‘Styles make fights.’
You will have heard that phrase about 100 billion times if you have ever watched professional boxing or MMA on television.
It’s a phrase with a fairly simple and obvious meaning: if boxers or mixed martial artists prefer their fighting style to complement their opponent’s style, then you’re in for a great night of entertainment.
That’s what we got when fighter Deontay Wilder faced the more technical Tyson Fury last year, when fighter Joe Frazier fought the more technical Muhammed Ali in the ’70s, and when fighter Roberto Duran went toe-to-toe with the most technical. technician Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980.
It was a strange antithetical chemistry that brought out the best in each of these fighters during their feuds, turning each and every match into stone-cold classics. And it’s the lack of that that makes fights like Tyson Fury and the equally technically gifted Oleksandr Usyk less appealing as, on paper, that clash of styles just doesn’t work (but that’s an article for another day in another website).
Fortunately, we get the first thing every time Manchester City and Liverpool meet, and luckily that’s what we got in the game dubbed ‘THE BIGGEST AND MOST IMPORTANT SPORTING EVENT IN HUMAN HISTORY’ on Sunday afternoon.
It sure wasn’t up to par. that billing (what could?), but we got a pretty extraordinary 90 minutes of streaming entertainment from the Etihad Stadium.
Within the first 15 minutes, the game had already paid some dividends for the hype.
In that quarter of an hour alone there were countless goalmouth incidents, goalkeeping feats and two goals, leaving millions of viewers around the world wondering when they could catch their breath.
It turned out that they couldn’t do it until the final whistle, as the frenzy of the match continued from then on, with back-and-forth movement between the two best soccer teams in the world at all times.
The game would ultimately end 2-2: Man City took the lead on two occasions only to be traced back by an energetic Liverpool side, making it the fourth of their last five meetings to finish with more than 4 goals scored.
The reason for the consistency of the entertainment when Liverpool and City meet is not just that they are the two best teams in the world at the moment. Obviously that helps (of course it does), but equally great teams have met in the past and played absolutely poorly; an excellent and very recent example is Man City’s Champions League final clash with Chelsea last year.
What really makes these matches so great is that the aforementioned styles collide.
Liverpool are proverbial brawlers, quickly trying to knock opponents out with quick transitions up the pitch, passing the ball to their star men Mohamed Salah, Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane as fast as they can. They did so to score their two goals on Sunday.
Man City, on the other hand, are the technical team, taking their time and stifling the opposition with slow, possession-based football, luring teams into traps in and around the penalty area. And yes, this is what they did to score their goal on Sunday too.
It is these opposing styles and unwillingness to change their tactics to play each other that make these brilliant games possible, with both teams vying for the front foot and pressing each other with an intensity and quality not seen anywhere else. Place of the world. football.
And while everyone has scoffed at the idea of Liverpool and Man City being a ‘rivalry’ for the past week, it’s hard to argue that when two teams are it’s good and go head-to-head for league titles, European trophies, etc., other than some kind of rivalry.
Sure, it’s not a local rivalry, and there’s no history of a rivalry between the two teams, but at least it’s best versus best colliding, armed with two perfectly antithetical game plans.
It’s hard not to love that.