In Finnish, the term could be loosely translated as, for example, rattling, confusing or, for example, deliberate provocation to disturb the opponent.
“Crude slang, British. Something that is considered contemptible, unacceptable or bad. In the context of football matches, disruptive or low-level tactics aimed at gaining an unfair advantage for the team.”
These can include, for example, shots on the borders of the defenders’ rules. The attackers’ habits are to point out fouls and then wave towards the referees with a smile. Goalkeepers’ habit in extra time or at the end of the match is to take the booth, fall over the ball and thus waste time. Various tricks to annoy the opponent to gain an advantage.
There are masters of these tricks in every competition team, but in these competitions, one champion belongs to the museum of his own art in a place of honor:
Képler Laveran Lima Ferreira, stage name Pepe. Named after one astronomer and one Nobel laureate, the Brazilian turned rock-hard Portuguese defender.
It’s easy to go to shithousery or rat hunting through Pepe, which Guardian called Shithousery Mozart in the summer of 2018.
Exploitation of these “powers of the dark side of sports” also often decides the championships of international prestige tournaments.
Pepe also has one copy of the European championships, from 2016.
Whatever happens if you’re on your own team
Scythe tackles at the height of the opponent’s hips, pinching an attacker without the ball, kicking an opponent lying on the ground and twisting after the tackles shared by the other team.
Pepe, now 41 years old, has been ready to do anything to gain an advantage in duels, either physically or mentally. Any trick has worked, especially if it has brought an advantage over the opponent.
Combinations of the aforementioned tricks have become especially familiar. Pepe tackles the opponent hard, causing one of the opponents to push him and the Portuguese pair fall to the ground. Soppa and familiar chaos are ready.
– After all, Pepen knows that he is always a rat. He plays at the limits and sometimes beyond them, Urheilu’s football expert Mehmet Hetemaj laugh.
Familiar habits always come up when talking about him. Still, Pepe is also known as an excellent player with the ball, a good finisher and a strong fighter.
– Pepe! Pepe is 41 years old, right? He is the oldest player on the field, but he sees everything before anyone else. He is the smartest of all, one Portugal supporter praises on the 11 friends podcast Jussi Vainikan in the interview.
In this tournament, the successful Portuguese grabbed the title of the oldest European Championship player ever to enter the field. It’s a particularly great achievement considering that Pepe’s style of play, with its hard tackles and the impact of constant contact, is not easy on the body.
Hetemaj, who summarized the European Championships as an expert for , feels that he himself would not want to play in the same team with a player who intentionally wants to hurt his opponents. On the other hand, he can appreciate the perpetrators of small and especially tactically reasonable fouls.
– I think it shows the player’s priorities, that he plays for the team. He is smart enough to understand in which situation it is possible and worthwhile to break or do something, he says.
Pepe’s appreciation has not decreased, even though his career has been colored by ruthless moves. In these games, Portugal’s Nestor has not yet seen dirty tricks quite like his golden days.
Finnish “apprentice”
Because of the things stated earlier, for the own team and its fans, the rats and the perpetrators of dirty tricks have always been valuable and dear, as long as they do not weaken the team. For the opponent and the opponent’s supporters, they are a thorn in the side and frustrating footballers.
Tricks are also “inherited”. Many who followed the Spanish premier league, La Liga, in the 2010s remember the top pair of Real Madrid, which consisted of Pepe and the Spanish Sergio Ramos. A few years younger than the Portuguese, Ramos learned from Pepe, who played alongside him. In addition to their playing skills, the duo created constant pressure on the opponent’s forwards with their hard tackles and dirtier tricks.
One of the heirs of Pepe and other dark side wizards is Finnish. Playing in HJK Diogo Tomas has admired his father’s topper in the colors of his home country for years.
– He is a cheeky player who plays aggressively and with all his heart. It shows in the way that he is loved and appreciated as well. Especially all his teammates, Tomas described during the break of the Turkey-Portugal match broadcast.
– I have always loved him myself. He lives in the game and in the moment. Football is the kind of game you can immerse yourself in and be rude and mean. It can be everything between good and bad. Pepe has also shown that sometimes there can be overshoots. I’ve followed him since I was young and he’s certainly influenced my playing style.
Expert Hetemaj also advocates that kepuli arts are also inherited.
– Every young person watches these games as well and tries to learn from everything that the stars show. In its own way, that is also a sign of cleverness, he estimates.
Diogo Tomas is also one of those players who are often loved by their own players and hated by their opponents. Because of that, he is better able to open up the soul landscape of players who play on the borderlands of the rules.
The defender, who made his national team debut in November 2022, has made his career by putting attackers on a tight leash physically and mentally.
– Personally, I always see duel situations in such a way that when I play against an attacker, one of us is on top of the situation. The second is the “big boss” who leads that situation, Tomas described in an interview with Urheilu in the summer of 2023.
– If the attacker gets into that good mood, he will most likely score goals against me. If I kick him in the ankle, he will probably have a bad feeling about that moment and it may affect his choices in the following situations.
When the defenders try to take away the attackers’ game humor with their own means, the other side responds with their own skills. In football nowadays, there is a lot of talk about emphasizing fouls, where some of the world-class players are skilled and well-known.
– I ended up constantly giving easy free kicks in a stupid way Harry Kane. I gave him the opportunity to keep falling over the ball, which he does well. I knew it was going to happen because I watched the opponents beforehand. It was so frustrating, the German defender ending his long career Robert Huth told For Athletic.
– When you’re on the same team as Harry, you’re guaranteed to be excited, because he wins free kicks for his team under pressure. But if you play him 0-1 down and he goes down on the ball, you just want to rip his head off.
Mehmet Hetemaj also has a very close experience of his own.
– If I had to play my brother Perparimia answer more then he would definitely have been one of the most annoying in my career. He didn’t film per se, but he always knew how to put some part of his body between the ball and me. Players like that were really annoying, because just when you think you have the ball, some body part appears in front and it’s your fault.
Who do you think is the toughest stickman of the tournament, the most annoying player or the worst rat?
You can suggest your own option in the question box below. The proposal period is until Friday 28.6. until 06:00.