With its 4-0 thrashing of Italy today, Spain has officially thrown its hat into the ring of the conversation of the greatest team ever. As the game progressed, it seemed more a coronation than a competition, as Spain captured it’s third major tournament victory in a row, an unprecedented feat. They allowed a single goal all tournament (coming in their opening draw with Italy back in group play) and looked much like the team that dominated the 2012 World Cup.
While it could be argued that the game was closer than the final score indicates, what with Spain scoring two very late goals after Italy went down a man and all but gave up on achieving victory, this game was all Spain from the start. Italy had but a handful of scoring chances and Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas was his usual masterful self.
Though Italy looked like but a shell of the team that outran and outworked Germany for the upset in the previous game, the credit truly does belong to the Spanish. They stymied Andrea Pirlo in the midfield and surrounded Mario Balotelli on every touch, preventing Italy’s two biggest playmakers from making plays. In the fashion that they’ve perfected over the past 4 years, they crashed back on defense (regularly bringing all 10 field players back… tell me why more teams don’t do this?), deftly and quickly countered when opportunities presented themselves, and maintained control and composure of the game with their highly efficient “tika taka” style.
Congrats to Spain! A well-earned and well-deserved victory! I will now turn the floor over to the true soccer enthusiasts among us (Nob, I’m looking at you) since I am but a noob. While you are at it, please feel free to critique my write-up here. If my analysis or understanding is off, please correct away! I tried to rely on what I saw, what I understand of the game, and what I read throughout the tournament. Hopefully I did justice to La Roja!
What does “crashed back on defense” mean?
I think he means the fact that almost all of the players would rush back into the final third for defensive play.
Indeed. Might have let a bball term slip on there, but I noticed that throughout the tourney. You’d count and see Spain had all trn guys back in their defensive third. Yet they were still able to counter. A truly remarkable effort. Where do you think this incarnation ranks all time?
I think the World Cup 2010 version of La Roja was the better side by the margin of David Villa, but on the whole, I’m inclined to rate the 2008 – 2012 Spanish National Team as one of the top 5 great national teams.
I think the level of play today is substantially higher overall across the game, with the top players of every nationality competing in Europe. The strength of say, African sides is leaps and bounds better than it was in say Pele or Maradona’s hayday.
The 1974 Dutch national side with Johan Cruyff was a monster, on a similar level of performance, even if they eventually lost to Beckenbauer’s West Germany. The level of dominance they showed against heavy weights like Brazil and Argentina was impressive.
But there’s of course the “golden generation” of Brazil from 58 – 70, and Diego’s great Argentina team of 86.
But Spain of this generation deserve to be in that conversation.
The difference was definitely in the midfield. Unlike Portugal, which managed to man-mark Xavi and shut him down, Italy really had no answer for him. From what I saw Marchisio was supposed to stop him, but Italy seemed keen to hold up a zonal defense and this meant that they couldn’t keep consistent pressure on any single Spanish player one on one.
Spain do play a very fluid style of football, with fullbacks that play almost like wingbacks (look at how Jordi Alba and Jesus Navas play when they’re there, they overlap with the winger on their side and often go up front) and are generally inclined to short passes. They combine this with a high press up front and a sort of zonal marking, that involves as much disrupting the passing game of the opposition than anything else. By playing a six man midfield, they have three holding midfielders who can shut down the opposing playmaker. Pirlo was a non-entity, and while De Rossi was effective, he couldn’t make enough openings for Balotelli.
One thing that I think Spain did much better throughout the tournament was actually managing their stamina and fitness. Their style, like Total Football before it, depend as much on physical fitness and endurance as it does on awareness and skill. This can be a highly draining form of play, and sometimes I think teams like Barcelona had a tendency to actually let it sap them during the season.
Spain demonstrated during their extra time play with Portugal that they actually had an extra gear that they were conserving. Today we saw that extra top gear come out from the start. The “anemic” play earlier in the tournament may have been as much an exercise in conservation than anything else.
Great point about the energy levels. At one point, I simply said, “One team is running and the other is walking.” The Italians also seemed to get caught simply watching the ball too much. The open attacks on goal often were prdicated by the player who should have been marking the guy who ultimately received the pass peeking baxk to follow the ball while his man simply ran past. Call it fatigue, call it shrinking in the moment… Whatever it was, the Spaniards were at another level.
Spain played to its strengths, an amorphous passing game. Italy had better time in possession in the first half but the Spanish side, especially their defensive game focussed on the seemingly impenetrable Casillas, was simply indestructible combined Ramos and Pique. By contrast, poor Buffon was left to deal with a nimble Spanish offence almost alone.
Italy had played its heart out to get as far as it did. The German side should have advanced farther. It seems incomprehensible, good as he is, that Balotelli was able to send in two against Germany. But then Germany (my emotional favourites) have never done well against the Italians. Lord knows why…..
Perhaps residual guilt over the bad things The Austrian said about Il Duce?
(no politics)
Cesq Fabregas seemed to save his best game for the final. Silva’s finish for what turned out to be the game winner was nice, but the work Cesq put in to deliver that ball to Silva’s forehead was a thing of beauty. And I was amazed at the speed Jordi Alba exhibited coming from the back to score Spain’s second. His run really caught the Italian defense on the back foot, and his finish was worthy of any goal scorer.
Sergio Ramos was a monster at the back, as usual, but I suspect that if you’re looking for a stay-at-home-and-defend fullback, Gerard Piqué is your guy. Balotelli had no room and Iker Casillas was amazing in turning aside Italy’s two best chances. Pirlo was a non-factor for the first time in the tournament.
And of course, I absolutely loved that my man-crush, Fernando Torres, won the golden boot as a direct result of his being unselfish and passing up a scoring opportunity in favor of his Chelsea teammate, Juan Mata. I dislike having to cheer against him when he plays for Chelski (Arsenal ’til I die!).
I don’t feel like I know enough about the ’72 Brazil team to state whether or not this current Spanish team is better, but by winning three major titles in a row, playing more than 500 consecutive minutes of shutout soccer, and allowing the fewest goals against in Euro history, they’ve got to figure prominently in the conversation.
I pretty much have nothing to add to any of the above. That was just eye-popping.
Indeed. When your own sides loses a game, you often look for ways to rationalize it. BUM CALLS! BAD BREAKS! BAD LUCK! BAD DAY!
And sometimes you just get whooped so bad none of those even matters. Sometimes you simply get outplayed and even your best effort would have been for naught.
I would have liked to see Italy put up more of a fight. But they advanced further than anyone expected (many thought they wouldn’t get out of group play and NO ONE thought they’d get past Germany) and their struggles were almost entirely a combination of fatigue and simply succumbing to a far superior team. There’s nothing I really can wish Italy had done differently, save for being a better team, which they simply weren’t. No one is a better team than Spain. And no one has been for a long time.
The big question is… can they capture a World Cup for Europe in the Western Hemisphere?
I think how the Spanish U-23 side do in London will give us a fair sense of their chances for 2014. Xavi’s probably due to be phased out by the time Brazil rolls around (and not that there’s any shortage of players to replace him…Cesc Fabregas is the most obvious candidate) so some reinforcements from the U-23 side is going to be essential.