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Last Updated: Dec 15, 2007 - 2:55:41 AM |
The original design of the outcome in a football (soccer) match is the scoring of goals against the opposite team or better yet scoring more goals than the opponent.
This design in itself carries two possible default
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| Cannavaro with the world cup on July 9 2006 after the triumph of Italy over France in the final |
strategic plannings. One is to commit the team to a massive attacking style executed by highly skilled goal scorers. The other is the commitment of the team to an iron clad defensive style which nullifies the potential of receiving any goal regardless of the abilities of the players of the opposite team.
These two defaults strategic plannings appear to have the same goal of winning but in reality they have a different perspective of football (soccer).
The defensive strategy aim is strictly not to loose even if the match would last 100 days. In a sense, its intention is the reduction of the statistical possibility of loosing to zero. Two results are allowed: one is the simple 0-0, the other is the win by 1x-0.
The offensive strategy , on the other hand, is aiming at flooding the opponent with goals . It incarnates the true meaning of the game, its initial condition. The individual talents of the players are the essentials elements of the offensive planning . Their overall potential to create statistical opportunities of scoring on an individual or collective basis increases the chances of winning the match. Defense, in this instance, is based on the axiom that offense is the best possible defense. In fact, an effective overwhelming offense paralyzes any offensive potential of the opponent while breaking down its defense. Such is the essence of classical South American football exemplified in its best form by Brazil and Argentina. It produces an exciting brand of football where the natural talents of the players can shine.
The Rising of the defensive game
Despite the beauty of the offensive system, the match result became, through the evolution of the game into an organized mega business, the leading exclusive factor in the strategic planning of the teams. The brand of attacking football, adopted by legendary Brazilian coach Tele Santana, which is sustainable only by a team loaded with highly skilled offensive player, was replaced by cautious defensive planning. Playing a wonderful match became secondary to the default condition of not loosing. Defense, Defense, Defense became the key word.
In this scenario, the talents are concentrated in the defensive portion of a team territory. Every player is transformed by default into a defender regardless of his position on the team. A functionary semantic fallacy takes over the teams. The so called striker, for instance, is transformed into a defensive scorer. The midfield becomes nothing more than an intermediate defense where the players endowed with natural offensive talents would be paralyzed by the operational necessities of the defensive system.
Donde Esta Ronaldino?
One clear example of this offensive paralysis is the performance of Ronaldino in world cup 2006. The desire of Pareira, the Brazilian coach, to safeguard the defense of the midfield placed Ronaldino too deep in the pitch to have the kind of offensive impact he shows when he plays for Barcelona in Spain. This strategic defensive decision tied up one of the most talented offensive player on the planet and nullified his creativity. Donde esta Ronaldino, asked the Spanish commentator. Ronaldino himself did not seem to know . His bewilderment about the nullification of his natural talents appeared in the transformation of his perpetual dynamic jovial smile into the frozen mask of a happy character in a Greek tragicomedy .The disappointment about his performance succeeded in piercing the armor of his constant happy disposition. The question, donde esta Ronaldino could be answered by saying that he was buried inside the strategic fallacy of using a superbly talented offensive player in a midfield defensive position . He was paralyzed during the match against France not by the defensive strategy of Dominech, the coah of France, but by Pareira, his own coach, who mismanaged his talents.
Within this course of evolution where even Brazil, the celebrated champion of attacking football, retreats in the safety of defensive caution, football is doomed to loose its excitement and appeal to the general public which goes to the matches not only to watch a team win but also to be dazzled by the virtuosity of the players. Furthermore, within the scenario of encounter between two super defensive teams the goal scoring potential is reduced to zero and the game is decided by pure chance , the penalty shooting ability of the teams and the agility of the goal keepers.
Germany 2006 will go on the record as one of the world cup with the lowest score since Italia 90. The two teams in the final, France and Italy, were the most defensive. Each one received only two goals before the final game. The match between those two super defensive teams finished with a predictable 1-1 which was settled by penalty shoots in favor of Italy.
A Garden without roses
Some brilliant offensive actions happen in the 64 games of the tournament but most of the offensive superstars did not produce the level of virtuosity that matches their talents. The speed and the physicality of the defenses paralyzed the offensive geniuses of international football and somehow decrease the scoring clearance of the matches.
The participating teams did not produce the level of football that was expected of them. Brazil, for instance, displayed a very cautious defensive mode of football. It did not play the classical attacking Brazilian football. The explosion of talents which usually happens in the theater of world cup did not materialize this time. Klose, the top scorer of 2006 had only 5 goals in 7 matches. The lack of goals in the tournament prompted Seth Bladder, the president of FIFA to talk about some possible changes in the rule of the game like the widening of the goal and even decreasing the number of players to ten to create more space for the individual players.
I personally think that some decrease of the scope of law number 11, the offside rule, may have a direct effect on the number of goals by nullifying a key element in the present defensive bias of the game.
The subsequent general increase of the possibilities of scoring would force the modern strategists of football to liberate the offensive potential of their own team. The fear of receiving a goal from a team that concentrates all its technical and physical assets in the defensive aspect of its game in a manner that a 0-0 or a 1x-0 in its favor are the only possible outcome would certainly decrease because the scoring possibility against it are going to be present. Victory would no longer be assured for the defensive strategist who bases his game plan of the physical efficiency and the constant number of the defenders. Football would therefore become more offensive.
If none of those hypothetical changes happen, the game may move further into the operational fallacy of absolute defense . Europe , with its gigantic football organizations , its world famous tournament may increase its domination of the game and impose its defensive zero goal system to the rest of the world. The rise of organized defensive football in Europe could be further consolidated by one of its key element which the drainage of South Americans and Africans players . Those players could, by the pure necessity of efficient integration in the European teams, be forced to adopt the culture of defensive football. Through this channel, Africa and South America would loose their potential as suitable environments for the emergence of creative football players. The game would, consequently, gradually loose its beauty in favor of a fundamental systemic change which favors speed and defensive physicality over personal virtuosity and offensive talents. The scoring of Goals could become a rare event. Without goal the game would become, to paraphrase Theofilio Cubillas, “a garden without roses”.
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