Spain v France match thread

[Shaggy]

The main reason the game was **** was France's ludicrous lack of ambition and quality, yet Twitter and the British press are full of how boring Spain are. Spain's haters make me LOL, they're nearly all Mancs, followed by lots of Arsenal and Chelsea.

Spot the common thread.

[Mattshark]

The main reason the game was **** was France's ludicrous lack of ambition and quality, yet Twitter and the British press are full of how boring Spain are. Spain's haters make me LOL, they're nearly all Mancs, followed by lots of Arsenal and Chelsea.

Spot the common thread.

TBF, Spain are often boring. The only game were they were not was against Ireland, who are just not very good. They were not exactly exciting in the WC either, effective, but not very exciting.

[Shaggy]

Depends on your point of view. I certainly don't think watching Iniesta, Xavi, Alonso et al stroke it around for pure fun boring. It's a beautiful thing, always. Touch, fantastic movement, angles, bold passing. I find most people who find them boring prefer "up and at 'em" British football - all huff and puff, goalmouth scrambles etc. I'd rather watch Spain stroking it about.

Either that or they're embittered United fans.

Or Arsenal.

Or Chelsea.

All been hammered multiple times by Barca.

Last night was a boring game, sure, but France can be blamed for that.

Also every team Spain face now just park the bus. Every one.

[Mattshark]

It can be nice, but there is often a lack of intent, they are happy to sit on a 1-0. I'd rather have nice play with attacking intent.

I find the new no striker system kind of intensifies this. They have imo lost the excitement they had in Euro 08, the are now boringly efficient.

[Shaggy]

They were definitely better to watch in 08 but I think this is mainly due to every single team they face dropping attacking players (cf France last night) packing the defence and playing for penalties.

Every game Spain have to try and pass through a flat back 10.

I've heard loads of English people whining about Spain. Makes me laugh. English people FFS, moaning about the way SPAIN play football!

If England played like that - keeping the ball for 75% of a game and toying with the opposition, nearly always winning - the nation would wank itself silly. Especially ****s like Chiles. He was bleating about it too last night. You should know you're in trouble if he agrees

[Maxiedge]

You have to hand it to Spain, they make it look easy and people take it for granted. Then you also have players like Mata and Llorente on the bench who haven't hadn't sniff all tournament.

[Mattshark]

They were definitely better to watch in 08 but I think this is mainly due to every single team they face dropping attacking players (cf France last night) packing the defence and playing for penalties.

Every game Spain have to try and pass through a flat back 10.

I've heard loads of English people whining about Spain. Makes me laugh. English people FFS, moaning about the way SPAIN play football!

If England played like that - keeping the ball for 75% of a game and toying with the opposition, nearly always winning - the nation would wank itself silly. Especially ****s like Chiles. He was bleating about it too last night. You should know you're in trouble if he agrees

Quite probably yes, I wouldn't enjoy it though!

[dww]

I like Arsene Wengers phrase 'beautiful attrition' to describe it.

Like Shaggy says (and Martinez seemed to be trying to say the other night before Chiles cut him down) every team tries something different to disrupt Spain. Every game they have to find a solution to a new problem, with the opposition setting up in increasingly defensive setups. So far in three major tournaments no one has outwitted them (possible exception for Switzerland but that seemed more like luck).

[Mattshark]

I thought Italy did very well against Spain, they probably should have scored more than one too.

[dww]

I thought Italy did very well against Spain, they probably should have scored more than one too.

They did very well, but Spain were inches off getting the same move they scored from on numerous occasions and then with Torres on looked to generate as many opportunities as Italy had throughout the match. Whilst italy played really well Spain still looked twice the team they did IMO.

[Phoenix07]

Depends on your point of view. I certainly don't think watching Iniesta, Xavi, Alonso et al stroke it around for pure fun boring. It's a beautiful thing, always. Touch, fantastic movement, angles, bold passing. I find most people who find them boring prefer "up and at 'em" British football - all huff and puff, goalmouth scrambles etc. I'd rather watch Spain stroking it about.

Either that or they're embittered United fans.

Or Arsenal.

Or Chelsea.

All been hammered multiple times by Barca.

Last night was a boring game, sure, but France can be blamed for that.

Also every team Spain face now just park the bus. Every one.

Now, Spain (Barcelona and to an extent, Real Madrid), are having to invent new ways of unlocking defences. It's as much a tactical game as it is a technical game. People don't appreciate that what appears to just be stroking the ball along is also a system of other players trying to create space, the player with the ball deciding when it is right to dribble or make a pass etc. Watching Iniesta, Xavi and Alonso look up when the ball is coming to them, already deciding what to do, it's magical.

Listening to Adrian Chiles talk about Spain playing no strikers was like having bees stinging my eardrums.

[Mattshark]

They did very well, but Spain were inches off getting the same move they scored from on numerous occasions and then with Torres on looked to generate as many opportunities as Italy had throughout the match. Whilst italy played really well Spain still looked twice the team they did IMO.

They were, but Italy wasted some very clear chances too. Spain clearly have a better back line that Italy's which is just not of the quality of previous years.

[Fredo]

The pressure on France's players is incredible. They're questioned for 'not wanting it enough' and their nationality is always in doubt. The Nasri episode was typical. It's quite an uneasy state of affairs and truly despicable that they have to go through this.

[CJ]

are you pretending to be french again

[dww]

The pressure on France's players is incredible. They're questioned for 'not wanting it enough' and their nationality is always in doubt. The Nasri episode was typical. It's quite an uneasy state of affairs and truly despicable that they have to go through this.

Interesting perspective. Do you think there are similarities with Spain of yore in terms of team cohesion then (a more exaggerated form, perhaps)? It seems more like a combination of the English in South Africa and Holland at 90% of all tournaments from the information in the media here.