“Una vita da mediano, a recuperar palloni, ma tu senza I piedi buoni, lavorare sui polmoni…” (Una Vita da Mediano, Luciano Ligabue, 1999)
Montreal Impact midfielder Marco Donadel will be the first to tell you he is not the most prolific goalscorer but he does possess a technique that sets him apart from many other midfielders in the game today. Throughout his professional career, Donadel has been known as a deadly accurate long distance striker of the ball. Officially, over a career that has spanned more than 360 games for eight different clubs, Donadel has scored just eight goals. He added two more as a member of the Italian National U21 Team. A paltry sum, to be certain, but one that is in line with a player who has generally been deployed as a defensive midfielder through most of his career. But a closer look at those eight goals reveals a player that has perfected a unique skill for the spectacular, long-range shot.
“I don’t shoot much to begin with,” Donadel admitted, with a wry smile, in a recent interview at the Montreal Impact training ground. ”The percentage of goals to number of shots is quite high. They always tell me to shoot more.”
A prototypical defensive midfielder, or “mediano” in Italian, Donadel is a workhorse in tracking back in his defensive zone, recovering loose balls and distributing the sphere to his teammates.
“The reality is that on the field you play in the middle,” explained Donadel, “and my role is to control the balance of the team. This leads me to help out at the back more often and when we attack, I’m more of a support player so if someone is dribbling and needs an outlet, I’m there.”
In contrast to these duties, Donadel has also crafted an ability to size up a situation and unleash a screamer from distance that frequently finds the back of the net.
“Every so often I’ll get the ball and I’ll shoot if I know that I have the right body position and the space to strike a good shot, not just for the sake of shooting. Otherwise I’ll pass it off.”
At Fiorentina, Donadel only scored six goals in all competitions, but virtually all of them were of the long-range variety. With the Impact this season, he only scored once but it was one of the most memorable of the MLS regular season, earning the award for Goal of the Week.
“I’ve tried it three or four times this season,” said Donadel. “On a couple of occasions, the goalkeepers were good and the one time it went well for me. I hope to hit a few more because every goal can be critical, so I need to try more often.“
For a player who is usually described as a warrior, known primarily for his grit, heart and tireless running, Marco Donadel is also a lethal marksman and if he decides to use that long-range shooting skill more often, goalkeepers beware.
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