From: pasand@Mari.Unit.NO (Per Annar Sandaune)
Subject: Re: top ten teams in the world
Reply-To: pasand@Mari.Unit.NO (Per Annar Sandaune)
Organization: Norwegian Institute of Technology
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 12:05:26 GMT

In article <1gjiqgINNipf@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, cf124@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Claudio Ruggieri) writes:
|> 
|> In a previous article, pasand@Mari.Unit.NO (Per Annar Sandaune) says:
|> 
|> >
|> >I know I won't be disappointed when I see a video of Pele, but: Being three times world Champion doesn't mean that Pele did it all alone. It could also mean that the competition wasn't as tough as that of today.
|> >
|> 
|> 	In the same way that Maradona does not deserve all credits for
|> Argentina winning the World Cup in 86. Bear in mind that he has to rely
|> on the other 10 players as well. Bring Maradona to, let's say, Japan and
|> we will see that he can't show 50% of his football. Linecker will start
|> playing here in Japan from next season. He is a great player, but I really
|> wonder what he is going to do playing in such a low level league.
|> 
|> >With tougher football environment I meant that there are more good players today than before.  Higher tempo, better skills compared to the overall tempo makes it harder to dominate a match today than 20 years ago.  There is no doubt about that.  Therefor|> e, Maradona is the player of all times.
|> >
|> >pasand
|> >Trondheim, Norway
|> >
|> 
|> 	I think you should say that there are so many bad players today,
|> that soccer has reached the same level wordwide. Just remember of the
|> last World Cup in Italy. Do you call that better football? Do you really
|> think any of those teams were better than Brazil in 1970 or Holland in
|> 1974 (just to mention a few)? Well, may we should wait for Norway in
|> the next World Cup to show us a new soccer age :-) and, hopefully, 
|> with many goals.
|> 
|> 	Cheers!
|> 
|> 	Claudio Ruggieri


If we consider "better" football as more entertaining than "bad" or boring football, I could agree with you.  However, what is the reason that football has become more boring and tighter in the recent years?  I think that is because the players of today are of a better standard that EVER before.  

Nowadays, the players are able to keep a higher tempo in the game in longer periods than before, so that the field apparently looks to small for 11 players.  Therefore, someone (I think it was FIFA) suggested that one should reduce the number of players to 10, to "open up" the game a little. This change, however, wasn't accepted, and instead we got smaller changes, the last one being the backpass (or whatever it is called) rule.  These small changes are, in fact, the result of a ten (10) year long study of



 the matches in Serie A of Italy performed by FIFA.  Apparently, the backpass rule has resulted in more goals and more entertainment.

Finally, I would say that if Norway qualify for the World Cup, you will definitely see a little glimpse of the new football age (!)


One question:  Ituana recently bought a nowegian player, do you know anything about him?  Please e-mail me if so.


Greetings from a long time Brazil fan
--
Per Annar

pasand@mari.unit.no
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer