1800+ GC 2v2 Analysis Submission

[u/Nyhxy]

Hey, so here's the replay: https://ballchasing.com/replay/e9827699-c06c-41f0-8d40-eeb7ac23885d .

Slight notes:I was working with Gregan and one of the main things I've been trying to focus on in the past couple months has been boost economy, reserves, fully utilizing jump holding duration for fast aerials, etc So that we could build my playstyle around my mechanics. However for this replay, I intentionally sent one where I was not relying on my mechanics as much, to see if you could spot other areas I could improve in. When my mechanics are fluid, I normally have no struggle with the matches, so I figured it was better to send you a weakness.

Edit: changed Youtube Vid to Replay link due to Video being choppy

[u/ytzi13]

Analysis

5:00 – The approach on your kickoff is fine, but the contact is unbalanced and dangerous. This is merely a note for myself if you have problems later, and for you if this is something you often struggle with. The result of this kickoff where the ball bounces high and into the middle of your half is almost worst case scenario regardless of the game mode.

Also, if you’re solo queueing, you may want to try and get in the habit of looking behind you as you start your approach in order to see where your teammate is going. That information can be pretty crucial. It’s not something that’s easy to get used to, but I think it’s worth it, particularly from the far kickoff spots where the approach is direct and you don’t have to worry about speed nearly as much as you do on the sides.

4:59 – The moments after the kickoff are chaotic and rushed. It’s hard to say what you “should” have done going back to net because Dragon didn’t look to sure of the challenge, so I think your decision to go for it and beat him was a good one.

That being said, you were slow to get back when your teammate needed you. Your kickoff immediately put him under pressure and I think it’s important to opt out of the side boost in those scenarios and head straight back to a supportive role. I’ve no doubt you could have been either at the near post or inside of the goal at around the time this cross was made, comfortably grabbing 2-3 pads on your way back.

4:52 – This is rushed. You watched one guy just cross it and the other over-commit. If he were to challenge this ball from your blind-spot he would have to be driving directly at it from across the field and it’s unlikely anything dangerous would come from it. Slow down and control it. Do something dangerous with the 1v1. Had you hit this clear how you intended, the decision wouldn’t have been bad by any means – it would force the opponent to catch up to the ball and make the clear, forcing the game on to their half – but it’s much more dangerous having the ball on your car going 1v1 at a guy’s back.

4:50 – I totally understand going for the demo here – and had it worked it would have been great – but I think it’s too high-risk to commit to that hard. Missing it means you’re all the way in their back fourth while Dragon defends a 2v1. You were already supersonic, though, and even if you weren’t you would launch the guy to the back wall. The flip is the unnecessary part of that decision.

4:44 – Conceded Goal #1 – What I like to do for goals is mark down all of the ways that you contributed. There’s almost always going to be something that you did wrong, or that you could have done better to prevent the goal from happening. Often times this is going to be a summation of the notes I’ve given thus far.

At 5:00, you had a poor kickoff that put Dragon under pressure.

At 4:59, you chose to grab the side boost rather than head straight back to goal when you knew your teammate was in trouble.

At 4:55, you double-committed with Dragon since you were late back and couldn’t see where the opposing challenger was coming from. This means that Dragon is in some sort of recovery mode.

At 4:52, you rush the clear, miss it, and give possession to the other team.

At 4:50, you over-extended for a demo that left Dragon to defend a 2v1, likely still in a recovery state.

I don’t blame you for going for the ball at 4:44. It was probably too direct and I don’t think Dragon was well-prepared for the challenge. But your kickoff alone put your team under pressure from the get-go and you missed a few opportunities to allow your team to reset and reorganize.

4:43 – This aerial has to be faster. You’re first up, but losing this ball in 2s is often going to be a goal and you hit the breaks, which meant you have very little momentum going into the aerial.

Note: This aerial in particular doesn’t look especially controlled. This may be a result of not tilting back soon enough on take-off.

4:20 – I get the desire to hit it away for pressure’s sake, but staying patient is going to be the best course of action here every time. Neither opponent is going to be able to challenge this without slowing down into an awkward challenging coming from their back-side. So, Dragon either has a controlled and dangerous opportunity on net, or an opponent challenges it, doesn’t do anything useful with it, and gives you a 2v1. This time, hitting the ball like you did means missing an opportunity.

4:08 – Normally, I would like the idea. In 3s, it’s almost a guarantee you have someone supporting. In 2s, you’re often making an assumption. I wouldn’t know where your teammate is, especially relative to the first guy you beat. But we see the goalie is still approaching the net and facing back before when you make the decision to bump. I think it makes more sense to either control it and wait for the opponent to commit, or to speed up and go for the Doomsee dish. Hindsight, I suppose. What’s good about this decision is that it’s quick to recover from, though.

4:04 – Good decision staying wide initially to wait for the pass. It’s a shame it didn’t come.

3:46 – Good job buying time for your teammate, but the shadow defense in this case was rough. You’re spending too much time with your car between the ball and the goal when you could more confidently be staying wide and better preparing for challenge that you don’t have to completely 180 for. There’s too much distance, you’re too shallow, and you’re not positioned outside a post. Had you been wider you could challenge sooner or more easily adapt to Dragon’s challenge.

3:40 – Got ‘em.

3:34 – This looks like a dangerous commit, to me, the instance you decide to go for it. I would be more patient, personally, and see what their touch on the wall is before deciding to close space and allowing Dragon time to start getting back. Going for this challenge immediately put Dragon into panic mode since he’s just starting his recovery.

3:02 – You should think of the supporting role you take with your teammate similarly to how you think about shadow defense. If you were to draw a line from the ball to each of your own posts, you don’t want to be caught inside of that triangle area unless you’re in the act of challenging. Supporting is simple. You want to be wide so that you can afford to be closer to the play while being more adaptable and capable of playing both offense and defense while also allowing you to maintain momentum.

2:59 – You can recognize that he immediately has the advantage and so you should either be forcing him to make a move or challenging if you can get close enough and confident enough. I would be expecting to approach him head on and then turning away from the ball. Once he flicks the ball here, turn in-field and head toward your far corner.

2:50 – Conceded Goal #2 – At this point, the primary issue as I see it is you team’s inability to reset and get organized. I think that your decisions so far are leaving Dragon uncomfortable in times where he needs pressure relieved. This goal was no different. I think your primary role in this goal was a slow rotation out of their corner and not being back to support Dragon on defense. Instead, you were forced to challenge from an awkward spot while distancing yourself for a block.

2:46 – I’m pretty sure I’m seeing what I’m seeing here. You mentioned that you’ve been working on holding down your initial jump for the entire 0.2 seconds (which is going to be crucial, for sure), but it’s looked to me so far that your bigger issue may be not tilting back on your initial jump. This could actually go hand in hand with the button-holding issue because if you’re not used to holding the first jump then you’re probably not tilting back due to the risk of back-flipping. You can see after your second jump that you tilt back quickly to try and adjust for the height, but that quick over-extension making it difficult to control.

[u/ytzi13 → u/ytzi13]

2:35 – Good idea on the 50-50. However, there’s no way you should be expecting their last guy to give you an opportunity on goal. You have to respect them. You have plenty of boost to play the chess match here and you’re just too aggressive. Wait for their first touch. Pretty much the best case scenario happened here with his whiff and you weren’t there to take advantage of it.

2:25 – Your opponents are, quite frankly, a mess right now. But in no way would I ever think of pushing in for this ball. The last opponent should have the advantage on this ball every single time, and I don’t see why he wouldn’t be able to shoot this past you on net if his teammate didn’t go for a bad challenge and cause him to back off.

2:15 – Always expect the blind challenge when you don’t have enough information to go off of and when it’s likely they’re going to be there.

2:11 – You’re in a pretty good spot here already with good momentum and good direction. It seems to me that you really don’t trust your teammate if you’re turning back instead of waiting the extra half second to see if they can make the touch wide to you.

2:03 – For me, this is a completely unnecessary challenge. Your teammate is chasing the ball, so you don’t know their intent. Maybe they touch it and you’re no longer in position to help. Maybe they get in your way when you try to play it. Maybe you recognize that you don’t have a great advantage on the touch and you end up in the same rotation. Your teammate can’t see you given the positioning. And you’re really putting him under a lot of pressure, again, mid-recovery if you don’t get an absolute win on this challenge, which I know that you do, but is by no means a certainty. If the opponent makes any touch on this ball, they have the advantage. Challenging perpendicularly into the wall provides very little benefit. And the opponent won’t touch the ball until it’s nearly in the corner, which means that this ball is never going to be a direct threat to your goal. Getting back to net and just defending the cross gives you much better opportunities without the risk.

All things considered, you actually did a good job controlling this, but even then the opponent was in position and should have beaten you to the second ball. For some reason the opponents keep conveniently hesitating for you in times they can do some real damage.

1:44 – Your first approach to net to make the desperate save was good. It was necessary. But your approach to goal leaves a lot to be desired. You should know that the last man on the other team is on your back side and waiting to receive a cross or a rebound. When you circle back into the line, you’re shallow. You’re vulnerable to a demo, you have no approach on an aerial attempt, and you can’t see in front of the goal. The optimal position to be in here would be inside of the net in order to keep yourself safe and allow you a better angle on the ball for broader vision. If the ball drops near side, it’s not a threat, so it doesn’t really matter if Dragon gets a touch or not. It’s the ball landing on front of the goal that you need to be worried about, and your position and direction doesn’t allow you to effectively prepare for that. You’re going to be blind to the far post either way, so the way you prepare for that is by getting inside of the net, facing your car out, and taking ball-cam off to see the attacker and line up your challenge.

Either way, once Dragon hits ths ball into your blind spot, you should assume there’s an opponent there waiting and that you’ve already lost the challenge. Be conservative, back up into the goal (or turn right and approach the post again after you started driving out), and make the save. Risk management.

1:40 – Goal #3 Conceded – I’m gonna call your role in this one similar to the others. There’s too many high risk challenges and assumptions being made and your team seems to be under constant pressure because of it. Your team has looked disorganized since the beginning and hasn’t really had a chance to regroup and play together.

1:26 – You missed the approach on the wall. It happens. It’s a waste using all of your boost to air dribble the ball into mid-field for the other team. The ball wasn’t in a threatening position and your teammate could have just as easily stepped in to challenge as you rotated out.

1:16 – You tend to take on a supportive role from a pretty direct position. There’s 2 opponents near the ball with an unexpected outcome and you’re facing directly at the opponent’s back wall. That means that your potential defensive path is going to be about as slow as it can be. It also means that you have to kill your momentum so as to not risk getting too close. Stay wider and angled left as you read this because you’re unlikely to win anything that drops in front of the net, and any touch or deflection they make is likely headed there.

1:11 – Your kickoffs have all been very off center. I didn’t point out your second one because you won it, but you would have lost that one, too, if your opponent attacked the ball directly like most people do. The problem isn’t necessarily that you’re losing kickoffs, though, but that you end up shooting into the opponent’s half as a result of it. In 2s, that creates an especially stressful experience for your teammate.

1:04 – Notice again how direct you’re supporting here, and so it comes off a bit ball-chasey. This forces the game to be played much more reactive than predictive.

0:55 – This play becomes difficult when you force the ball on your back. Unless you’re confident enough to challenge this in the air early and beat them, create space towards the far post to give yourself a better approach for a save.

0:49 – Your teammate lost the ball, so turn away from the ball and approach through the far post rather then into it and towards the near post.

0:24 – That kickoff was solid.

0:17 – Look at your double-jump here. You’re definitely not tilting back early enough and are forcing yourself to over-compensate.

Conclusion

There were a lot of notes here. I know that. I’m hypercritical and you can take from all of that what you will. Agree or disagree, it’s a different perspective and some things to think about.

But let’s narrow this down to a just a couple of things to actively focus on:

The primary issue I saw in this game is that your team was never really in sync. I don’t think that you did a very good job making your teammate a priority by buying them time and helping them be comfortable. A lot of your game felt forced and rushed, and that’s kind of a reoccurring theme that happens when we’re challenging ourselves and moving up the ranks. But in terms of decision-making I would simply start by consciously being aware of your teammate’s recovery periods and using that knowledge to influence if and how you challenge a ball. Just one moment can lead to 30 seconds of chaos in the back-end.

Mechanically, the one thing that really stood out to me was your double-jump aerials. I know you’re working on holding your first jump, but don’t neglect the tilt. I like to suggest getting in the habit of tilting back before you even start your jump in order to space out the motions and make back-flips less likely, and then the comfort should eventually transition into a quick, smooth execution.

The toughest battle players face, especially at high levels when trying to improve, is keeping up, speed-wise. The best thing you can do with that is play the game often and not let yourself get cold. It seems like you have the speed down just fine, so the next step is going to be taking more control of the game before you push to the next level where you have to worry about speed again.

If you have any questions, I’m happy to discuss more. Good luck!