Nereo Rocco, a famous Italian soccer coach and part-time philosopher from the 1960s, once said “Dal lunedì al venerdì i xe olandesi, poi la domenica tutti indrìo e si salvi chi può.” When translated to English, these words of Triestine wisdom read: “From Monday to Friday, everyone pretends to be Dutch, but on Sunday everyone runs back to defend.” Rocco’s comment explains the two opposing doctrines of soccer. The Dutch are proponents of beautiful, flowing soccer called “total football,” while the Italians play purposeful and defensive soccer in a style called “catenaccio.” That Italy has won four World Cups and the Dutch have won none is telling of which approach is superior. For the sake of transparency, I must admit that I am an Italian. With the exception of F.C. Barcelona’s success, catenaccio is a tactic for winning games and total football is one for winning fans.
During the Champions League semi-final between Chelsea F.C. and Atletico Madrid last week, Chelsea coach José Mourinho came under fire for presenting his squad in a very defensive-minded approach. Criticism of Mourinho is understandable — the soccer match was not exciting to watch because of the coaching choices he made. Spanish newspaper El Mundo went as far as to say “soccer was not invented for this kind of play.” Italians, however, argue that soccer was invented specifically for this style of play. Coaches, players and all parties involved are judged and paid, not on the basis of crowd approval or the number of “ola’s” received, but on the number of games won. Mourinho’s choices are are a byproduct of his incentives — namely, what his Russian oligarch boss wants: the trophy — and it would be unreasonable, nay, “irrational” for him to do otherwise.
As the late Nereo Rocco notes, humans respond to incentives. Like Mourinho, we are not omnibenevolent agents who attempt to please everyone and manage success at the same time. To believe that Mourinho was going to sacrifice his team’s chances of winning by playing a showy, Dutch style of play is naive. Economists have made a discipline of the study of incentives as they affect human decision-making and are generally considered the “bad guys” of the social sciences because of the cynicality their findings reveal. The sooner we understand, like Mourinho already has, that people respond to tangible motivation the better we will be able to understand and predict soccer matches. If you would prefer to watch soccer for its nutmegs and bicycle kicks, then perhaps you should skip the World Cup in Brazil this summer and tune in to the 5-on-5 2016 Futsal World Cup in Colombia. I hear futsal is very entertaining.
Vittorio Bisin is a staff columnist. Vittorio’s Razor is published every Thursday. Email him at [email protected].
