"Brentford took nine corner kicks and every time, it was the same crap. One of Brentford's central defenders -- usually Kristoffer Ajer, sometimes Nathan Collins -- would make it his business to shield Chelsea keeper Robert Sánchez. Chelsea would respond by having somebody, usually Enzo Fernández, attempt to snowplow Ajer out of the way. They'd wrestle -- the smaller Fernandez would get low and push with both hands, the bigger Ajer using his frame to try to out leverage or spin Enzo -- and hand-fight"
"Like you, I've been desensitised, but in a rare moment of clarity, I asked myself: "What is this? What am I watching?" I fell in love with this sport. What you see in these situations -- not just in this game -- isn't what made it happen for me, and most likely for you. Grown men wrestling, grabbing and shoving isn't a part of it. Heck, it's not part of soccer, and it's not really even allowed anywhere else on the pitch, either."
Set pieces increasingly involve grabbing, holding, twisting, blocking, and players whose primary role is to run into opponents, often before the ball is in play. Those behaviors can become normalized through repeated exposure but degrade the sport's quality and integrity. A Chelsea vs Brentford match illustrated repeated corner-kick scenarios where defenders shielded the goalkeeper and opponents used physical leverage and pushing to displace them, producing wrestling-like conflicts and chaotic penalty-area grappling. Such hand-fighting and obstruction are not intrinsic to soccer and contradict principles of fair play and skill-focused competition, indicating a need for stricter enforcement.
Read at ESPN.com
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