France: “Nostradamus was wrong!”
So Nostradamus’ prophecy was wrong. Spain (as usual) flattered to deceive. Their early promise now seems to have more to do with the weakness of the opposition rather than their own quality. France were the first quality team they had had to face and unfortunately for the Spaniards, the former champions played their best match of their campaign to continue their tradition of never having lost to Spain in a competitive match. In a tight first half, Spain took the lead through Villa’s penalty converted after a silly foul by Thuram on Pablo Ibanez.
Spain deserved their lead but France looked dangerous on the break and they equalised shortly before half-time through the impressive Franck Ribery. In the second half France grew in confidence and began to play some of the best football they have played since Euro 2000. Raul must probably have regretted stating publicly that he hoped this would be ZZ’s last match - it only seemed to inspire the legend. ZZ delivered the cross from which Vieira made it 2-1 with 7 minutes to go and delivered the knockout blow in the 90th minute as Spain pressed forward for an equaliser.
France look confident and seem to have put their differences behind them. The Vieira - Ribery - Zidane - Henry axis is starting to work and in contrast to their next opponents Brazil they are improving with every match. What a match-up on Saturday night!
June 28th, 2006 at 10:43
The Spanish performance was dreadful - spineless, gutless and utterly devoid of imagination. They should sack their coach, and then start rebuilding around Sergio Ramos, the only player of true quality in the team.
June 28th, 2006 at 12:16
What can I say? Same old story from the Spanish team, losing against the team the Argentinean press is calling “France’s under-35 side”.
Yesterday’s defeat was based on two key pillars, tactics and experience, helped significantly by an outstanding individual performance from Frank Ribery.
Tactics:
- France responded to Spain’s key strenght in midfield by flooding the midfield with strong, aggressive players. Spain did not react to this but just kept trying to go through the middle with no success. The wall resisted and Spain could not figure out how to get through. The Spanish players were all of the same kind: creative, quick-thinking, but unfortunately were clearly out-muscled by the French midfield. I hate to say this cause he’s rubbish with the ball, but Senna’s presence was missed
- 1-0 up and Spain’s tactics did not vary. Uncapable of stooping down to Italian catenaccio tactics, Spain kept playing the same game, going forward strong and betting it all on the offside trap in defence, leaving a huge gap between the back four and Casillas. This had worked well at the beginning of the game, but a side as experienced and skillful as the French were sure to adapt and find a way of exploiting the huge distance between lines.. and they did.
Experience:
- Zidane, Vieira, Makelele, Thuram… have been around forever. Going 1-0 down, they did not despair and just kept going. They lost time when they needed to, “acted”, shoved etc.. the full repertoire came out against a spanish side that were, besides Raul, extremely inexperienced in these kinds of situations and fell into all the traps
- Henry showed this clearly when he fell over like a sack of potatoes after what was one of the softest challenges in memory from Puyol. The ref fell for it, Zidane took it and Vieira scored. Without Henry’s “experience”, there would not have been a chance and no goal… This is maybe not the forum for this, but FIFA should start giving out bans for play-acting to stop people like Henry, Figo and half the Italian, Spanish (though this world cup they haven’t really) and Argentinean sides getting an unfair advantage
Ribery:
what can I say? he was everywhere, he did everything well, but most importantly he kept his cool brilliantly on his one-on-one against Casillas (who is an expert at one-on-ones) and scored a vital goal
In summary, very disappointing from the Spanish team. Sacking the coach may be a good idea, although I wouldn’t start rebuilding the team. They’re young and many of them will learn from this and come back better. Spain is weak up-front (Torres is little more than an athlete) and lacks muscle in midfield and defence, but overall I think the way they’ve played in this world cup was actually quite promising. What’s really galling is seeing Ukraine in the last 8 and Italy with the easiest draw ever. Oh well, some things never change.
June 28th, 2006 at 2:07
Re: balancedview
I think you should keep your responses to some sort of reasonable length and free of typos. I mean, this seems to me like a website for the educated fan, and I am not sure that your biased rantings have any place on this board, especially not if they are nor previously spellchecked.
June 28th, 2006 at 6:33
You guys should look what Gullit said about Henry after this match. The second goal which changed everything was scored on a non-existent foul and dirty play (along with theatrics) by Henry.
On another note, the result is overly exagerated.
To the webmaster, I´m glad you got what you wanted.
And to the first poster saying S. Ramos is the only quality player on the team is foolish. I would agree if you stated maybe 5 or 6 players…
June 28th, 2006 at 8:58
Spain succumbed to their normal style of play.
Four things:
Spain were lacking the movement upfront that they had shown in the first two games, exemplary of Spain’s new tactics, as the last group game was an experimental B squad to save A players and give some match fitness to their B side. Conclusions: Raul should not have started regardless of the experience he brings. He stood still and worked in detriment of the team. Morientes should have travelled to Germany with the squad. Spain continue to stand down when class oposition really take the game to them.
The tactics used by Spain defending were hopeless. Yes Senna should have started, and taking along a strong defensive Albelda to the world cup should have been always on the cards for Luis Aragones. Regardless, the way to win the match was control of the midfield. Controlling and pressing the right midfield players should have ensured either the long ball or Makelele left to pass the ball forward. We should all agree that, regardless of his skill Makelele is not up to the job, and the long ball tactics can work for England (just about and against weak oposition) but will not win you a world cup.
Thirdly, the changes should have looked to bring in width to the team, as Pernia was desperately looking to get forward often leaving a weak line of three at the back. Reyes and Joaquin brought on, Raul and Villa off. With this change and a small tweak to bring down the lines, Spain would have defended a little deeper. This was needed against a fast foward such as Henry and a talented Ribery. Park the team bus across the goal at the back. If Spain held well, then bring on Inieata. He proved to the world that with Barcelona he could break through ANY midfield in the Champions League. If Spain struggled, take off Xavi and bring on Senna to secure the midfield.
Lastly, France resorted to diving to get an inexistent free kick. Shame on Henry (he had to resort to it since he hardly appeared in the game), the cheating bastard. Shame on the ref for a truly weak free kick and shame on Puyol for giving it away, with his experience, he had no need to do that.
Anyway, welcome to the feeling a Spaniard has to endure every 2 years. The bittter sweetness of a summer of football full of expectation and hope, followed by the crush of an early departure. Thank you Zidane for killing off the game. Thank you Luis Aragones for showing us what Spain can do, and how we can play. The new coach should follow the great example the old man has set.
June 29th, 2006 at 7:32
Nostradamus? And what Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code’s author) is going to say about such interpretation of The Holy Grail?
June 29th, 2006 at 2:38
Re: Dani
It’s one thing to have an opinion but another entirely to call me foolish. Let’s not start getting into personal stuff. I am here to have an educated discussion about football. To provide analysis, comment and some facts as well. I won’t stand for this kind of tomfoolery.
The mighty Raktar!
July 1st, 2006 at 9:58
hehe ok Raktar. I was heated up, after waking up late and hung over from dissapointment. I never called you foolish. But to not want to include casillas, cesc, or villa in the future of the team is crazy. Especially since Ramos still has a long way to go, though he will be great…
As for Nick or whoever wrote this article, Nostradamus was talking about the world Basketball Championships in August!!
Diego: great post.
August 16th, 2006 at 11:01
I couldn’t agree more with this post. The more I think about it, the more you’ve got to drive the point home. Great stuff!