Tuesday Cannon Fodder: favorite football things

My mornings are now annoying. I start my day dropping my GF at the Metro so she can go downtown, that’s fine. I’m happy to do it because I like doing nice things for people. What’s irksome is that they are doing a major (private) construction project nearby that has closed me off from any efficient way to get to the main (public) road that takes us to the Metro. On top of that, there are a whole bunch of places on the roundabout ways to get to said road where you can’t make turns during rush hour. Clearly nobody thought this through. In total it’s a relatively minor inconvenience, but until I get more used to it, it’s going to keep bugging the heck out of me.

So in response, I’m choosing to focus on something that makes me happy — the little, good things that footballers do on the pitch. I’m not talking about scoring goals, threading beautiful passes, putting in perfectly-timed sliding tackles, or making highlight-reel saves. I’m talking about the small feints in one direction to wrong-foot a defender and create a bit of space to receive a pass. A defender taking a few steps to cut off a passing lane. A teammate yelling “man on” as an opponent closes somebody down.

So often, it’s an accumulation of those little, good things that lead to a scoring chance (or over the course of a match, a clean sheet). You don’t get the time to make that line-breaking pass unless a teammate told you that there’s a man on so that you feint one way and turn the other. Then, another teammate makes a run to pull a defender out of position and open up space for you to thread the through ball. It all adds up, and you need every piece of the equation.

What are some of your favorite examples in that same vein?