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.
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