Just 10 Minutes Said It All

Let's watch here a sample of what I have been arguing in this blog. From the minute that Fábregas replaced Torres, in the second half against Chile, up till the minute when both teams agreed on calling it a game ahead of time, 10 minutes elapsed when Spain swiped Chile away. At last, Spain was playing with 5 midfielders.

As soon as Bielsa, the bright coach of Chile, noticed the replacement, he ordered his players to back up a little. Spain was about to take over the midfield and establish numerical parity and technical dominance. Scoring opportunities started to show up with some consistency for Spain for the first time during the game-one scoring opportunity every 90 seconds! Spain missed them all, but not by much. All opportunites finished the play and forced Chile to start all over again.

Having a heavily populated midfield closer to the finish of every Spanish attacking play, Spain added one critical piece to its repertoire: it could press in packs every Chilean defender trying to start playing the ball after having recuperated it. You will see in the video that dangerous steals started to happen much too often for Chile's interest nearby the Chilean strike zone.

The Spanish team moved from dominated to dominating, from feeling overwhelmed to overwhelming its opponent, from occasional gust to wind storm. The Spanish players, who according to the Spanish press are purportedly in really bad physical shape, flourished like a recently watered rose plant, and regained the dynamism and joy that they had almost completely lost during this World Cup. Xavi Hernández smiled for the first time in two weeks, and he made smile the whole team with him.

These 10 minutes were quite telling: they told everyone who would listen that the Spanish players can still play their circus-quality passing game; they told that passing game is the indicated antidote against hard-working pressing teams; they told everyone that 10 minutes of passing game were worth in terms of depth and scoring opportunities more than 60 minutes of direct football; these 10 minutes reminded everyone that the best defense is a good attack; they told critics that the Spaniards have not been tired in previous games, just tied-up by systems that do not enhance their virtues. These 10 minutes told anyone who would listen that Spain can still play like this:



Just 10 minutes said it all, loud and clear. Will Del Bosque get the message?