A scenario you see quite often at a football match is that a defender will have the ball down by his own byline, and an opposing forward will fly in with a strong challenge and put the ball out for a goal kick. This is usually cheered enthusiastically by fans of the forward's team. Why? To me, the defender is trapped in a vulnerable area and he has a problem to solve: he has to get the ball past his opponent and into a safer area. By lunging in, the attacker solves that problem for him by giving the defending team a goal kick. Would the attacker not be better advised to not commit himself and force the defender to try to get past him? He might end up putting the ball out for a goal kick anyway when he tries to block the forward pass, but at least some of the time he should end up winning the ball.
