A goalkeeper doesn’t position herself legally for a spot kick, something crystal clear in every replay, and it is retaken to howls of outrage. The outraged proclaim the unfairness of it all, apparently players aren’t expected to actually know the rules under which they play…at least by their supporters. That idea is absurd even at the lowest levels of the organized game, let alone the World Cup, and yet some people actually believe such idiocy. Many supporters are so blinded by their loyalty they argue against enforcing rules when it suits them.

I support VAR for rules governing offside, ball out of play, and other such black and white issues. Unfortunately rather than making such decisions clear cut and accepted by both sides we are going to end up with even more whining about bias. Before they could blame the referee as the agent of their failure but now VAR adds another layer to the conspiracy where “obvious” missed calls for fouls that didn’t actually occur are ignored by multiple levels of review. There are some countries and clubs with a perpetual persecution complex and VAR will reinforce their sense of unjust officially enforced inferiority.

GP

Under VAR the list of reviewable events is limited to four points:

1. Goals and the play leading to them
2. Penalty decisions
3. Direct red card decisions
4. Mistaken identity in awarding a red or yellow card

The third and fourth points are relatively straight forward and won’t cause near the outrage the events covered by points one and two will cause. Goals will be reviewed back to “the start of possession” or restart of play and will cause intense debate. I have little doubt that in most states of play there are fouls occurring off the ball. Contact off the ball is interesting as it rarely leads to the kind of flopping about one sees in similar situations with the ball involved. Will VAR lead to players away from the ball diving on contact on the off chance there will be a review of the play?

How about corner kicks? Every time there’s holding occurring all over the place, and while the goal scorer may not have committed a foul is there any doubt a teammate has done so away from the incoming ball? This is from the FIFA Rules of the game PDF, information for referees section:

1. Holding an opponent

Referees are reminded to make an early intervention and to deal firmly with holding offences, especially inside the penalty area at corner kicks and free kicks. To deal with these situations:

• the referee must warn any player holding an opponent before the ball is in play

• caution the player if the holding continues before the ball is in play

• award a direct free kick or penalty kick

So if a goal is scored from a corner the VAR will review the play from the restart looking for an offensive foul. If they actually follow that course of action to the letter of the law we could see a reduction in set-piece scoring for the first few weeks as players adapt. Handballs also present a good example of potential pitfalls of the scope of VAR. once again from FIFA:

Handling the ball involves a deliberate act of a player making contact with the ball with the hand or arm.

Handling the ball

The following must be considered:

• the movement of the hand towards the ball (not the ball towards the hand)

• the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)

• the position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an offence

Officiating any sport at any level involves human error. Even top level referees can find areas of dispute when watching the same footage of close calls and reading about what is a “handball” is a glimpse into why that is the case. What is a handball to one referee or assistant referee is not considered one by another officiating team. VAR won’t do much, if anything, to alleviate that inconsistency because it will be down to the judgment of another human team.

I’m not a Luddite, I don’t particularly care if some decisions are taken out of the officials hands provided the system supplementing them is demonstrably better. There are some areas where this is the case and using VAR for such situations makes a lot of sense. More clarity in how offside is determined means VAR offers a better method than relying upon assistant referees. The same technology that monitors the goal line could be expanded to the end lines at least, if not the entire sideline. Where VAR fails is in making calls judgement calls that are potentially just as prone to bias or error as those of the match officials. I think the concept and technology are fantastic and have lots of potential but I think a more limited scope of review would have been a more sensible approach.

““You in England are playing in the style we continentals used so many years ago, with much physical strength, but no method, no technique.”

Excerpt From: Wilson, Jonathan. “Inverting the Pyramid.” iBooks.

This material may be protected by copyright.

That’s a quote from the manager of Barcelona upon arrival in England for the second leg of a quarter final in European competition when his team had a 4-0 lead from the first leg. Barcelona win the second leg 5-2 for a 9-2 aggregate win and went onto lose the European Cup semi-final to the great Real Madrid team. The Barcelona manager was Helenio Herrera and the year was 1960, seven years after England had suffered their 6-3 defeat at the hands of Hungary at Wembley. There had been some changes domestically, the “Revie Plan” being the most famous, but there were still those who advocated the robust “English Style” and believed that the key was that players were not as “committed” as their hallowed predecessors. Hmm that sounds familiar.

Barcelona – Nou Camp – North End 1 – March 1995

The 1966 World Cup Final saw England defeat West Germany 4-2. England’s best tournament performances since that victory have ended at the semi-final stage in two Euros, 1968 & 1996, and the 1990 World Cup. That covers 25 tournaments, and England failed to qualify for 5 of the tournaments. The same 25 tournaments saw (West) Germany has reached twelve finals and five semi-finals with a single failure to qualify. Strangely enough December 17th, 2016, is the 48th anniversary of the last time (West) Germany failed to qualify for a major tournament. That date West Germany faced Albania in Tirana needing a victory to secure the group over Yugoslavia on goal difference. The match ended 0-0 and that was the last time Germany failed to qualify for a major tournament.

Which brings us back to England and Germany. Regardless of their record Germany entered a period of relative mediocrity in the late 90’s thru early 00’s. Their performance in the 2000 Euros had seen them go out at the group stage, setting off alarm bells in spite of finishing runners-up in the 2002 World Cup. Initially many amongst the pundits, media, fans and assorted “experts” declared it was a lack of “heart” but fortunately for German soccer those inside the game realized the issue was how they developed players, including tactical comprehension, and that meant improving coaching as well.

The program began in 2003 and has seen results in the Bundesliga as well as the German national teams for men and women at range of levels. The goal was to raise standards in all facets of the game but particularly those all too often neglected areas of tactics and tactical thinking. A decade after the program began, and 18 years after Germany’s last tournament triumph, the men’s national team won the 2014 World Cup with an average age of 26.3 and 12 players under 25 years of age. That was the reaction to what was seen as a “crisis” in German soccer.

Meanwhile England keep plodding along. It seems as tho many England fans and some media begin the qualifying process prepared not to qualify, forgetting how it gets easier every time the number of teams is expanded. Once qualification is achieved the build up begins until there is a segment of the English media and supporters who “dare to believe” and even begin to talk up their chances. They appear to have a mindset that doesn’t allow for the possibility that Iceland could possibly defeat England in a tournament match, certainly not at the knockout stage…until it happens.

Then we heard the usual claims that it’s the “heart” not the quality, the belief being that the English players are just as skillful as the best foreigner but no longer have that grit or edge or whatever you want to call it. The excuse is usually that they make too much money and don’t care, which is bullshit. When that claim was posited in Germany as the reason for their decline the people in the game knew that wasn’t the problem. Unfortunately for England they don’t appear to be willing to discount such absurd beliefs and instead are willing to accommodate those who believe the simple hard running game is still the best way to play, just like the good old days.

The thing is that the 1966 World Cup wasn’t won playing the way for which so many pundits and supporters seem to yearn. Alf Ramsey was a tactical innovator willing to adjust his formation and players as necessary to get the result. His lineup for the 1966 World Cup alternated between 4-3-3 and 4-1-3-2 depending on the quality of the opposition and what kind of match he anticipated. Somehow that aspect of Sir Alf’s work became lost over time and instead the image is one of a dour practitioner of the more orthodox 4-4-2. Amazingly, many in the English media still insist the national team should be playing like the they believe did in the “good old days” of the World Cup victory, apparently unaware of the flexibility of Ramsey’s approach in to 1966.

Munich – Olympiastadion – South Goal 2 – May 2001

There is something strange about how the English collectively view football that has traditionally neglected or even ridiculed foreign ideas, influence and involvement in the English game. The distrust of “foreign” methods in the Premier League has gone down since Arlene Wenger’s arrival at Arsenal 20 years ago but it hasn’t disappeared. The recent troubles faced by Pep Guardiola’s Man City squad have been met by criticism from pundits and media that his methods and style won’t work in the “English” Premier League. The argument invariably posits that somehow the very “Englishness” of the PL makes the passing and possession game less effective than in “lesser” leagues.

Isn’t it quaint how English media and punditry can still claim the PL is an “English” league beyond purely administrational terms? It is a fantastic league with great teams and some very good football. It is more competitive by most measures than other top flight leagues but how “English” is it? An English manager has never won the Premier League title and in the 2015-2016 season only 31% of starting players in the PL were English.

-GP

You might not like Bob Bradley or have believed he was the wrong appointment. Personally I thought Bradley had done a good job as US manager trying to handle absurdly high expectations from folks unfamiliar with the broader international game. Since then I was aware he was working in France but didn’t expect him to be in the frame for a Premier League job when the Swansea job opened. It is a big step from Le Havre in Ligue 2 to the Premier League, particularly when inheriting a squad weakened at the end of the last transfer window with months before any changes can be made.

I think Bradley was doomed to failure but most managers would be in the same position inheriting such a weakened squad. Some managers would have been given more time to sort things out but for Bradley his lack of top flight experience played against him. New managers always need time to determine their best XI, or rather their different best XIs for the variables in opposition and injuries. Bradley had eleven matches in addition to training sessions but still hadn’t found a settled team and there was seemingly no system in place, no light at the end of the tunnel. The board, still trying to recover from the missteps of the summer and the flak for hiring an American, decided they needed another change before the transfer window opened and Bradley was shown the door.

Bob Bradley might have been out of his depth, eleven games with a weak squad in a very competitive league isn’t really a fair test, but there is no doubting his knowledge of the game…except for those who decide that he has the wrong accent to discuss football. I had a similar experiences in England simply because I speak with a North American accent. I never had that problem in Italy no matter how poorly I was able to communicate my thoughts of soccer in Italian there weren’t issues over my accent. England, indeed Britain, was different: if I suggested something to the coach he’d dismiss it, if I asked my strike partner Martin to suggest it the idea would be considered. Martin wasn’t a Brit, he was from the Netherlands and had a Dutch accent which gave him more credibility than my west coast Canadian accent.

The funny thing is that it happens here and here it isn’t just the Brits who believe they have some special grasp of the game but almost anyone who identifies as something besides “Canadian.” A referee missing a call is decried because a “real” ref, meaning one from the plaintiff’s country or region of origin, would have made the call. The accent of the victim and perpetrator of a foul, or their parents, determines if either player has “no idea” about football or if the contact was a “bodycheck” or harmless shoulder to shoulder. There is still an element that fantasizes if you speak English with a North American accent and refer to the sport as soccer you can’t possibly understand football. The more amazing thing is how many of those folks are sports journalists in the U.K.

-GP

Really it is about 7 seconds that matter: 8-15.

The dummy is a neglected skill, especially at the recreational level, but here we get a double dummy. The ball is played to Bonhof on the left, he motions Heynckes towards him from the left flank drawing a defender potentially opening space. Bonhof leaves the ball for Heynckes coming in the opposite direction with a defender in pursuit leaving space open behind him. Heynckes in turn leaves the ball for Bonhof who advances into the open space before the play peters out. That’s it: less than 7 seconds of genius that did nothing to influence the result.

Playing in a recreational league game a few years ago we had a goal called back when a player was in an offside position. Our player argued that because he hadn’t played the ball, he had opened his legs to let it go through, he wasn’t influencing the play. It took sometime after the game to convince him the call was correct because he couldn’t get it though his head that not playing the ball was influencing the game. It is a similar concept to John Cage’s composition 4’33” in that it poses an intellectual hurdle that some cannot overcome. How can I compare football to art? Because both are battles between individual conceptions of beauty vs mass cultural brutalism.

The interplay between Bonhof & Heynckes was a moment of pure beauty on the pitch. Mönchengladbach are my favourite club in Germany and Bonhof was my favourite player growing up but until this clip was posted I hadn’t seen that gem. This clip is over forty years old and no doubt players did and have done the same thing before or since but this moment sums up why I chose to support Mönchengladbach. Their staring 11 for this match had five players who went on to win the World Cup less than four months later, including Heynckes & Bonhof.

It is difficult to find people who will dummy the ball and as a result when it does happen players aren’t expecting the ball when it arrives. Bonhof’s decision to leave the ball to Heynckes gave him the the option of playing or dummying himself depending on how the defender reacted. When in possession the focus of teams that want to control the ball is the creation and exploitation of space. Passing & movement create space and within that realm the dummy is an often overlooked means of creating gaps in coverage.

Some people believe a pianist performing 4’33” isn’t actually doing anything musical because their worldview doesn’t allow for (dis)organized silence as music. Similarly there are people who play soccer who can’t conceive of contributing by intentionally not playing the ball whilst appearing to have every intention of doing so. The pianist performing 4’33” doesn’t just sit still and there is never complete silence and that is the composition. Bonhof & Heynckes showed that the choice to not touch the ball can do as much as the choice to touch the ball.

PS: for more fun, watch Nicholas Cage take the 4’33” even further.

GP