How to survive tactics by parking the bus.

How to survive tactics by parking the bus.

We all know that the goal of playing football is to score as many goals as possible, but over time, when the defense was initially neglected in this game, many coaches began to think that defending was one of the best ways to play ball.

By defending, a team can achieve victory even if the resulting score is not large, there are many ways to keep the defense line safe, such as choosing tactics by using defenders more than attackers.

Italy, being one of several teams that often carry this style. Catenaccio, is a term that is often used to describe the game of Italian football, using a grandel defense line of defenders with the best strength that Gli Azzurri has, many coaches rely on to play this tactic.

In addition to catenaccio, the world is also familiar with tactics by stacking players in the back line of defense or what is commonly known as bus parking. Actually, where did the term bus parking come from? Then, which team first used this tactic?

The definition of bus parking is when a team places a lot of players in their defense when not in possession of the ball. This system tends not to think about attacks or even scoring goals, teams that use bus parking tactics will cause opponents to be frustrated because players who are widely placed in the back line are asked to create fences around the goal leaving no space for the opponent to exploit.

However, in this case, there are still a handful of players who are tasked with stealing the ball and bringing it forward when the opposing player starts to get careless or loses concentration in attacking. Because usually, not finding a gap for opposing players to attack often makes them shoot long distances, that's where the role of certain players who are asked to steal the ball will be very crucial.

Then about where this term comes from, the name of coach Jose Mourinho is often considered the culprit. The term bus parking emerged when Jose Mourinho, who coached Chelsea, brought the club to a 0-0 draw against Tottenham Hotspurs in 2004. At that time, Jose Mourinho was annoyed with the Spurs game system which only put most of his players behind.

The Portuguese coach lashed out at Tottenham Hotspurs with the curse, "estacionar o autocarr", which means "they took the bus, but were left in front of the goal."

"As we said in Portugal, they (Spurs) took the bus and left the bus in front of their goal."

"I would be very frustrated if I was a fan who pays 50 pounds to watch a game because the Spurs come just to defend."

At that time, Mourinho, who was annoyed, thought that Spurs only intended to appear without conceding a goal. More than that, the coach who is now coaching AS Roma said that Chelsea's match against Spurs only places one team who wants to compete and entertain the audience.

But ironically, when Jose Mourinho was named as the first person to issue the term bus parking due to his frustration with a team that continued to play defensively throughout the game, he actually turned into a coach who was very attached to this tactic. In the 2009/2010 European Champions League stage in particular, Jose Mourinho, who coached Inter Milan, had to face FC Barcelona in the semifinals. In the first leg, he managed to bring Inter to win with a score of 3-1. Then in the second leg, Mourinho only thought that he just needed to maintain the advantage in order to keep his hopes of qualifying for the final round.

So when Barcelona want to score as many goals as possible in the second leg, Mourinho asks his players to stay in order to keep the score safe.

"I told the boys, hold the ball to win but we still have to close the space tight,"

At that time, Mourinho was well aware that Pep Guardiola's Barcelona relied heavily on attacking, attractive football. So, Inter's focus is to maintain space for the flow of the ball and the movement of Lionel Messi, who is still in his best performance as a player. The task of closing Lionel Messi's movement from the right side, which is considered to be able to explore anywhere, was mobilized collectively by the closest Inter players.

As a result, Barcelona could only steal one goal through Gerard Pique in the 83rd minute. The score which in the end was not able to outperform Inter on aggregate also made Jose Mourinho's team swing into the final until they came out as champions.

"We 'won' in Barcelona, ​​but everyone said otherwise because we only parked buses. Even though we didn't park buses, but planes,"

Because bus parking is considered a relative tactic not good to watch, many football fans criticize him a lot. As expressed by Mourinho when playing against Tottenham a few years ago, the audience is the aggrieved party because they are forced to watch a match that cannot be entertainment at all.

But behind that, everyone must also understand if this tactic is quite effective when a team is eyeing certain needs, such as maintaining an advantage, or when a team is only after a draw. In fact, apart from Jose Mourinho with Inter Milan, there are other teams who also managed to finish the game with satisfactory results when they chose to use this phenomenal tactic. Among them is Chelsea, which is often referred to as a team that often uses this tactic.

With a negative football strategy, the London club succeeded in getting rid of big names such as FC Barcelona and FC Bayern in the European Champions League competition. In addition, there is also Atletico Madrid, who used an ultra-defensive pattern of play that led to the desired result, against Liverpool, in the last 16 of the 2020 European Champions League. Behind their narrow 1-0 win, Simeone, who found his team able to steal a quick goal in the 4th minute through Saul Niguez, immediately appeared to defend. With the bus parking strategy, Simeone's team managed to make Liverpool not release a single shot on target against Atletico.

"We played the game we had to play to keep the result."

When you see the phenomenon of bus parking in the world of football, which side are you on?
Do you agree or dislike this tactic at all?
I'm waiting for your answers and reasons in the comments column, OK!
Regards.