ANALYSIS : Defensive Cup Play Offensive to Purists

“The German goalie was the only spectator who didn’t pay for his ticket” in last Sunday’s World Cup final, in which West Germany took the title by beating Argentina, 1-0.

This remark by an Italian friend summed up what is bedeviling World Cup soccer: It has become too defensive. What happened in the final was too bad because some fine soccer, even beautiful soccer, was played in this tournament.

In fact, the game in Bari, the night before the final, in which Italy beat England, 2-1, for third place was a model of world-class play. It might well have been the final because each team lost its semifinal to the vagaries of a shootout.

Italy and England played a spirited contest. They both played decently in what is a rough sport, and in which the rules of permissible conduct are subjectively imprecise at the edges.

Against West Germany, Argentina pushed the sport beyond those boundaries and tarnished a contest watched by possibly a billion people. That game offered no new heroes to the young. Nor could the final have been impressive for the game’s skeptical future hosts, the Americans.

The West Germans, who engaged in the most offensive-minded soccer on the full field of play throughout the tournament, seemed bewildered--or perhaps ensnared--by the Argentine approach, and then did not play their best. The West Germans dominated the game but were largely unable to take advantage of their scoring opportunities. The Argentines, who were a shadow of the great champions of 1978 and 1986, played defensively, waiting for the miracle that never came.

Yet, however marred the game may have been, the West Germans earned a well-deserved victory. Over the four weeks of the tournament, they were consistently the best team.

Soccer is too resilient to be set back by even an embarrassing and irritatingly bad final. But the excessive defensiveness may in time throttle the game. The basic formation in soccer moved from five attackers, three midfielders and two defenders, to three attackers in the 1960s and then to two attackers until recently. And in this World Cup, many teams used only one attacker. The thickening of the defense has been compounded by a style of play best compared to an accordion.

Each team hopes to open and close to cover both the other team’s best attackers and the spots on the field from which the other team could have a chance to score. It is comparable to a zone defense in basketball starting about 30 feet in front of the goal. Massing nine or 10 players in that limited space almost always prevents a clear shot. Moreover, if you can lure the opponent into attacking, he is open for sudden counters. But if both teams have the same idea, the result is an exorbitant amount of midfield play and very low scores. For instance, in the previous five World Cup finals, an average of 4.5 goals were scored; this time, there was one.

As West German Coach Franz Beckenbauer observed, the natural outcome of a match between two well-drilled teams playing the accordion style would be 0-0. To break open the accordion style, if only somewhat, should be a matter of serious consideration for FIFA, the governing body of the World Cup.

Johan Cruyff, the finest soccer player the Netherlands has produced, has some ideas. Kissinger watched a Brazil-Costa Rica game with Cruyff in Spain, where the 43-year-old former star is coach of FC Barcelona, the highest-scoring team in the Spanish league. Cruyff played in Los Angeles for the Aztecs in the 1970s in the now-defunct North American Soccer League.

He pointed out that when Costa Rica got the ball, the now-defensively inclined Brazilians would run back to their half of the field and take up their positions without even looking at the man with the ball until he crossed midfield. He said that it takes about a minute to get back down the field and another minute to get into position and start an attack. That wastes an extraordinary amount of time merely moving the ball around. Cruyff preaches--and practices--something like the full-court press in basketball.

“You have to harry the other team whenever it gets the ball, on whatever side of the field,” Cruyff said. “If you get it on their side, you are that much closer to the goal, and you get it when the defenders are not as well-organized.”

Playing this way, Cruyff argues, can give you the ball as much as 60% of the time.

Can anything be done to infuse new vigor into soccer? We do not pretend to be experts on rules, but FIFA could change its procedures in the first round--as we have suggested before--to encourage scoring and discourage ties. Additionally, it should consider substituting the number of goals scored for the penalty shootout as the way to settle ties after overtime. FIFA has already said it will loosen the offsides rule to give the attackers more opportunities.

Finally, the coaches, owners and other leaders of soccer can do much to encourage habits of offensive play that once made this game so much more fluid and dramatic. It is worth noting that of all the teams in this World Cup, only the West Germans consistently played offensive soccer. And when all is said and done, they not only scored the most goals, they were the best team and won the Cup.