Gabriele Marcotti's daily diary: Spain's Smurf bandwagon rolls on

3. The Spain bandwagon rolls on. And on. And - with the second-string - on. Last night's game told us very little, of course, beyond the fact that, unlike Portugal, Luis Aragones' troops kept the momentum going. Psychologically, that's important, nobody wants to go into the quarter-finals on a low. The single biggest thing Spain has shown me in this competition is that they've learned that occasionally hitting the ball into space (rather than constructing the most elaborate and intricate midfield passing patterns known to mankind) can actually be quite effective when you have arguably the quickest front pair in the competition (David Villa and Fernando Torres). That sprinkling of directness is one of the things this already vastly talented side needed. Now if they only could get some of the smurfs in midfield and attack (Torres excepted of course) to grow a few inches...

2. Hats off to Guus Hiddink. He's a very good manager, though not the tactical Messiah some depict him as. What he does exceptionally well is get teams to buy into what he wants them to do (and that's half the battle). Russia in 2008 may well be a greater feat than Australia in 2006 (when they won one game out of four and failed to create any decent chances against ten men for 43 odd minutes in the second round) and South Korea in 2002 (please don't get me started on the officiating). If he beats Holland (and, tactically, Russia seem ideally suited to creating problems for the Dutch) this will unquestionably be his greatest achievement with a national side.

1. Speaking of Holland, the next time you see a pundit or a journalist or a manager (in general, someone paid to talk about football) describing their style of play as "Total Football" either (a) punch them in the mouth or (b) patiently invite them to brush up on their history.  Marco Van Basten is doing a fantastic job and Holland execute brilliantly, but Rinus Michels' Total Football was something entirely different. Not necessarily better (though I think it was), just different. This Holland does not press for ninety minutes, its midfielders do not storm forward switching positions with its strikers, its right back only seems to cross the half-way line at half-time and it does not defend high up the pitch.  It's not Total Football.  In fact, Holland hasn't played that way since the late 1970s. Even Michels' own 1988 Holland side, the one that became European champions with Van Basten and Ruud Gullit, did not play Total Football. Total Football does not simply mean a bunch of guys in orange shirts scoring lots of goals. It has a specific tactical definition. And this Holland is entirely different.

Comments

[Luke]

i love Gabriele Marcotti, hes gotta be the most knowledgable man outside of football, combining comedy and his near factual opinions

[Piotr Fedurek]

Yeah, all of us know that Spaniards are brilliant at friendlys' and at group stages of major tournaments-it has been for years that way. Whenever, though, it comes to a decisive stage (and pressure is a factor) they consitently disappoint. Now time has come and they have something to prove becouse against Italy (a tournament team which consistently deliver) they are underdogs...

[Sergio Alonso]

It is true that spanish team heigh average is quite poor.It is also true that swedish and russian player were taller. And also English. But we are not playing basketball...we are talking about football, aren't we? How tall were Pelé, Di Stefano and Maradona?

[Daniel Hill]

As a Holland fan I heartily concur. While this team is playing some very nice football it is a long way from 'Total Football'. The attacking three behind the lone striker have a degree of fluidity but no where near the level of Cruyff, Neeskens etc.

Unfortunately the 'Total Football' tag is just another pointless and unjustified stereotype the viewing public are subjected too; along with Spain being a team of bottlers, Germany being efficient and the Italians playing 'Catenaccio'.