Spain’s rise to the top of the pile in international football has been accompanied by an attitude which has bred animosity rather than appreciation amongst football fans. At the European Championships in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ukraine-c3032,
Spain’s tiki taka experiment continues but what is it that breeds such contempt for La Furia Roja’s style of play...
When Spain triumphed after a history of underachievement at the European Championships in 2008, it was seen as a deserving landmark for a group of players who had always performed below the levels of expectation that were associated
with them. La Furia Roja claimed their first European Championship in fine style as they bested http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Italy-c2926 in the quarterfinals before laying Germans to the sword in the final itself.
Since their victory in Vienna, Spain have taken the EURO 2008 finals as their springboard and went onto claim victory at the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Their win in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/South-Africa-c757 was impressive to say the least but the
style of play that has underpinned their performances since 2008 has attracted both harsh criticism and unwavering appraisal as well. For Spain themselves, their style of play is what makes football what it is.
It is what gives football, what it was always supposed to be, a game of aesthetics, and a game which has always inspired artful technique. For others, Spain’s methodical monopoly over ball possession is the utmost form of defensive
football. It kills the game and puts the opposition by default on the back foot. Whilst there is no doubt that such a strategy is indeed a mightily effective one, what can be argued is its aesthetic usefulness.
At the end of the day, football is seen in its purest essence as a competitive sport with entertainment value but it can be said that Spain’s system of attrition is anything but entertainment. It is increasingly becoming blasphemous
to differentiate in the world of football between La Furia Roja’s tiki taka and the concept of entertainment in international football.
There is an increasing tendency to equate the effectiveness of tiki taka with its ability to inspire the crowds. Such a fallacy needs to be outlined for what it really is as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Spain-c3011’s style of pass-it-to-death is not easy on the
eye, in fact it can be said that it is not easy on the brain as well. Monotonous, attritional and somnolent is what tiki taka is at best.
What makes this style of play truly despicable is the feeling of self-righteousness that it accompanies via the Spanish media and the Spanish players as well. When http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 won against Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals
players such as Messi came out and said that their knockout from the European Cup was cruel and unfair.
Xavi Hernandez pitched in with the usual hoopla as well saying that http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604 played football the right way and didn’t deserve to lose as a result. This attitude also plagues the Spanish national team as well which takes pride
in the way that their style of play is the only right way to play football, the very essence of football itself. It is this self-righteousness coupled with tiki taka’s monotonous undertones that makes watching Spain so boring but as long as it brings success
who are we to argue against it right?
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