-24.
Free kicks are the best litmus test — the taker has time to consider the required technique and trajectory. But it’s not just about free kicks — players seem to be generating more dip on their open play strikes, too.
A memorable case was Justin Kluivert’s long-range goal for Bournemouth against Fulham in a wet Friday night encounter at the start of October.
This was a good situation to impart some dip — the ball was rolling away from him, Kluivert was running straight on, and therefore he was able to effectively strike ‘over’ the ball. He nailed it perfectly, and despite being hit with tremendous pace, the ball rose and then dipped dramatically, and a shot that appeared to be heading for the top corner actually ended up only midway up the goal.
His team-mate Eli Junior Kroupi scored a similar strike, from a similar range and into the same goal, in the same month in a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest.
There’s less elevation on this strike, but the sudden dip makes it bounce at the worst moment for Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels. And this seems a common theme. West Ham’s Alphonse Areola made a strange save from a Joachim Andersen long-range effort last week, deciding to go with his feet rather than his hands to stop a ball that dipped suddenly. In the end, he saved it almost with his studs.
Maybe the biggest beneficiary has been Morgan Rogers. He’s scored a range of excellent goals, but the most spectacular have been a long-range strike away at Tottenham Hotspur in a 2-1 win, and then a similar hit for the winner in a 3-2 victory at West Ham United. That second goal was particularly impressive — the shot was above the reach of Alphonse Areola when it passed the goalkeeper, yet dipped so dramatically it hit the net midway up.
Amongst so many dipping strikes, it’s worth pointing out there have been plenty of goals scored thanks to lateral movement, too. Lucas Paqueta’s early strike against Chelsea moved so dramatically that Robert Sanchez was moving in the wrong direction and ended up trying to save it with his wrong hand. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s winner for 10-man Everton at Manchester United was a classic curler into the top corner. Jeremy Doku’s equivalent in Manchester City’s 3-0 win over Liverpool capped a superb individual performance.
And are inswinging corners more likely to end up in the net? Marcus Tavernier scored an ‘olimpico’ against Forest, Bukayo Saka’s effort against Wolves forced Sam Johnstone into an unfortunate own goal, while Reece James almost scored a goal straight from a corner against Aston Villa last Saturday, only to see Joao Pedro get a minor touch on the goalline.
It’s also worth considering whether the new ball has contributed to the obsession with long throws. Has every club suddenly discovered a long-throw specialist out of nowhere, or is this ball actually easier to throw long distances? Raya mentioned that the grip is different, and it seems conceivable that the higher number of panels means it’s easier to get more purchase on the ball.
That’s more difficult to judge. But the new ball does seem to be producing more spectacular goals — not the unpredictable wobbling efforts of the late 2000s, but measured, precise, well-judged finishes that reward technique and invention.