Spain deserved this. Russia deserved this too but La Roja’s failure to move forward with the ball and the times saw them exit the World Cup at the end of a match that assumed farcical proportions.
Tiki-taka has been capable of delivering moments of absolute inspiration, but on Sunday night, that inspiration had a distinctly workmanlike feel to it. It was plain; it was dull; it was slow; the magic had run out.
When Spain flew in to Russia, they were widely looked upon as a team that would challenge for the title. They had it all — experienced defenders, classy midfielders and in Diego Costa, a predator up top. The last international game they had lost went all the way back to the Euro 2016 semi-finals against Italy.
But against Russia — a side that was prepared to sit deep and organise well — Spain came a cropper. Isco and Co have seen sides adopt similar tactics against them before and frankly, they should have been able to break them down over a period of time but their ball movement was just not quick enough.
The game itself had all the Tiki-taka characteristics. Spain had more than 70% possession, their pass accuracy was above 90% and they strung together more than a 1000 passes during the game. But the most of that movement was sideways. From Sergio Ramos to Jordi Alba; from Alba to Koke and back again. It was a vicious, dull circle... one that had the crowd whistling their disapproval.
But Tiki-taka at its best would draw the defenders out of position with quick, precise passes. It could do that because it had an energy that was dangerous. The opposition felt the need to try and block the progress. Xavi and Iniesta made the system work precisely because of that. However, Isco – for all his twinkle feet and wonderful turns – is not the conductor this system needs.
His failure is clear from the manner in which he used two players, Costa and David Silva. In the entire game, Costa completed just 9 passes out of a total 16 attempted. While that could perhaps be explained by Costa’s positioning – in the heart of the Russian defence where Spain simply refused to go, Silva’s numbers are harder to explain. He attempted just 32 passes in his time on the pitch and completed 25 of them.
If your striker and your most creative player are not part of the action, then as the main distributor, you are doing something very wrong. Spain chose to keep the ball and play a passive game but Russia could not be bothered to come out of their bunker.
In the second half, there was a sizeable period of time, when Russia couldn’t even string together three passes. But instead of going forward and taking the challenge head-on despite the scores being level, Spain resorted to unimaginably dull tactics – back passes, sideways passing and the like. But what were they afraid of?
Some might argue that the decision to fire coach Julen Lopetegui just two days before the World Cup began for holding talks with Real Madrid came back to haunt La Roja. Spain’s technical director Fernando Hierro replaced Lopetegui but he clearly lacked the tactical nous required of the position.
But how does one explain a group of senior, experienced pros not understanding the gravity of the situation? Things got better once Iniesta, Aspas and Rodrigo took the pitch but by then it was too late.
Rodrigo had the most shots on goal for Spain in the match and he only came on in 104th minute. Tiki-taka as a system may not be dead but with Xavi and Iniesta (who announced his international retirement immediately after the game) now gone, the system doesn’t have the same bite.
It is also tempting to put the defeat down to Tiki-taka but at the end of the day, Spain lost to Russia in spirit too. They didn’t have the courage and the willpower to win this; they simply didn’t want this badly enough. You don’t win matches in the World Cup without being desperate enough.
Which is why Spain deserved this. The aura of invincibility is long gone. This is a team desperately trying to hold on to the tatters of a glorious past. But time has moved on, the game has moved and perhaps it is only best, Spain does too.
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