Football is a sport played by 11 people by bringing together 11 other people to compete. With this number of players, each person in a team occupies their respective position. There are goalkeepers to defend the goal, defenders and attacking players.
In modern football, we certainly know some names of football players from attacking positions. There is Kylian Mbappe who has proven to be in a bad mood with Paris Saint-Germain, Karim Benzema as the spearhead of Real Madrid, and Erling Haaland, the new Manchester City striker who is predicted to be the best striker in the next few years.
But rarely do we hear such a great focus on a position that is actually quite vital for a football team. That position is the figure of a defender, who is often “marginalized” in the world of football media coverage.
Why is the news spotlight always on a striker who scores goals, or a creative attacking midfielder who plays attractively? So why is the media spotlight not as great as the defender who desperately defends the defense from the opponent’s attack or builds a pattern of play from the back?
The term “desperately” was even executed perfectly by the late Colombian National Team centre-back, Andres Escobar. How was his effort in maintaining the defense of Los Cafeteros when in the World Cup duel with the host United States in 1994?
Escobar died from a shot from a gambler annoyed by his own goal as Colombia narrowly lost 2-1 to the United States. In the writer’s mind, why didn’t the executor shoot down the Colombian striker who failed to score an equalizer instead of taking Escobar’s life?
The difficulty of playing the role of a defender is not accompanied by support and understanding from the fans. Look how Harry Maguire last season was so thoroughly vilified and reviled about his game which was said to be very bad for a defender.
Although indeed in several matches Maguire often made blunders in defense, but a number of his goals and his success prevented the opponent’s attack from being completely covered by his mistakes.
The author can imagine how disappointed and sad Virgil Van Dijk felt when he had to be content to see Lionel Messi lift the Ballon D’Or award in 2019. Unfortunately, Van Dijk also got rid of Lionel Messi in the Champions League in the same year.
At that time, there were three nominees for the Ballon D’Or winner besides the names we usually meet such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, there was one new name that came from a different position from the two previous names.
The presence of Virgil Van Dijk is certainly motivated by his success in delivering a lot of success for Liverpool. That year, Liverpool managed to break the “fast” for the Premier League title for almost 18 years.
His tall figure at the back is also coupled with his capability in maintaining the solidity of the Reds defense. Even now, Van Dijk has barely tasted defeat at Anfield when he came down as a central defender in the first 11.
Football is not always about how we can win the game. If the goal of wanting to win is achieved, do we then highlight the performance of our attackers? What if the opposite result occurs? In a show on Najwa Shihab’s YouTube channel, of course we see how the bitter and heart-rending testimony of two Indonesian, Maman Abdurahman and Hamka Hamzah when they were labeled as “traitors of the nation”?
The story begins when there are allegations that the 2010 AFF Cup final was full of elements of cheating and bribery. Unfortunately, the defeat against Malaysia in the first leg which took place at Bukit Jalil was an accusation without evidence against the Indonesian national team defenders.
Blasphemy and insults were directed at the two gates of Garuda’s defense. In fact, abusive insults and insults were also directed at the people around Maman who didn’t even play in the match.
Apart from the clarification of the two players, why don’t we blame the Indonesian attackers when they were so brave against the Malayan Tigers in the group stage, but they were like dead ticks when they met again in the final.
In the culture of football competition, we are also familiar with hearing the title of top scorer award rather than the top tackle or top intercept award. Such a huge spotlight is rooted in today’s modern football culture.
Football is a universal sport. This means that real football no longer has to look at the magnitude of a footballer’s role in scoring the most goals. But also look equally at all positions that is in football as an equal part in achieving the goal of winning in a team.
One interesting phrase came from the legendary Manchester United coach, Sir Alex Ferguson. “Attack wins you games, but defense wins you titles.” This expression means that the defensive line is as important as the attack line.
No matter how many goals the attacker has scored, it will still be useless if the defender fails to maintain his defense. the four goals scored would mean nothing if the team itself conceded five goals.
The most common stereotype for defenders is a game that is violent and tends to harm opposing players. However, isn’t that a true effort in defending the team from the opponent’s attack.
In the end, football is beautiful when it is played with a beautiful game and the art of scoring goals that come from all directions. But also don’t forget how hard the defensive players are in protecting the heart of their own team’s defense from the opponent’s attack.
It will be more fun if in the future, there is a figure of a defender who gets as much media attention as an attacking player. This highlight is in the form of praise in the form of his expertise and solid in mobilizing the defense.
Or how beautiful football is not only from beautiful play but also how a team can keep its defense from conceding. Although most football fans are based on the beauty of a football match, it is from how many goals were scored rather than the brave and heroic actions of defenders in defending their defenses.
ASL
