Anti-Football- The Nando View

We all know what people mean when they use this phrase. It is beyond specific definitions, or dictionary standards. It is and idea or concept of bad football.

This sport is the best one in the world because of its attractiveness and the passions it arises. Nowadays football is more than a simple sport; it is a show and it is entertainment. The Premier League understood this concept, and that is why it is the best promoted and marketed league in the world. People around the globe like the way the game is played, its intensity, its fair play, and how most of the teams of the league have one thing in their minds, score goals from the very first minute of the game and get as many as you can. All this is producing huge revenues from TV and sponsors contracts, and stadiums are full game after game.

Goals and a good game is the soul of this game, its essence; basically the main point of this magnificent sport. There are many ways to win and to play the game, and each coach or team could pick the one they wanted. It is legitimate, and it is right.

ANTI-FOOTBALL is the way some teams approach the game in order to make sure the other team does not play at all, at any cost. If it is necessary to make 30 fouls a game, waste every second of the 90 minutes, and put the ball in the sky every time there is a chance; that is what is needed to be done. “Let’s make sure the other team does not create anything, and maybe if we are lucky we will find some way to create something”. ANTI-FOOTBALL tries to reduce the game to the aspects in which chance or luck count the most. “Maybe we score in a corner, or a free kick, or if we are lucky we will get an own goal or a deflection, that does not matter; most important thing is they do not play, do not move the ball and if they attempt: FOUL”.

Football is about looking for some way to win the game or find the opponents net. There are many ways to achieve that, you can play long, short, counter-attack, etc. But ANTI-FOOTBALL does not want to know about it. Just make sure the other team does not pursue its plan, and then who knows.

It is hard to believe that Sir Alex’ plan to beat Arsenal was that Diaby would score a great header on his own goal, and Almunia would make a stupid penalty when Rooney’s touch was going to the corner flag. I understand teams like Rangers, Siena, Stoke, or Mallorca playing like that. They do not have players to do much better, they do not have the money to build big teams. But it is embarrassing the way Inter Milan, Chelsea, or Real Madrid approached the game the last few seasons, considering the players they had and the money they spent. And it is more embarrassing that the great Manchester United play in front of their own crowd with one striker and ten guys behind the ball and their only idea is to chase 18 and 19 year old Arsenal players and put them on the ground. Is it not true? Is not Fergie able to present a better approach to the game with players like Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Nani, Berbatov, Valencia, Rooney, or Fletcher?

Being tough defensively does not mean you have to give up on attacking. F.C Barcelona was an exhibition of offensive football during the last year, and they conceded the least amount of goals in the Spanish league and they were first or second in this category in the champions league. Not to mention the amount of titles all this provided. And they were physical, they had players like Keita, Puyol, Toure, Pique, Marquez, Dani Alves, or Sergio Busquets. They are all physical and they are tough players, but they also want the ball and they also want to use it properly. There are more examples of teams which combine being aggressive with playing well, they are no opposite concepts.

Fans go to the stadiums to enjoy and entertain themselves and if not they will stop going or ask for explanations. Why was Capello or Schuster fired after winning the Spanish League? Why was Mancini fired after winning two Scudettos? Why are Italian stadiums empty? Everyone knows why, because they all play boring football, actually ANTI-FOOTBALL.

*Once again thanks to Nando for posting.