It was a conflict between Dorian Gray and his portrait. For decades, Italy played cool and defensive football that made their country beautiful. The group is now among the easiest to see. Except for the obvious problem – is Italy about to become a dumping ground? – I stick to such sympathies in the silly level of the game.
Euro 2020 is the first major competition that hasn’t hit me since 1986, when I was four years old and there was no TV at home. Had it not been for the risk of injuring your stomach with laughter, I would have said that I work hard.
The real problem has been waiting for ten years. It started with a worship of “pressing” (running to get the ball back). It went on to test the NFL’s offensive game performance. Pep Guardiola once benched Thierry Henry for leaving the scene in a row. The fact that he found the goal was not diminishing.
Add a lot of space to this micromanagement, and you have a game machine whose main point is a deceptive display. Not divided into “sets”, “parks” or “sections”, the best football is as shapely as a big city. Modern gaming has something Canberra has to offer in this regard.
The approach to change is in the form of players. They were thin stones Rolling Stone, it is better to open a in the middle and the thread goes unexpectedly. Now even the most congested venues – full translators, midfielders, wings – have a solid, fitness profile of some kind of commercial nightclub.
I greet mainly in America where there is football: notices, glass illumination, friendly. What I am asking is that the idea that athleticism is compelling. Its place is a game.
To say one good thing about this new game, has taught me patience as I think development is not progressing well. In many respects, I am what Canadian writer John Ralston Saul would call one of the “stupid Voltaire”. I find LA more modern than Prague. I see and doubt the old shot of what we should no longer call the Dark Ages. That’s all I can do to save my stomach food while another idiot sells closure as a way to go slowly, and live a peaceful life. Here I am, groping for professional footballers as a new breed of jennies twists around them.
Young readers have realized the age from now on, as well as their interest in socializing. The seniors can convince me that the game is playing volatile. There was a panic in the tennis game when Pete Sampras and other ballistic servers came out for the first time. What followed was a team of experts who is still with us.
The green shoots of the new redesign have passed through the game. There’s Pedri from Spain, the youngest in the race. Dutchman Frenkie de Jong is one of the most iconic of the old school: he seems to run more with the ball than without.
In the end, I feel that their promises have come true. This is a game that now offers time for a change in many numbers: distance covered.
One researcher once said of the astounding scholar Jeremy Wolfenden that he “wrote as if it were all within his power; he wrote as if it were all a waste of time ”. From George Best to Ronaldinho, countries large and small had players who had the same respect. Italy in their troubles still have Roberto Baggio, even a broken knee that kept him from moving.
The fact is, skill and intelligence are not lost. Given the speed of the game, players should be better than ever in directing the ball and seeing the opportunity. England alone has a number of young masters.
It’s just that all the beauty is integrated into the corset of self-defense functions, timepieces and – oh, ugly – running. At the club level, Kevin De Bruyne, perhaps the greatest talent left in the competition, is a good example. Watch him start the ball again, check his position and hit the cross, forever. It’s beautiful, but so is the blue of the cloud.
Email Janan to janan.ganesh@ft.com
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