Much has been said about Spain's performance this World Cup. No one can deny they probably deserved victory, but was it attractive to watch? Was it beautiful & total football? Or was it just a lot of short boring passing with not enough attacking flair?

Your thoughts please...

They are certianly capable of it but imo we didn't see this in South Africa and the constant overhyping and Fozzie wank about how they played the best football is far from the truth, that gong goes to Germany. Spain's midfield is blessed with some incredible passers and as thus they have a tendancy to dominate possession but imo dominating possession and sitting back and not doing anything with it is not the beautiful football that Fosters harps on about

Like Fredsta said, they have the potential to but they didn't at the WC. Tiring out your opposition for 75 minutes and then sneaking a 1-0 win is not exciting football and is not good to watch.

What I hate is people calling it Total Football. To compare Spain's game to Rinus Michaels' masterpiece that was Total Football is just an insult tbh. No one has played Total Football since the Dutch in 1974 and no one has come close.

Seriously, I cant believe people would consider blaming Spain for 'boring tactics'. I say grow a fucking football brain FFS. If teams play negative defensive tactics against Spain's free flowing quick passing high possession attacking style - they have no choice but to sit back and hold possession and pick their passes more carefully. I heard some people say that Spain played 'selfish' :shock: WTF do you wan them to do share the ball around to the other team??? The only thing Spain lacked at this World Cup was execution in front of goal, and with Torres not in form they did well with what they had to win it. This thread should be aimed at the Dutch for boring tactics. Get the fuck over blaming the Spanish!

We are simply saying their football is not as beautiful as the vast majority think it is. Get a footballing brain? At times Spain were simply awfull to watch, I understand that teams were shutting them out but you can't hide behind that excuse as at times Spain were lazy in their casual approach to simply string together passes without really moving forward. They even used this to shut out the attacking football of the Germans by dominatimng possession and not allowing Germany to touch the ball

Fredsta they were not allowed to play their style. So what you saw was the result of teams playing a high pressure defensive counter attack. It's not fucking rocket science. Have you seen what Spain do to teams that allow them the space???? :roll: It's fucking scary and you did not see it at the world cup because there is only one other tactic the other team can do to disrupt it. It worked for the Swiss, but on paper Spain dominated that game.

WHAA WHAA WHAA The Germans! They were good, yes...but not good enough!

FFS yes it was obvious that teams went out aiming to stifle their play but what I am saying is that a true "total footbal" team shouldn't rely on other teams allowing them to play beautiful football and Spain at times didn't show any desire to do much with the ball and just played a lazy passing game with no real direction. They have some amazing players and some incredible passers they have demonstarted a knack for playing beautifull football and they probably will do so again soon but in the World Cup the quality of their football was at times mediocre and the excuse of other teams not letting them play is true but it shouldn't be an excuse and lets face it they didn't exactly let the Germans play in the Semi final did they?

This is going in circles, So I'm going to put it real simple. Football is a simple game, it really isn't that complicated. Spain are capable of playing beautiful football, this is fact! The other team knows this and the other teams main objective is to stop this no matter how ugly. So for blame to be put squarely on Spain is an absolute joke! Did Spain have a great tournament? No. Did they win playing boring? No. Did the other teams try not to lose by playing boring? Yes!


Does that look boring to you?

[youtube][/youtube]

Is that total football? Yes!

I ticked no, but only because of the negative tactics they came up against. But this raises the question: is it wrong to play negatively if you know the other team is going to play your arse off the park if you don't? Well, of course it depends on what you mean by negative, but generally I don't think it is. You may just play more defensively, and rely on the counter and/or long-ball - this in itself is negative but not necessarily dirty or foul play.

And I agree with sydneycroatia58, that what Spain do play, while lovely football, is not the same as the Dutch Total Football of the 1970s.

Edited by Riv of Canberra: 14/7/2010 07:57:41 PM

You obviously don't know what Total Football is.

No.

Watching Spain play football is like watching a teenager struggle with a girl's bra for an eternity before briefly getting to see her rack, just as the parents park in the driveway.

Edited by Bill Murray: 14/7/2010 08:33:17 PM

Round of 16, 1-0. Quarters, 1-0. Semi's 1-0. Final 1-0.

Not very beautiful to me.

Poll lacks "Nto by a long shot" option.

People talked about how they weren't allowed to play their 'natural game' by teams and were forced to play ugly football. But even against minnows like Honduras they tried to just run the ball over the line and were boring to watch.

If they were that good, they wouldn't have let teams dictate terms to them, they'd have taken control of the game and opened it up.

I think leftrightout is actually Carl Barron.

Lefty, we're not talking about what Spain did to Poland before the tournament, we're talking about Spain's performance IN the tournament.

That was only shown to show what Spain are capable of when allowed space.

The only thing that frustrated me with Spain in this World Cup as a supporter was lack of execution in front of goal. The stats are pretty overwhelming in the amount of opportunity's Spain had compared with the other team.

Shots on goal

24/8 v Swiss
22/9 v Honduras
9/9 v Chile
19/9 v Portugal
16/9 v Paraguay
13/5 v Germany
19/13 v Netherlands


Now as frustrating as this aspect of their game was, if Spain, like Germany converted about two or three more of these chances each game you would all be creaming your pants about how beautiful Spain played. IMO Spain created the opportunities but lacked the killer blow. Their lead up to goal was brilliant considering the tactics they faced but it was not enough, only to cause the spectator to get extremely frustrated (believe me! The Swiss game and others where like masturbating with a cheese-grater, pain and pleasure at the same time!). Who knows, if Torres was in form it might have been a different story. Spain did their up-most best playing against boring tactics and won the World Cup doing so, which is a very, very good effort!

Spain ground out results, just because they had a high possession stat does not mean their results werent a grind.

Agree 100% with that.

Spain played to win the tournament and they did, how could you say boring football when one side totally dominates the other without dirty tacticts, they were miles ahead of the opposition on ability and tactics, made the Germans look like school boys team, same German side that made Argentina, England and Australia look like part time sides.

Holland was helpless in the first 15 min of the finals than they changed the tactics to Italys 80 style kicking them of the park and almost won only for Roben to miss twice. To Spains credit they managed to win without a world class strikers, Torres had knee surgery before this WC.
Barcelona V Inter in Chanpions League final played like Spain but Inter with right counter attack tacticas and Melitos two goals won, something that Germany without Muller and Holland with Roben could not do.

Total football deffinetly not, best 2010 WC football yes

No I'm not Spanish or South American

Of coarse they ground out the results, I never denied that. I grind out 90 minutes every Sunday so I know what that feels like. I have played in games where my team has dominated everything bar the scoreboard, that's football and it's frustrating. But if a team converts their opportunity's suddenly they are dominated no matter what the stats say...#-o I played in a game on Sunday and we won 2-1 and we were not the dominate side we just executed our opportunity's better. In Spain's case they were they dominated all the stats and ground out all but 1 victory against mostly negative defensive tactics. IF they converted more of their 'shots on target' stat, their would be no issue. In the end they deserved to be world champions.

=d>

Let me just say - Spain did not achieve total football in this tournament. But they are the only team that capable of it.

David Villa not World class?

Yeah - without one less (Torres) world class striker.

[youtube][/youtube]

@4.00min mark is a typical way in which the Spanish play. How many times in the Swiss game did this same play result in Navas crossing it to no one.

If that is total football - it's almost identical to the way Spain play when given space (There were glimpses in this WC from Spain but no complete domination). Holland have more than a handful of chances missed in this game also. The Dutch play ahead of their time and Uruguay have no fucking idea what to do. In today's game information about teams and the way they play is a lot more available and the players are more professional and the pace is faster. Spain are capable of this I have seen it in Euro 2008 and other games.

Edited by leftrightout: 15/7/2010 12:07:21 PM

the way spain crowd the referee every single time he blows his whistle was definately not beautiful. other than that i have no real problems with the way they played in the tournament. it wasnt total football but it wasnt boring but i dont usually find any match boring.

Pardon me wrong choice of words should have written: " without a fit world class striker (Torres)"
David Villa is now a World class striker, he was more of an attacking wing player prior this tournament just like Iniesta, Pedro or even Henry was when he went to Arsenal

I admit I did not watch much of Spain this World Cup but from what I saw, I can't call it total football. There was no player who I saw who wanted to take on a player one on one, like Cruyff did in the 1970s. It seemed like they just wanted to retain possesion until the opposition got slightly out of possition from a Spanish run down the middle.

I don't like the long ball game either but I refute many comments made by the media that Spain wanted to use the ball to win the match. If they wanted to win they would be going all out to score more than 1 goal per match!

Shots on goal

24/8 v Swiss
22/9 v Honduras
9/9 v Chile
19/9 v Portugal
16/9 v Paraguay
13/5 v Germany
19/13 v Netherlands


If you watched Spain at all bar the final...

Again :roll: Execution let them down.

The football spain played wasn't really beautiful
They controlled the match. We're dominant, but it wasn't as beautiful as it has been in the past

Beautiful is an adjective that gets thrown around a lot and a lot of people define beauty differently...especially with women, I might find a woman beautiful and you might find her butt ugly. In my book, Spain play beautiful. If I were to coach a team I would encourage the possession game because that's what I love.