Comments on: Confederations Cup Game 2: Spain v Iraq Preview

By: Sol

Sol — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:15:21 +0000

@Timothy, Italy doesn’t need to play like Spain to beat Spain. They can normally rely on their defense and win through counters. But it seems their defense is showing some weakness.

It might also turn out into another 0-0 with penalty shoot-out just like in the EC ‘08.

Allthough you would expect Spain to be able to break any defense right now, but then again, has Spain changed so much since 2008, or has Italy? I think Italy might have lost a bit in defense, but it also seems they have improved a bit in offense (allthough the finishing is still crap, they have no Torres ).

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By: Timothy Lakefront

Timothy Lakefront — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:59:32 +0000

We’re going to destroy Italy in the semis. I found Lippi’s recent comments that even if they practiced 10 hrs a day, they couldn’t play like Spain. Actually, I hope Egypt takes care of them today so we won’t have to.

By: Sol

Sol — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:08:36 +0000

The least they could have done was take some more risks when they were 1-0 behind. They didn’t even do that. Allthough I think they did try to start countering, but why wouldn’t they do that at 0-0? Come on man, it’s a counter, you have to take your chance, they kept playing for possesion whenever a counter-opportunity occured and played back to the defenders even when there was plenty of space to move forward. They just stayed back, sometimes trying one long pass to one lonely guy upfront, and that was it. And usually the pass was very poor, but OK, I won’t hold that against them (but that’s what happens if you don’t try to put some effort in it).

By: Sol

Sol — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:00:06 +0000

at=and (second sentence)

By: Sol

Sol — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:58:39 +0000

Yeah, I know that’s what they were doing, I just didn’t like it very much, and I’m annoyed even more that it worked. That kind of play makes games so boring to watch.

It’s just so annoying that it always works at that you can even win European or World Cups with it. The more it works, the more teams will switch to it whenever faced with an opponent they fear (offensive teams like Spain, Brazil, Holland). And that makes for boring games. And since I’m a Holland fan, we, just like Spain and Brazil, will have to play these kind of matches the most. And since most of the matches I watch are of course the Holland matches, it means I have to watch more and more boring games. I just prefer the other teams to be a bit more bold.

Thankfully we are seeing the Italians more succesful with offensive play lately, and a couple of other lesser teams in WCQ switching more towards offensive/creative play. And we see Greece failing, sort of, their qualifying group is too weak to prevent them from qualifying for the WC, but they already failed with their “turtle defense” style at the EC, as did Sweden and the other teams in the Portugal/Turkey group of the EC, oh, and of course Romania. They all failed with their defensive style and the teams that wanted to take risks got the rewards of advancing to the next round.

By: Jose

Jose — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:38:16 +0000

Sol, to be fair, I think Iraq was banking on goal differential getting them into the semis. So as long as they could avoid being dismantled by Spain…

By: Sol

Sol — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:37:56 +0000

They should have taken an example from Egypt, if you play with heart and guts, ANYTHING can happen.

By: Sol

Sol — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:25:51 +0000

Pretty boring game. Torres was having a bad day, all of Spain looked a bit satisfied already, not much going on in the field, Iraq was so afraid, they didn’t even want to risk countering.

Spain needed a bit more speed and creativity for more goals, but they looked like they didn’t care much anymore after the 1-0 (who blames them, Iraq didn’t want to come out and play).

Professionally executed on an off-day.

I hope Iraq get’s slaughtered by New Zealand, cause they went the Italian way and I hate whenever that defensive “9 man in front of the goal strategy” works as it did today. Now these guys have an advantage over New Zealand in terms of goals, and that’s just what they wanted. Don’t like their attitude, at least New Zealand gave it a try.

By: Vicent

Vicent — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:13:09 +0000

Goooool de Villa!!!!