Descripción: Using a quasiclassical approach, we demonstrate that the formation of the low-energy structure in above-threshold ionization spectra by intense, midinfrared laser pulses originates from a two-dimensional focusing of the strong-field dynamics in the energy-angular-momentum plane. We show that the low-energy structure is very sensitive to the carrier-envelope phase of the laser field. © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2013.