Abstract
The forwarders in any team makes the actual game enticing, interesting to watch and their moves makes the fans be filled with enthusiasm as to whether the team will score or not. The same case applies to the defenders who are the key determinants of whether the opposing team will have a chance of scoring. Hence this means that both players have to work extra hard to ensure their team wins by either scoring as many goals as possible while at the same time denying their opponents any chance of scoring against them. According to Bull and Shambrook (2004), the defender ensures that the opponents does not win by guarding their goal against attacks while relieving the goalkeeper from forceful and surprise attacks by ‘reflecting the ball’ as far away from the goal area as possible by passing it on to the farthest forwarder. At the same time, the forwarder must put extra pressure to snatch the ball from the rival team’s forwarders so as to forward it to the strikers who in turn they can score.
In contrast, most writers have argued that the defenders play a major role in winning as compared to the forwarders. Imagine what the forwarder would do if the defender does not pass the ball to the forwarder. The defender has to stay alert at all times and avoid any form of mistake as this will lead to a direct score from the opponent. They have to face the pressure of the opponent’s strikers and put all the effort to divert the ball away from their goal. This means that if the defender was inactive, the team will definitely lose at a landslide.
The forwarder on the other hand has to stay focused, have the courage to push the ball to the opponent’s goal and strike in an effort to earn a score for their team. They have to run all over the field to snatch the ball from their opponents and score. Thus, without the effort and the tactics of the forwarders who are also the team’s strikers, then the team will not win regardless of how strong the defense is.
However, like most writers such as Roberts and Mondra (2010) have argued, a team requires coordination and the effort of all team players to win. Regardless of whether the player is a midfielder, forwarder, defender or a goalkeeper, all of them must work as a team in an effort to win. Without each player, the winning of the game is put at a stake since the defender has to pass the ball to other players and at the same time, the forwarder has to try hard to push the ball into the opponent’s goal. Hence, neither the defender nor the forwarder should win the credit of making the teams win but rather all the team players are the contributors to the success of failure of a team.
References
Bull, S. J. & Shambrook, C. J. (2004). Soccer: The Mind Game. Crowood Publishers.
Roberts, M. B. (2010).Soccer: the Player’s Handbook. Sterling Publishers.
