The Strength of Weak Games

There's something surreal about playing a pick up game with complete strangers. This can probably pertain to 99% of team sports bar something like tennis but as the thought of futsal lie fresh in memory, I will reference such in this journal. Though I live in the heart of Gangnam, I made the hour long trip to sweat my fair share, to vent my evils, and more importantly, to impart my creativity unto the ball. 

There's a term sports analysts give to different types of team games: weak games and strong games. While the wording may initially be misleading, strong games refer to sports like basketball in which the outcome of a game -- a win or a loss in this case -- is heavily dependent on the impact of star players. If MJ sprinkles some magic on the court, well, bad news for the opposing team. This means that the outcome of a game is directly related to how the best players perform. This is why even though I tend to get picked last for a pick-up game of basketball, I often end up on the winning team. You see, I know my strengths. I'm not going to be adding 20 points on the board, let alone double digits. But what I can do as a soccer-- futbol-- player is run. And run. And run. By applying my work rate and reading the flow of the game, I can attempt to mitigate the impact of the opposition's star players as much as possible. Think a bootleg Dennis Rodman. In doing so, players like myself can have a greater influence on the court. But it's a little different when it comes to weak-link sports like soccer. 

Unlike basketball, the outcome of weak games are less determined by the strength of strong players but rather the weak links caused by players that are not as good. In a sense, over a series of plays throughout a game, and especially over the series of games-- hell even over the course of an entire season, it becomes increasingly clear that results are a reflection of error mitigation. Because the margins of a game of soccer are so thin and the frequency of goals is much lower than basketball, the burden falls onto a team to limit the number of quality chances conceded. Additionally, unlike basketball where a star player can pick up the ball and drive to the hoop or shoot a 3-pointer on their own, goals are rarely scored by a single player. There are a greater number of teammates, the pitch is much larger, there are changing environmental factors... the list goes on as to the variables that contribute to this finding. But this is why you see a lot of teams that employ the "Galactico" model like PSG or regretfully even my club Manchester United suffer. Because even if you have 7 star players, 4 weak link players can do more damage than having a team of 1 star player and 10 good players. 

Obviously, this is reductive and there is a lot of nuance that goes into balancing a team but these macro findings are really interesting to consider across different sports. 

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It's 12:22 AM July 19th and I write this as I ride the last subway train home. The subtle air conditioning feels amazing on my sweaty jersey. Today marks the start of another journaling challenge. Will it last? I'm not sure. But I sure as hell will try. Here goes :)