The early days of Football were a celebration of goals and attacking. Players had amazing technique and managers pulled no punches in their attempt to out score the opponent. Alfredo Di Stefano, Eusebio, and Pele played with a style and flair that could not be matched. Brazilian Samba and Dutch Total Football were king.
Fast-forward to today, what is known as anti-football has now become the style of the majority. Anti-football is an extremely defensive strategy. Some clubs go into games with no intentions of going forward or scoring.
Why is this? Why would a manager refuse to play the beautiful game.....beautiful. Well, there are many reasons. For starters, some teams simply can not compete. Some clubs are outclassed from the moment they leave the bus. So they have the mind-set of not losing instead winning. Is it smart for Sunderland to attack Manchester United or for Stoke to attack Arsenal? The answer is simple: no. The only way the minnows have a chance against the giants of the game is to "park the bus".
Another reason is the massive amounts of money that is in the game. Clubs are under pressure to get RESULTS. Not to play beautiful, not to entertain, to put on a show but to get RESULTS. At the end of the day, its where you are in the table that counts. Whats the goal for every top club in europe? hmmmm let's see.....The Champions League!!! Most clubs put champions league qualification over winning their own league. And why is that? because of MONEY. Managers are constantly being sacked because of POOR RESULTS. So why play with flair and possibly lose when you can pack up shop, go on the counter-attack and win 1 nil?
Is joga bonito, winning football?. Even the Brazilians who created the expression lack the style and grace they once had. Their first 3 world cup victories were won with an incomparable flair. But after 1970, they failed to win a world cup for another 24 years!!! Why is that? Because teams became wise and realised they couldn't out attack the Brazilians, so they decided to use smart defensive tactics, and it worked. Brazil then learned that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. During their world cup win in '94, guess what position was most important to them. Not a play-making number 10 but a defensive-midfielder named Dunga. In '02 Brazil won the world cup again with a strong defense and what some would call negative play.
Now let's look at the Dutch. Their revolutionary Total Football system changed football but guess what it has won since 1971?....3 european cups and 2 world cup runner-up medals. That's it. That's all total football has to show for itself. Holland then had to abandon their trademark style to win their only international title, euro '88.
"Those days are over," this is a quote from Fabio Capello that infuriated fans of real madrid, when asked about attacking football. Are they really over Fabio? With the help of key rule changes, such as, the change in the back-pass rule and the cut-down on simulation, otherwise known as the ronaldo, football has been able to see the negativity that dominated the early '90's turn a little more positive. With the recent events of Spain winning euro'08 ,Barcelona winning the champions league, and Real Madrid building an attack sicker than swine-flu, there are hopes that football could return to its glory days of offensive attitudes.
The truth is, soccer will never return to the days of the 8-3 scoreline or when one player scored 14 goals in a single world cup. The once feared line-ups of Hungary in the '50s, the madrid of the '60s and Brazil 1970 are for the history books. Now-a-days defensive midfielders are king and we are lucky to see a player score 6 goals in the world cup.
But is it fair to call defensive football, negative football? Maybe it's smart to absorb pressure and use the counter-attack. Maybe it's stupid to leave yourself exposed in the back.
Joga Bonito will never die. There are 2 styles of football...to attack or to defend. Teams will always be on one side of the fence or the other for various reasons. But as a fan of the game, I hope the style and flair that made me fall in love with the game will always remain. Long Live The Football.
Guelinho
Copa
Liga
Champions
Mes Que un Club
The game lives. It breathes. It's a living breathing organism. It will evolve. From the Attackign scorelines to nil nil draws and back again. It's like style. Style in football is like fashion, in than out again as someone will find a way to break down certain systems and then a new way to play will develope. Then someone will crack that code as well. Football lives
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