The Netherlands and Spain No Longer Tactically Akin
Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands could have been a meeting between two similar styles of play. Both teams have become known to base their football on rapid movement and passing.
As it turned out, though, the game saw two very different systems clash. The Spanish national team has based their recent successes on their extraordinary ability to keep possession of the ball.
Even if they don’t score, they are sure to have tired their opponents into submission with their constant knocking of the ball around the team. This was undeniably Spain’s intention against the Netherlands on Sunday.
Though the Dutch stole possession and managed to break occasionally, Spain retained 57% of the possession overall, according to FIFA. Midfield trio Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and Xabi Alonso strung passes throughout the game, with Cesc Fabregas coming on to do the same just before the start of extra time.
It was this spectator-friendly system that made Spain the European champions in 2008. Many argue that Spain have successfully applied its domestic champions, FC Barcelona’s, playing style to perfection.
With several Barcelona players in the Spanish squad, the emulation of their tactics is not surprising. Seven of Spain’s starting eleven in the final were Barcelona players.
Defensive midfielder Sergio Busquets sees no problem with the national team imitating the style of play of the club.
"The philosophy and playing style are very similar with both my club and Spain,” he told the press in South Africa ahead of Sunday’s final.
“In my opinion that's a bonus, because things come much easier when you've been playing alongside your colleagues all season," he added.
The Spanish players and coaching staff are partly indebted to the Netherlands for the way they play. The Netherlands’ national team created a philosophy of Total Football in the 1970’s, based on never-ending movement and the interchangeability of players positions.
This style of play was adopted by Barcelona, as the club enjoyed tremendous successes in the early 1990’s. At that time, the club was managed by Johan Cruyff, the former Dutch player who had been the core of the Dutch national team two decades prior.
Since then, the Dutch legacy at the club has been upheld by players such as Frank de Boer and Phillip Cocu, both serving as advisers for the current Dutch national team, and recent managers of the club Louis van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard.
The Dutch national team had long kept playing in the tradition of the 1970’s, outmaneuvering opponents by keeping possession of the ball and exchanging quick passes to open defensive lines. For this World Cup, though, Dutch manager Bert van Marwijk had a different tactic in mind.
Van Marwijk has long built his teams on a direct and physical style of play, a system based on capitalizing on a few chances and defending resolutely to keep goal concessions to a minimum.
The Dutch, thought to have been excessively physical in the final with the highest amount of yellow cards in the history of the tournament, clearly showed the differences between these two football philosophies during the final.
With 28 fouls on Spanish players, some of which could easily have warranted red cards rather than yellow, not everyone was pleased with the Dutch performance.
Former Barcelona manager Cruyff expressed disappointment with the way his national team played in the final.
“They didn't want the ball and regrettably, sadly, they played in a very dirty fashion,” he said in the Spanish publication El Periodico.
"This ugly, vulgar, hard, hardly eye-catching, hardly football style - yes, it served the Dutch to unsettle Spain. If they got satisfaction from this then fine, but they ended up losing,” Cruyff added.
Condemning what he considered “anti-football,” Cruyff expressed clear displeasure with Van Marwijk’s departure from the Netherlands' possession-driven football.
That said, this year saw the Dutch play their first World Cup final since Cruyff’s heyday as a player 40 years ago.
The change of tactics very nearly won the Netherlands their first World Cup, but not everyone is prepared to bid the cherished system of Total Football farewell.
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