A starting XI that score from set pieces with ease.
It was 13 years ago this week that David Beckham unleashed a thunderbolt free-kick past the Greeks to send England to the World Cup in 2002. And with that in mind, we are paying tribute to that moments occasion by putting together this starting XI of players that regularly score from set piece situations.
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GK: Rogerio Ceni – Sao Paulo
The flamboyant goalkeeper has over 100 goals to his name, which is impressive considering his position. An amazing 62 of his goals have come from set pieces, and as he is still playing we can expect to see a few more fly in very soon.
RB: Darijo Srna – Shaktar Donetsk
Srna is one of the world’s most prolific right-backs when it comes to goals, bagging 26 times for Shakhtar and 21 times for Croatia.
CB: Ronald Koeman (retired)
The former Dutch international was prolific both Barcelona and Sampdoria during his time as a player, but his most famous set-piece was a controversial strike scored against England to dump them out of the running for USA 94.
CB: Sinisa Mihajlovic (retired)
A centre-back with attacking intentions. His ability from dead ball scenarios often had him take his club’s free-kick’s and penalties, and he bagged 28 of them during his time in Serie A.
LB: Ian Harte – Bournemouth
Now at Bournemouth in the Championship, it was at Leeds where Harte made a name for himself as a young man and would frequently reach double figures for goals over the course of a season, which is something that Roberto Carlos never managed to do.
RM: David Beckham (retired)
Becks is the entire reason for this list’s existence as no matter who he played for, whether it be Man United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy or England, he was curling in the most sublime free-kicks his generation had ever seen.
CM: Juninho (retired)
The diminutive Brazilian is still regarded as a hero in Middlesbrough and the red-and-white side of Madrid. And with good reason, too, he scored 72 goals from set pieces during his career.
CM: Andrea Pirlo – Juventus
Pirlo has always had a knock for free kicks, and went through a stage last season of scoring them for fun on an almost weekly basis.
LM: Sunshuke Nakamura – Yokohama F. Marinos
The Japanese veteran was prolific during his time with Celtic, and would often perform stunts that saw him score free kicks through the window of a moving bus. However, his moment came in a Champions League tue when one of his set pieces helped Celtic beat Manchester United 1-0.
ST: Ronaldinho – Queretaro
Like Koeman, he also has experience of dumping England out of a tournament when his speculative floating effort during the quarter-final of the 2002 World Cup sailed in over David Seasman’s head.
ST: Alessandro Del Piero – Delhi Dynamos
A cult classic, the Italian is still taking successful free kicks as he approaches his 40th birthday.