Euros 2012 Qualifiers – Spain 2, Czech Republic 1, Or, Squeaking By…

March 26th, 2011 | by: Ade C. | Comments Off

We won, didn’t we? And Villa broke Raúl’s record (and then scored another, just in case), and we got the three points, and we’ve a comfortable lead at the top of our group, and La Roja has now won their 18th successive qualification match (World Cup and Euros), reching a world record according to Infostrada…

… and yet, and yet, I am not happy.

Villa is happy, though.

Spain did play well for long stretches of the match, did control most of the game, did have Barça-esque amounts of possession, did have the most chances and did win, and still… there was something missing.

Our ‘Wise’ Walrus played a similar team to what we’d said in our preview that he had been experimenting with, only with the brilliant exception of playing Navas instead of Torres, like so:

—————-Casillas——————
Arbeloa–Ramos–Piqué–Capdevila
———–Busquets—-Alonso———-
————-Xavi——Iniesta—————
———–Navas———Villa————-

This is good, right? Not only I got my wish of seeing Ramos at CB, but we saw someone new and fresh to keep Villa company and put some speed into our attack.

The Czech Republic played with Cech, Pospech, Sivok, Hubnik, Kadlec, Rosicky, Hübschman, Pudil, Plasil, Nan Rezer and Milan Baros, in a 4-4-2 that was pretty similar to ours.

For a start, it looked as if things were going to go swimmingly for Spain. Not five minutes had passed when Villa had had two great occasions to shake off the goallessness and finally step out of Raúl’s shadow, including an exquisite volley that unfortunately went straight to Cech, and even when the rain of opportunities paused, Spain continued to control up to the point of reachong 80% possession.

However, possession doesn’t mean anything if you can’t, you know, score goals, and scoring goals was the one thing Spain wasn’t doing. With Arbeloa as RB and Capdevila as LB, our flanks were pretty much useless, Navas sank into obscurity -I’m starting to think the kid is attached to the sideline by some sort of magnet, because he will not venture more than a yard or two into the actual pitch-, and Villa got all the service exclusively through the middle, when Iniesta managed to break the Czech Republic blockade.

Commentators were still revelling in the possession percentages when Plasil scored.

I’m thinking I should blame someone for this goal, but really, the one to blame is Palsil’s excellent shot. It was too high up the field for the CBs to really get involved, and San Iker could do nothing more than what he did. Maybe our DMs where a bit at fault; I think Busquets and Alonso don’t really play that well together, both unused to the other and leaving gaps and/or stepping on each other’s toes. But that might be my biased self speaking against the double-pivot. In any case, what a rocket by Plasil!

I can blame everyone for what happened later, though.

Though not quite a meltdown, Spain was quite rattled by the goal, particularly coming after possession had lulled us into complacency. We were doing everything right, and yet we were losing! Sound the alarms! Run around like headless chickens, because *that* will solve everything! Lose balls, give the Czechs more chances!

It was a relief when half-time came. Time to regroup, take a breath, calm down and maybe make a change that would again give Spain the advantage. Time for… Torres?

Quick, my talent went that way!

It bears repeating: I have nothing personal against El Niño Torres. When he’s playing well and scoring and playing off Villa, I’m the first to ask for him to be on the team. But his current form is woeful, he hasn’t been himself since last summer (remember those horrid World Cup matches? When I tried to defend him blaming everything on his injury?), and I am at a loss as to why Marquis Del Bosque keeps calling him up, let alone playing him. Yes, maybe all he needs is a goal to regain his confidence and become the great striker he was once; well, let him score that at Chelsea, who are finantially invested in that, this is La Roja and a qualifier and we have better things to do than nurse broken egos.

Yes, it does feel nice to get that off my chest.

Now, Torres entrance for Alonso meant one good thing: the death of the double-pivot. Finally. Plasil goal excepted, the Czech Republic had barely done anything on the attack, so it made no sense to keep on that defensive mindset. Let Busquets deal with holding midfielder duties on his own, and pile on the attack!

—————-Casillas——————
Arbeloa–Ramos–Piqué–Capdevila
————–Busquets—————–
————-Xavi——Iniesta—————
Navas——-Torres——-Villa————-

Unfortunately, having Torres being a black hole of nothingness as our central striker damned us to try through our flanks, and our flanks were awful. Seriously, we need proper fullbacks at once. Ramos is quite excellent, but Arbeloa and Capdevila are nothing better than mediocre. Unfortunately, other than Azpilicueta and Iraola, I can’t think of any brilliant prospects coming up… maybe we should make a trade with another country, since we have more world-class goalkeepers than we know what to do?

In any case, while the Headless Chick Dance came to a halt, things weren’t looking up for a comeback… until Del Bosque shook himself out of his ponderous walrusness and brought the tiny Cazorla for Capdevila.

Now, this was a change! Cazorlita is having a great season, is in form, rested and quite, quite brilliant. The team regained shape, possession and, more importantly, focus. Iniesta left the most mundane midfield duties to Xavi and Santi, and threw himself into the attack. Villa threw up his hands in exasperation and moved back into central striker position, ignoring the fact that Torres was occasionaly seen drifting aimlessly there too.

And thus came Villa’s first goal, the 45th of his career with La Roja, the one that saw him break Raúl’s all-time goalscoring record with La Selección once and for all… and what a pretty goal it was! Dedicated to Pepe Reina, too!

The tide turned. Iniesta was simply scintillating, everywhere at once, building, shooting, passing… and getting fouled on the box, not five minutes after Villa’s goal.

Penalty to Spain and Villa got another notch on his… wherever the strikers make notches for goals, in spite of all of Cech’s (hilarious) mindgames.

The last of the Marquis’ changes was Marchenator in for Navas near the end, putting more defensive steel in for prevent an Czech comeback.

Now, it wasn’t a bad match. Spain showed character at times and pulled itself together to make the comeback. Villa worked hard and was rewarded. Iniesta was brilliant. Xavi got his 100th match. But the fact remains that Del Bosque’s tactics and changes make less and less sense every match. An important qualifier where you’re losing and your team is rattled is not the time to bring in a striker in the depths of lack of confidence and form. Clinging to the thrice-damned double-pivot when we’ve seen again and again that the team does better with one one holding midfielder is madness. Keeping the most motivated, in-form players (Llorente, Silva, Cazorla) on the bench is stubborn stupidity.

Word is that for the match against Lithuania in Kaunas (if the awful state of the pitch let us play), Del Bosque will rest the Real Madrid, Villarreal and Barcelona players, according to their clubs’ wishes. If this turns out to be true (a pretty big *if*, seeing that the only players not of those teams yesterday were Navas… and Torres), then maybe we’ll see something fresh, something new, something different. I’m looking forwards to that.

In the meanwhile, our way to the Euros looks like it’s paved with something better than good intentions… let’s keep it that way!