Analysis of Space - additional example
The next set of images comes from a game two years later, when Eric was a senior and playing much more like Messi, walking around the field. Eric's walking was due to mysterious groin tightness that some of the most highly regarded physical therapists in the area could not explain. Eric only played sparingly throughout the season and was very careful not to exert himself when he did.
His issues remained unidentified until he returned to the LA Galaxy, where he continued to struggle despite taking it very easy during the high school season. Much to everyone’s surprise, it turned out Eric had been playing with a very difficult-to-identify torn labrum in his hip for a long time. It wasn’t until his altered gait created a stress fracture in his back that a team of doctors was eventually able to identify the root cause of his groin issues.
I remember him scoring his last goal for the LA Galaxy Academy by jogging across the field completely unmarked, receiving a simple pass, and easily putting the ball in the net. In this high school game, Eric was essentially the least athletic player on the field. Yet by understanding space, he scored four goals in less than 30 minutes before being substituted for the rest of the game.
The images below show the first and third goals. Except for the “overhead” finish on the first, where Eric never left the ground, these goals were almost carbon copies of each other. A long throw-in came to Mark, who attracted three players (circled in yellow), which allowed Eric to waltz in the wide-open space (circled in red) where Mark was flicking it to as other players watched. I’ll explain shortly how a group of smart players from a top private school allowed a former league MVP who just scored two goals to stand completely unmarked on the penalty spot, with no one within almost ten yards of him in any direction.
The next set of pictures also features the same movement into two similar spaces. During the game’s second goal, both Mark and Eric identified the same space and made the same run. Eric quickly realized Mark was going to beat him to the ball and went to the far post for an easy tap-in. Only one defender (without the yellow mark) ran with them while everyone else was ball-watching. The fourth goal is actually very similar. When the video starts, you can see Mark drifting further and further away on the blind side of the defender who had once been marking him, positioning himself to make a run. However, Eric somehow drifted completely unmarked into the space Mark was preparing to go and had an easy two-touch finish for a goal.
The reason Eric was practically invisible goes back to the way these players started learn the game in activities like “Red Light, Green Light.” Much as virtually every player I watched in the 2026 high school practices kept their heads fixated towards the ball, so too did these players. Eric used the same method as a magician, making his move when the audience's attention was elsewhere.
Another key factor was that almost none of the players on the field faced Eric because he didn’t play the prior year, and nothing about his physical ability drew any attention. I felt high school was a better developmental environment than the US Soccer Academy program, so I had Eric play in high school rather than in clubs until the LA Galaxy sponsored a team. Interestingly enough, the LA Galaxy shut down their academy program during the high school season during Eric’s senior year – perhaps as a cost-saving measure, since they covered all costs, unlike almost all other teams, including many MLS teams at that time.
I should also mention that part of the reason Mark had three players on him was that he ended up being the leading goal scorer and League MVP while Eric often sat out. There is a good chance that when the opposing team prepared for the game, their coach instructed them to focus on Mark. Since these players have been trained to let the coaches do all the thinking for them, and there are no time-outs in soccer, none of the players were able to adjust.