Soccer-starved Argentines have found a way to play their beloved sport while social distancing, although the rules have been altered and the dazzling end-to-end dashes produced by national legend Diego Maradona are impossible.
Dubbed “metegol humano,” or “human foosball,” the system designed for the COVID-19 pandemic involves dividing the field with white chalk into 12 rectangles and restricting each player to a defined space. The ball can be passed across rectangles and players can dribble inside their areas. The modified game emphasizes passing and shooting over running and fancy footwork. And of course there are no rough tackles.
Members of Vende Humo and Los Mismos de Siempre on Wednesday tried the new form of soccer at the Play Futbol 5 sports complex in the city of Pergamino, about 240km from the capital, Buenos Aires.
Photo: AP
The amateur players concentrated on not stepping over the lines as they dribbled and defended. Leaving one’s rectangle incurs a penalty.
They agreed it was great to be playing again after a 100-day drought. Professional soccer is suspended and players cannot train. For amateurs who usually rent fields for games, it was like breathing again.
“Now I feel free and happy, getting together again with friends and playing soccer,” said Martin Rodriguez, a defender from Vende Humo. “If it were up to me, I would do this from Monday to Monday.”
A week ago, Pergamino became the first place to test the new game, which has just five players on each team, instead of the traditional 11. That allows games to be played within the framework of Argentina’s quarantine, which allows outdoor activities with up to 10 people.
Rodriguez said he is adapting to the changes.
“It is about paying attention and keeping the distance the game allows us. We have to know how far we can go. We cannot go over the line,” he said.
Players acknowledge that some of the magic is missing, particularly the game’s friction, the “in the ear” trash talk and the kicks followed by apologies, but the point of the new system is to keep a distance.
Gustavo Ciuffo, owner of the Play Futbol 5 complex, devised the new game, which has been replicated in recent days in other parts of Argentina, a soccer-mad nation that produced Barcelona megastar Lionel Messi as well as Maradona.
Ciuffo took advantage of Pergamino’s low infection rate, which let the city enter a looser phase of the quarantine imposed on March 20. Authorities in Pergamino authorized the sport on Friday last week and a game started the next day.
Ciuffo said he was happy to have found a solution “at a very hard time,” when the lockdown exacerbated the country’s economic crisis and demoralized so many Argentines.
Getting the ball rolling again was the best antidote to depression, he said.
“Soccer for Argentines is as important as mate,” the country’s traditional tea-like beverage, he said.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
RSS