Beauty vs the Beast

 

The definition of success in soccer remains one of the difficult topics to have a consensus. Is it the amount of trophies that you have? Or is it how you achieve it. Is there a right way to play?

There have been teams that have won trophies but, there are very few teams that people agree to have earned their trophies. Very recently Barcelona was beaten by Celtics in a manner that is shocking and negative. A disappointed Ben Schuster said” "I'm fed up of seeing these types of matches. There should not be teams like Celtic in the Champions League." Prompting Neil Lennon to say that Schuster was unsuccessful as a coach.

So it’s a battle between romantics and pragmatics. To Lennon’s defense in football most people emphasize on results not the performance. To them, it doesn’t matter whether you hit the post 15 times and conceded an own goal you still lost! The value of results is stressed on so much that coaches cannot afford to lose. But is this the way people should play? Yes and No.

Barcelona is at the top of the world or was at the top of the world. They made themselves hard to face in such a way that if you had little quality, it would be very difficult for any team to face them. They played a brand that mere spectators were made of their opponents and this became widely regarded as the way to play.

Football is like logic. There are two sides to it. While you are defending, the other side is attacking and vice versa. Teams like Barcelona attack relentlessly and to counter it teams have to defend so in a way, Celtics could not help but defend. But what happens when a team has equal quality as Barcelona and just kicks the ball from their goal and play a physically aggressive type of game?

Football itself has itself to blame since The Dutch, The Hungarians, et al, had nothing to show after playing the game with amazing beauty. Another problem for teams playing well is that teams will often find ways to make it difficult to play. It is the wrong approach but it works! Most successful teams rarely play the eye catching stuff.

People will forgive Reynolds for not winning the World Cup 1974 and still agree that they were the best team at that time. Without playing good football you cannot be consistent and without consistency, you will never dominate because, luck is not a reliable friend. For beauty to thrive, it must be appreciated.

At the moment the team that wins deserved to win. This is due to the fact that we all make our own luck. Winning football is the right football.