(Όσοι δεν ξέρετε αγγλικά, ας προσέχατε.)
In the 1970s, Ajax were considered to have "killed defensive football", because of a 6-0 victory over Milan - guess where: in men's football. What Ajax did at the time was to simply bring back the same 2-3-5 formation that was being used by all teams until Hungary used a 2-4-4 in 1958, resulting in an "upset" 3-6 win against England, in Wembley. The first team to use three defenders was Herrera's Inter, somewhere in the mid 1960s. Then, the first time the world had the chance to see a back line of four or five players was in 1972, only two years after the "death of defensive football". Guess where: in women's professional football. More specifically, the 1972-73 season started with the 3-5-2 and the 3-6-1 as the most common formations (the 3-4-3 was never used...), but its end found several teams to have switched into more defensive formations (Atalanta went the furthest way, inventing the 5-4-1 in its original form and using it for all their last 13 matches of the season).
Since those times, we 've heard and read a lot about other "deaths of defensive football". But there is a difference that bugs me: defensive football "resurrects" even more quickly than back then. It often doesn't even "die" at all. Here is an example that happened today (I am posting it because I was part of it, so I know first hand and do not have to rely on third people's opinions).
This morning I was with my friends (all female), doing our training as usual, when some weird guy approached us and said "This is a men's sport, go back to your kitchens". We kept up our pace till we finished our training and then the woman who taught me football responded to his nonsense: "Do you have a team to prove your statement?". The guy said "Of course I do. We 're fans of Manchester City. But I guess you don't even know where Manchester is.", but she subtly warned him on how wrong he is: "A little bit to the east of Liverpool. For such big cities they 're very close." she said. But the guy... failed to get the warning. "You do well at geography, but your training does not have enough football in it. I am sure you fail a lot in actual matches." he told her, resulting in us laughing at him. "OK then, bring your team on and we 'll see who fails a lot." she answered after managing to stop laughing. This ended the conversation and he left, only to come back like two hours later with a bunch of guys in Manchester City kits. Judging from their kits, this should be their lineup list:
31: Ederson (GK)
4: Kompany
17: Kevin De Bruyne
17: Kevin De Bruyne
17: Kevin De Bruyne
17: Kevin De Bruyne
10: Sergio Aguero
10: Sergio Aguero
10: Sergio Aguero
10: Sergio Aguero
10: Sergio Aguero
We all instantly noticed something: nobody chose Fernandinho. So, the woman who taught me this wonderful sport said to that weird guy: "You 're missing something". His response though was "We 're missing nothing, we 'll enclose you in your area like Pep does to his opponents". We translated this as "We 'll pass the ball around as if we were winning 5-0, right from the start of the match" and were proved right before the match even started, as the weird guy demanded that they had the kickoff for the first half. The woman who taught me football responded "You can have it, it won't make much of a difference to us" and set us up in a 4-5-1 like Jose Mourinho probably would. "Their 1-4-5 is most likely to work on the same attacking terms as a 3-4-3, which means two players on their axis and one on their top, so we must be able to get a good grip on them with a 4-5-1. It is a formation we use a lot so I expect us to defend efficiently" she told us before we went to take positions. There you have it, a duel between "all defence" and "all attack". Judging by all those "deaths of defensive football", City's fans would be supposed to easily beat us, right?
Errr, nope. They did have the kickoff for the first half, we did wait for them in our own defending third, but as soon as they entered our defence area we won the ball thanks to a fine defensive job by our striker, who straight away passed the ball to the open area on the right. Our right back-half ran for the ball pretty much alone and easily found our striker, who had followed up the run and took the big chance to open the score. City fans-Mourinho girls 0-1. It was just the first minute, but we 're neither Barcelona nor Ajax. We know how to manage a lead. We slowed the match down as much as it was humanly possible and... won it 0-2. Somewhere around the 70th minute, the woman who taught me football subbed our striker out and passed a mid-defender in. The score was still 0-1 at the time, but with this substitution I think we permanently locked our win - the second goal just came because of us finding too much open space at the front. More precisely, it was our centre of defence to win the ball this time, as the men had started to hoof it. After just a couple of quick passes I was found alone in the open space, running with the ball. "Ederson" tried to block me in Neuer's manner so I dribbled past him and pulled a shot towards the unguarded target. This goal should have been a message to the guys, but they kept trying hoofs - which we easily cleared, so the match was properly dead. But as far as defensive football goes, I don't think we had any death. So, whenever you read "defensive football is dead", don't buy the fairy-tale the media are trying to sell. Defence is the base of football, it cannot die without football itself dying. It is just men doing it wrong, as always.
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