Soccer is a simple game. You run. You kick the ball. You pass. You trap. You kick the ball into a goal.
If you’re a goalkeeper you catch, box, kick, or throw.
But as the philosopher of battle reminds us, “Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest things are difficult”.
Just as stress, physical fatigue, and mental errors make even the simplest things in war difficult, in a game of soccer sometimes small errors, fatigue, the little bits of “friction”, make simple things like kicking and catching immensely difficult.
Consider, for example, a goalkeeper standing underneath a descending ball.