Erling Haaland hides himself on the field and then appears in the goal area

Erling Haaland lounging on the field aimlessly. He doesn’t ask for balls, and he doesn’t initiate. The game seems to interest him as much as irregular Norwegian verbs interest a teenager from Pihitputa.

Is this the best center forward in the world? Is this why Manchester City pays Haaland 600,000 euros a week all year round?

The answer is yes.

Many of the best players want to be on the ball all the time. Haaland does not belong to this group. He doesn’t want the ball. He wants places to hit.

In order to get one, however, he has to perform a disappearing trick. The defenders have to be made to believe that Haaland is having a bad day or they couldn’t be less interested in him.

He is like a lion basking in the sun on the savannah. So peaceful that you’d think food could only be found in dead hawks.

As to Kevin Spacey presented by Verbal Kint says Suspected– in the movie: “The devil’s biggest trick was to make the world believe that he doesn’t exist.”

Haaland is the most dangerous power beast that Iraqi defenders have ever faced. They just don’t know it yet.

17 minutes after the game, Haaland wakes up for a while. Norway easily loses the ball in their attacking third.

Haaland puts his head down and runs to catch the Iraqi with his neck bent. The counterattack is thwarted.

The beast flashes on the screen and then disappears as quickly as it appeared.

Before the drinking break, Haaland gets to the crime scene once. The header in a corner situation goes well over the goal.

A couple of minutes after the break, Norway spins the ball in their own half of the field. Then the team goes to attack.

Haaland first jogs in the distance between the two tops. Then he stays on the back of another top.

Norway pushes more gas. The ball is played Antonio Nusalle. Toppari glances nervously to his side. Haaland is not visible. Nusa spreads the wing to the one who has reached full speed David Möller Wolfelle.

Toppari glances at his side once more. Haaland is not visible. When the striker’s eyes turn back to the ball, Haaland attacks the empty space and slides a low cross from in front of the goal into an empty crease.

The power beast is off.

Haaland is a walking paradox. His most dangerous attribute is not his size, speed or finishing, but his ability to disappear.

He wanders the field idly. Sneaks into the blind side of the toppers, only to appear moments later in front of the goal.

Haaland is not just a striker. He is the magician who performs the most amazing disappearing trick of the World Cup.

He doesn’t hide by dropping down to pass the ball. He hides, saving his few touches of the ball for the moments when they are most useful.

He is incredibly patient. Against Iraq, he only touched the ball 11 times.

For Lionel Messi this Kylian Mbappelle this would be impossible. They want and need to be featured. Messi creates space and situations by passing. Mbappé again with long runs. The ball brings them to life.

Haaland does not dominate the game with touches. He controls it by threat. A Norwegian is like a monster in a horror movie: rarely seen, but still always present.

Still, he manages to strike. How exactly does that happen?

The answer can be found in psychology.

Psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris did a famous experiment in 1999. They shot a video of young people in black and white shirts dribbling a basketball.

The task of the participants in the experiment was to count the passes of the players in white shirts. However, the actual test was something completely different: would the test subjects notice during the calculation break that a person dressed in a gorilla suit is walking among the players?

Almost half of the subjects did not see the gorilla on the screen for about six seconds.

Haaland is the gorilla that the entire Norwegian team tries to hide from the opponent. This is why Norway often attack quickly. When the ball moves at high speed towards the goal, part of the attention of the opponents goes to the playing equipment.

At the same time, Haaland sneaks up on the back side of the toppers. His keeper must not see the ball and the attacker at the same time. That’s why Haaland has the upper hand on top. He has more information at his disposal.

And in the decisive moments, when the beast strikes, knowledge is power.

Haaland does not hide from the defenders by running away. He hides by looking like he’s not going to run at all.

Defenders learn the attacker’s dangerousness the hard way – if they learn at all.

At the end of the opening period, the Iraqi defenders pass the ball in peace. Suddenly, Haaland starts to rush.

The defender passes the ball towards the Iraqi goalkeeper. This still doesn’t recognize the danger. A lion charging towards you is missed.

And that’s when the power beast strikes its prey. Haaland is the first to the ball, and the ball is in the goal.

The climax is the cruelest part of Haaland’s disappearance trick: by the time he is spotted, it is already too late.