In the previous part, it was about the assessment of whether Holland really executed what I had prescribed in another two part articles prior to the final match itself. In this part, of course it will now be about the newly crowned World Cup champions Spain. Amazingly, not that I am trying to exaggerate the way to stop each team that I formulated as mentioned, but the champions filled more tick-boxes than the Dutch in the match in terms of the number of ways really executed by those teams. Thus, the following will be the assessment on the champions Spain.
The first aspect I mentioned was about how Spain should exploit the fact that Holland is usually in their most vulnerable state when it is the last 5 minutes or so of the game. It has been proven in World Cup 2010 most notably against Slovakia and Uruguay in which they conceded at the very last minute, which put Holland in a dangerous position for the Uruguay game but they were fortunate that the Uruguayans were not able to score one more goal to push the match to extra time. Well, Spain did score at the last minute, but they were leaving it so late, and almost too late as they scored only 3 minutes before the match went to penalties, and thus a lottery, and it might mean that the Dutch hacked and cracked and even kung-fued their way to the title, leaving football as the losers.
However, what I meant by scoring late is around the last 10 minutes of the normal time, as it would be much better to finish a knock-out match within 90 minutes instead of spilling it over to extra time where the variables would get complicated as extreme fatigue and even bouts of cramps set in. Also, the failure of introducing Torres early on or even starting him with Villa baffled me. Had Torres started alongside Villa, I believe Spain would have scored much earlier in the normal time as even if he could not score a goal, there is another important function of him, and that's as a decoy to draw the attention of the Dutch defenders and start to gang up on him and even kick him around. But that's alright, that's a small sacrifice as long as David Villa is able to be set free and do his job properly, instead of being so isolated up front and always being surrounded by at least 4-5 Dutch players everytime he gets the ball or even when a ball is on his way to him. Thus, I would consider that Spain had failed to score even later in the normal time as they did not even really try to attack the Dutch who themselves play defensively. Yes, people might say, “Spain has won! So what?” but it could be much much worse for Spain had Iniesta wasn't able to score and the match had gone to penalties.
Still revolving around a time period in the match, I also mentioned how Holland is always at their most lethal around the 60th to 70th minute of the match, and that Spain have to pay extra attention not to over commit men forward in this period of time as the Dutch are very dangerous during this period of time. In the match against Spain, they did threaten around this period. There were two instances whereby Robben almost scored, (Can't really recall but should be within or around this period of time) as he was left one on one with Casillas and in both occasion Casillas did very well to stop him, the first perhaps with a tint of luck as he stopped the shot with his trailing leg, while for the second, Casillas managed to sweep the ball from Robben's legs and he was fortunate the Dutchman did not decide to send himself tumbling on the ground clutching his legs as it would have been a straight penalty. Many pundits claimed that Casillas was extremely fortunate, especially for the first Robben chance, but whether it was down to luck or whatever it was, Spain nevertheless managed to thwart the danger of conceding from the most dangerous Dutch player on the field that night, Robben. In this department, Spain did well in closing down shop (as they had been doing throughout the match unfortunately) to prevent the Dutch from scoring during this period of time in which they usually score goals.
With that, the Spaniards also managed to keep dangerous players such as Robben as mentioned, Sneijder, and even Gio van Bronckhorst. Spain did not let the Dutch from launching dangerous long shots and/or probing long passes for most of the time, and Sneijder had a surprisingly quiet game unlike in the previous games in which he has had a lot of say in Holland's matches and of course it simply means the Dutch's unstoppable progress all the way to the Final. Spain, again maybe due to its defensive oriented formation, managed to close down those players quite superbly, especially at the back whereby the two huge pillars of Barcelona duo Puyol and Pique managed to thwart the Dutch's attempts to attack, although sometimes Puyol was caught losing a sprinting race with Robben especially, but they did well in not providing any space and opportunity to launch meaningful long shots. As for Robben, even if he managed to win those sprinting races against Puyol and Capdevila before cutting in to the middle and launch his long shot, the shot was not really flying very well and Casillas only needed to do a routine catch to save it, that's because of the closing down from the Spanish defenders earlier even if they did not manage to dispossess Robben before he launches the shot.
The last aspect I mentioned was about how Spain must really exploit a weakness, which was actually the Dutch's game-plan for this game, and that's the tendency of the Dutch players, especially players such as Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong to play pro-wrestling instead of a prper game of football on the pitch. I mentioned that the Spaniards should, if they don't resort to stimulation, to simply channel the ball and play towards van Bommel and de Jong as they are the pillars of Holland, and if they get irritated so much with the Spanish midfielders buzzing around them and past them, they would resort to roughing them up in such a way that they would get cards, especially red cards and cause a Dutch collapse. Spain really succeeded in doing so, well, they did some simulations, but it was mostly due to some kind of retaliation towards the Dutch's extremely rough style as well as their own knack of simulating, especially players such as Robben. In any case, besides the cards that they collected themselves, they managed to make the Dutch collect a lot of cards, 8 in total and 2 of them resulted in a sending off as Holland's Johnny Heitinga was sent off for a second yellow in extra time. Actually, even within the normal time, the Dutch should have been a man down as Nigel de Jong was seen executing the “Big Boot” move straight from Pro-Wrestling into Xabi Alonso's chest. Had Xabi was a female, he should have been in heaven right now. The referee decided to brandish only a yellow card to the somewhat fortunate Manchester City hard-man. But nevertheless, when the opposition players are collecting cards there's one advantage gained by Spain. When a player is on yellow, they somehow reduce their intensity and also the frequency of them executing tackles, especially dangerous and 50-50 tackles such as the sliding tackle, and thus it means that it's unlikely that the Dutch would rough them up and also defend as tightly as when they had yet to get the yellow cards. Thus, Spain managed to make the Dutch to collect cards, even if they did not directly cause it. The Dutch themselves seemed to have been so intimidated by the Spain's squad on paper that they seemed to resort to stop them from playing their own brand of football properly.
As a result, Spain managed to win the World Cup for the very first time. But despite what the pundits around the world are saying about how Spain saved all of us from having an undeserving World champion, or in pro-wrestling terms, to have a “heel” winning the World Heavyweight Championship for instance instead of a fan favorite, “heels” deserve to win too, and had Robben scored just one of his two chances, Holland could have been the winners, much to those pundits' agony, and just like how a “heel” would be booed every time he appears with his shiny Championship Belt. But now, congratulations to Spain for winning their first ever World Cup title, and now they are able to legitimately stake their claims as one of the best national teams on earth.
Showing posts with label Final. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Final. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
World Cup 2010 Final Report Cards (Part 1/2)
Finally World Cup 2010 has ended, and it somewhat ended the way it started. No, not a match with a blistering thunderous shot, but actually the penultimate game of the tournament was simply the embodiment of one of the biggest criticisms about the tournament, especially early on regarding the extreme lack of goals in the matches. For one, I really pity my dear friends in those parts of the world with the time zones such as GMT +7, 8, 9, or 10. It means that fans in those places had to try their best to be awake at such an ungodly hours in which the demons, Dracula, vampires you name them reign supreme. To make matters worse, for those people, the World Cup 2010 final came at a very very ungodly early morning of a Monday, a true blue Monday Blues inducing workday. Many people that I know who happen to find themselves in countries with those time zones mentioned above had actually wanted to give it a miss, but they simply could not do so as the whispers of “Once in every four years” kept on haunting them to no end. Thus, they decided to simply sacrifice hours of precious sleeping hours and put their health in jeopardy just to see two teams playing with an exact same of a 4-5-1 formation's variant (thanks Mourinho) and doing what DPRK's goalkeeper Ri Myong Guk dubbed as “Defending the gates to the Motherland” (He said it during DPRK's 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia in Riyadh to seal their qualification to World Cup 2010). It was simply better to just sleep, wake up in the morning, grab the nearest newspaper, and take a good, long, hard look at that skimpy 1-0 scoreline and that's the World Cup final for you, without sacrificing hours of sleep and perhaps a workday/schoolday for the more daring ones.
In any case, this edition of the World Cup is over, and of course this is the time to analyze Holland and Spain, the two team that competed yesterday (Yawn!). Actually, it's sad to see two such traditionally attacking teams to play like Greece under Otto Rehhagel. But nevertheless, this is the time to assess both teams based on what I had written about the various possible ways that each one of those teams could do to stop another, and now this is the time to assess whether both teams did what I had stated and explained in great detail in those two part articles prior to the 3rd place playoffs and of course the final itself. Just like the preview articles, this one will also be divided into two parts, and the first report card to be flaunted around would be the one belonging to the runners-up, Holland.
The first way I proposed for Holland to be able to stop Spain was to put Spain in an unfamiliar position in this tournament of going a goal or more behind. Basically, the Dutch should have striven to attack the Spaniards very early on, put them in the position of what the Swiss had put the Spaniards in their Group H opening match, and with the qualities in the Dutch squad, they should have been able to shake Spain so much that they could have won by a bigger scoreline that the Swiss. However, the Dutch failed big time to fulfill this target to score an early goal against Spain and make them trail, and thus causing them to open up even more and thus be susceptible to the second and subsequent Dutch goals. Well, again, it was due to the rather conservative and defensive 4-2-3-1 formation with two defensive midfielders and with only one striker up front. For the Dutch, Robin van Persie was their lone striker, and it was too much to ask any player (Cristiano Ronaldo wilted in this role in this sadly popular formation) to be up front on his own and weave their magic alone to make the difference. Not that the Spaniards were playing with a more attacking approach. They utilized the exact same formation, and were defensive orientated in that match. Also, anyone having a tingle of football knowledge would have realized that van Persie will not have any chance against the double pillars of Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique, augmented by players such as Sergio Ramos and Joan Capdevila. In short, van Persie was simply too isolated and there was totally no chance he could score in that match, let alone score early in the match. The same goes to Robben and Sneijder who simply could not do anything against 4-5 players who will surely come and surround them everytime they have the ball. This time, the example from another team is of course Leo Messi who looked so ordinary and even anonymous as he was shackled by 4-5 defenders each time he wants to do anything, let alone something magical with the ball. Therefore, the Dutch simply failed to score early on and kill off the match early on.
The second way for Holland to stop the Spaniards was to make their sheer physical superiority count at all costs. Well, “at all costs” would be too much as what we witnessed last night. I mentioned that especially in the midfield, the Dutch really had to utilize whatever advantage that they enjoyed such as the fact that they are endowed with two burly and rather steely defensive midfield duo of Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong who are more than capable of swatting aside pint-sized Spanish midfielders such as Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, and even the lone striker Villa, who was also too isolated on his own just like van Persie for the Dutch. However, the Dutch players, not only the two I have just mentioned but basically the whole squad overdid things a little. A look at the statistics of last night's match would reveal a harrowing and perhaps horrifying set of facts 9 yellow cards, including a red card for a second yellow received by Johnny Heitinga in the extra time and a whopping 28 fouls against Spain. Not forgetting the various rough fouls such as Nigel de Jong's infamous “Big Boot” onto Xabi Alonso's chest and he survived just because he is a man, if not... I shall not continue on. Many of the Dutch tackling, pushing, and shoving were all executed with no intention whatsoever to get the ball, as on many occasions the ball had long left the area. To be fair to the Dutch players, the Spanish players sometimes fell down rather too easily, but the Dutch players did it too, but nonetheless, the Dutch simply had to remember that they were playing football and not pro-wrestling, but their fouls, just like de Jong's Big Boot to Xabi Alonso indicated they were too carried away in executing the task of stopping the Spaniards.
Again, nevertheless, the Dutch managed to at least stifle Spain although the price was rather expensive to pay especially Heitinga's sending off in extra time. But it could have been much worse for the Dutch. Remember, Spain on paper is simply the most devastating and arguably the best team at present, just imagine Real Madrid and Barcelona combine forces with each other to form a coalition team, and that's Spain National Team. Despite the fact that Spain's performances have not been convincing all tournament long, they have to be stopped in each match and the Dutch, who have not been really that world beating and convincing themselves throughout the tournament might even suffer what England and Argentina did against their rivals Germany. One thing we have to remember in football is that, “Form is temporary, class is permanent”. All in all, despite the positive of how the Dutch managed to stifle Spain especially in midfield where they are the most dangerous, their plethora of cards collected and the dismissal of Heitinga simply overrode the positives as when players are on yellow, their tackling automatically become lighter as they are under the referee's and everyone's microscopes when an opposing player fell down around them. Just like how the commentator was radying himself to announce the dismissal of Spain's Carles Puyol (who was on yello) when Robben fell down around him and Capdevila when the ref turned out to give the real player who fouled Robben, Capdevila.
The Dutch also did quite well in nullifying the Spanish attacking threats from Villa as well as other players such as Iniesta (except for the only goal of the game), Jesus Navas, Xavi, Sabi Alonso, and of course David Villa by playing the stamina draining pressing game. Whenever a Spanish player advanced towards their penalty area, there were 4-5 Dutch players surrounding that player from all angles, just like how the Germans managed to neutralize Leo Messi and reduced him to just an ordinary player.
However, there was one thing that the Dutch did not manage to really embed into their minds prior to the match as well as the match proceeded on. The last thing I mentioned in the prescriptions on how Holland could stop Spain was regarding the psychological aspects of the game. I mentioned that the Dutch players really have to get rid of any psychological intimidation that the Spanish National Team exudes. A short while ago, I mentioned briefly on how the Spanish National Team is the best ever team in the planet on paper? But a football game is not won on paper, no matter how people might wet their pants just from seeing the composition and the sheer depth of world class players within the Spanish squad and even those outside who did not even make the cut, the Dutch as world class players themselves who are striving for glory should not have that kind of feeling, or in simpler and conservatively put term, they should not have respected the Spaniards too much. But they did. The fact that they overdid the second aspect of ways to stop Spain (to win the physical battles) proved that they were too eager or even too afraid to really let Spain play the game freely and gracefully. They were not willing to risk anything by bravely taking the game to Spain, to attack the oppositions head-on. But due to the sheer thought of Barcelona and Real Madrid when they are ticking, they simply wilted and resorted in stopping Spain from playing in whichever ways possible, as long as they are stopped, it's okay. Also, besides Robben's two spurned one on one chances against Casillas as well as Spain's odd chances here and there, both sides were frankly having one eye not only towards the extra time, but towards the lottery of the penalty shoot-outs. The Dutch, for one, did not even change their mentality once they know that even Spain did not try to go all the way to the top gear and try to get to the top gears themselves and simply bombard and suffocate Spain to put them to the sword once and for all. But they failed to do that and duly paid the prize when Iniesta slotted in that goal 3 minutes from the end of the second half of Extra Time.
Overall, perhaps due to the above psychological reasons or even due to the defensive oriented formation that the Dutch employed against Spain, the only objective they truly achieved was in stifling David Villa from scoring yet another goal in the World Cup and also prevented him from winning the Golden Boot award. They overdid the physical battles, they were not hungry enough to score plenty of goals especially early on to kill he game off before it spilled out to Extra Time, and they seemingly could not get past the psychological barriers of the sheer star-studdedness of the Spain National Team, now officially the best national team in the world, while Holland once again proves how they seem unable to win the World Cup no matter what and even if they look destined to win the whole thing, they are stopped right before they could reach the finish line... As usual...
In any case, this edition of the World Cup is over, and of course this is the time to analyze Holland and Spain, the two team that competed yesterday (Yawn!). Actually, it's sad to see two such traditionally attacking teams to play like Greece under Otto Rehhagel. But nevertheless, this is the time to assess both teams based on what I had written about the various possible ways that each one of those teams could do to stop another, and now this is the time to assess whether both teams did what I had stated and explained in great detail in those two part articles prior to the 3rd place playoffs and of course the final itself. Just like the preview articles, this one will also be divided into two parts, and the first report card to be flaunted around would be the one belonging to the runners-up, Holland.
The first way I proposed for Holland to be able to stop Spain was to put Spain in an unfamiliar position in this tournament of going a goal or more behind. Basically, the Dutch should have striven to attack the Spaniards very early on, put them in the position of what the Swiss had put the Spaniards in their Group H opening match, and with the qualities in the Dutch squad, they should have been able to shake Spain so much that they could have won by a bigger scoreline that the Swiss. However, the Dutch failed big time to fulfill this target to score an early goal against Spain and make them trail, and thus causing them to open up even more and thus be susceptible to the second and subsequent Dutch goals. Well, again, it was due to the rather conservative and defensive 4-2-3-1 formation with two defensive midfielders and with only one striker up front. For the Dutch, Robin van Persie was their lone striker, and it was too much to ask any player (Cristiano Ronaldo wilted in this role in this sadly popular formation) to be up front on his own and weave their magic alone to make the difference. Not that the Spaniards were playing with a more attacking approach. They utilized the exact same formation, and were defensive orientated in that match. Also, anyone having a tingle of football knowledge would have realized that van Persie will not have any chance against the double pillars of Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique, augmented by players such as Sergio Ramos and Joan Capdevila. In short, van Persie was simply too isolated and there was totally no chance he could score in that match, let alone score early in the match. The same goes to Robben and Sneijder who simply could not do anything against 4-5 players who will surely come and surround them everytime they have the ball. This time, the example from another team is of course Leo Messi who looked so ordinary and even anonymous as he was shackled by 4-5 defenders each time he wants to do anything, let alone something magical with the ball. Therefore, the Dutch simply failed to score early on and kill off the match early on.
The second way for Holland to stop the Spaniards was to make their sheer physical superiority count at all costs. Well, “at all costs” would be too much as what we witnessed last night. I mentioned that especially in the midfield, the Dutch really had to utilize whatever advantage that they enjoyed such as the fact that they are endowed with two burly and rather steely defensive midfield duo of Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong who are more than capable of swatting aside pint-sized Spanish midfielders such as Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, and even the lone striker Villa, who was also too isolated on his own just like van Persie for the Dutch. However, the Dutch players, not only the two I have just mentioned but basically the whole squad overdid things a little. A look at the statistics of last night's match would reveal a harrowing and perhaps horrifying set of facts 9 yellow cards, including a red card for a second yellow received by Johnny Heitinga in the extra time and a whopping 28 fouls against Spain. Not forgetting the various rough fouls such as Nigel de Jong's infamous “Big Boot” onto Xabi Alonso's chest and he survived just because he is a man, if not... I shall not continue on. Many of the Dutch tackling, pushing, and shoving were all executed with no intention whatsoever to get the ball, as on many occasions the ball had long left the area. To be fair to the Dutch players, the Spanish players sometimes fell down rather too easily, but the Dutch players did it too, but nonetheless, the Dutch simply had to remember that they were playing football and not pro-wrestling, but their fouls, just like de Jong's Big Boot to Xabi Alonso indicated they were too carried away in executing the task of stopping the Spaniards.
Again, nevertheless, the Dutch managed to at least stifle Spain although the price was rather expensive to pay especially Heitinga's sending off in extra time. But it could have been much worse for the Dutch. Remember, Spain on paper is simply the most devastating and arguably the best team at present, just imagine Real Madrid and Barcelona combine forces with each other to form a coalition team, and that's Spain National Team. Despite the fact that Spain's performances have not been convincing all tournament long, they have to be stopped in each match and the Dutch, who have not been really that world beating and convincing themselves throughout the tournament might even suffer what England and Argentina did against their rivals Germany. One thing we have to remember in football is that, “Form is temporary, class is permanent”. All in all, despite the positive of how the Dutch managed to stifle Spain especially in midfield where they are the most dangerous, their plethora of cards collected and the dismissal of Heitinga simply overrode the positives as when players are on yellow, their tackling automatically become lighter as they are under the referee's and everyone's microscopes when an opposing player fell down around them. Just like how the commentator was radying himself to announce the dismissal of Spain's Carles Puyol (who was on yello) when Robben fell down around him and Capdevila when the ref turned out to give the real player who fouled Robben, Capdevila.
The Dutch also did quite well in nullifying the Spanish attacking threats from Villa as well as other players such as Iniesta (except for the only goal of the game), Jesus Navas, Xavi, Sabi Alonso, and of course David Villa by playing the stamina draining pressing game. Whenever a Spanish player advanced towards their penalty area, there were 4-5 Dutch players surrounding that player from all angles, just like how the Germans managed to neutralize Leo Messi and reduced him to just an ordinary player.
However, there was one thing that the Dutch did not manage to really embed into their minds prior to the match as well as the match proceeded on. The last thing I mentioned in the prescriptions on how Holland could stop Spain was regarding the psychological aspects of the game. I mentioned that the Dutch players really have to get rid of any psychological intimidation that the Spanish National Team exudes. A short while ago, I mentioned briefly on how the Spanish National Team is the best ever team in the planet on paper? But a football game is not won on paper, no matter how people might wet their pants just from seeing the composition and the sheer depth of world class players within the Spanish squad and even those outside who did not even make the cut, the Dutch as world class players themselves who are striving for glory should not have that kind of feeling, or in simpler and conservatively put term, they should not have respected the Spaniards too much. But they did. The fact that they overdid the second aspect of ways to stop Spain (to win the physical battles) proved that they were too eager or even too afraid to really let Spain play the game freely and gracefully. They were not willing to risk anything by bravely taking the game to Spain, to attack the oppositions head-on. But due to the sheer thought of Barcelona and Real Madrid when they are ticking, they simply wilted and resorted in stopping Spain from playing in whichever ways possible, as long as they are stopped, it's okay. Also, besides Robben's two spurned one on one chances against Casillas as well as Spain's odd chances here and there, both sides were frankly having one eye not only towards the extra time, but towards the lottery of the penalty shoot-outs. The Dutch, for one, did not even change their mentality once they know that even Spain did not try to go all the way to the top gear and try to get to the top gears themselves and simply bombard and suffocate Spain to put them to the sword once and for all. But they failed to do that and duly paid the prize when Iniesta slotted in that goal 3 minutes from the end of the second half of Extra Time.
Overall, perhaps due to the above psychological reasons or even due to the defensive oriented formation that the Dutch employed against Spain, the only objective they truly achieved was in stifling David Villa from scoring yet another goal in the World Cup and also prevented him from winning the Golden Boot award. They overdid the physical battles, they were not hungry enough to score plenty of goals especially early on to kill he game off before it spilled out to Extra Time, and they seemingly could not get past the psychological barriers of the sheer star-studdedness of the Spain National Team, now officially the best national team in the world, while Holland once again proves how they seem unable to win the World Cup no matter what and even if they look destined to win the whole thing, they are stopped right before they could reach the finish line... As usual...
Friday, July 09, 2010
How to Stop Them? (Part 2/2)
In the first part of this series, It has been explained deeply and in great detail about the possible ways that Spain could stop Holland in the World Cup 2010 final. Therefore, before I am being suspected of a staunch Spanish supporter or even a Spanish writer, I will now go through again in this second part about the possible ways and strategies that could be employed by Holland to stop the Spanish Armada from reaching the biggest treasure of them all in world football, the World Cup Trophy. There are several sides and aspects of how Holland could curb Spain en route to victory and to the trophy, namely winning the team battle on the pitch, winning the individual battles among individual players from both sides, and also the crucial and yet most underrated and unnoticed, the psychological battle on and off the pitch, especially the former during the 90 minutes or even 120 minutes of intense football.
The first aspect is of course the general battle between the two teams, culminating in scoring the necessary goals to wrap the game up before it could drag on to Extra Time and even the dreaded and much criticized penalty shoot-outs. Since that opening day defeat against Switzerland, Spain seems to have slowed down on their mesmerizing pass and move, or Barcelonaesque football if you like. They become somewhat a rigid and cautious unit and are not really hungry to inflict a bucketload of goals on the opponents, unlike their semi-final opponents, Germany. They have become so efficient as they grind 1-0 after 1-0 of results, which is not really what fans and pundits had hoped prior to the World Cup, but those are the kind of result which Jose Mourinho proudly and cockily would comment, “1-0? I don't care, we won!” and rightly so as Germany for all of their flashy football are consigned to competing in the low morale and infamous 3rd place play-off while efficient and pragmatic Spain are in the Final. If that is not enough, Carles Puyol's goal against Germany (only goal of the game of course) was dubbed by plenty of pundits as a “typical Bolton Wanderers goal”. That's another example of “Mourinho Effect” (hopefully I could write about this in depth in the near future) and also yet another sad example of Joga Bonito losing its life force steadily but surely to be replaced by pragmatic, catenaccio football. Welcome back 1960s, and Helenio Herrera would be shaking in delight in his grave as catenaccio makes a glorious comeback.
Alright, the point of the lengthy explanation above regarding the somewhat newfound playing habit of Spain was actually resulted in the aforementioned opening day defeat against Switzerland, in which their flashy football was thwarted in an efficient fashion with resolute defending and the Swiss simply ground a somewhat messy but no less than a 1-0 victory. Since then, especially during the knockout stages, Spain have knocked one team after another all with a 1-0 victory. Call them a squad of Megaman (for those who don't know, he's a robot who is able to copy and utilize his enemies' weapons) if you like, but they are playing to grind efficient 1-0 victory, and yeah, even if people want to argue that had Pedro passed the ball to Fernando Torres, they would have won 2-0 and not 1-0 all the way to the final, but yeah. Thus, since the opening day defeat of Switzerland, Spain have yet to concede a goal (except for that 2-1 match against Chile) and in any case they have yet to find themselves trailing their opponents in a match since Gelson Fernandes' winning goal in the opening match against Switzerland.
Therefore, what the Dutch should do is not to hold out themselves in search of a 1-0 win as Spain is most likely to be the team that gets the 1 winning goal and game over Holland. The Dutch have to take the Spaniards back all the way to the opening Group H meeting with Switzerland, and they have to do what Gelson Fernandes did to the Spaniards, score an early goal which would certainly put the Spanish players in a shell-shocked mode. After that 1 goal, the Spaniards are likely to panic and this would jolt their natural attacking instincts and just start playing their Joga Bonito game in their desperate attempt to equalize and save the game, it's Switzerland all over again. However, the Dutch, with Arjen Robben, Dirk Kuyt, the in form Golden Boot chasing Wesley Sneijder, and even van Persie have more than enough to quality to strike the heart of Spain's defense directly at the jugular, unlike the Swiss who really hung on to dear life with their staunch defending.
Of course, to score that early goal is not an easy task. Holland is up against the European Champions, a team which is scarily almost a hybrid of Barcelona and Real Madrid, almost a La Liga Selection Squad, augmented by other world class players such as Fernando Torres and Fabregas (who might well come home to Barcelona soon). Thus, as mentioned early on, the Dutch have to win their individual battles against the Spanish players. In the previous part, I pointed out Mark van Bommel as the weak link in the Dutch squad and might become their answer to Felipe Melo at anytime if the Spaniards are as crafty as the Dutch in their match against Brazil. However, we must not underestimate his importance in the match-up against Spain. Looking at the Holland midfield and defense consisting of players such as Nigel de Jong, van Bommel, van der Wiel, and Johnny Heitinga up against players such as Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Iniesta, and Pedro, you have to start thinking that it is just like a battle between Toms and Jerries. To stop the pint sized, speedy, and elusive Spanish midfielders from wreaking havoc and inflict damages to Holland, the Dutch need to really make the physical advantage that they have count to the last nanometer of their difference in height and build. Nigel de Jong and van Bommel together with the backline have to really use their physical superiority to stop them in their tracks, and if necessarily get a little rough with them. Heck with the yellow cards, as long as it's not red, and the small sized Spaniards are stopped, Holland have won three-quarters of the battle, and the only thing left is to finish off Spain by scoring a goal or two for good measure.
Another area which the Dutch must really pay attention to, especially if they fail to break the duck during the first half and/or up to 60th minute, they really have to find a way to stop the movements of David Villa and Fernando Torres (if the latter is playing). Despite many fans and pundits criticizing Fernando Torres to no end, even as far as calling him Samson as they claim that he has become useless after having a haircut. But I assure the world that Torres had done this before during his Atletico Madrid years in which he was sporting an identical hairdo as Juan Sebastian Veron and Stone Cold Steve Austin and I assure you he was still good with that hairdo. In the actual fact, Torres played a huge role in Spain's charge to the final, especially their charge to the semi-finals (as he didn't play vs Germany). The sharper ones among us have observed that during the knockout stages, David Villa has been scoring in those 1-0 victories, and he did not score in the semi finals against Germany. Why? Torres played in the previous matches but he did not play against Germany as mentioned. Even if he does not score any goals in this tournament, he has undoubtedly played a huge role for his team, and for their sake, I really hope a Villa-Torres pairing will be restored in the final. But yeah, this is about stopping Spain, and so, the role of Torres has actually been that of a decoy. He simply sacrifices hmself to make off the ball runs around the opponents' penalty area and players of his stature cannot be ignored by the opposing defense and they will commit men to mark him. This will undoubtedly free up space for David Villa to score.
Thus, assuming that those two play in tandem for Spain in the final, the Dutch will have to keep in mind never to over-commit their defensive manpower to just handle Torres alone as Villa is lurking around the penalty box himself, ready to pounce to any chances coming his way, or half chances for that matter to be converted into deadly goals. If possible they should close down the Spaniards as often as possible, even if this is a stamina wasting strategy, but letting Villa, Torres, Xavi, Iniesta et al. to roam freely is simply suicidal. Even during set pieces, extra attention have to be given to defenders such as Puyol and Pique from doing damage with their heads just like how the Germans found out to their cost and also they have to be careful with Sergio Ramos' deadly forwards runs and if possible to launch counterattacks through that flank. Especially with the aforementioned closing down strategy, the Dutch will have to find a way to conserve their stamina carefully, considering how they always deflate towards the end of the match as mentioned in Part I and that Spain is a team with plenty of explosive talents on the bench, such as Fabregas, Jesus Navas, and David Silva just to name three ready to destroy the surely tired Dutch defense at the point of their fresh introduction into the fray.
Lastly, it is certainly going to be the psychological aspect of the game. Like I said earlier, a glance at the Spanish squad list would send chills down anyone's spine, with glittering players plying their trade at the very best clubs. Plethora of world class talents in which 23 man slots seem to be unfair for a country with such an array of talents as many more of the world class talents such as Marcos Senna and Santi Cazorla are left out of the squad. This is truly the very best team in the world on paper at least! However, the Dutch must not have those words that I have just written in their minds. They have to clear their mind about how Spain is composed of players from Real Madrid, Barcelona, best teams blah blah, but they really have to believe that they are in the final against Spain, they are not any weaker than Spain, and that they are the best. Bert van Marwijk must simply show his motivational skills here and embed that in the players' minds while trying his best to erase any traces of inferiority complex in the squad. Jose Mourinho has done it, yes he's such an impactful manager, single-handedly resurrected catenaccio football, depose the long heralded 4-4-2 all the way to the dustbin and make 4-5-1 and its derivatives the new winning formula, as well as totally redefining the word “confidence”. He has done it with Inter as they totally stopped Barcelona from playing and simply defeat them over two legs in the Champions League en route to their historic Treble Winning season. Bert van Marwijk must do the same and psyche his squad up. Perhaps Wesley Sneijder could be of great help as he was part of that historic Inter team.
In any case, even though it doesn't really promise to be a match flooding with goals, and that both teams will cancel each other with their own ways and wits to stop each other (just like if you read Part I and II of this series in a row, everything will cancel out), it promises to be explosive, to be a final to remember, and as sad as it could be, the World Cup is ending, let us savor the last 180 minutes of football at the very least that is left (along with the 3rd place playoff between Germany and Uruguay) and simply enjoy the moment and the World Cup Spirit, and until the competition arrives again in four years' time in Brazil.
The first aspect is of course the general battle between the two teams, culminating in scoring the necessary goals to wrap the game up before it could drag on to Extra Time and even the dreaded and much criticized penalty shoot-outs. Since that opening day defeat against Switzerland, Spain seems to have slowed down on their mesmerizing pass and move, or Barcelonaesque football if you like. They become somewhat a rigid and cautious unit and are not really hungry to inflict a bucketload of goals on the opponents, unlike their semi-final opponents, Germany. They have become so efficient as they grind 1-0 after 1-0 of results, which is not really what fans and pundits had hoped prior to the World Cup, but those are the kind of result which Jose Mourinho proudly and cockily would comment, “1-0? I don't care, we won!” and rightly so as Germany for all of their flashy football are consigned to competing in the low morale and infamous 3rd place play-off while efficient and pragmatic Spain are in the Final. If that is not enough, Carles Puyol's goal against Germany (only goal of the game of course) was dubbed by plenty of pundits as a “typical Bolton Wanderers goal”. That's another example of “Mourinho Effect” (hopefully I could write about this in depth in the near future) and also yet another sad example of Joga Bonito losing its life force steadily but surely to be replaced by pragmatic, catenaccio football. Welcome back 1960s, and Helenio Herrera would be shaking in delight in his grave as catenaccio makes a glorious comeback.
Alright, the point of the lengthy explanation above regarding the somewhat newfound playing habit of Spain was actually resulted in the aforementioned opening day defeat against Switzerland, in which their flashy football was thwarted in an efficient fashion with resolute defending and the Swiss simply ground a somewhat messy but no less than a 1-0 victory. Since then, especially during the knockout stages, Spain have knocked one team after another all with a 1-0 victory. Call them a squad of Megaman (for those who don't know, he's a robot who is able to copy and utilize his enemies' weapons) if you like, but they are playing to grind efficient 1-0 victory, and yeah, even if people want to argue that had Pedro passed the ball to Fernando Torres, they would have won 2-0 and not 1-0 all the way to the final, but yeah. Thus, since the opening day defeat of Switzerland, Spain have yet to concede a goal (except for that 2-1 match against Chile) and in any case they have yet to find themselves trailing their opponents in a match since Gelson Fernandes' winning goal in the opening match against Switzerland.
Therefore, what the Dutch should do is not to hold out themselves in search of a 1-0 win as Spain is most likely to be the team that gets the 1 winning goal and game over Holland. The Dutch have to take the Spaniards back all the way to the opening Group H meeting with Switzerland, and they have to do what Gelson Fernandes did to the Spaniards, score an early goal which would certainly put the Spanish players in a shell-shocked mode. After that 1 goal, the Spaniards are likely to panic and this would jolt their natural attacking instincts and just start playing their Joga Bonito game in their desperate attempt to equalize and save the game, it's Switzerland all over again. However, the Dutch, with Arjen Robben, Dirk Kuyt, the in form Golden Boot chasing Wesley Sneijder, and even van Persie have more than enough to quality to strike the heart of Spain's defense directly at the jugular, unlike the Swiss who really hung on to dear life with their staunch defending.
Of course, to score that early goal is not an easy task. Holland is up against the European Champions, a team which is scarily almost a hybrid of Barcelona and Real Madrid, almost a La Liga Selection Squad, augmented by other world class players such as Fernando Torres and Fabregas (who might well come home to Barcelona soon). Thus, as mentioned early on, the Dutch have to win their individual battles against the Spanish players. In the previous part, I pointed out Mark van Bommel as the weak link in the Dutch squad and might become their answer to Felipe Melo at anytime if the Spaniards are as crafty as the Dutch in their match against Brazil. However, we must not underestimate his importance in the match-up against Spain. Looking at the Holland midfield and defense consisting of players such as Nigel de Jong, van Bommel, van der Wiel, and Johnny Heitinga up against players such as Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Iniesta, and Pedro, you have to start thinking that it is just like a battle between Toms and Jerries. To stop the pint sized, speedy, and elusive Spanish midfielders from wreaking havoc and inflict damages to Holland, the Dutch need to really make the physical advantage that they have count to the last nanometer of their difference in height and build. Nigel de Jong and van Bommel together with the backline have to really use their physical superiority to stop them in their tracks, and if necessarily get a little rough with them. Heck with the yellow cards, as long as it's not red, and the small sized Spaniards are stopped, Holland have won three-quarters of the battle, and the only thing left is to finish off Spain by scoring a goal or two for good measure.
Another area which the Dutch must really pay attention to, especially if they fail to break the duck during the first half and/or up to 60th minute, they really have to find a way to stop the movements of David Villa and Fernando Torres (if the latter is playing). Despite many fans and pundits criticizing Fernando Torres to no end, even as far as calling him Samson as they claim that he has become useless after having a haircut. But I assure the world that Torres had done this before during his Atletico Madrid years in which he was sporting an identical hairdo as Juan Sebastian Veron and Stone Cold Steve Austin and I assure you he was still good with that hairdo. In the actual fact, Torres played a huge role in Spain's charge to the final, especially their charge to the semi-finals (as he didn't play vs Germany). The sharper ones among us have observed that during the knockout stages, David Villa has been scoring in those 1-0 victories, and he did not score in the semi finals against Germany. Why? Torres played in the previous matches but he did not play against Germany as mentioned. Even if he does not score any goals in this tournament, he has undoubtedly played a huge role for his team, and for their sake, I really hope a Villa-Torres pairing will be restored in the final. But yeah, this is about stopping Spain, and so, the role of Torres has actually been that of a decoy. He simply sacrifices hmself to make off the ball runs around the opponents' penalty area and players of his stature cannot be ignored by the opposing defense and they will commit men to mark him. This will undoubtedly free up space for David Villa to score.
Thus, assuming that those two play in tandem for Spain in the final, the Dutch will have to keep in mind never to over-commit their defensive manpower to just handle Torres alone as Villa is lurking around the penalty box himself, ready to pounce to any chances coming his way, or half chances for that matter to be converted into deadly goals. If possible they should close down the Spaniards as often as possible, even if this is a stamina wasting strategy, but letting Villa, Torres, Xavi, Iniesta et al. to roam freely is simply suicidal. Even during set pieces, extra attention have to be given to defenders such as Puyol and Pique from doing damage with their heads just like how the Germans found out to their cost and also they have to be careful with Sergio Ramos' deadly forwards runs and if possible to launch counterattacks through that flank. Especially with the aforementioned closing down strategy, the Dutch will have to find a way to conserve their stamina carefully, considering how they always deflate towards the end of the match as mentioned in Part I and that Spain is a team with plenty of explosive talents on the bench, such as Fabregas, Jesus Navas, and David Silva just to name three ready to destroy the surely tired Dutch defense at the point of their fresh introduction into the fray.
Lastly, it is certainly going to be the psychological aspect of the game. Like I said earlier, a glance at the Spanish squad list would send chills down anyone's spine, with glittering players plying their trade at the very best clubs. Plethora of world class talents in which 23 man slots seem to be unfair for a country with such an array of talents as many more of the world class talents such as Marcos Senna and Santi Cazorla are left out of the squad. This is truly the very best team in the world on paper at least! However, the Dutch must not have those words that I have just written in their minds. They have to clear their mind about how Spain is composed of players from Real Madrid, Barcelona, best teams blah blah, but they really have to believe that they are in the final against Spain, they are not any weaker than Spain, and that they are the best. Bert van Marwijk must simply show his motivational skills here and embed that in the players' minds while trying his best to erase any traces of inferiority complex in the squad. Jose Mourinho has done it, yes he's such an impactful manager, single-handedly resurrected catenaccio football, depose the long heralded 4-4-2 all the way to the dustbin and make 4-5-1 and its derivatives the new winning formula, as well as totally redefining the word “confidence”. He has done it with Inter as they totally stopped Barcelona from playing and simply defeat them over two legs in the Champions League en route to their historic Treble Winning season. Bert van Marwijk must do the same and psyche his squad up. Perhaps Wesley Sneijder could be of great help as he was part of that historic Inter team.
In any case, even though it doesn't really promise to be a match flooding with goals, and that both teams will cancel each other with their own ways and wits to stop each other (just like if you read Part I and II of this series in a row, everything will cancel out), it promises to be explosive, to be a final to remember, and as sad as it could be, the World Cup is ending, let us savor the last 180 minutes of football at the very least that is left (along with the 3rd place playoff between Germany and Uruguay) and simply enjoy the moment and the World Cup Spirit, and until the competition arrives again in four years' time in Brazil.
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