Tackling is of all ages. It’s an accepted part of the sport we call football, in America also known as soccer. In the past, football brought up great tacklers, fine young men who could win the ball with a perfectly timed sliding, real technical stuff. Teams who played attractive football were sometimes matched by technically skilled defenders, eventually slumping to defeat by a counter of some sort from the defensive team. It’s a shame that something like that doesn’t seem to exist anymore.
In the wake of a new gruesome attempt to murder someone’s football career, Birmingham City-defender Matthew Taylor is anxiously waiting for his punishment following his so-called “unlucky” tackle on Arsenal-forward Eduardo da Silva. What we saw from TV-footage was Eduardo being launched by an atrocious tackle from Taylor, while the match had only just begun. You saw Eduardo’s lower leg being mangled by the force of the stretched out leg from Taylor, who had absolutely no intention of even hitting the ball, because it was a long time gone when he slid in full stretch. You can even see him smiling when Eduardo is on the ground and Taylor realizes what he has done.
In the past we had a couple of players who deliberately injured a player of the opposite team, sometimes even ending this player’s career. Remember the Manchester derby in which Roy Keane took revenge on Alf Inge Haaland for putting him on the sideline for one and a half years. Haaland had to retire because of that tackle. Maybe you’ll also remember Argentinian midfielder Aldo Duscher, who put David Beckham out for quite a while, or Reading-striker Stephen Hunt who put Chelsea-goalie Petr Cech in a coma. A bit further down memory lane we’ve got Andoni Goikoetxea, the butcher of Bilbao, who cherishes the shoes of his horrifying tackle which broke Diego Maradona’s ankle in a trophy cabinet in his living room.
These are all examples of how wrong it can be to get too physical. Football isn’t about that.
Sure, others will say that they weren’t all on purpose, but is it really that necessary to throw out such a bad tackle? Why even bother? It is bound to get you suspended for quite a while. This is what brings us to my next point. Get those hooligans off the field for as long as the “victim” is injured. If that means, standing by the sideline for eight months, well, so be it. It’s what they deserve after such appalling deeds. We should get back to playing “Joga Bonito”, the beautiful game. In that, there’s no room for butchers and meat mincers.
Of course, there still is something left of the beautiful technical tackling of the early days. The Italians still got it, but they’re aging fast. When will the younger generation step up?
