Silly question, but what does a rotation rotate around? I asked on the 7:32 train, notebook open, blue tab marked “vocabulary”.
The facts first. Mark van Bommel, the new head coach of the Red Devils (Belgium’s national team), has played four matches in about ten days. Belgium beat Italy 0-2, beat Turkey 3-0, and lost 0-1 to France. Against France, Joaquin Seys and Roméo Lavia replaced Maxim De Cuyper and Nicolas Raskin in the starting eleven. Against Turkey, Dodi Lukebakio and Hans Vanaken started. So it rotates.
Except four players. Senne Lammens, Timothy Castagne, Nathan Ngoy and Brandon Mechele: every minute. 270 each. I drew a circle in my notebook, with four fixed dots in the middle. I was told that’s the axis. Fine, but what does that mean? An axis is the thing that doesn’t turn so the rest can turn. I checked, that’s physics, not football. And yet it works.
On the French side, Zinédine Zidane made more changes. Only goalkeeper Mike Maignan has played three times from first whistle to last. The closest outfield player, Ousmane Dembélé, is on 201 minutes. So over there, even the axis rotates.
Youri Tielemans had played everything too. But a yellow card against Turkey earns him a suspension. In basketball, a player who picks up fouls can carry on until the limit, I looked. Here, a yellow card in one match removes you from another match. The card travels through time.
Four players who play everything. Back then, we called that a team.
Monday evening, second match against France, at the Stade de France. Van Bommel’s line-up isn’t known yet. The four can still finish without a missed minute. I’ve reserved a tab. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: VoetbalPrimeur.be.
