Dennis Bergkamp: A First Touch With a Next Move

Dennis Bergkamp’s goal for Arsenal at Newcastle on March 2, 2002, is remembered because the control and the escape seem to happen together. The ball travels around the defender as Bergkamp turns to meet it, leaving him able to finish.

The Dutch forward’s touch did more than receive a pass. It created the route for the next action.

Control does not have to mean stopping

In Arsenal’s collection of his favorite goals, Bergkamp describes the Newcastle moment as an instinctive decision to go around the defender as the ball arrived. That is a useful corrective to imagining every exceptional action as a completely scripted move.

A player has an intention, but must also respond to the speed of the pass, the defender’s distance, and the available space. The first touch is where those pieces meet.

Stopping the ball dead might preserve possession while leaving the defender in front. Sending it into reachable space can change the relationship. The difficulty is making sure the attacker, rather than the opponent, is the person best placed to reach it next.

The defender is part of the move

An isolated technical demonstration has no opponent deciding what to do. A match does. The defender’s position changes which touch can work and how much time the attacker has to execute it.

That is why a successful move cannot be understood solely as a pattern of footwork. Watch the distance between the players when the pass arrives, then the space the ball enters. The touch is valuable because it solves that particular situation.

Our Zinedine Zidane profile examines a related idea: first contact can create time for the second decision. Bergkamp’s Newcastle goal gives that principle a particularly vivid form.

A way to watch, not a trick to copy everywhere

The lesson is not that every forward should attempt the same turn. Often a secure layoff or a simpler touch is the better choice. The useful question is whether the reception prepares the next action or makes another adjustment necessary.

Try watching a passage of play while focusing only on first touches. Some invite pressure; others let the receiver move past it. Explore more examples of individual decisions within team play in Player Profiles.