The Beautiful Game

By Srinath R

Football or Association Football or Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Bill Shankly, one of the greatest managers in English football, once described the significance of the beautiful game, “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” Football has seen more than just winning and losing. It has seen careers, passion, drive, accolades, legends, sometimes, life, death, and so much more.

As for the popularity of the game, more than 200 national teams are playing the game currently, all of them participating in the World Cup Qualifiers, of which a meager 32 countries qualify to play for the FIFA World Cup. There are clubs from around the world with multiple tiers who hire footballers for salary to play their games. Footballers are some of the highest-paid sportsmen in the world. Those who play in the top 5 leagues in Europe are at the top of the cream and earn more than footballers playing in other leagues.

Now, I'm going to take you to the football ground and try and get you to play the game. Let me start with the rules. Two teams play each other. Each team has 11 players, 1 goalkeeper, and 10 outfield players. There are three types of outfield players, namely defenders, midfielders, and forwards. Your team aims to score more goals than the opposition. A goal is a small area between two posts and one crossbar at two ends of the field. You and your team have to score the goal at the opposite end of the field. Let me put you in as a midfielder in a formation of 4-3-3. That means there are 4 defenders, 3 midfielders, and 3 forwards in your team. You are one of the three midfielders. The opposition team will have its formation to counter your team's formation and tactics.

So, what is your role as a midfielder? Remember, you can touch the ball with any part of your body, except your arms. Most players use their feet to play the ball, hence the name, football. When the ball is in the air, you can also use your head to play the ball. Since football is a team game, and you are in midfield, you cannot always try to score the goal from the distance you are in. You have to utilize your teammates. You have to receive passes from them and you have to play passes to your teammates. 

Remember, while receiving the pass, the ball will bobble and bounce, so you have to exhibit control with your feet to hold the ball. Once you hold the ball, you can dribble with the ball, that is roll the ball gently with your feet in the direction you want to take it and keep touching the ball in that direction. It is similar to the basketball dribble, except you don't use your hands and you don't bounce the ball, instead, you roll the ball with your feet. If there is no space to dribble, you can pass the ball to your teammate. Andres Iniesta, a Barcelona legend, had exceptional ball control in midfield, and he could dribble and retain the ball amidst so many opposition players around him. There is a famous image of him surrounded by 5 opposition players, and still controlling the ball with ease. 

Technically, the best pass is a pass to a teammate who is in space and not near an opposition player. If it is a forward pass, it is even better. You have to try to use your vision to see where your teammates are and who is in space. And then you have to learn the technique of how to execute passes. Some passes are simple. But long-distance passes need the right amount of flight, power, and direction. Midfielders like Xavi, Steven Gerrard, and Andrea Pirlo were experts in passing the ball to their teammates with their exceptional passing range. They could find team-mates from long distances, but they also knew when to find which team-mate. They kept the ball by passing to nearby teammates and then found sharp passes called through-balls to the forward players that found them in space, which is often valuable.

That is why football is a combination of a technical game (to control, execute passes, dribble, or score the goal), a tactical game (vision, positioning, combination play, offside trap, making interceptions), a physical game (winning duels and challenges, stamina and endurance, pace), and a psychological game (mental strength to cope with opposition pressure, how to cope when leading or going behind, etc.). All aspects of sport are tested in football. Now, you know how to receive and play passes.

Next, you have to know how to defend an opposition's dribble or block his pass. For this, you need to have the right positioning. Sometimes, your coach will instruct you to mark an opposition player. Here, positioning is easy. You simply follow that player and try to win the ball from him. But sometimes, you have to use your head, as blindly following him would lead to space in your original position, which a different opposition player will exploit. So, you try to win the ball, but if you can't, you track other runners in your area. Remember, you can't vacate your position for long, and you can defend as a team when your team does not have the ball. 

At other times, you may have to try and block passes to your side or over you. Try to break up opposition play as much as you can and try to win the ball. However, you can't be too rough on the opposition. If you are cynical and get the opposition player instead of the ball or tackle him hard, the referee will give a foul against you and award a set-piece to your opponent. Being too harsh on the opponent can even result in a red card, which could send you off from the game. Midfielders like Patrick Vieira and Javier Mascherano were exceptional in the defensive side of the game, where they used their positioning and tackling nous, to stop the opposition players from getting into productive areas of the pitch.

A set-piece is a restart given to a particular team after a foul, offside, or when the ball goes out of bounds. It can be a boon when you win a set-piece, but it can be dangerous if the opponent wins it. They can use it to score a goal. There are several types of set-pieces. One is the Throw-in, which happens when the ball passes the lines on the sides of the pitch horizontally and outside the playing area. The team that last touched the ball, concedes possession to the opposite team, one of whose players will then throw the ball onto the pitch, often strategically to one of his teammates. Another type is a Corner, which happens when the ball passes the lines towards the end of the pitch vertically and outside the playing area. A player kicks the ball from the corner to his teammate who can then try to score a goal. The other type of set-piece is the Free-kick. The referee awards free-kicks for fouls and offsides. A specialist free-kick taker can then try to pass to his teammate, or can even try to score a goal directly. Juninho was a specialist free-kick taker, who could score goals from long-distance free-kicks.

An offside happens when you play a pass and at that moment, the receiver is ahead of the second-last defensive opposition player. You can't score a goal if you or your teammate receiving the ball is offside. Hence, the timing of the pass is also very important.

A pass before a goal is an assist, and assists are recorded and associated with the player who plays the assist, similar to how a goal is recorded. As a midfielder, you can aim to assist your team-mate and therefore you will go in stat books. You can also occasionally try to score a goal yourself, if you find yourself in a good position to shoot. You need the right amount of technique to put the ball between the posts and under the crossbar and even if you shoot on target, there will be an opponent's goalkeeper trying to stop the ball with his hands. The goalkeeper is the only player on the field who can catch or play the ball with his hands. He can do it only within his area. You have to shoot the ball with accuracy and power such that you place it on target and also put it beyond the opposition goalkeeper.

Now, you have learned how to play the game, how to approach the game, how to pass the ball, how to defend the opponent, and how to score a goal. Other aspects of the game will come from practice. The best players play the game by instinct and they think ahead of the opposition players in mind. Over multiple drills and tactical instructions from the coach, you can eventually play the game by instinct. 

One of the most memorable games I’ve witnessed is the UEFA Champions Final in 2005, between AC Milan and Liverpool. It was the final of the most prestigious club competition that has ever been. My favorite player and idol, Steven Gerrard, was playing in that game. I supported Liverpool for him. Of course, later, I became a lifelong Liverpool supporter. The AC Milan team had a team full of superstars. Liverpool had Gerrard, who was their captain, but also several average players. AC Milan started the game brightly and took the lead. They went 3-0 up at Halftime. But the Liverpool supporters in the stadium kept singing and believing. Liverpool eventually started their comeback, with Gerrard scoring a header, and then signaling for the supporters to cheer even more. Liverpool eventually equalized and played heroically to win the penalty shoot-out and the trophy. It’s regarded as one of the best comebacks in the history of the game.

Steven Gerrard was the lynchpin of every bit of success that Liverpool had in his time. He was one of the best players of his time and is considered one of the best central midfielders in the history of the game. He is known as one of the greatest ever players to come from England. He had an exceptional shooting technique, with which he could score goals from long distances and difficult angles. He also had a great passing range, and he could find a teammate from different distances and different areas of the pitch. He could pass to a forward in space, which helped the forward dribble toward the goal or shoot at the goal. He could make raking runs with the ball, combine with his team-mates, and bring his team forward, towards the goal. Apart from his abilities on the ball, he was also brilliant without the ball. He tracked back to defend against opponents, and he won many tackles and challenges that resulted in his team stopping the opposition attack and winning the ball back. He was also a leader on the pitch, he inspired his teammates to raise their level, just by playing with him. He captained Liverpool for the majority of his career. He also eventually became the captain of England, and he led them in three major tournaments. 

This beautiful game has a lot to keep people interested, and I have only described a tiny fraction of what it is to know and follow the game. I follow every Top 5 League in Europe, year in, year out. I also follow all major international tournaments. I maintain lists of legendary players of every era and I try to rank them using various footballing categories. I discuss football on online forums. Football has become a way of life for me, and I’m sure that is the case for a large number of football fans from around the world. Care to join the bandwagon?

By Srinath R