Ochoa?
I'm talking some solace in the fact that Spain is back to being Spain in tournaments. They'll probably win 6-1 against Australia like in 1998. All we need now is reports of some infighting between the Madrid and Barcelona players.
TM showing that mean streak.
I guess it's easy to say in retrospect, but perhaps Spain's World Cup was doomed once Madrid won the Champions' League. Once that happened, you now had two sets of players (Barcelona and Madrid) that have won everything there is to win in the game.
I think that's more likely what happened to Spain instead of infighting. Xavi and Casillas get along much better than Hierro and Guardiola ever did.
Plus they all have been playing probably around 55 games per year for about 6 years now. They have a lot of miles on them.
Honestly, it's not all that surprising that Spain get eliminated from this group. The surprising thing was how horrible they played. Gave up 7 goals and only scored 1. They probably would have put up a better fight without Costa and Casillas, but still. Even France in 2002 had a better World Cup defense than this crap.
Hey guys, has Travis rode (strutted) in here riding a wave of Spanish tears to condemn the need for technical players versus better athletes? Or how Chile's team of small mobile twinks isnt good enough to beat a big tall team of atholetes!!! No, not yet? Good.
About time, I was upset at how he's been just rolling over and taking it. That's the @TrojanMan I know and love, spittin hot fiya back at me.
I will say that when Plan A doesn't work, it behooves a team to have a Plan B. What we saw was the result of not having that Plan B, and I honestly think I'm one of the few people who predicted Spain losing in this fashion (though I thought it would be in the quarterfinals). I figured they'd come up against a midfield that would just run them over with pressure and then smash them on a counter tacking advantage of the fact that Spain's holding/defensive mids are old as fuck at this point and liabilities. I'm going to dig up my exact post for this "Atoadaso" moment.
Deadman setting up the brick_trap. It is all that surprising.
Eh, I mean it was a group with 3 very good teams. One of them had to go down. There were a reasonable amount of people predicting Spain (although a lot more, including me, picked the Dutch) to get eliminated. To me, surprising would be something like Brazil getting eliminated in the group stage. That's all I'm saying.
I can't wait until 2038 when the US wins the world cup by playing a 5-2-3 formation on ultra defensive/counter attacking. We will have 1 "technical" player on the team and he'll play in one of the CDM spots and make great passes up to the forwards while regaling the rest of the team with stories about Liverpool's 1996 season. The other CDM will be a classic destroyer type who is mute and only knows one passing technique (FULL POWER). The wings will be Olympic class sprinters who are forbidden to ever shoot at goal unless we are up by more than 3 goals (only crossing allowed) and the lone striker will be a 6'7 (7'0 if you count the fro) dude named Leroy who can only score goals with his head. We will have kicked our best player off the team during qualifiers when he tries to make us play Tiki Taka.
Spain was the second most favored team to get out of their group, Brazil was the the most favored team. Congrats.
Spain was the second most favored team to get out of their group, Brazil was the the most favored team. Congrats.
I can see ur point about Italy and I agree with it, but I honestly think Spain will get run over at some point because they are old. I think they will face a different type of opposition than they did in 2010 or 2012 Euros. Everyone now knows that it isn't a fluke and if you let them play their game they will win, so I expect teams to be a lot more aggressive against Spain and force them to play at a more aggressive game. At that point, I think we'll either see Spain dice up over aggressive teams, or we will see Spain look incredibly vulnerable to counters. I don't think there are many teams that will sit around and let Spain piddle around for the entire game. I think their eventual downfall will be the fact that their holding midfield players are so old and slow at this point that they are borderline liabilities at times on their club teams against counter attacks. If Xabi Alonso and Xavi are both in the game, Spain are just asking to get hammered on the counter (at which point Ramos or Pique will get a red card).
Even ahead of Argentina?
As Travis said, there was no Plan B. Just sad.
I dont think they even got the chance to play their own football, they were constantly trying to get going whilst defending an onslaught.
This. I really don't remember Spain ever playing the classic tiki-taka that they did even in the last tournament. Their Plan A couldn't get going at all because of the pressing by the Dutch and Chileans.
Just like Nostradamus said. Teams weren't going to sit back and let Spain play their way again. They were going to press them and take a chance between getting shredded and losing by a lot or beating Spain on counters.
This. I really don't remember Spain ever playing the classic tiki-taka that they did even in the last tournament. Their Plan A couldn't get going at all because of the pressing by the Dutch and Chileans.
Just like Nostradamus said. Teams weren't going to sit back and let Spain play their way again. They were going to press them and take a chance between getting shredded and losing by a lot or beating Spain on counters.
Its this exact reason why I think next season Liverpool will struggle, teams had them figured out by the end of the season.
Cant be one dimensional, need it all.
Got to have it all to be a league/cup winning team.
I think I'm going to start making a bunch of inane predictions, just so when one goes right I can pull it out and act all high and mighty like you.
Teams didn't "figure out" Liverpool. They just finished their chances Liverpool gave their opponents all season. Unless you mean "figuring out" is better finishing.
After such an incredible run of good luck and great finishing, it was likely that their defensive weakness(they showed it all season) would cost them.