From long ball and pedaling to the idea of the centre-half, the evolution that gave birth to modern football
In the beginning chaos reigned. Football was long ball and pedal or “kick and rush”, to use the English term since in her Majesty’s reign this game was born. Basically, whoever came into possession of the ball only cared about kicking it forward, as far as possible. His teammates would have taken care of picking him up and then throwing him again, until he reached the vicinity of the opponent’s penalty area. A rather crude method, we would dare say primitive. On the other hand, being a derivation of rugby, it was natural that this was its first part of development. Football was a niche sport in the second half of the nineteenth century in England. It was practiced above all in universities and it was done by those students who, tired of the usual games, wanted to abandon themselves in the arms of novelty, even though the rules and the way to settle on the field were not yet clear. Thus chaos, more or less organised, was considered the most suitable style for becoming familiar with this entertainment. Following contemporary canons, a team from that period can be drawn according to module 2-8. There was the goalkeeper and then two defenders who were responsible for repelling the opponents’ attacks, while everyone else was entrusted with the task of running after the ball thrown by these two teammates in the hope of getting close to the rival goalkeeper.