Word: striker
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...even nations could project their most passionate enmities. When Real Sociedad, the pride of the Basque country, comes up against Real Madrid, the soccer symbol of the Spanish crown, it's more than simply an athletic spectacle involving 22 men and a ball. And when a Republic of Ireland striker puts one past the England goalkeeper in an international fixture, the roar heard across the Irish Diaspora expresses a passion that long predates the game of soccer itself. But just as the forces of globalization are challenging long-established notions of identity by eroding traditional boundaries of nation and tribe...
...when it was still possible to discern distinct national idioms in the way the game was played: The English game was all kick-and-rush, the ball played high into the penalty area as quickly and as often as possible where a tough-as-nails "target man" striker would power his way above the defenders to direct it with his head, either goalwards or else into the path of a supporting forward who could shoot past the keeper. It was an approach that rewarded hard work, physicality, finishing ability (creating a goal out of a pass into the area that...
...even nations could project their most passionate enmities. When Real Sociedad, the pride of the Basque country, comes up against Real Madrid, the soccer symbol of the Spanish crown, it's more than simply an athletic spectacle involving 22 men and a ball. And when a Republic of Ireland striker puts one past the England goalkeeper in an international fixture, the roar heard across the Irish Diaspora expresses a passion that long predates the game of soccer itself. But just as the forces of globalization are challenging long-established notions of identity by eroding traditional boundaries of nation and tribe...
...sectarian fetish for clashes ranging from the Battle of the Boyne to Belfast's Falls Road "troubles", those concerns are increasingly remote for the men who don the blue shirts of Rangers and Celtic's green-and-white hoops. What could it possibly mean to Rangers' Georgian striker Shota Arveladze when those cheering his team on against Celtic are singing "We're up to our knees in Fenian blood!" ? And what passions does an IRA anthem stir in the heart of Celtic's favorite forward, Henrik Larsson, whose mother is Swedish and whose father hails from the West African island...
...accelerating migration of players across national boundaries is creating a few incongruities. Poland's star striker, for example, is Emmanuel Olisadebe, a Nigerian who'd gone to play for a Polish club side and had so impressed the country's football authorities that the government had fast-tracked him for citizenship in order to boost their prospects at the last World Cup. The irony is that although Olisadebe is still the mainstay of the Polish attack, he no longer even lives in Poland, having moved to a more lucrative gig for the Greek club Panathanaikos...