I hope you have been enjoying the “moveable feast” that is the World Cup. It comes around only once every four years, people. So enjoy the few remaining matches. This one has been an outstanding World Cup. With limited access to live TV till then, the first world cup I was lucky enough to watch was the 1986 World Cup - the year of the “hand of God” goal. It was Maradona’s cup but Socrates, Zico and the rest were a revelation. Growing up, football was the sport of choice (cricket involved too much standing around for my taste), and speed and determination could make up for lack of real dribbling or ball control skills if you are a wing back.

The notion of two teams vying to prove their superiority by invading the other team’s territory and marking it in a visible way is pretty primal. You see examples of this in various cultures. For their contributions in formalizing and popularizing football, I can almost forgive the British for foisting cricket on the commonwealth nations. Even though I blame them (and cricket) for the fact that India, a nation of 1.4B people, cannot field a team to match Cabo Verde (pop. 503k) or Curaçao (pop. 153k!).

The World Cup is a massive logistics and organizational feat. It is increasingly also a showcase in realtime data analytics and deep instrumentation of a physical activity. The official match balls contain an internal suspension system equipped with an IMU (inertial measurement unit) motion sensor that records movement 500 times per second. This sensor transmits exact kick points and touch data to the VAR system, making it possible to perfectly synchronize when a pass occurred with player positions. Wish we instrumented some safety critical systems with the same curiosity and desire to improve. But I want to share a couple of thoughts on a different aspect of football - the different “systems” countries and coaches have adopted over the years to gain a sustainable advantage over their opponents.

In the 1970s Netherlands introduced the world to Totaalvoetbal (Total Football), where any outfield player could transition into any other role seamlessly (and the famous Ted Lasso independently rediscovered this in Season 3, Ep:7). While modern teams have evolved Total Football to fit modern needs, it is a great analogy for decentralized, distributed systems and cross-functional agility. The rigid, fixed player positions (at my school we never dared to deviate from a 4-2-4) remind one of siloed architectures and rigid organizational roles contrasted with highly resilient adaptable frameworks needed today. I am no football theoretician, but you can see many of the elite teams with players who fluidly move between positions and provide their teammates the room to explore and exploit opponents weaknesses. Teams that cling to the old, static tiki-taka possession style stand no chance against opponents’ who have evolved that possession into a dynamic system with interchangeable parts that can flex and mold to the shape the game dictates. It takes trust in your teammates ability to cover your position and the willingness to fall back and support each other when a mistake is inevitably made.

To the casual observer it looks like intuitive free-flowing football but in reality it is driven by well designed protocols. Organizations that play the same way will appear like a jazz ensemble while underneath it all, trust and agility provide the core framework.

You are unlikely to see Messi’s magic (and magic it is even though age has definitely dampened the flair) on the world stage again. Mbappe, Yamal, and Bellingham will be back but who knows what four years will do. There is one glorious week of it left. Enjoy the beautiful game!.