.The poet Sarhan guards the goal.. A reading in the keepers of the den and the tactics of formation. | Dimalions
The poet Sarhan guards the goal.. A reading in the keepers of the den and the tactics of formation.
about 19 hours ago
Sport
The poet Sarhan guards the goal.. A reading in the keepers of the den and the tactics of formation.
Hesspress Sports·
If the audience is metaphorically the 12th player, then the goalkeeper is truly the 1st player, not because it was written on his shirt when the shirts were standardized, but because his position is essential and irreplaceable. What kind of match is this without a goalkeeper?
And while victories are often attributed to the attackers, the foundation of winning is conceding fewer goals than the opponent, which is what goalkeepers strive for. Therefore, they are honored with the Golden Glove, the Yashin Award, and the Zamora Trophy… just like those who receive the Golden Shoe and the Puskás Award… In fact, some of these goalkeepers sometimes show their attacking side, providing key passes and even scoring unforgettable goals in memorable matches.
Just as every player has a role model in their position, a goalkeeper, no matter how high his gloves are, has a role model among his predecessors guarding the goal. If one were to be mentioned in this net, it would be the Cameroonian goalkeeper, Thomas Nkono. This African giant was a role model for the European giant Buffon to the extent that he named his firstborn after him: Thomas Buffon. I do not know if he regretted that, as the boy Thomas chose to be a forward, symbolically disobeying his father's position, and preferred to play for the Czech national team in honor of his mother's country.
The matter of role models and naming appears early in the game. In my distant childhood, there were two boys from my neighborhood named Faris and Asila, and they were named so only because they understood each other in the neighborhood's playground. As for the immortal duo of Mohammedia youth, it was easier to hear about them a hundred times than to see them due to the scarcity of entertainment at that time. The strangest of those two obscure stars was one of the goalkeepers of that era; the boy did not have the color of a champion nor the stature that promised agility, so he was nicknamed "Attouh," after the great Tunisian national team goalkeeper, for Attouh of Tunisia was more famous among Moroccans than all the roosters of France. And while the giant of Tunisia had no equal, thanks to the grass of the fields, our little goalkeeper was unmatched wherever he fell in our dusty alleys. We often feared he might break an arm or a leg due to his recklessness in pursuit of that precious title.
Years after that dusty childhood, Moroccan homes would acquire televisions, and this would come with sports programs and schedules that could not be missed, before channels proliferated and screens became ubiquitous, with football becoming the most prominent evidence of the broadcasting boom the world had reached. We began watching matches accompanied by commentators' remarks, followed by analysts' discussions, learning more about the differences in tactics and player positions, the cunning of coaches, the impact of substitutions, off-the-ball play, game management, the false nine, and the false full-back… However, for the sake of truth and history, we have never heard of a "false goalkeeper." In football, the goalkeeper is the reality that rises, often above all players, to protect the goal.
After decades of following football, my father, may he rest in peace, taught me a lesson I will never forget about the game and the importance of the goalkeeper. Until the end of his life, I would call home to remind him of match times, broadcasting channels, and we would discuss the national team. On one occasion, Morocco had delivered a forgettable match, as the play was confined to the midfield, with no attacks, no defense, no chances, no attempts, and no shots on goal from either team… When I asked my father, he pointed out that we had not seen either goalkeeper, and I agreed. He summarized his opinion on the match, asserting: "There was nothing."
Based on the game plan, the distribution of players on the field is determined by the coach's careful management according to the circumstances of each match, which is known in football as the formation. This formation can achieve a level of harmony and synergy that rises to the level of creativity, leading us to hear terms like artist, painter, composition, creator, canvas, maestro, and symphony…
Some football displays reach the level of the science of performance.
Just as rhythmic patterns require shaping and division, coming in various sequences of movements and pauses, formations require activation and division, resulting in varying sequences of numbers, containing the reasons for victory, the team's pillars, and skill intervals, which may be affected by irregularities and flaws during the course of play, depending on the rhythm that dominates every weight and every rhyme.
It is perhaps a strange coincidence that the number of formations used in contemporary football is exactly the number of poetic meters established by Al-Khalil, and that some matches are organized in the long meter while others are organized in the quick meter, with the most beautiful played in the simple or close meter. As for the erratic play, it was introduced by those exceptional individuals who went straight to the essence of the game, for football has its essence just as poetry does.
With the continuous development of the game, we will not have to wait long for descendants of the "Akhfash" to address what the descendants of Al-Farahidi overlooked, bringing forth what no one could imagine among its enthusiasts, just as we will not lack those who categorize football players into classes, similar to what happened long ago with poets.
If the head and the tail of poetry are like the two halves of a football match, then the essence of the poem may be recited in a neighborhood league, while international matches carry the detritus that weighs down the worst of poems… As for those grand matches and football epics, blessed are those who witnessed one of them, whether from the stands or on screen. And I am fortunate to be one of them.
Among Moroccans, a football match may be referred to as a house or two, or even a poem without verses, as they call a goal a "bayt" in homage to its French pronunciation.
The football community is filled with experts and cunning individuals… Therefore, I hope one of its foxes will take the initiative to produce a series of recordings about the game titled: "The Orphan of Time in the Skills of the People of the Era…"
And finally, imagine that Al-Mutanabbi is contemporary to us and watches what we see from the actions of these children of the jinn on football fields; would he claim to be the best of those who walk with feet?
