Contenders leaping highest with ‘Heads of Class’ at WC

Defending champions Germany was beaten 1-0 by Mexico in the best match of the tournament so far.
Heading the ball is one aspect of football and is basically categorised into defensive and offensive heading.
With defensive heading, coaches mainly concentrate on ensuring players focus on height and distance away from the danger zone when heading.
While for offensive heading, emphasis is on keeping the ball down and on target, because the aim is to score.
Heading the ball, is an area that is often neglected and ignored, yet it is a major source of scoring opportunities for teams.
At this World Cup edition, in 17 of the already completed matches, 42 goals have been scored. But of those, nine are headed goals.
And of the nine headed goals, three have been crucial match winners.
Uruguay grabbing a last gasp 1-0 victory against Egypt with a Jose Gimenez header and England, too, snatching a 2-1 win over Tunisia with a Harry Kane (pic) header.
While Japan sunk Colombia 2-1 with a Yuya Osaku second half header. The Switzerland headed leveller by Steven Zuber against Brazil, saw them share the spoils.
Mario Mandzukic’s deflected header opened the scoring for Croatia against Nigeria, while Romelu Lukaku, grabbed one header of his brace against Panama.
Russia’s first goal in the World Cup opening game from Yuri Gazinski, was a header, and there was another headed goal for Russia by Dzyuba, as Russia run out 5-0 winners.
Krychowiak also got a consolation headed goal for Poland in their 2-1 defeat to Senegal.
So the importance of heading cannot be underestimated. Refreshing!

*The writer is a three-time winner of the Ugandan League with SC Villa and played in two continental finals (1991 & 1992)