Football by Stephen Mumford

Author:Stephen Mumford
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781509535330
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2019-05-27T00:00:00+00:00

4

Space

Spatial awareness

In watching a game of football, our attention is often taken by individual players, especially those in possession of the ball, and the tackles, encounters, shots saved or successful, the actions of the referee, and so on. Television coverage usually focuses on these kinds of incidents, almost always following the ball. But there is something equally important that is easy for the casual spectator to overlook. Football is just as much about empty space, where the ball isn’t, as it is about the places on the field that are filled with action. To understand football, and what leads to success in the game, you need to understand space. The key attribute is spatial awareness, though this can mean a lot of different things.

Very obviously, football is played within a space, even if it is vaguely delineated. This space is not simply the playing field. The pitch is marked out by lines, giving it an extension in two dimensions, length and breadth. But the boundaries have a degree of vagueness in that while the ball must not go beyond the touchlines, the players can. Momentum often carries players outside on to what we are starting to call the ‘apron’ of the pitch, and it is perfectly legitimate for a player to run along just over the touchline, dribbling the ball, as long as it does not completely cross that line. As space becomes limited, it is quite normal for much of the action to take place on or around this boundary. In the design of new stadiums, this apron area is getting bigger and bigger. One might compare its extent at the new Wembley, for example, with that of an old-fashioned ground, such as Rochdale’s Spotland. As the game gets faster and more powerful, players need a larger area out of touch.

What about the space of football’s third dimension? Neither the ball nor the players are confined to movements in the first two dimensions, since not all passes and shots are completely along the grass. Crosses and shots are usually off the ground, hence height comes into the equation. The header is a vital part of the game precisely because it has this third dimension. Unlike the first two, however, this has no theoretical limit (except for those games that occur at indoor stadiums, with a roof). While the crossbar has a specific height, and there is thus a height limit for a shot to be on target, in theory the space in which a game occurs is of infinite height. In practice, however, there are, of course, limits to how high players can jump and balls can be kicked.

Football is played within a fourth dimension, too: namely within a temporal space. In almost all games, this is 90 minutes in two equal halves plus additional stoppage time at the referee’s discretion. In some amateur games this duration is shortened, while in some games there is a necessity of 30 minutes of extra time. When a game kicks off, or

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