FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa

[Bri]

Originally Posted by monir

So any thought on how Spain can be beaten? Of course, I'm ignoring their first game in this world cup....

They are a very strong team but like any other team Spain has a few weaknesses:


Defense is fairly slow and plays high up, making them vulnerable to counters by teams that can switch to offense quickly and posses fast forwards.

Spain can essentially only attack through the middle as they don't have dedicated wingers. Their forwards play fairly deep to secure possession so they don't get in the sixteen very much. They gave up attack power to secure possession. Their low scoring potential makes them vulnerable to goals from set pieces. If they are a goal down Spain is unlikely to fight it's way back, though they rarely concede goals.

Possession is Spain main weapon and defense. They use their passing game to rest and to wear down opponents. Spain often scores it's first goal after an hour of play when their opponents are worn down from chasing the ball and start to make more defensive mistakes. Teams that are based on superior athletic ability and can last a full match pressing the ball, these teams are partly immune for Spain's strongest weapon.


So in short Spain has a natural vulnerability to teams that feel fine under pressure and can switch to attack fast or are vulnerable to teams that are based on athletic ability.

Dunga's Brazil is one of the first type.

The second type would be teams like the USA and South Korea. As could be seen in the 2009 Confederations Cup where Bradley's team beat Spain when they scored early and kept up pressing till the end.

[WanderingKnight]

Everyone talks about De Jong, Heitingaa and Bommel but nobody mentions the fact Iniesta blatantly hacked out Bommel's legs after play was stopped. Nor that Puyol virtually kept rugby tackling Robben or the blatant corner kick that wasn't given before Iniesta's run. Dodgy refereeing was everywhere, both Iniesta and De Jong should've been sent off early on. I could continue to list a massive ammount of wtf's with screenies if I cared to.


In the end luck was against them simple as that. All it proves is we NEED replay technology in the World Cup, every other sport uses it to stop dodgy decisions, why don't they.

It doesn't really matter. The real reason why the referee saw (because he did see it, didn't he give him a yellow card for that?) but didn't act upon Iniesta's kicking of the Dutch player was because, if he had done that, he would be turning the balance too much towards the Dutch side, since de Jung and van Bommel should have long left the pitch. Referees aren't dumb, even if they do sometimes make mistakes. Everyone who watches football regularly realizes what was going on with him during the match.

TV replays would have done nothing. The ref clearly saw de Jung's kick, and clearly saw van Bommel still making strong fouls after being carded once, and didn't act upon it. No TV replay would have changed that.

[BellaD]

I was so dissapointed that Netherland didn't win. That silly octopus ..I blame it for everything ..

[Guardian Enzo]

I would dispute the notion that Spain can only score from the middle. They do have a true winger - Navas - and though he didn't start, he was very much a dangerous man off the bench. He created several good chances against the Dutch.

[Shinndou]

They also have Silva who plays on the wings as well. And Iniesta is often employed on the left even in F.C. Barcelona.

[WanderingKnight]

Navas' delivery is terrible though.

[risingstar3110]

The strongest point of Spain is how they have so many star players and every of them can somehow shift the game course to favor Spain.

The WC may not allow us to see that. But if they have to play in long run, they will crash out on top just like Barcelona (ironically how the major of Spain players is Barcelona) in their league .

[Shinndou]

A positive(?) and possible look to the future national teams in 2014: http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/edi...nd-italy-spain

[WanderingKnight]

That's not a bad Argentinian team actually, I'm pretty sure with that shape things would have gone quite differently against Germany.

The only real problem our national team has is the full backs. It's amazing how we are unable to produce even one complete full back after Zanetti... Clemente Rodriguez is good but he's too attack-minded. And he doesn't get used a lot, for some reason.

Thankfully Heinze will be too old to play anymore.

[Shinndou]

A lot of fullbacks have been more attack-minded in these recent years. If you think about it, except for Maicon who's both good at defending and attacking, the other notorious fullbacks are popular for their offensive abilities.

Zanetti belongs to the "old school" of fullbacks, and to be quite honest I think it's a pity that this role is going through this transformation. The "beautiful game" doesn't only spawn from a team's offensive ability. The ability to defend well, to see the lines move flawlessly while closing spaces is also what makes a team shine.

Oh well, looking at that article and thinking about the potential team Italy, I'd say that it's not too far from the team that I personally would like to see, but a few names there are far from being certain candidates (like Poli, who still has to prove to be worthy of a national team call).

Balotelli and Macheda definetely have to be called, as long as they both get playing time at their respective clubs (or they might even end up being club mates, considering Man U interest for Balotelli). I don't know about Cassano, I really like the player and I think he's been Italy's best talent these years but I fear he'll already be past his prime in 2014. Sebastian Giovinco might be a good replacement, but as much as it pains me to say it as a Juventus fan he needs to find an other club if he wants to find playing time.

That, and there's also Giuseppe Rossi. Candreva is an other interesting prospect.

It's pretty ironical that in current times Italy is producing a lot of young talented forwards rather than producing solid defenders as it used to do in the past generations. Except for Chiellini and Bonucci, the other potential defenders worthy of a national call still have to show glimpse of true class. As for the fullbacks... Santon has the best chances of becoming a starlet, but again this will depend on how much faith Benitez will place on him this season (Mourinho did, and while Santon was fit he earned his place in the national team).

[WanderingKnight]

A lot of fullbacks have been more attack-minded in these recent years. If you think about it, except for Maicon who's both good at defending and attacking, the other notorious fullbacks are popular for their offensive abilities.

Yeah, well, I would be happy if we had more attacking fullbacks. But we seem unable to get even those. For the last five or so years Argentina has been playing centre backs as full backs whenever we played with four defenders.

[Blaat]

Had to bump to share this with you guys

Spoiler for Forlan tribute video:

So awesome

[AnimeFangirl]

I still think Suarez was robbed. He should have won Goalkeeper of the Tournament!

What I'm watching now: The U-20 Women's World Cup. It's better than I'd expected, but not as good as last year's U-20 Men's Cup.

[-Sho-]

So Thierry Henry signed for "New York Red Bulls" club and yesterday he did his first training with them .
He said that he's happy cuz he's playing with some of his friends and he love New York .