Well, in the real world good very rarely triumphs over evil and so we have a resolute Swiss defence winning the battle against the best attack in the tournament.
Hitzfeld and his players deserve a lot of credit for sticking to a plan with focus and determination. It is not easy to pull off such a defensive performance without making a single mistake in the whole game! And since they are a relatively small team I’d not blame them for the negative tactics either. They tried, they succeeded – fair play to them.
No one really expected the Swiss to win. A draw perhaps, but not a win. Even Hitzfeld said “three very unexpected” in his post match interview!
Such games are often decided by a moment of individual class (Alonso strike rattling the bar could have gone in) or an individual mistake (Senderos fouled Silva and could have conceded a penalty) or some luck (the pin-ball that eventually led to the goal). As it turned out, Switzerland had the luck on both ends of the pitch.
Their plan was quite simple. Put 6-8 men in the box in front of the keeper, defend narrow, and let Spain attack through the flanks. Once you have big players in the box there is a good chance that most crosses will be cleared. Most gooners will understand this as Arsenal have faced the same situation time and again.
What Switzerland did well was exploit the weakness at the centre of the Spanish defence. Their front two toiled hard and created a nuisance for the Spaniards. In contrast, Villa missed a couple of good chances and Torres looked really rusty when he came on.
Spain really missed some quality in the final third as Iniesta too missed a couple of good chances and his final ball wasn’t up to his high standards. Alonso and Busquets didn’t really offer any creative threat and Xavi isn’t the guy to play an advanced role in and around the box.
I was really surprised that Del Bosque didn’t use Cesc at all. His substitutions were baffling as he brought in a couple of inexperienced wingers and a rusty striker who lacks match fitness. If he really wanted to use the wings, LLorente might have been a much better choice.
I think Spain missed Fabregas more than anything else. No one in this Spainish team has a vision comparable to El Capitan. More importantly, Fabregas plays against parked buses and physical sides regularly in the Premier League. I don’t think many teams can pull off such a defensive performance in La Liga.
Cesc also has that extra bit of time in the final third and with him running the show Iniesta could have made some dangerous runs into the box. Fabregas could make some runs of his own as well, something that Xavi has rarely done in his career, especially against such teams.
To be frank, it just seems stupid to play Busquets and Alonso in tandem. It’s not that they offer any extra defensive protection as the goal was conceded when Busquets failed to deal with a long, straight goal kick!
One of them could have played with Xavi in a deeper role, something that he excels at. Fabregas would have been a much more potent attacking midfielder and Spain would have had a better chance against this defence.
Del Bosque should give a call to Guardiola who has faced similar problems and has identified Fabregas as the solution! Hopefully, he will get it right soon. The next two games should be easier as neither Honduras, nor Chile are likely to defend with such focus, determination and technique.
If Switzerland can continue their form in the next two games and win the group, we might have an exciting prospect of Spain taking on Brazil in the second round! It is unlikely because the Swiss game does rely a lot on luck.
In the other games, Chile truly entertained and I hope they get through to the second round. For that to materialize, they will need a result against the Swiss as I can’t see them keeping Spain out.
Uruguay played an efficient game and the hosts’ hopes of qualifying to the knockout stages have taken a dent. In fairness, South Africa have been punching above their weight and should not be disappointed with their performances.
The first round of fixtures is over. No team looks like a clear favourite, though some might be tempted to mention Germany. I think we will get a better idea after they play the tougher opponents in that group.
At least this day was not as boring as the last few and hopefully the trend will be maintained by Argentina, Korea and Mexico.
Your article is on point. Until the coach understand how important Cesc Fabregas is to the spanish natinal team then the team can progress.
is he injured? he should play for next game.
Busquets is overrated anyways. If he wasn’t Catalan and if he wasn’t riding his dad’s name he wouldn’t get into the starting 11 at Barca. He’s a very good play actor though as we saw in the CL so I guess he has that going for him.
Torres should have came on earlier, he made the game come more alive with his presence and I thought Cesc would have come on when Iniesta came off injured but I was surprised to see Navas and Pedro. In any case Spain hasn’t done much to banish their underachieving nature with the performance today
It has been a very huge disappointment yesterday.
If Spain had gone down after playing a fabulous game, we could have blamed it on luck. But yesterday we had to see some shoddy performances.
The coach’s choice of players too baffled. Busqutes should never have been in the team in first place. Navas should have tried his hand in mor long range shots aimed at goal rather than crossing.
The story of this game was not cesc or even spain, it was Gohkan Inler. We miss Inler far more than Spain missed Cesc.
Everything spain tried down the middle was shunted to the wings due to Inler’s play, unfortunately for spain, the swiss have some quality defensive backs as well.
Inler played well but Spain got past him quite often only to be thwarted by the defence. When 9 men defend in a 20 yard area it’s a different thing, I’m not sure we can assume the same can do it when the playing style is completely reversed.
Not saying Inler is not good, just that we need to see him in a different kind of a game where the Swiss go forward more often and in numbers.
Inler is one of the best dm’s in serie A. After the goal the swiss took a more defensive posture and Inler assumed enormous responsibility in that scheme and it worked. Got by him quite often? Did you watch the entire game? Xavi, Iniesta, etc., they couldn’t gather the ball and turn around as Inler was always there, the middle was almost completely shut down.
Swiss took a more defensive posture? Was that even possible?!
You talk as if he was the only guy between Spain and the goal. My point is when you have 9 guys in the defensive third, especially so narrow, anyone will have trouble going through the middle. Still Spain did get through, but missed their chances.
Inler committed a lot of fouls as well, got away without a card as it was an English ref.
One of the Best DM in a team that lost 16 games in a generally defensive league?
He’s obviously good because Wenger bid for him, but we’ll only find out how good once he plays for a big club.
Desi, back up a tick, you state Inler was good v spain because the swiss team only played defense, then you say he doesn’t play very well in a league that is overly defensive? That doesn’t make sense, he can’t be good and poor for the same reason. Spain were considered favorites to win it all this time. Inler denied space and time like no one else on the pitch yesterday.
My point is we’ve seen plainly what our overly offensive minded approach these last years has produced – nothing. And we will continue to win nothing as long as we neglect the defensive aspects of the game. Inler is likely never to come to us, but it’s that type of character in defense that is sorely lacking at Arsenal.
Steve my point is – 9 men did a job against Spain and it was not Inler alone. If he could do it alone, he would have done it in the Serie A as well. He couldn’t do it in Serie A because he didn’t have the other 8 (of similar quality and discipline) around him.
I’m not saying he is bad or that he didn’t play well in Serie A. The point is, he is not a one man solution.
What Switzerland did was a fantastic team effort. Inler was good but he needs other good defenders with him and perhaps a defensive minded team approach.
I’m not denying we could use a good midfielder, with good defensive abilities. In fact, I’ve said that often in my articles. Not sure if you have read the season review series, but if you do, you’ll see the number of issues I’ve talked about.
However, I don’t accept the simplistic assumption that if we had Inler we would have done better. We might have, we might not have – I trust Wenger’s judgment on that.
Well, according to wenger we should be dominating europe with this squad and we have a star player who wants out of this mess, and you can sit there and fob off to us that everything is fine and wenger’s judgement has been sound? That is simplistic as well as naive and a few other things. I must say Desi, i’m taken aback that you are so comfortable with the status quo, changes are required, they don’t seem to be forthcoming and that’s why cesc wants out. Cheers.
I think sometimes people lose the distinction between a specific discussion and generalizations.
We were talking about Inler and now it’s about changes needed and status quo?
There are problems at Arsenal, I’ve talked about that all season but buying players or changing managers are the only solutions people can think of. That is naive and simplistic because every club has been doing that and few have actually succeeded.
That doesn’t mean we must not buy, it’s not a black and white world. What it actually means is that we need to get to the bottom of the problems and saying half our squad is useless is just silly. (You’ve not said it in so many words but your assumption about why Cesc is leaving implies something similar)
I’ve never said Wenger is perfect, but once you consider all the factors involved his output/achievement is phenomenal.
If Prof can make a player is first eleven and a coach put him on the bench then the coach will never get a gud resuit there ard many examples Cameroon coach left song on d bench they lost to japan dat has never won a world match outside their country,France coach drop Nasri and they draw against uruguay and finaly spain drop king of Youth world-wide captain Cesc fabripass and they lose to lowly rated swiss
But you forget the amazing preparations that the Spanish team undertake. Unlike arsenal, who simply concentrate on their own game, Spain spend ages studying videos of their opposition and days discussing their strengths and weaknesses. Surely this was evident yesterday when, faced by mighty Switzerland, they could only resort to diving and cheating their way through the game. I guess all that tapping-up in the press must have tired them out. And now they wake up and discover that, having spent all that EU money on improving their roads and propping up Barcelona and Real Madrid, they are broke. What a shame.
I guess Fabregas was on the bench watching the games of Chile or Honduras!
I tink spain coach gets it wrong to put cecs on bench, also both Alonso and busquets failed 2 deliver & i tink busquet shld nt ve make d starting line up.. Mark my word, after d world cup spain coach wld be sack cuz i knw dey wont pass quarter final if they try
Spain won & looked great in 2008 playing 442 which is the best way but the new coach never had the balls so with 1 striker the build up was to slow and it went around & around in midfield & the stupid commentates say aren,t they terrific look at all the possession
this was a taste of what Cesc can expect at Crapalona, getting his arse warm on the bench, now maybe he will realise he is nothing but a political pawn in Crapalona’s team of diving cheating twats
Don’t want to be pessimistic but it would be a mistake to try and keep him … his heart is elsewhere. Better to have a clean break. We had a mountain to climb anyway but with Fabregas gone its just become Mount Everest. Are fight next season is to saty in the Top 4 … forget about winning the EPL. Wenger needs to bring in class and experience but I’m afraid its same old, same old … he’s hunting for bargains with scope for development. He needs to ago as I’m sick to back teeth with it and our lack of trophies for 6 years.
Cesc is sick and tired as well.
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