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 Spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spain. 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.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
How to Stop Them? (Part 1/2)
The semifinals of the World Cup 2010 have come and go. Holland managed to overcome the resilient but under strength Uruguay in a thrilling 3-2 encounter, while Spain finally managed to shake off their “flopping on a big stage” curse and cruised to the final to face Holland after totally turning off the goal tap of Germany and finished them off by a narrow 1-0 scoreline. Holland and Spain will battle it out in a high stakes battle to become the very first European nation to win the trophy outside of their own continent and also for each of them to win the thing for the very first time in their respective histories. One main question which is undoubtedly in the minds of everyone associated with the respective teams the moment Spain defeated Germany 1-0 last night is surely just like what the title above is saying, “How to stop them?”. The following will be some possible ways that could be employed by the respective teams to halt the other in their quest for glory. In this first part, it will be about how to stop the first team that reached the final, and that's Holland.
Despite the latest 3-2 victory against Uruguay which brought them straight to the final in a few days' time against Spain, I for once feel that it is still necessary to pinch one's hand to make sure that Holland really have reached the final of the competition. Since their opening match against Denmark all the way until now, it seems that they have yet to really hit the high gears, and they have progressed only with strolling pace at most. But they are here, collecting one major favorites' scalp of Brazil along the way. However, not matter how slow they have “crept up” all the way to the final, they are indeed unstoppable, having won every single match in the competition so far, and only Spain provides the last and massive challenge to claim their very first World Cup title in their history, another hard-to-believe fact considering how Holland have been and are one of the biggest football powerhouses of the world. No matter what, Holland is now seemingly unstoppable and despite their lack of visible overdrive unlike their rivals Germany (except for their anti-climax loss against Spain) they are unstoppable and Spain have to find some ways to stop them. Nevertheless, Holland is just a football team, and like any other team, other football teams should be able to find some ways of stopping them.
The first thing that Spain should bear in mind is that this Holland team only seem to be able to hold their lines out for 85 minutes. In the Group Stages, it is not really shown as to be frank, Japan, Denmark, and Cameroon are not really the world beaters around, and as for Brazil in the quarter finals, the Brazilian team was so chaotic and in such a state of disarray during the second half of the match against Holland that again it didn't show. But, Holland's weakness in the last 5 minutes or so of the match were shown clearly in two matches. Firstly, it was the last 16 match against Slovakia. Holland scored at the 18th and 84th minute in a relatively comfortable match for them to have a 2-0 lead. However, for reasons unknown, in the last few minutes of the match, they were pinned back by Slovakia, and the Slovaks looked closer and closer to scoring one or more goals to force the match to extra time. However, with some luck and the goalkeeper Stekelenburg's heroics, they manage to keep the Slovak bombardment at bay until they conceded an unnecessary penalty kick and they were pegged back 2-1 albeit in the last minute. Another instance was of course during their semi final match with Uruguay in which they romped to a 3-1 lead up to the 73rd minute before again being pegged back 3-2 at the last minute, and between then and the final whistle, they were always in danger of conceding one more to force extra time.
Another fact would be that the Dutch almost always score goals between the 70-80th minute, in which after that period of goals galore for them, then the aforementioned slack of defense started to show. Thus, assuming that Spain continues to play the way they have been playing since that 0-1 opening match defeat against Switzerland and especially the knockout stages, Spain's best bet would be not to lose concentration throughout the match to thwart the deadly and stealthy Dutch attacks especially during the aforementioned 10 minutes period in which the Dutch have the knack of scoring deadly goals and to keep their attacking approach in the last 10 minutes of the match plus injury time to score the goals that will surely kill the Dutch as they are the most vulnerable during the dying minutes of the match. Spain have to score more than one if necessary, especially if they concede early on, as they don't want to be like Slovakia and Uruguay, scoring at the last minute but only for a futile goal which is more of a consolation goal rather than an equalizing or a winning goal.
When I mentioned keeping guard of the Dutch players throughout the match, the first element of that would be to try to keep the rearguard tight, and also to pay attention to the outside of the penalty area, between the center circle and the penalty box to be precise, as the Dutch are extremely dangerous with their long, accurate, and deadly powerful shots. Arjen Robben has shown what he could do with his deadly left foot during the Slovakia match. Sneijder during almost all of the matches especially the Brazil match, and even the aging but still reliable Captain Gio van Bronckhorst who showed the world that his left foot still contains plenty of fuel with his crashing long shot to open the scoring in the match against Uruguay. Thus, the key is for Spain's defenders, especially midfielders to deny all of these players any space to execute their long shots and/or magical pass into the box, as even if they are denied a chance to shoot properly, if they could still pass, the increasingly forgotten van Persie is still up front, and ready to strike at anytime. It would not be easy as players such as Xabi Alonso, Xavi, and Sergi Busquets will have to find a way to balance their attacking duties with their defensive ones to contain the Dutch players. It will also be wise for the Spanish players to refrain from fouling the Dutch players around the penalty area and of course inside of it.
The second component of Spain's defensive work would be the most obvious one, which is to shackle Sneijder in place so that he won't be free to roam everywhere on the pitch to cause troubles. Fro the aforementioned long shots, sending amazing passes especially from free kicks around the penalty area, as well as heading the ball despite his rather small size. To keep things simple and in perspective, Sneijder is a complete package of utter destruction for the opposing teams, and thus he has to be contained as if Spain fail to do that, the world can be as sure as hell that Sneijder will be the direct cause to their defeat and that he will undoubtedly be on the scoresheet at least once and is almost certain to claim the tournament's Golden Boot award (barring a flurry of goals from Klose in Germany's match against Uruguay). It will surely be a busy night for the Spanish defenders, and Sergio Ramos will once again need to curb his knack of galloping forward all the way to the opponents' goal to help contain the real danger posed by the Inter player.
The Dutch skillfully masterminded a total detonation of Brazil's walking time-bomb, Felipe Melo. However, the Dutch fans around the world or even the Dutch squad themselves may not realize that they have something resembling Felipe Melo in their squad, and that man is Mark van Bommel. The midfield hard man has been quite rough throughout this career, and it showed rather clearly in this tournament as wayward fouls, bone crunching tackles, fierce bully-like intimidation to opponents and even the referee have been regular fixtures in the Bayern Munich man's game. Even though he has been rather lucky not to receive red cards for his antics, he is nevertheless a walking time bomb, and an accident waiting to happen. That's not to say that I am suggesting Spain to stoop so low as to ask Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro, or even Villa to just do simulation antics repeatedly in an attempt to get van Bommel sent off, but at least there's one way within the boundaries of fair-play that could be utilized by the Spanish players to do some damage here. The way could be a way resembling how Holland systematically took advantage of Brazil's weak link Michel Bastos and of course Felipe Melo, and also how Germany took apart Argentina by taking advantage of a chronic weakness of Argentina's right side of its defense. Thus, players such as Xabi Alonso and Xavi should direct the attack through the center, especially towards the right in which van Bommel is stationed. Sooner or later, when faced with so many balls, so many players, and also so much pressure, van Bommel might just boil over and start conceding unnecessary fouls that will benefit Spain and even start to collect cards. This strategy might seem to be unethical, but that's football, and in such a high stakes match in the biggest football event in the world, any opportunities to win (within the boundaries of fair play of course) should be exploited to bridge the difference between winners and losers, which is as thin as the air in high altitude.
Lastly, Spain have to have the belief in themselves that the fact they are in the final is not a mere accident or even a fluke, like how some sections of the pundits and fans around the world have started to whisper around. They have to belief that they are in the final due to merit, due to their sheer determination to win, and above all, due to the quality of the players in their squad, and not forgetting the abilities of their rather low profile but world class coach Vicente del Bosque. This match will determine which team becomes the very first European team winning the World Cup outside of their own continent, and above all, this match will determine which federation will receive their first ever star above their crest, in other words, the very first World Cup in their history. Spain have to believe that this is the time which their glittering stars, an amazing, almost dream team like coalition of world class players mainly from Barcelona and Real Madrid reach the apex of the footballing universe by winning the grandaddy of them all, the World Cup trophy!
Despite the latest 3-2 victory against Uruguay which brought them straight to the final in a few days' time against Spain, I for once feel that it is still necessary to pinch one's hand to make sure that Holland really have reached the final of the competition. Since their opening match against Denmark all the way until now, it seems that they have yet to really hit the high gears, and they have progressed only with strolling pace at most. But they are here, collecting one major favorites' scalp of Brazil along the way. However, not matter how slow they have “crept up” all the way to the final, they are indeed unstoppable, having won every single match in the competition so far, and only Spain provides the last and massive challenge to claim their very first World Cup title in their history, another hard-to-believe fact considering how Holland have been and are one of the biggest football powerhouses of the world. No matter what, Holland is now seemingly unstoppable and despite their lack of visible overdrive unlike their rivals Germany (except for their anti-climax loss against Spain) they are unstoppable and Spain have to find some ways to stop them. Nevertheless, Holland is just a football team, and like any other team, other football teams should be able to find some ways of stopping them.
The first thing that Spain should bear in mind is that this Holland team only seem to be able to hold their lines out for 85 minutes. In the Group Stages, it is not really shown as to be frank, Japan, Denmark, and Cameroon are not really the world beaters around, and as for Brazil in the quarter finals, the Brazilian team was so chaotic and in such a state of disarray during the second half of the match against Holland that again it didn't show. But, Holland's weakness in the last 5 minutes or so of the match were shown clearly in two matches. Firstly, it was the last 16 match against Slovakia. Holland scored at the 18th and 84th minute in a relatively comfortable match for them to have a 2-0 lead. However, for reasons unknown, in the last few minutes of the match, they were pinned back by Slovakia, and the Slovaks looked closer and closer to scoring one or more goals to force the match to extra time. However, with some luck and the goalkeeper Stekelenburg's heroics, they manage to keep the Slovak bombardment at bay until they conceded an unnecessary penalty kick and they were pegged back 2-1 albeit in the last minute. Another instance was of course during their semi final match with Uruguay in which they romped to a 3-1 lead up to the 73rd minute before again being pegged back 3-2 at the last minute, and between then and the final whistle, they were always in danger of conceding one more to force extra time.
Another fact would be that the Dutch almost always score goals between the 70-80th minute, in which after that period of goals galore for them, then the aforementioned slack of defense started to show. Thus, assuming that Spain continues to play the way they have been playing since that 0-1 opening match defeat against Switzerland and especially the knockout stages, Spain's best bet would be not to lose concentration throughout the match to thwart the deadly and stealthy Dutch attacks especially during the aforementioned 10 minutes period in which the Dutch have the knack of scoring deadly goals and to keep their attacking approach in the last 10 minutes of the match plus injury time to score the goals that will surely kill the Dutch as they are the most vulnerable during the dying minutes of the match. Spain have to score more than one if necessary, especially if they concede early on, as they don't want to be like Slovakia and Uruguay, scoring at the last minute but only for a futile goal which is more of a consolation goal rather than an equalizing or a winning goal.
When I mentioned keeping guard of the Dutch players throughout the match, the first element of that would be to try to keep the rearguard tight, and also to pay attention to the outside of the penalty area, between the center circle and the penalty box to be precise, as the Dutch are extremely dangerous with their long, accurate, and deadly powerful shots. Arjen Robben has shown what he could do with his deadly left foot during the Slovakia match. Sneijder during almost all of the matches especially the Brazil match, and even the aging but still reliable Captain Gio van Bronckhorst who showed the world that his left foot still contains plenty of fuel with his crashing long shot to open the scoring in the match against Uruguay. Thus, the key is for Spain's defenders, especially midfielders to deny all of these players any space to execute their long shots and/or magical pass into the box, as even if they are denied a chance to shoot properly, if they could still pass, the increasingly forgotten van Persie is still up front, and ready to strike at anytime. It would not be easy as players such as Xabi Alonso, Xavi, and Sergi Busquets will have to find a way to balance their attacking duties with their defensive ones to contain the Dutch players. It will also be wise for the Spanish players to refrain from fouling the Dutch players around the penalty area and of course inside of it.
The second component of Spain's defensive work would be the most obvious one, which is to shackle Sneijder in place so that he won't be free to roam everywhere on the pitch to cause troubles. Fro the aforementioned long shots, sending amazing passes especially from free kicks around the penalty area, as well as heading the ball despite his rather small size. To keep things simple and in perspective, Sneijder is a complete package of utter destruction for the opposing teams, and thus he has to be contained as if Spain fail to do that, the world can be as sure as hell that Sneijder will be the direct cause to their defeat and that he will undoubtedly be on the scoresheet at least once and is almost certain to claim the tournament's Golden Boot award (barring a flurry of goals from Klose in Germany's match against Uruguay). It will surely be a busy night for the Spanish defenders, and Sergio Ramos will once again need to curb his knack of galloping forward all the way to the opponents' goal to help contain the real danger posed by the Inter player.
The Dutch skillfully masterminded a total detonation of Brazil's walking time-bomb, Felipe Melo. However, the Dutch fans around the world or even the Dutch squad themselves may not realize that they have something resembling Felipe Melo in their squad, and that man is Mark van Bommel. The midfield hard man has been quite rough throughout this career, and it showed rather clearly in this tournament as wayward fouls, bone crunching tackles, fierce bully-like intimidation to opponents and even the referee have been regular fixtures in the Bayern Munich man's game. Even though he has been rather lucky not to receive red cards for his antics, he is nevertheless a walking time bomb, and an accident waiting to happen. That's not to say that I am suggesting Spain to stoop so low as to ask Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro, or even Villa to just do simulation antics repeatedly in an attempt to get van Bommel sent off, but at least there's one way within the boundaries of fair-play that could be utilized by the Spanish players to do some damage here. The way could be a way resembling how Holland systematically took advantage of Brazil's weak link Michel Bastos and of course Felipe Melo, and also how Germany took apart Argentina by taking advantage of a chronic weakness of Argentina's right side of its defense. Thus, players such as Xabi Alonso and Xavi should direct the attack through the center, especially towards the right in which van Bommel is stationed. Sooner or later, when faced with so many balls, so many players, and also so much pressure, van Bommel might just boil over and start conceding unnecessary fouls that will benefit Spain and even start to collect cards. This strategy might seem to be unethical, but that's football, and in such a high stakes match in the biggest football event in the world, any opportunities to win (within the boundaries of fair play of course) should be exploited to bridge the difference between winners and losers, which is as thin as the air in high altitude.
Lastly, Spain have to have the belief in themselves that the fact they are in the final is not a mere accident or even a fluke, like how some sections of the pundits and fans around the world have started to whisper around. They have to belief that they are in the final due to merit, due to their sheer determination to win, and above all, due to the quality of the players in their squad, and not forgetting the abilities of their rather low profile but world class coach Vicente del Bosque. This match will determine which team becomes the very first European team winning the World Cup outside of their own continent, and above all, this match will determine which federation will receive their first ever star above their crest, in other words, the very first World Cup in their history. Spain have to believe that this is the time which their glittering stars, an amazing, almost dream team like coalition of world class players mainly from Barcelona and Real Madrid reach the apex of the footballing universe by winning the grandaddy of them all, the World Cup trophy!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Spain 0-1 Suisse World Cup 2010 Group H
It was another 1-0 in World Cup 2010. However, it was such a scintillating and a thrilling match. No, not because I am a Swiss, but because I have to admit that I am some sort of an underdog guy. Spain was totally the overwhelming in this competition such that 19 out of 20 people I asked said that they support Spain and the other one supports Brazil. Congratulations to Switzerland for their first ever win against Spain, and to do it in the World Cup finals game, and not in a meaningless friendly, certainly a great achievement and satisfaction to everyone associated with Switzerland. The Spanish team was actually such a great and extraordinary team on paper. I realized this upon glancing at their squad list prior to kick-off. Picture this, a coalition team of players (although only the Spanish players but yeah) from Real Madrid, Barcelona, and bits and pieces here and there from Valencia, Liverpool and a few other clubs. A totally world beating team on paper. The supposedly red hot Spanish knives were looking forward to slice through and totally melt the Swiss chocolate on display. However, little did they know that the Swiss chocolate in front of them is one which is frozen solid and a frozen chocolate not only difficult to be bitten and eaten, but also can be used as a weapon to throw at someone or beat them up using the chocolate (Don't try these at home, just trying to illustrate the Swiss team for tonight using a chocolate analogy).
The 1-0 scoreline again might baffle anyone who did not watch the match. Spain utterly and totally dominated the match and the Swiss team all the way from the first whistle to the final whistle. Their possession at one time amounted to a whopping 77%, surely one of the highest ever in a World Cup or any competitive match ever. However, biting into a frozen solid chocolate is not an easy task. Blame the Jabulani Ball, blame the altitude, blame the heroic Diego Benaglio, the Swiss keeper, blame anything. But Switzerland amazingly held on to the Spanish onslaught. Switzerland scored the winning goal at the 51st minute through Gelson Fernandes capitalizing from a heap of Spanish bodies of Iker Casillas, Puyol, and Pique strewn all over the penalty area. Just like most of the other matches on this World Cup, one goal is all it takes to win a match and this match turned out to be no exception. Spain then made two attacking substitutions by introducing Fernando Torres and Jesus Navas. The former to add some attacking dimension and also some height in the Spanish attakc and squad in general, while Navas was introduced to reinvent the Spanish midfield as the man he replaced, David Silva seemed to have run out of ideas to break the frozen solid and resolute Swiss chocolate. Nobody would have thought of this as somewhere in the first half when Philipe Senderos had to be substituted as he suffered an injury, he walked off so slowly but to be fair to him he was dejected, but nevertheless, it seemed to be a signal from the Swiss that they were more than happy to hold Spain to a goalless draw. If Switzerland had faced Honduras perhaps, Senderos would have walked off at least a bit faster than that.
As time passed, Spain grew ever more frustrated and at the last 5 minutes of the game, they were so dominating and so frustrated and so overwhelmed with sense of urgency by then that every single Spanish player except for Puyol (which he was about to join the attack soon) and goalkeeper Casillas. Still, the frozen Swiss chocolate won't crack. The 5 minutes of injury time was a bit controversial and when it was announced my mind flew back all the way to when Manchester City was defeated by Manchester United back in the Fall in 2009 due to a crazily lengthy of injury time at Old Trafford as well as the FIFA Seeding system for the World Cup play-off in which there was a conspiracy theory brewing about how FIFA is desperate to see the best teams win and be featured in the World Cup all the way to the latter stages. But, Switzerland held firmly despite the fact that during the 5 minutes, every single player barring Casillas was in the Swiss half of the pitch. It was amazing how the Swiss held on mainly thanks to Diego Benaglio's heroic, in which I am a fan of this player since 2009 and I believe he is the man of the match for this one. Congratulations Switzerland for the major upset in this World Cup. To be fair to Spain, this is just the first match, and they should be able to overcome Honduras and Chile to go through to the last 16. Also, history suggests that teams that start slow in the World Cup tend to do well in the competition. Thus, for all Spain's fans including the aforementioned glory hunters, there's still hope for Spain!
The 1-0 scoreline again might baffle anyone who did not watch the match. Spain utterly and totally dominated the match and the Swiss team all the way from the first whistle to the final whistle. Their possession at one time amounted to a whopping 77%, surely one of the highest ever in a World Cup or any competitive match ever. However, biting into a frozen solid chocolate is not an easy task. Blame the Jabulani Ball, blame the altitude, blame the heroic Diego Benaglio, the Swiss keeper, blame anything. But Switzerland amazingly held on to the Spanish onslaught. Switzerland scored the winning goal at the 51st minute through Gelson Fernandes capitalizing from a heap of Spanish bodies of Iker Casillas, Puyol, and Pique strewn all over the penalty area. Just like most of the other matches on this World Cup, one goal is all it takes to win a match and this match turned out to be no exception. Spain then made two attacking substitutions by introducing Fernando Torres and Jesus Navas. The former to add some attacking dimension and also some height in the Spanish attakc and squad in general, while Navas was introduced to reinvent the Spanish midfield as the man he replaced, David Silva seemed to have run out of ideas to break the frozen solid and resolute Swiss chocolate. Nobody would have thought of this as somewhere in the first half when Philipe Senderos had to be substituted as he suffered an injury, he walked off so slowly but to be fair to him he was dejected, but nevertheless, it seemed to be a signal from the Swiss that they were more than happy to hold Spain to a goalless draw. If Switzerland had faced Honduras perhaps, Senderos would have walked off at least a bit faster than that.
As time passed, Spain grew ever more frustrated and at the last 5 minutes of the game, they were so dominating and so frustrated and so overwhelmed with sense of urgency by then that every single Spanish player except for Puyol (which he was about to join the attack soon) and goalkeeper Casillas. Still, the frozen Swiss chocolate won't crack. The 5 minutes of injury time was a bit controversial and when it was announced my mind flew back all the way to when Manchester City was defeated by Manchester United back in the Fall in 2009 due to a crazily lengthy of injury time at Old Trafford as well as the FIFA Seeding system for the World Cup play-off in which there was a conspiracy theory brewing about how FIFA is desperate to see the best teams win and be featured in the World Cup all the way to the latter stages. But, Switzerland held firmly despite the fact that during the 5 minutes, every single player barring Casillas was in the Swiss half of the pitch. It was amazing how the Swiss held on mainly thanks to Diego Benaglio's heroic, in which I am a fan of this player since 2009 and I believe he is the man of the match for this one. Congratulations Switzerland for the major upset in this World Cup. To be fair to Spain, this is just the first match, and they should be able to overcome Honduras and Chile to go through to the last 16. Also, history suggests that teams that start slow in the World Cup tend to do well in the competition. Thus, for all Spain's fans including the aforementioned glory hunters, there's still hope for Spain!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Reasons against Spain winning World Cup 2010
After the Champions League Final festivities have settled, it's now back to the anticipation and perhaps anxiety towards the long awaited World Cup 2010. Recently, I tried to do a survey on a sample of football fans. Due to mainly financial, resources, and time constraints, I only managed to survey 10 football fans. I simply asked each and everyone of them which country he/she thinks is going to win the World Cup. Amazingly, 9 out of 10 answered Spain as the country that is going to continue their recent supremacy in the world and grab the famous Jules Rimet trophy in South Africa, while the odd one out voted Brazil as the winner. This shows how Spain is seemingly a shoe-in to win this year's edition of the World Cup and that the roles of the other teams in the competition is reduced to basically to make up the numbers of 32 participants. But to them, Spain is the only one in the competition, and their triumph is a given. Is it that easy? Despite the overwhelming response favoring Spain, I believe even if I had increased the sample size to 100, I would still get at least 90 responses favoring Spain. But I beg to differ, in fact, I don't think Spain is capable of winning this one and as what I have been mentioning many times, I am tipping Argentina to win this one. The following are the reasons why Spain will not win this edition of the World Cup.
The very first reason is also the most obvious. Spain is simply the overwhelming favorites to win the competition. World Cup history suggests that the overwhelming favorites are always knocked out earlier than expected. Take for example World Cup 2002, in which France, the then defending champions and also just like Spain right now, had just won Euro 2000 two years earlier, and there was no reason why the all conquering French team at that time not to add one more star above the cockerel emblazoned on the France shirt. However, we knew that France didn't even make it out of the Group Stage, and yeah, they did not even score a single goal. In World Cup 2006, Brazil was the overwhelming favorites. Surely a team containing the legendary Ronaldo, the then world beating Ronaldinho, as well as all conquering Kaka won't go wrong and simply wipe everything on their path. But they were knocked out early, despite showing an attractive and daring attacking football in a 4-2-4 formation. Spain is now having that favorite tag. Everyone expects them to wipe anything and everything. They are said to play hypnotizing and extra-terrestrial football, and that even gravity might be defied by the mostly Barcelona players in the Spain squad.
To be fair to Spain, I personally believe that Spain will indeed play an extra-terrestrial, gravity defying football, and also wipe everything and anything on their path, but only for the three matches in the Group Stage. I dare say that they will simply swat aside Chile, Switzerland, and minnows Honduras and they might even score 20 goals and concede none, and obtain 9 points out of the available 9. At that time, even the most nationalistic Catalonian would be waving the Spanish flag. But everything will be over as soon as the last 16 kicks off. When they meet the more industrious, rigid, and unorthodox teams such as Italy, France, and Argentina respectively, they will be defeated with a skimpy scoreline, perhaps 1-0 or even in a penalty shoot-out. As usual, the tradition of Spain peaking too early in a big competition will not leave them. Not even the Euro 2008 victory could erase this. Yes, some might argue that winning the European Cup is much harder than winning the World Cup, but we have to argue again that in the last 16 and/r quarter finals, most if not all the teams left are likely to be the household European names and that's when the going gets tough, and the tough gets going. The lightning won't strike twice, if the 2009 Confederations Cup is of any indication.
The second reason picks up where I left off in the previous paragraph about how the Spanish team would falter when they meet the teams that play the anti-thesis of the kind of football that they are playing such as France, Argentina, and Italy as mentioned. Since the bulk of the Spanish squad are Barcelona players, and that their game is heavily reliant on the performances of these Barcelona men, Spain's game in the World Cup will be more or less a carbon copy of what Barcelona has been doing in the recently concluded season. Thus, it would be more than valid to draw comparisons with the Champions League, more specifically the second leg of the semi final tie of Barcelona against the eventual champions Internazionale. In this match, although many would argue that Barcelona won this match, it was shown to millions of audiences all over the world that the aforementioned slick passing, gravity defying Barcelona game can be ground to a halt by simply “Parking the bus in front of the goal”. There's no doubt that teams who are drawn against Spain, especially in the latter stages of the competition would want to take a leaf or two from Jose Mourinho's book to stop Spain, and they might just be successful. If it is a top team such as Argentina or France, they will lose by a sucker punch goal from a swift counterattack, but if it is an underdog such as the USA or Serbia, then expect them to be defeated either in the extra time or in the penalty shoot-out. Either way, Spain is going to be stopped by using Mourinho's successful tactics in the Champions League.
Lastly, with all their swashbuckling Barcelona carbon copy football, they sorely lack a credible Plan B to negotiate past the aforementioned time period starting from the last 16 when the tough gets going, and the going gets tough. This is where their Barcelona style of play will prove to be their undoing. Referring again to the previous paragraph in which they are faced with rigid and even anti-football tactics, they have to find a way out. Otherwise, they will just continuously passing around and no matter how they try, the burly opposition players will simply repel every single thing and simply toss the pint sized Spanish players away. I mean, what chance do small and short players such as Fabregas, David Villa, David Silva, Iniesta, Xavi and basically every single Spain players except for Puyol have against burly defensive players such as William Gallas, Walter Samuel, or even Branislav Ivanovic? I would say chances are it would be like seeing a group of 15 year olds being pushed away by pub bouncers to prevent them from entering. This problem is compounded by the exclusion of the relatively big sized Daniel Guiza, and I believe he is a better target-man to ram through the “parked bus” than Fernando Torres, their closest to a targetman. Without the unorthodox route one football, the kind of Inter's first goal in the final against Bayern Munich through a strong targetman Diego Milito, even if Casillas decides to lob the ball all the way to the opposition penalty area, the aforementioned burly players will just head the ball away and swat the small Spanish players away. They will not find a way through until the opposition scores a goal against them or draw them out in a siege until the lottery of the penalty shoot out (for the case of matches against underdogs).
Thus, with all of the reasons above, I don't see Spain winning this World Cup. People might still try to argue at this time using my comparison to the Spanish team with Barcelona in which they might present me with some matches in which Barcelona still win matches against teams, mostly the weaker teams in La Liga who put them on a siege by “parking the bus in front of a goal”, but no matter what, Barcelona still wins, mainly through last minute goals. But I bet anybody trying to argue along that line forgets one big thing. Even if the Spanish team is a carbon copy of Barcelona, it is just that. They have to remember that there's no Leo Messi to bail them out during those situations as “The Flea” is playing for Maradona's Argentina, the very team which might knock them out from the competition. I doubt Fernando Torres, David Villa, or Fabregas are able to do the kind of individual bailing out that Messi is doing for Barcelona, such as how Messi once dribbles past whole squads to score a brilliant goal or even his own “Hand of God” goal against Getafe to snatch victory from the jaws of draw.
The very first reason is also the most obvious. Spain is simply the overwhelming favorites to win the competition. World Cup history suggests that the overwhelming favorites are always knocked out earlier than expected. Take for example World Cup 2002, in which France, the then defending champions and also just like Spain right now, had just won Euro 2000 two years earlier, and there was no reason why the all conquering French team at that time not to add one more star above the cockerel emblazoned on the France shirt. However, we knew that France didn't even make it out of the Group Stage, and yeah, they did not even score a single goal. In World Cup 2006, Brazil was the overwhelming favorites. Surely a team containing the legendary Ronaldo, the then world beating Ronaldinho, as well as all conquering Kaka won't go wrong and simply wipe everything on their path. But they were knocked out early, despite showing an attractive and daring attacking football in a 4-2-4 formation. Spain is now having that favorite tag. Everyone expects them to wipe anything and everything. They are said to play hypnotizing and extra-terrestrial football, and that even gravity might be defied by the mostly Barcelona players in the Spain squad.
To be fair to Spain, I personally believe that Spain will indeed play an extra-terrestrial, gravity defying football, and also wipe everything and anything on their path, but only for the three matches in the Group Stage. I dare say that they will simply swat aside Chile, Switzerland, and minnows Honduras and they might even score 20 goals and concede none, and obtain 9 points out of the available 9. At that time, even the most nationalistic Catalonian would be waving the Spanish flag. But everything will be over as soon as the last 16 kicks off. When they meet the more industrious, rigid, and unorthodox teams such as Italy, France, and Argentina respectively, they will be defeated with a skimpy scoreline, perhaps 1-0 or even in a penalty shoot-out. As usual, the tradition of Spain peaking too early in a big competition will not leave them. Not even the Euro 2008 victory could erase this. Yes, some might argue that winning the European Cup is much harder than winning the World Cup, but we have to argue again that in the last 16 and/r quarter finals, most if not all the teams left are likely to be the household European names and that's when the going gets tough, and the tough gets going. The lightning won't strike twice, if the 2009 Confederations Cup is of any indication.
The second reason picks up where I left off in the previous paragraph about how the Spanish team would falter when they meet the teams that play the anti-thesis of the kind of football that they are playing such as France, Argentina, and Italy as mentioned. Since the bulk of the Spanish squad are Barcelona players, and that their game is heavily reliant on the performances of these Barcelona men, Spain's game in the World Cup will be more or less a carbon copy of what Barcelona has been doing in the recently concluded season. Thus, it would be more than valid to draw comparisons with the Champions League, more specifically the second leg of the semi final tie of Barcelona against the eventual champions Internazionale. In this match, although many would argue that Barcelona won this match, it was shown to millions of audiences all over the world that the aforementioned slick passing, gravity defying Barcelona game can be ground to a halt by simply “Parking the bus in front of the goal”. There's no doubt that teams who are drawn against Spain, especially in the latter stages of the competition would want to take a leaf or two from Jose Mourinho's book to stop Spain, and they might just be successful. If it is a top team such as Argentina or France, they will lose by a sucker punch goal from a swift counterattack, but if it is an underdog such as the USA or Serbia, then expect them to be defeated either in the extra time or in the penalty shoot-out. Either way, Spain is going to be stopped by using Mourinho's successful tactics in the Champions League.
Lastly, with all their swashbuckling Barcelona carbon copy football, they sorely lack a credible Plan B to negotiate past the aforementioned time period starting from the last 16 when the tough gets going, and the going gets tough. This is where their Barcelona style of play will prove to be their undoing. Referring again to the previous paragraph in which they are faced with rigid and even anti-football tactics, they have to find a way out. Otherwise, they will just continuously passing around and no matter how they try, the burly opposition players will simply repel every single thing and simply toss the pint sized Spanish players away. I mean, what chance do small and short players such as Fabregas, David Villa, David Silva, Iniesta, Xavi and basically every single Spain players except for Puyol have against burly defensive players such as William Gallas, Walter Samuel, or even Branislav Ivanovic? I would say chances are it would be like seeing a group of 15 year olds being pushed away by pub bouncers to prevent them from entering. This problem is compounded by the exclusion of the relatively big sized Daniel Guiza, and I believe he is a better target-man to ram through the “parked bus” than Fernando Torres, their closest to a targetman. Without the unorthodox route one football, the kind of Inter's first goal in the final against Bayern Munich through a strong targetman Diego Milito, even if Casillas decides to lob the ball all the way to the opposition penalty area, the aforementioned burly players will just head the ball away and swat the small Spanish players away. They will not find a way through until the opposition scores a goal against them or draw them out in a siege until the lottery of the penalty shoot out (for the case of matches against underdogs).
Thus, with all of the reasons above, I don't see Spain winning this World Cup. People might still try to argue at this time using my comparison to the Spanish team with Barcelona in which they might present me with some matches in which Barcelona still win matches against teams, mostly the weaker teams in La Liga who put them on a siege by “parking the bus in front of a goal”, but no matter what, Barcelona still wins, mainly through last minute goals. But I bet anybody trying to argue along that line forgets one big thing. Even if the Spanish team is a carbon copy of Barcelona, it is just that. They have to remember that there's no Leo Messi to bail them out during those situations as “The Flea” is playing for Maradona's Argentina, the very team which might knock them out from the competition. I doubt Fernando Torres, David Villa, or Fabregas are able to do the kind of individual bailing out that Messi is doing for Barcelona, such as how Messi once dribbles past whole squads to score a brilliant goal or even his own “Hand of God” goal against Getafe to snatch victory from the jaws of draw.
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