| SPAIN |  | 2 | : | 0 |  | FRANCE |
| Xabi Alonso 19', 91' |
My match rating: ★★
Spain are still the world's best team right now. As Nils Liedholm used to say, "for as long as you have the ball, they cannot score." Del Bosque, like his colleague Guardiola, takes this school of thought very seriously, and this is the result.
Unlike Barcelona, though, Spain is not a traditionally pretty team to watch. I certainly don't need to see goals to enjoy a match, as I like tactics most of all. From this perspective, then, Spain's matches are gorgeous and you'll rarely see a match managed so rationally.
Spain treat football professionally: they know what they have to do to win and they do it. In a sense, you could say that they have mastered the art of winning. I'm going out on a limb here, but they may be the first team in the modern football era (post-Rimet, so post-1970) who are able to do so. Perhaps in 20-some years some will look back and call them a "best" team or whatever. Football fans are notoriously skeptical of such labels, but it may be inevitable.
As far as this one match is concerned, I was a little surprised at how easily France let themselves be caught in the Spaniards' net. That is not to say that I expected Blanc's boys to be on par with Del Bosque's: France are in the middle of an inter-generational shift and they did well to clear the group stage at all. But given that Spain's lead was 1-0 for the entire match, I would have expected a harsher reaction. Yes, it was wise not to force the issue in the first half, for the first rule of rational defensive football is: "when you're down, stay down and try not to get further down!" But in the second half France allowed Spain to resume business as usual, and there's no digging yourself out of that hole. Simply put, the young Frenchmen were insufficiently assertive before a much more experienced Spanish side, and they paid for it.
Now we have an exciting all-Iberian match-up in the first semifinal. I have not yet written of the Spain-Portugal football rivalry (I need to research it more!), but I will when we get a little closer to that match.
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My man of the match: Xabi Alonso (S)
UEFA report ---|||--- Player ratings ---|||--- Photos ---|||--- Highlights (soon!)
UEFA report ---|||--- Player ratings ---|||--- Photos ---|||--- Highlights (soon!)
Unlike Barcelona, though, Spain is not a traditionally pretty team to watch. I certainly don't need to see goals to enjoy a match, as I like tactics most of all. From this perspective, then, Spain's matches are gorgeous and you'll rarely see a match managed so rationally.
Spain treat football professionally: they know what they have to do to win and they do it. In a sense, you could say that they have mastered the art of winning. I'm going out on a limb here, but they may be the first team in the modern football era (post-Rimet, so post-1970) who are able to do so. Perhaps in 20-some years some will look back and call them a "best" team or whatever. Football fans are notoriously skeptical of such labels, but it may be inevitable.
As far as this one match is concerned, I was a little surprised at how easily France let themselves be caught in the Spaniards' net. That is not to say that I expected Blanc's boys to be on par with Del Bosque's: France are in the middle of an inter-generational shift and they did well to clear the group stage at all. But given that Spain's lead was 1-0 for the entire match, I would have expected a harsher reaction. Yes, it was wise not to force the issue in the first half, for the first rule of rational defensive football is: "when you're down, stay down and try not to get further down!" But in the second half France allowed Spain to resume business as usual, and there's no digging yourself out of that hole. Simply put, the young Frenchmen were insufficiently assertive before a much more experienced Spanish side, and they paid for it.
Now we have an exciting all-Iberian match-up in the first semifinal. I have not yet written of the Spain-Portugal football rivalry (I need to research it more!), but I will when we get a little closer to that match.
.
.
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