Culture and national styles of playing soccer
Culture has an effect on behaviour and preferences. So it is only natural that the preferred soccer style by national teams is recognizable and, over time, predictable.The famous Argentinean coach Menotti once said that that he could identify everywhere in the world within 5 minutes the style of an Argentinean soccer player. He also claimed that in a globalising world it would be the wrong solution to think there is a need for convergence: to develop the same approaches all over the world. He said:”I would say that man is universal, but the best way to reach universality is to “paint one´s own village”.
In a quick analysis one can see there is a real difference between the styles of countries affected by three value dimensions of culture: power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity–femininity.
In short:
low uncertainty avoidance and masculinity combined.
Analysis: risk taking for positive reasons (trying to score), exciting, offensive football. The ball is kicked immediately to the enemy goal. Excitement is what the fans expect. This is the game of Anglo - Saxon teams.
high uncertainty avoidance
Trying to first to be safe. Iron defense. With quick attacks with only a few people involved trying to score. Trying to force the referee to award a foul by the other team by a penalty. Most Latin countries are playing this type of game. Especially of course Italy.
low power distance in combination with femininity
Everybody should take his own responsibility. Nobody should think they are special. Nobody should think they are better than anybody else. Stardom is not appreciated: offensive players are expected to also be willing and able to play defensive and defensive players should also be willing and able to play offensive. This is the style of, for instance, Denmark and the Netherlands.
low power distance, high uncertainty avoidance and masculinity
Attributes: disciplined, structured, balanced, physical. This is, of course, the style of a country like Germany.
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