The art of sports photography: UWC Football Day 3 in images

A Beijing Institute of Technology player hits the playing pitch hard during their game against Bangkok Thonburi University

In football as in photography, style is less the product of one’s personal expression than it is of developing one’s craft through poise, patience, and infinite care. Most people who kick a ball, like most people who pick up a camera, do so with little distinction and little more than a general direction.

The more one perfects the impersonal demands of technique is when one’s personal style begins to emerge. From the flowing creativity of Pelé to Johan Cruyff’s ‘total football’ to Messi’s distinct dribbling mastery of speed, agility and balance becomes evident through their extreme cultivation of skill.

A great sports photographer might not inhabit the field of play. But they do stalk it, from the sidelines to the cheap seats to the streets away from the stadium’s glow. These images represent some of the notable photographs captured during day three of the University World Cup – Football.

Fair Play, Integrity, Sportsmanship

The Autonomous University of Mexico State and Kotebe Metropolitian University pose for the customary photo with the match officials on the downtown Quanzhou College of Technology Stadium. Watching two university teams walk out to the playing pitch one after another is a tradition that never gets old. 

Gotta Give It To The Goalkeeper

With excellent timing and full outstretched effort, the Autonomous University of Mexico State goalkeeper Ramiro Villagomez Victoria kept the net clean in the 77th minute during a free kick taken by Yonas Solomon Habte of Kotebe Metropolitan University

Win, Lose Or Draw

Two of the men’s tournament heavyweights from Brazil and Ukraine met up on day two the University World Cup – Football. With Paulista University and Borys Brinchenko Kyiv University playing to a nil-nil draw, the game still featured true football moments for our photographer to capture with the snap of their shutter.

V is for Victory; E is for Emotion

David Bröer (21) and Ferdinand Hansel (14) of Julius-Maximilians University of Wurzburg had plenty to celebrate as the two connected for the game’s first goal against Taiyuan University of Technology. The Germans would eventually roll to a 6-0 victory, but both players credited much of their final advantage to that first goal.