With this season undoubtedly ready to see another crackdown on ‘dangerous tackles’ are we in danger of losing one of the greatest aspects of the beautiful game?
Sportsman being mocked by thousands of onlookers, match officials being subjected to foul mouthed collective abuse and the occasional petulant outburst from one of the players on the pitch. The football season must be back with the curtain raising Community Shield taking place on Sunday at the changed venue of Villa Park.
The reason for the change was the Olympic Games and what a contrasting event that was, both passionate, but in differing ways. The sense of fair play and light heartedness that accompanied the majority of the Games seemed to dissipate right about the time new boy Eden Hazard took a fumble over a phantom leg.
With the new season comes an old problem, recycled from last year and regurgitated straight back into the faces of players, fans, pundits and managers; dangerous tackles.
Last season saw many an overzealous referee just dying to reach for the red card and send a player off who was going into a good old fashioned tackle. Vincent Kompany on Nani or Jack Rodwell on Luis Suarez spring to mind. However there were also some quite horrific and intentionally hurtful tackles, such as Mario Balotelli petulant foul on Alex Song, which went unpunished.
However Branislav Ivanovic’s tackle on international team-mate Alexander Kolarov falls into neither of those categories. His was of the genuine full-blooded attempt to win the ball which fell foul to his own clumsiness. It was a deserved red-card and took any chance Chelsea had of getting an early one up on Manchester City out of the equation. But there is no way Bran had intentions of hurting the City left back, he simply got the tackle wrong, like Sergio Aguero’s open goal or Costel Pantilimon’s fumble, footballers aren’t perfect.
It has been mooted that Kevin Friend could have ‘let’ the Chelsea defender off for the challenge; being the Community Shield and all; but this game is supposed to set the tone for the season and challenges like this are once again going to be stamped out in the upcoming campaign.
Everyone can agree that is fine but what we don’t want to see is the death of the strong, sliding tackle. The art of tackling can be many things, if you have ever had the joy of watching Paolo Maldini harrying an opponent at every potential moment before making a delightful standing tackle with either foot then charging up the field you will know a great tackle doesn’t need to involve sliding. But the slide tackle is a necessary part of the beautiful game.
Nigel De Jong has a chequered past on this subject, with horrific tackles on Xabi Alonso, Stuart Holden and Hatem Ben Arfa acting as monkeys on his back, but he made two or three wonderfully timed, strong and perfectly executed tackles during the Community Shield and it would be a shame for those to disappear.
The slide tackle cannot become extinct, the sight of a footballer scurrying into a desperate slide, mud flicking into a rainy sky, water spraying off the turf, the look of intensity harrowing their brow as they win the ball; opposing player sky borne with the mud and water falling to the earth with a thud. That sight is as good as any penalty save or 20 yard volley. It can be majestic, musical and stirring to view and the game itself would be lost without the art of the tackle.
What do you think?
image: © Ben Sutherland
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