Spain 6 - Poland 0

¡What a great groove to fly with heading to South Africa!

Last night Spain confirmed that it has a very peculiar football style with no need of pure wing specialists to break through the wings:



and no need of a strong, tall and classic forward to break through a wall of strong and tall defenders:



¡Wow!¡Exhibition football!¡These guys are the Harlem Globbetrotters of international footballl! Jokes aside, this play shows that against big defenders you do not need tank forwards like Llorente to whom sending very predictable crosses. It can be just as good, if not a better idea, to play small unpredictable guys who play on the ground... until they pull a lob out of a magic hat. To tell the whole truth, in a competition game (as opposed to a friendly game) against a more experienced team, this play for the 2-0 would have probably been cut short with a foul at the box edge and a yellow card. It is also true that the number of yellow cards that Spain rivals will want to accumulate is finite, and fouls at the box edge are also good for Spain. Playing the ball on the ground pays off one way or the other.

Having said this, I must add that Llorente is much more than the tank forward that Del Bosque seems to see. He is very skilfull and agile. It is only a matter of time that he finds out the wonders of combining on the ground with the magic leprecauns. Perhaps even Navas will one of these days of practice get hit by the idea that he is not playing for Sevilla anymore. He may all of the sudden realize that he does not need to create the entire play all by himself. It may hit him that plays are created collectively in this magic world, and that when made by more than one leprechaun, after just one or two contacts with the ball, they become way more dangerous and productive. He is skillful enough to play this type of fast combinations. For now, it has been hard for him to get used to the style, as he retains the ball a little too long in his efforts to dribble the defender again and again until he can get the cross through. By then, the cross has become predictable. If only Del Bosque would let him know! Will he?

After the 2-0, the game was over. Poland stopped thinking that tying or winning the game was possible. It started to feel a little too overwhelmed by the Spanish ball possession. The heat of Murcia, the southern city where the game took place, may have also been felt a bit unbearable by the already defeated Polish spirit. The other four goals were good for getting more confidence, more coordination between team mates that need to get used to each other, getting in good shape and keeping the faith on associative football and also on the importance of long-distance shooting.

Perhaps the best piece of news in this game is something tha no media has talked about. Hidden behind the 6 goals scored by Spain, lies a 0 on the Spanish goal. This is to be explained by the lack of Polish scoring opportunities. A fact to be contrasted against the abundance of scoring opportunities enjoyed by the previous rivals of Spain in this preparation games, namely, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. Casillas had to save a good Polish shot, and that was it in the entire game. The Spanish pressing in the midfield recuperated the ball again and again long before Poland could even start to build up an attacking play. Way to go.

With midfielders and forwards helping so much in the defensive pressing when the team does not have the ball, and then the constant passing when it has it, Spain starts resembling a lot, really a lot, to the current European champion. It just needs a few little yet important details to get there. It would need to keep playing Capdevila on the left defense. It would need Xabi Alonso to play faster short passes (or even better, it would need Fábregas to play instead). It would need Sergio Ramos to keep his defensive position, as opposed to attacking like a beheaded chicken.

All this makes the team a little weaker. And yet, the rest of the engine is lubricated and today has way more confidence on its own possibilities than before the Euro2008. And, gee, they are still producing a lot of phenomenal football. Let's hope that it shall suffice with that.