SOCCER

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 4 April 1925, Page 9

SOCCER

NOTES BY “GOALIE.”

Get fit. Keep fit - You owe it to your dub and to the public. Take the field up to time. 'Hint, too, you owe to the .public. See to your boots. Be careful of your language. What the referee says, goes. Manaia has once again found a real, live sport, who has generously offered a gold medal to tne most unproved player. Let’s hope there are other supporters equally keen. The Hawera secretary is still looking for more and stilj more players. So are other secretaries. Has the one in votir district heard from you?

D EFENSIYE ERR(>KS

HINTS TO SOCCER FULL-BACKS

(By Jesse Pennington)

(Famout ex-Albion International)

It is a sign of the times that the great complaint about present-day spectacular football js that there is a shortage of goals. Goals have lieeu stated to be the spice of football; as a defender, 1 nrn not disposed to agree altogether, but there is certain \ something irt it. If- there were no goals, the game would lose its attractiveness. There was more room last season for complaint on this score, because on nmnv Saturdays the tally for the league failed to reach the century, and with four sections, that is pretty poor going. There was an outcry against die forwards, and it was said that they had neither brains nor a sense of direction But very little was said about the ‘people who had. stopped ’em scoring. ‘ That side of the question appears ro have been- entirely overlooked.

DECLINE IN SCORING

The reason there has been a shrinkage in scoring as compared wi.h prewar days is that defensive methods have been improved put of all knowledge. Tactics have suspended tackles in importance and the application oi brainy methods'is no longer a matter for forwards only. In these days, it is not enough to stop an advancing opponent, or line of opponents, and send the ha].] back up the field. The ball has to be disposed of to the best advantage.- It'must be placed with an accuracy .which will ensure it going tc a member of one’s own side. The adage , has it that “possession is nine points of the law.” That may not he literally true, but it is a good maxim for footballers. The man in posses, sion, oV the side in possession, has thf grasp of present opportunity. Without The ball it is impossible to play. The side plays best —and, therefore entertains anil amuses —which manages the more ofien to retain possession of the sphere. Therefore, when a de fender has taken the ball from the opposition, unless he is going to give it to another member of his own side, he is partially wasting the effort he has made ,to dispossess the opposing forward. 'That*is why (“placing” has assumed such immense importance in modern football style. POSITIONAL PLAY.

A good deal is heard nowadays about “positional” play. The meaning of (the term is the science of taking up a position from which one will be best able to checkmate the opposition, either by interception of pass or centre, or by a tackle. What is known as “covering the goalkeeper” is part of positional play. The expert at this phase of the defensive game is generally born, not made, but a good knowledge of it may be obtained as the result ot experience, keen observation, and a disposition to profit from past mistakes. The man who knows how to take up a position saves himself'a lot of hard work and considerable running about. He makes the work of a defender look simple and his fruitful intervention often leads the onlookers astray in the matter of condemning attackers for tin simple manner in which they were baffled, because of the minimum amount of effort expended. No dissertation on the subject of defence would be complete without a reference to the off-side bogey. Defenders are condemned by unthinking people for exploiting the off-side rule.