#worldcup Adiós Spain, but their supremacy was divine. . . . ! And finally, it came tumbling down. Spain’s dominance of World football saw its epitaph written by a former colony in Chile on Wednesday night at the Maracana, a stadium that is historically well intertwined with the World Cup. Of course many will say that it is a similar story-line as that of Italy at the 2010 World Cup and France at the 2002 World Cup. France, particularly had won the 1998 World Cup and also went on to win the 2000 Euros. But since Luis Aragones took over the Spanish National team in 2004, it has been rise, ribboned with dominance with some breathtaking football, the tiki-taka. It has been a whopping six years of Spanish dominance and as much as an inquisition is a certainty following the collapse in Brazil, it is of the essence to celebrate and pay tribute to Iker Casillas, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Xabi Alonso and David Villa, just to mention a few, serving us such beautiful football that many were unfortunate to have died without seeing. No doubt that the current Spain squad will live on as the best football playing team in the history of mankind until something more extraordinary comes forth in the future. Only if you were an ‘Anti-Christ’ of sorts would you really detest the way Spain applied itself. And although at Euro 2012 the tiki-taka was criticised for becoming boring because of its over-elaborative nature, seen in the many touches to the ball, yet few goals were forthcoming, the panache in that 4-0 finals win over Italy was one to behold. And to earnestly dig a grave now that tiki-taka is dead is diabolical. Would we rather watch the “anti-football” that Jose Mourinho so enthusiastically made Inter Milan play? Surely not; simply because it would never be as memorable, let alone be a major talking point. I doubt anyone remembers how the France team of 1998 and 2000 even played. Only Zinedine Zidane largely left an indelible mark. So, Spain has set a milestone, hate them or love them. That said, no football formula and strategy can last forever, just like your latest computer ‘anti-virus’. So, you need to take your hat off for Spain. However, it goes without saying that Louis Van Gaal, one of the exemplars of this tiki-taka style turned out to be its anti-thesis when his Holland team beat Spain 5-1 last Friday, living up to the proverb that it takes a thief to catch a thief. All Van Gaal did was to let them have the ball as much as they normally want. Consequently, Spain drifted into his half of the field, maintaining their high-line. All this was a rat trap. Because Van Gaal has runners like Arjen Robben, Robin Van Persie and Daryl Janmaat, the tactic was that Holland had to sit back and just wait for one interception, which became several interceptions. And through Daley Blind’s perfect long and accurate pass, that ball was switched fast, which enabled Robben and Van Persie easily beat Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique with pace. You will realise that although Spain were giving away goals, they still had the Lions share of possession. In fact, it was a similar case in the Chile game. Spain, although this time their passing hasn’t been as imperious and flawless as before, still dominated possession. Yet what Chile did was pick them and quickly catch them outnumbered, something seen in the Eduardo Vargas goal. In a nutshell, goalkeeper Iker Casillas has come up for criticism leading up to Spain’s failure this time round. And inevitably, he leads the legion of stars that coach Vicente Del Bosque should be thinking of whether to move on or not. But what is non-discountable is the fact that Casillas has been a great and World class goal-tender, a true embodiment of Spain, whose style has arguably been ‘divine,’ for close to a decade. Adiós Spana.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 12:33:13 +0000
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