Is this the
end?
29th June
2008.
Marcos Senna picks up
the ball on the halfway line and plays a first time ball to Xavi who is on the
half turn. Xavi traps the ball with his
left before playing a first time ball with his right dissecting the German defence. Fernando Torres sprints through, out muscling
Philipp Lahm before dinking the ball over Jens Lehman in the far corner of the
net.
11th July
2010
Jesus Navas - on a
substitute - is passed the ball midway inside his own half and begins to
run. He takes it past four Dutch players
before one of them nicks it away from him. Unfortunately for the Dutch it’s
straight to Iniesta who instinctively backheels the ball to Fabregas who plays
a first time ball to another sub, the tired looking Torres. Torres’s attempted pass from left wing to the
right hand edge of the box is too short and knocked away poorly by the centre
half. The ball falls to Fabregas who
has continued his run; he thinks about the shot momentarily but squares a pass
to Andres Iniesta who has taken up the position outside the covering defender.
His first touch sends the ball a little higher than normal; it seems to take an
age to come back down. Iniesta is
set. Body position and balance perfectly
coiled awaiting the ball to drop. Stekelenburg
starts to come off his line to close the angle, Iniesta waiting for Sir Isaac Newton’s
theory to take hold and bring the ball back down to earth, the time is right;
he releases his right leg and strikes the ball hard and downwards.
A nation erupts. Iniesta’s first thought is to remove his
shirt revealing a tribute to his friend the Español player who had died earlier
in the year…. ‘ Dani Jarque – Siempre Con Nosotros’.
1st July
2012
The Italians are still
in shock. Still stunned by the mauling
they have received from the Spanish.
Spain fans singing songs and serenade El Nino after his first and Spain’s
third seal the title for La Roja. As per
the rest of the preceding 87 minutes, the Italians give Sergio Busquets the
freedom of the centre circle to receive and pick his pass. Torres – as for his goal a couple of minutes
earlier – peels away left from his centre back to receive the ball. Busquets recognises the movement and provides
an inch perfect delivery. Mata runs in
behind Torres from left to right pulling away a defender. Torres unselfishly draws the goalkeeper and
squares to Mata to tuck away the record fourth goal.
The story of the modern Spain starts in 2008 with Luis Aragones
in charge of La Selección de fútbol de España. In 2004 when he took over the National team, they were
still playing in the ‘La Furia Roja’ style of play. Direct, aggressive, with wingers and Raul as
the centre piece up top.
Aragones realised
that the future of the game was in passing and ball retention. He dispensed with the great Raul and embraced
a new generation with David Villa and Fernando Torres leading the line. Both
had the same nickname of ‘the kid’. ‘El
Guaje’ for Asturian Villa and the more well-known’ El Nino’ for the Castilian
Torres. Players like Xavi Hernandez and
Xabi Alonso were given pivotal roles in this new side and the small more
technical players flourished.
The Spanish class
of 2008 won the European championships in this new style.
Starting XI in the
final: GK 1 Iker Casillas (c), RB 15 Sergio Ramos , CB 4 Carlos Marchena , CB 5
Carles Puyol , LB 11 Joan Capdevila , DM 19 Marcos Senna , RM 6 Andrés Iniesta
, CM 8 Xavi , CM 10 Cesc Fàbregas
Substituted off 63' , LM 21 David Silva
Substituted off 66' , CF 9 Fernando Torres Substituted off 78'
Substitutions: MF
14 Xabi Alonso Substituted in 63’, MF 12 Santi Cazorla Substituted in 66’, FW
17 Dani Güiza Substituted in 78'.
This line up, save
a few older players, is still very familiar to us now.
After the 2008
European Championships it was announced that Vicente Del Bosque was to succeed
Aragones. He wisely decided that
evolution rather than revolution was the best policy. This coincided with Guardiola’s promotion to
First Team Coach at FC Barcelona and Aragones/Del Bosque’s short passing style
at International level was being implemented at Club level by the disciples of
Cruyff. This coincidence dovetailed
well.
Spain’s success
continued, under Del Bosque they won 10 straight matches – a record for a
debuting International Coach – their first loss coming against the USA in the
semi-finals of the Confederations cup.
Their journey to
the World Cup Victory in South Africa was an intense one. Spain entered as huge favourites for the
tournament, and although confident, they felt the weight of expectation from
back home. Andres Iniesta had missed
large parts of the season through injury and was going into the tournament suffering
with a form of depression. Fernando
Torres, the talisman of previous years and the scorer of the winning goal at
the previous Euro’s, was off form and also had a recurring hamstring injury. They were both included in Del Bosque’s
squad. Spain lost their first game to
Switzerland 0-1, they bounced back with a David Villa inspired 2-0 win over
Chile, from there on the rest is history.
In the following
European Championships, Spain cruised to success and capped a wonderful
tournament with a record 4-0 victory over Italy. The highlight being a stunning goal from
Jordi Alba, which was the Spanish style and football beauty encapsulated in one
flowing move. Started and finished by the
full back Alba.
It’s worth noting how Del Bosque is loyal to
his players. In his time as coach he has
only selected 37 players to represent the country. To put that into context, England have used
57 players between the beginning on the 2012-13 season and the end of the
2013-14 season. Judging by the evidence
of the World Cup Campaign in 2014, you could reasonably make a case for it being
a weakness.
13th
June 2014
Robben sees the play
before it develops and begins his run.
The through ball is slightly over hit giving Sergio Ramos a five yard head
start. Robben beats him to the ball,
Ramos - looking like he is wearing lead boots – trying to keep up. As Robben enters the penalty area he checks
back, leaving the advancing Casillas stranded out of his goal. He takes a moment to compose himself before
firing the ball past the covering Ramos and Azpilicueta into the top corner.
Holland 5 – Spain 1.
Seven of the starting XI for Spain in the 2010 World Cup
Final, started that match against Holland in the first group match in
2014. The four missing were Puyol
(retired), Capdevilla (not selected), David Villa and Pedro were on the bench.
Spain get a penalty – Alonso makes it 1-0 for the World Cup
holders. From there it was as good as it
got. David Silva missed a guilt edged
chance to make it 2-0, chipping over the keeper but just wide, had that gone in
it may have been a different story; alternatively it may have just delayed the
inevitable.
From the moment RvP’s excellent header went in just before
the break, to the thorough beating the Spanish took in the second half, they
looked lost and out of ideas.
Del Bosque sat, his analytical mind looking on trying to
solve the puzzle. His theory of evolution was crumbling before him.
Suddenly the otherwise ever reliable Casillas
looked indecisive and nervous, Ramos and Pique looked a shade of the central
defensive pairing that had only conceded 5 goals throughout the 2012 European
Championships and the entire World Cup qualifying period, and here they were
shipping five in one game. Xavi, the
pass master and the heartbeat of the Spanish midfield was reduced to clipping
balls out wide to create some space, as opposed to using the tika-taka style
beloved of him and the other Barcelona alumni.
In the second game against Chile it was more of the
same. Xavi and Pique this time dropped
to the bench with Javi Martinez and Pedro favoured. Unfortunately it was to no avail. Again they looked shaky at the back, Casillas
arguably at fault for both Chile goals.
In attack the impotent Diego Costa continued to look out of place. Unfit and not used to the style of the Spanish
side, he failed to adapt to the movement and intelligence needed to operate at
the top level. Consistently spinning off
of his defender and going in behind, as he had done with Atletico, forced the midfield
generals of Busquets and Alonso, as well as the architects of Iniesta and Silva,
to look long to find him. Playing the
ball into spaces for him to run into as opposed to the false number nine
approach favoured in the past. This lack
of joining up play left gaping holes between the lines of the Spanish
side. The defence, after being exposed
the pace and skilful running of Robin Van Persie and Arjen Robben in the first
group game, meant that the usually composed and dominant Sergio Ramos was
sitting deeper than usual. This drop of
ten yards meant that they were further away from their midfield, therefore
reducing the capacity for short, sharp passing and movement that had been the
trademark of the past six years. With Costa
running in behind and not seeing any of the ball – he lost all three areal
duels in the second game – and not seeing any of the goal either - posting 0
shots on target in the two matches -meant that the Chileans were able to
exploit the gaps in the Spanish ranks, albeit not to the same ruthless extent as
the Dutch.
In the last game, Del Bosque thankfully dispensed with Costa
and gave David Villa a start in what would be his final International
game. Villa scored, Spain out passed a
poor Australia side, also out of the tournament, and did show a glimpse of their
old selves running out winners three goals to nil. Torres getting himself on
the score sheet as did Juan Mata.
As for what happens next depends largely on whether Vicente
Del Bosque feels he has the appetite to see through a new crop of youngsters
and emerging talent, of which there is plenty.
Guys like Isco, Muniain, Illarramendi, Negredo and Navas all missed out
on making the squad for the World Cup, so filling the places of likely retirees
Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Villa and possibly Casillas, shouldn’t leave too much of a
gaping hole in the terms of quality or big game experience. This would likely see a continuation of the
possession style of play much lauded and admired around the world. Although, as we have seen in the past two
Champions Leagues, slightly more direct styles of play, with quick wide
forwards ala Real Madrid, have become fashionable again. Football is cyclical and as such it will take
a strong coach to maintain a philosophy and to stay faithful to it. There is no danger of Spain losing an entire
golden generation as England have seen recently; more they need to have a
refreshment of newer blood entering the fray, bringing youthful exuberance and
a hunger to win.
The Players Parliament with Xavi as the Tika Taka Prime
Minister, Home Secretary Iniesta and Defence Secretary Busquets have been able
to incorporate a coalition from Madrid, with Alonso as Foreign Minister and Casillas
as Chief Diplomat. This has been a
successful demonstration to a generation of young Spaniards that traditional
regional interests and politics can be put aside when it comes to the National
team which has not always been the case.
This will be a legacy of Del Bosque and this era of great success, not
the exit of the World Cup at the group stage.
Overall I feel that we should be thankful to what Spain have
given us from 2008 – 2014. They have
shown that having a philosophy and an identity is a really strong way to create
a team and to be successful. With the
notable exception of Costa, who has only recently entered the International
scene having taken time to decide to represent Spain over his native Brazil,
any one of the squad knows what is needed to play in that style, regardless of
whether they came up through La Masia at Barcelona or one of the other big
Spanish Club academies. Their players
grace our Premier League and we as football lovers are better for it. We appreciate their technical excellence and
only wish that we had one of Fabregas, Mata, Cazorla or David Silva at our
disposal for England.
Spain will reflect and rise again. We can all be thankful to have witnessed an era
of greatness and dominance made possible by playing wonderful football in the
right way. Gracias La Roja, Viva Espana!
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