Wednesday 30 January 2013

Some Thought's About That Semi Final...



Sorry about the blogging hiatus.  There will be new posts in the next few days, continuing the sporting picks of last year.  Firstly though some thoughts about the League Cup semi final, in particular Sunday’s historic win for St Mirren.

Steven Thompson makes it 3-1 to the Bud's
Historic?  Well, you would have to go back to 1959 for St Mirren’s last win over Celtic at Hampden.  This result set’s up only their third League Cup final, three years after the last appearance in the final – that 1-0 loss to Rangers.  Celtic were huge favourites to make their second final appearance in a row.  So what happened?

Firstly, for the first time against the Old Firm since Lennon became St Mirren manager (the Christmas Eve 2011 game against Rangers doesn’t count as St Mirren came up against an incredibly poor Rangers), the players executed the game plan expertly – high line and pressing the Celtic players.  What undoubtedly helped was that St Mirren did not give away an early gift of a goal to Celtic this time.  St Mirren have conceded early goals each time Celtic have visited Greenhill Road since that 4-0 win – four days after the defeat to Rangers in the League Cup final.  This time it was St Mirren that grabbed the first goal.

Secondly, Lennon went into this match playing a sort of variation of 4-5-1, with Goncalves, McGowan & Teale as the more advanced midfielders.  This wasn’t a true 4-2-3-1 as neither Newton nor McGinn performed solely as sitting midfielders, getting forward at any opportunity.  Whether this signifies a revival of last years 4-2-3-1 is anyone’s guess, as Lennon has favoured formations with two up front this season.

Lastly, I hope this does not mask the issues that still persist with this team.  The current St Mirren squad is still two defensive players short…  at least.  We need a central defender and a defensive midfielder.

I’ll be posting about the final nearer the time, but from this distance the final looks like it’ll be a nip and tick affair.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Sporting Picks of 2012, Part 2: July 1st


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.