The football game is always a marathon – 12/19/2023 – Tostão

Fluminense and Manchester City will play the much-desired final of the Club World Cup. City, as happens in most of their matches, had the ball, dominated the game and gradually built a 3-0 victory over Urawa Reds, even without a player to occupy the center forward position. Haaland and De Bruyne did not play and will be left out of the final.

Flu and Al Ahly played a balanced game, with seven goal chances for each team. Fluminense exchanged passes and involved the Egyptian team, while Al Ahly, with quick counterattacks, also created scoring chances. In the end, the Brazilian team’s greatest individual quality prevailed. Fábio was Fluminense’s main highlight.

Unlike Manchester City, which presses all over the field to quickly recover the ball, which it does with great efficiency, Al Ahly and Fluminense left a lot of space in the midfield for the other team to keep the ball. Fluminense alternates the two markings, the most backward and the most advanced, but has long prioritized the retreat to close the spaces close to the area. Around the world, especially in Europe and England, pressure marking is increasingly used.

The main advantage of scoring through pressure is recovering the ball closer to the other goal and advancing with many players. Midfielders become attacking midfielders. The disadvantage occurs when the pressure is overcome and many spaces open up behind the defenders, who also advance as a block along with the midfield. If the defenders stay too far back, there are spaces between them and the guards.

The most backward marking, with two lines of four, is the most efficient, as each defender has the protection of a midfield player. The disadvantage is being too far away from the other goal when the team wins the ball back.

With the development of pressure marking, it was necessary to evolve the quick exchange of passes, with first touches, as there is always a marker very close. An efficient and beautiful scheme to watch is when a team escapes pressure marking with a quick exchange of passes towards the goal.

The players don’t stop running. They come and go with great intensity. The game is a marathon, but that’s not enough. You need to combine vitality and talent, treat the ball well, caress it.

Because of this marathon, more advanced players, even with a lot of skill and creativity, have difficulty succeeding. If Ganso had a lot of mobility and physical strength, he would be an ace. Scarpa, wanted by Brazilian clubs, was the best player in the Brasileirão. He went to Europe and couldn’t play. Certainly one of the reasons was the lack of intensity necessary for a midfield player, even though he had exceptional quality, the strong and curved hit on the ball, in crosses and in shots.

Manchester City is the favorite, but it won’t be an underdog if Fluminense is champion, due to the individual and collective quality of the Brazilian team and because City is not going through a great moment, due to injuries and player departures.

If Flu wins, it will be a historic title, to be celebrated forever, even though it is a competition with just two games. The achievement will also be very good for Brazilian football, as the other coaches will probably start to adopt Flu’s playing philosophy, of treating the ball well, of a lot of approach and exchange of passes, without losing tactical discipline and repetition. .

Fernando Diniz evolved and became a creative and pragmatic coach. That’s what great coaches like Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola are like.

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