beautiful attrition

Jonathan Wilson again, this time writing for an English paper:

There are those who protest at their lack of goals (no side has reached the final scoring fewer) but they are a classic example of a team that prefers to control the game than to become obsessed by creating chances. Perhaps they at times become mesmerised by their passing, perhaps there is even something attritional about it, wearing opponents down until they make the mistake, but it is beautiful attrition. … Frankly, if they ever faced a side who took them on rather than sitting eight men behind the ball, we may see a more overtly attacking Spain.

I’ll tell you who Spain reminds me of: the 49ers during the Bill Walsh West Coast Offense years, dominating the opposition by possession secured via a short-passing game. There seems to be some general agreement amongst fans both casual and more fervent that Spain is boring. As should be clear by now, I am not the one to ask about this … I am a vocal detractor when it comes to what I perceive as negative tactics, but I also admit to wearing my heart on my sleeve. If Spain manages yet another 1-0 win in the final, that will be a good game to me; if they lose, 4-3, it will be a bad game.

Still, I’ll risk letting my Spain fandom cloud my vision, and offer the following: Spain’s “boring” play is directly correlated to the play of their opponents. Spain plays the most patient soccer imaginable. They have supreme confidence in their ability to hold the ball, to use their passing skills to keep possession while they search for the tiniest advantages, and to take those advantages when they appear without just jumping at anything which looks promising to the naked eye. Fans get frustrated … we want to see something happen, and Spain is just too damn patient, so we criticize them. But the boring ones are the teams that are apparently so frightened of Spain’s attacking potential that they start the match with the bus in the parking lot. Maybe they think Spain will expose themselves with rash attacks that lead nowhere, allowing the opposition to counter attack. For the last several years, though, Spain has managed to mostly avoid the rash attack. They wait, they pass, they wait, they pass.

Is this boring? Let’s just say I understand those who think Spain is a cure for insomnia. Doesn’t matter to me … they are “my” team, I don’t care how they win, just that they win. (During the Germany match, Charlie said I wouldn’t want Spain to win due to a contested call, and I assured him, I didn’t care how they won, cheating included.) But if you find yourself watching the final and thinking it’s boring, ask yourself which team is most to blame. My prediction is, the Dutch will be sitting back, afraid of Spain’s potential, and Spain will get their usual big advantage in possession and score the match’s only goal. At which point they’ll be blamed once again for being boring.

Comments

[Charlie Bertsch]

I don't think Spain is boring for the same reason that I like a well-played match that is 0-0 late in the contest. For me, what's exciting about football is the tension between the sense of imminent danger that should always be active and the tendency to get lulled into thinking that a particular stretch promises no significant results. Spain exploits that tension with aplomb, which makes them fun for me to watch. More fun, indeed, than Chile, which usually made a show of seeming far more dangerous than they were.

I think this Dutch side play very similarly, especially in terms of their approach to attacking. Their midfield defense relies on brutality over finesse, more often than not. Still, they have the skill to do things with Spain -- and I mean that in the sense of collaboration as well as competition -- that Germany, for all the excitement they had generated in previous matches, lacked the combination of talent and experience to pull off. I can actually see the final turning out to be a 1-0 result that feels pretty classic to me. At the very least, it will be better than watching Italy!