The Best Tackles in Football

I’ve almost certainly bored you with this rant before, but here it comes again anyway: The art of defending doesn’t get anywhere near enough love. Not when the awards are given out, and definitely not on YouTube.

Everyone’s favourite video source is full to bursting with stepovers, rabonas and dribbles. But you have to look pretty hard to find footage of a quality block or slide tackle. Both Paul McGrath’s triple block vs Italy and Bobby Moore’s legendary tackle on Jairzinho took some serious detective work to track down, and those are supposedly two of the great defensive moments.

But all is not lost. One YouTuber out there took the time and effort to find some of the best tackles in recent football. Jaap Stam’s above pictured tackle on David Ginola is sadly not featured, but below you’ll see some quality defensive work from the likes of Fabio Cannavaro, Sergio Ramos, Steven Gerrard and others, all compiled into one action packed video:

(The images at the bottom are “kicks”, which you can click to visit the relevant website)

It’s just one video, and defensive highlights are still outnumbered something like ten billion to one by their more conventionally attractive attacking cousins on YouTube. But the above is proof that slide tackles can be just as exciting as stepovers, especially with some decent editing and a bit of music.

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Category: World Football