14th
European Championship Final: Olympic Stadium, Kiev;
Spain 4, Italy 0
“Spain made history in magical fashion as they
outclassed Italy
and claimed a successive European crown to add to their 2010 World Cup
triumph. Vicente del Bosque's side
staged a compelling claim to be the greatest international side of all time as
the Euro 2012 final was transformed into an exhibition with Italy - who performed creditably
for long periods - passed brutally into submission.
Spain's
virtuoso performance was a decisive answer to a growing band of critics who had
forced coach Del Bosque and his players to defend themselves against
allegations that they had been "boring" throughout Euro 2012 at the
pre-match media conference.”
One of the pitfalls
of doing lists like this is that in a vintage year like 2012, something has to
fall short. In this case the toughest
decision surrounded how much Olympics to do and where everything else fitted
in. After deciding on the amount of
Olympics, the final decision came down to writing about either Spain’s historic
hat-trick of Football championships or South Africa’s series win in England
that saw them unseat England as test Cricket’s best team.
Spain won out
because they are undoubtedly the best football team on the planet just now, and
because South Africa, whilst being the best Test Cricket side in the planet, I
suspect are not the legendary sides that the West Indies were in 1976, or
Australia were in 1995. On the other
hand, Spain are already compared to the West Germany sides of the mid 70’s and
the France side of the turn of the century – this summer Spain surpassed them.
This summer Spain
took their biggest advantage… and took
it to it’s logical conclusion. Remember
when Scottish football fans slated Craig Levein for playing 4-6 against the Czech Republic
two years ago. Well… Spain essentially won Euro 2012
with that exact formation. Whereas
Levein’s version of 4-6 was intended more as a 4-4-2-0 (which morphed into 4-6
due to Scotland’s inability
to keep possession), Spains
version was more of a 4-2-4-0 or a 4-3-3-0 and did keep the intended
shape. Spanish journalists called the
formation 4-2-3-1 with Fabregas as the “false 9”. Poppy!
And indeed cock! It was 4-6,
simple as.
What this formation
did do was enable Spain
to retain possession and operate their Tiki-taka style. In this respect, it worked. Where the formation didn’t work so well
(which is why Spain were called boring) is that Spain’s possession was not
converted into goals. Fabregas was
always too much of a midfielder to be a proper “False 9”, so doesn’t have the
forwards instinct for getting into goal scoring positions or for making runs
that forwards would make. Had Villa not
been injured, Spain
would have romped to victory. Spain looked their most uncomfortable against Italy in their first game, Italy remember
played 3-5-2 in that game. For every
other game, except their next game (against Ireland,
who they thrashed 4-0), Spain
dominated without really getting the goals their play deserved. So what happened in the final?
Put simply, Spain looked
like they switched Fabregas and Silva, with Silva playing through the middle
and making the sort of runs that Fabregas should have been. As a result, Silva fitted into the mould of
the “false 9” better than Fabregas did.
This undoubtedly contributed to Spain’s flying start – which
included their opening goal (scored by Silva).
Spain got the second just before half time from a counter attacking move
that saw Jordi Alba steer the ball past Bufon.
When Italy’s
third substitue Motta was forced off with an injury, it was essentially game
over.
The big question
now is how long this Spain
side can go on and what happens next?
The previous sides to have won back to back championships have evolved
differently. France
fell apart in South Korea,
becoming the first World Champions to fall at the first hurdle since Brazil 36 years
previously, before reaching the Quarter finals of Euro 2004. In contrast, West
Germany could have made it 3 in a row losing their
European crown on penalties to Czechoslovakia. However unlike France, who have still to put
together a side that puts them into contention for a championship, West Germany
built the foundations of a side that would see them become European Champions
again in 1980 before reaching the next three World Cup Finals – winning in
1990.
While the odds will
be stacked against Spain
retaining the World Cup next year in Brazil, I suspect that the future
of Spanish national team will be in good health for several years to come.
