SPAIN thread

S-NipE said:
................as they never even try to shoot on goal until they in a distance of three meter to the line. And football lives through goals, not through ball possession.
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Hmmmmm, have you actually been watching the matches, actually do you bother reading posts at all?

Regardless of what your eyes are doing, statistically they had more shots ON target than any team during the qualifying stage and they scored MORE goals than any other team during the qualifiying phase.

Maybe you doze off after a few passes and don't actually see the end product.


FD
 
Spain are leading all the statistics save one: field coverage.
They scored most, have the best defense, have most possession, most shots on goal...what do you want more? Casillas to try and go for goal from inside his box?

I more or less agree that they tend to overelaborate their passing game, but it might be a tactic. What is physically the most exhausting while playing football: having possession or having to chase the ball endlessly? I think Del Bosque wants his team to wear opponents outphysically, of course i'm not Del Bosque either, but that is how i see it.

Oh and i love watching that kind of football, for me it doesn't matter if they score. But people do like to see long distance goals. I prefer team goals and to be honest most goals who are the result of a fine string of passes tend to be forgotten very quickly (with one notable exception: Argentina goal against Serbia in the 2006 WC). For me football is a team sport and no other team has played like a team like Spain or Barcelona. But that is of course very subjective.
 
fd1972uk said:
Hmmmmm, have you actually been watching the matches, actually do you bother reading posts at all?

Regardless of what your eyes are doing, statistically they had more shots ON target than any team during the qualifying stage and they scored MORE goals than any other team during the qualifiying phase.

Maybe you doze off after a few passes and don't actually see the end product.


FD
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I think qualification is a bit misleading, first of all two of the 16 were hosts so you cannot compare those teams. Secondly the groups in qualification can be of different standards and even different sizes (6th teams in some and 5 teams in others).

But in any case you are wrong to say they scored more goals than anyone in qualification. The Dutch scored 37 goals and the Swedes scored 31 (Spain scored 26), Germany scored 34 and I'd argue in a much harder group. You can say these other teams had two more games than the Spanish in qualification, but even if you do it on goals per game (to account for the extra games) Spain (3.25) only just edge past Sweden (3.1) and are still a bit behind Germany (3.4) and Holland (3.7). The other thing is 10 of the Spanish goals came against Lichtenstein, now I accept that you can only beat the teams put in front of you, but

Here are their results:

Home:
2-1 vs Czech
3-1 vs Scotland
3-1 vs Lithuania
6-0 vs Lichtenstein

Away:
2-0 vs Czech
3-2 vs Scotland
1-3 vs Lithuania
4-0 vs Lichtenstein

Aside from the results against Lichtenstein, there were no real hammerings in terms of score line, they only tended to win by 1 or 2 goals. In the Sweden and Dutch group both beat San Marino (that groups equivalent of Lichtenstein) by heavy margins, but in addition to that Holland beat Sweden 4-1 and Hungary 4-0, the Swedes beat Finland 5-0. Kazakhstan were the bottom ranked team in Germany's group (though I would argue they are much better than Lichtenstein) and Germany won those games 3-0 and 4-0, but in addition to that Germany beat Austria 6-2, Azerbaijan 6-1 and Turkey 3-0.

I don't think Spain were the best team in qualification, to be honest it's hard to judge these things given the groups are so varied, but your statistics about goals scored seem to be wrong.
 
At Euro 2012 finals, not the whole qualifying stage. Sorry if I made that sound that way.

That's like saying Klass Huntelaar was the best striker of Euro 2012.


FD
 
I prefer this football.

It is like chess on the pitch, probing for weaknesses switching the point of attack, preparing an overwhelming assault.

This measured thinking football over aimless long range pot shots which seem to excite so many.

The ball is treated with respect.

Argentina 2006 were undoubtedly more exciting , although funnily enough the press here weren't falling over themselves to give out any accolades at the time.
 
DamjanStefanov said:
Am I the only one who thinks Spains football is incredibly boring?
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No, I find them quite boring to watch too. They are fantastically skilful and intelligent players and their style of play is incredibly effective, but personally I prefer to watch teams that can mix up different styles of football. I like to see teams that can play more direct football and get physical when they have to - even long ball - and play the short passing game at other times too (like Germany). Watching 90 minutes of "tiki-taka" just isn't particularly exciting for me even though I do acknowledge the quality of what Spain do.
 
another 1-0 to spain,have to say its sleep inducing watching this game. If you take away the ireland game spain have only scored a goal a game since the tournament started,hope portugal knock them out . xabi just scored again theyre still boring!
 
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I hate that this Spanish team is going to be considered one of the greatest of all time. The paint on my wall drying is more entertaining than this dross.

They're like vampires of attacking football. They suck it out of both teams, and the 'match' becomes a battle of keep ball in the middle. It's mind blowingly dull.
 
goalgerd said:
another 1-0 to spain,have to say its sleep inducing watching this game. If you take away the ireland game spain have only scored a goal a game since the tournament started,hope portugal knock them out
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They also never scored more than a single goal in the World Cup, I think.
 
it really looks like wouldn't matter if there was Platini or Zidane unless the game is played with more than one ball.

congrats spanish fans.
 
Terrible match. I lost track of how many times I had to wake my brother up. Hopefully Italy and England deliver the goods.
 
Yeah, their football is terrible, it must really suck to be a Spanish fan or a Barcelona fan...

They are bloody wonderful to watch, a masterclass of football.
 
Yep, boring as hell it was, but you can't deny the strength they show by killing France like this either. You could wrap up the highlights of this game, including nifty finesse moves in the midfield in about 60-90 seconds.

90 seconds of fun, 88.5 minutes of boredom to be honest. Nice match by Ramos, I'd still prefer him on the right back though.
 
I think Spain is promoting your strength in the game .The best defense is keeping the ball at your feet. I`m starting to see more n more teams play like Chelsea soak n squeeze (mopping a 3" flood)


I hope Spain wins , everyday its a different scorer in this team that speaks volumes. The ball control in this team is amazing the flicks,taps and turns are being done like if they have supernatural abilities. How on earth are some in here calling it boring :CONFUSE: I guess everyone has a view on things. I play futbol and every turn,dribble and flick takes so much energy away from you and to see this team doing for 90 minutes flawless for the exception of arbeola *Ronaldo will have fun with him *imo.

GO Spain!!!
 
airjoca said:
Yeah, their football is terrible, it must really suck to be a Spanish fan or a Barcelona fan...

They are bloody wonderful to watch, a masterclass of football.
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They're bloody wonderful to watch for short 15 second bursts every now and then.

The rest of the time is pure tedium.
 
They've changed the system and living off some of their more recent past IMO, Spain at Euro 2008 were genuinely fantastic to watch. tiki taki with a lot of attacking intent.

The World Cup they had the same intentions but it definitely came across as a more machine like version but they had atleast Villa a constant threat inbehind.

Currently they don't have Villa and are playing two holding players in Busquets and Alonso and no CF, they've slowly turned it very machine like since the world cup, its very efficient but no longer pretty on the eye IMO.

Its like Barcelona without the injection of flair and thrill the likes of Alves, Messi and Sanchez all bring to mix it up.
 
I agree with you guys ..
Spain style is effective and solid .. but it's boring for the neutrals ..
the neutrals always want to watch many and variant goal attempts and shots and attacking operations, like Germany 2010 for example , or Portugal 2012 ..
Portugal are the most joyfull team of the tournament .. they are always trying to score .. so we enjoyed all of their games ..

Spain have super skillfull players, wich is an ingredient for pleasure and some action, but, they keep killing the nerves with their shitty-taka ..
they piss off all the spectators except their fans (and only when they win, because like Barça fans , when they lose they put the blame on ball possession and tiki taka instead of trying to score)
 
It wouldn't be so bad to watch if they actually took advantage of the situations possible, like they did in the beginning of first half against France.

Second half was not only boring to the neutrals, it was boring for Spanish people as well, unless they like watching training sessions...
 
There was a moment in the second half, when it was still 1-0, when the ball bobbled to Xavi, about 2 yards outside the box, with both French defenders out of position. Every other team in the world would have pushed on from there, he would have turned and tried to create a chance. Instead he looked up, and played it back to the centre circle where Busquets was waiting.

It's that mentality. Yes, safety first, posession first, find the easy pass first, but it's so risk adverse that it ruins it as a spectacle for me.

The highlights in the first half was the goal. That was it. From what it supposed to be the best team in history.

What would be fascinating would be for someone to try and play Spain at their game. It would be a parody of football.
 
Bottom line, however, is that no matter how boring we find it, no team in the world has sussed a way to beat it.

So fair enough I guess.
 
What masterclass? Sure they have awesome technique but that was not an impressive performance. I remember Spain playing much better with Villa. Germany are putting on much better performances if you ask me. Though Spain will most likely win the tournament and beat Germany with this style.
 
Yeah they're crap, god knows how they beat Scotland to the finals...................................

And post of the year, 'let's hope England and Italy give us a game', LOL, surely that is sarcasm at it's best. Of all the bets of Euro 2012, this is the one I am most confident of getting, 0-0. Just a bit worried England get a free-kick or Corner.

And why would this Spain team not be considered one of the best of all time, ffs, they are on the verge of doing something NO team in the world has ever done.


FD
 
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