What Is The 'Perfect' Game?

Alot of matches, over the years, have been labeled as 'beautiful' or 'perfect'. The latest being the enthralling encounter between English rivals Manchester United and Arsenal. Arsenal came out 2-1 winners, but the common opinion amongst most people who saw it was, "It was football who won in the end".

Here is what Arsenal manager 

Arsene Wenger had to say, "t was a great football game overall, both teams were going for it. "

Manchester United manager 

Sir Alex Ferguson shared similar views: "Some of the football from both teams was magnificent—you won't see a game as good as that anywhere in the country."

Well-known pundits came out singing praises towards both teams at the end of this end to end battle. Skysports 

Chris Kamara wrote the following in his weekly column headlined, 'What a game! Just Wonderful!':

"Arsenal against Manchester United was fantasy football of the highest order........The standard of that game at The Emirates was so high that you just wouldn't find it anywhere else in world football."

This lead me to thinking. Was it really football of the 'highest' order?

From a United fan's perspective I was very disappointed with our defence. Edwin Van Der Sar was constantly flopping at crosses while Ferdinand and Vidic were lacking positional sense most of time. The same could have been said about the Arsenal defence who committed several errors of judgement including giving away a free kick inside the box. 

When asked which team plays the best football, Arsenal are widely regarded as number one eventhough it is clear that they lack a solid defense. Is defending even part of football? From the opinion of a common football fan, it looks like attacking football is implied when you say 'best football'. 

You can argue that people usual say 'attractive football' when they talk about Arsenal. But whats not attractive about the perfect tackle?

So, when judging the quality of a game of football, does defence even count? It doesnt seem to be so. After thinking about this, it doesnt come as much of a surprise that Fabio Cannavaro was the first defender to win the Ballon d'Or after Germany's Franz Beckenbauer in 1976. Eventhough some of greatest defenders in history had graced the game during the time inbetween. 

From Italy's Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi to Germany's Andreas Brehme. 

So then, what is the 'perfect' game? Does it have to be an all out attacking showcase with goals galore or a game where defenders stuff every attack? Clearly it has to be a mix of the two. Goals, created by brilliant attacking moves and pieces of brilliant defending. 

An example of this, was the first half of FC Bayern Munich vs FC Schalke 04 match during the weekend. It was 2-1 when the whistle blew which ended what was an end to end battle between two top teams.

All three goals were from great pieces of attacking play, the pick being Bayern Munich's second scored by Frank Ribery.

With Klose winning the ball in midfield; Borowski, Mark Van Bommel, Toni and Klose again all exchanged the ball until it finally came to Frank. The Frenchmen burst forward, held the ball at the edge of the box and with Ze Roberto making a 60 yard run from LB played a one-two and resulted in Ribery scoring from a simple tap in.

In between these three goals was constant attacking from both teams but superb defending and goal keeping keeping the strikers from increasing the lead. Westermann positioning himself to get to end of crosses and Lucio making last ditch tackling.

My opinion on this debate comes down to the point that defenders need to be given credit. Most of them are labeled as 'boring' and defensive tactics are labeled as 'anti-football' but it is a part of football and is just an art as attacking is. 

A football match cannot be hailed as great or 'perfect' unless we see both aspects of football played at the highest level, which could not be said about the Arsenal Manchester United match or the Germany Italy 1970 World Cup. Exciting yes, quality no.