Alright, so I sat down and watched that Pumas UNAM versus Club León game. You know how it is, after a match like that, everyone’s got an opinion, especially on who actually played and who was just out there taking up space. I’ve been doing this a fair while, just watching, making my own kind of notes, my own record.
It’s never clean-cut, this stuff, is it? You look at Pumas, and you see bits and pieces. Some lads really dug in. Then you peek at León, and yeah, they had their spells, looked decent in parts, but then a bit wobbly in others. Always a mixed bag.
- I saw a couple of the Pumas attackers, right? They were busting a gut, trying to make things happen, but then that final ball, or the shot, just wasn’t quite there. Makes you want to tear your hair out sometimes.
- León’s defenders, for a big part of the match, they seemed to have it sorted. But then, whoops, a silly mistake here, a near miss there. Enough to give their fans a heart attack.
- That midfield battle, though. That was a proper dogfight. Some players, you could see them running on fumes by the end, while others just seemed to have an extra lung. That’s often where these games turn, right in the guts of the pitch.
Now, when I yap on about “ratings,” I’m not one of those blokes with a clipboard and a load of stats, pretending it’s rocket science. My way of figuring it out, my “practice” you could say, it’s more from the gut, from years of just… watching.
I remember, way back, I tried to get all serious with this player rating business. Was involved with a local kids’ team – nothing like Pumas or León, just little tykes kicking a ball about. And I got this grand idea to do “proper” player ratings each week. Had a special notebook, all ruled up with columns: effort, skill, being a team player, the whole shebang. I’d be there on the touchline, scribbling like mad, thinking I was some kind of genius scout.
What a crock that turned out to be. An absolute shambles. One week a kid’s a hero, top marks. Next week, he has a stinker, his score plummets. And the parents! Don’t even get me started on the parents. If their little Messi didn’t get a ‘9’ or ‘10’, you’d think I’d insulted their dog. It all got so ridiculously heated, so fast. Ended up with more arguments than actual football.
After a season of that nonsense, I binned the notebook. Done with it. Realized that trying to slap a number on every single thing, especially when you’re just trying to enjoy the game, it just butchers the whole point. It’s about the feel of it, innit? Did a player give his all? Did he do something that changed the game, good or bad? Did he even look like he wanted to be out there?
So, when I watched Pumas lock horns with León, that’s the stuff I was looking for. Who really showed up, and who was just along for the ride? Who fought for that jersey? It’s not about some perfect score or a terrible one. It’s about what they actually did, or didn’t do, on that grass. That’s my take, my record of the thing. Some players will feel good about their shift, others will be kicking themselves. That’s football for ya, plain and simple.
