Euro 2012: Are Spain Boring or Unappreciated?

Spain are the reigning world and European champions, the best international team so far this century, and possibly the best for twenty years, have spent the run-up to Sunday's final, their third in three tournaments, defending their style of play from the charge of being boring.

Regardless of whether or not they are, the backlash was inevitable. Spain have been the best side in the world for four years, and there is always a reaction against success, especially in Britain where the underdog is king, but this is not just a debate that is taking place in the British press. Two years ago, tiki-taka football was envied and admired, now it is seen in some quarters as stifling and negative.

The charges are not completely without merit, Spain have had 68 percent possession during Euro 2012, but the fewest attempts on goal of any of the four semi-finalists. Their style of play creates few chances, instead of going for a killer blow, they often overlook opportunities to play a final ball into the box, preferring to pass backwards or sideways and maintain possession, waiting for a clear-cut chance to come along. Football watchers tend to value ambition as highly as any other quality, and this apparent lack of it has contributed to their alienation.

What the accusation also shows, are the short memories of many fans and journalists who watch football. The Spanish are far removed from the long ball teams that featured heavily in English football in the 80s and early 90s, teams coached by George Graham, Howard Wilkinson and Graham Taylor, or even the route one tactics employed by England in the second half of their quarter-final match with Italy seven days ago. In that match, England's most frequent pass combination was Hart to Carroll, and as a result, England's attack was not only highly ineffective, but also incredibly dull. The excitement in that match for English fans was that England were involved, not that it was a good game. The Spanish game involves some of the most skilful footballers in the world playing a technically demanding brand of passing football, whilst winning consistently. The only thing that's boring there is their success. Contrast that with the teams coached by Sam Allardyce, where long ball tactics, men behind the ball and a reliance on set pieces are the foundations of his game plan. Describing Spain as dull, whilst teams like these are in recent living memory seems forgetful at best, and the football world is in for a shock when Allardyce's West Ham return to the Premiership next season.

A similar accusation is often levelled at Jose Mourinho's teams, but his teams still score plenty of goals, and are playing skilful football with the ball on the floor, whilst his former charges at Chelsea are alleged to have parked the bus in the Champions' League last season, but they outscored Barcelona 3-2 over two legs in the semi-final. Those who watch the game have been spoiled by 20 years of Champions' League football, worldwide coverage of the top domestic leagues, and for English fans, a diet of end-to-end, high scoring football, that has perhaps diluted appreciation for some of the game's finer arts.

It is true that Spain have not played in any classic matches so far in Euro 2012, but that does not mean that they are not a classic team. Pete Sampras was one of the greatest tennis players of all time, but he was sometimes labelled as boring because of the relentless and one-sided nature of many of the big matches he played in, whereas other, less successful stars, who could not destroy opponents like he could, played in what are regarded as great finals, because their imperfections allowed for a closer, more unpredictable result, such as the 2001 Ivanisevic-Rafter Wimbledon final.

Spain's opponents should be apportioned with at least half of the blame for any dull matches, not just because of their inability to challenge the world champions, but because of their refusal to try. If the quarter and semi-finals were unexciting, blame the Portuguese and the French for playing with men behind the ball. Look at what happened when Portugal began to attack the Spanish in extra time, the game opened up, and Spain started to play at a greater tempo and with more direct intent than before.

The argument over the level of excitement that one can get from watching Spain play, comes down to what the viewer wants to get from them. Appreciation for the fine arts of the game, outplaying and dominating an opponent, or playing in an incident packed and close fixture, filled with imperfections and mistakes. Both have their merits, but do we really want a football culture where a team is criticised for playing a passing game that keep the ball on the floor and relies on skill and technique?

Rugby: England's Third Test Plan

With the series already lost, England face South Africa in the third and final test match of their series this Saturday. After two defeats, Stuart Lancaster must be sick of valiant losing efforts, and will be looking to end the tour on a win. Here are three things his side must do, if they are to win in Port Elizabeth.

Cut out the Mistakes

England have not given themselves a chance to get into a winning position in the first two matches thanks to mistakes at key moments. These are inevitable for a new and inexperienced side, but players who fail to learn from their mistakes rarely last long in international rugby. Four minutes into the second test, the England front row failed to secure possession at a five metre scrum. The ball found its way to the feet of flanker Tom Johnson, who failed to react before it squirted out and was pounced on by Willem Alberts to score the opening try. England cannot gift their opponents opportunities like this in test rugby, the margins are too fine. Similarly, there have been too many missed tackles, which means that the English defence is always scrambling to catch up with play.

Improve in attack

Stuart Lancaster's team has shown more intent to attack with the ball in hand than in the Martin Johnson era, but there is still a long way to go. English players often seem unsure about what to do at key moments, and although the amount of aimless kicking has been reduced, there are still traces of the previous regime's conservatism. South Africa's final try last Saturday came from a misdirected and poorly chosen kick from Jonathan Joseph. The centre, making only his second appearance, failed to notice that no-one was in position to chase the kick and instead of retaining possession, he aimed his kick straight down the throat of JP Pietersen, who set up the try. Reverting to Toby Flood at fly-half was a positive step, and he was more assertive than in the past, but England's players still need a clearer idea of what they are going to do when they are inside the opposition 22, and need to be more precise when they do it.

Start fast

Like the 2009 Lions, England were slow out of the blocks last Saturday, and found themselves two scores down before they had had any significant possession This ultimately doomed the Lions, and it has doomed England in this series. Whether this was due to young players being overwhelmed by the moment, the intensity of the Springboks, or the effects of altitude, Lancaster and his team must diagnose this problem and solve it before the third test. A team cannot afford to give head starts to an opponent as powerful as the South African side.

Hansie Cronje: Ten Years On

Currently available as a podcast on the BBC website and on iTunes is 5 Live's recent documentary about Hansie Cronje, broadcast to commemorate ten years since his death. It is a timely moment to revisit the Cronje story, after a winter which saw three Pakistani cricketers convicted of spot fixing in a 2010 test match, Essex's Mervyn Westfield convicted of a similar offence in a county match, and the announcement of a new ECB initiative to tackle the threat of match fixing in the English game.

The most striking item in the programme was how little we still know about what went on in that period. Journalist Neil Manthorp mentions a series of bank accounts that were allegedly linked to many prominent cricketing figures, yet the investigation into those accounts was shut down after Cronje's death. These accounts had been previously mentioned in a television documentary, 'The Captain and The Bookmaker', made by political journalist Peter Oborne. This film was also critical of the report by the King Commission, which had investigated Cronje's crimes in the immediate aftermath, accusing it of being insubstantial.

Both programmes interview Marlon Aronstam, the bookmaker behind the infamous 'leather jacket test match' between South Africa and England in 2000. One thing that Oborne's documentary gets out of him is the suggestion of an ongoing relationship between Cronje and the bookie after that test match, but no details are forthcoming, nor is this elaborated on in the 5 Live documentary.

Aronstam's testimony is clearly difficult to trust, but what is alarming is the notion that the authorities only scratched the surface. Will this investigation ever be resurrected? The suggestion that dozens of other major cricketers were involved in match fixing but got away with it, would undermine an entire decade's worth of international matches. Perhaps most worrying for the game in the future is the thought that whatever bookmakers or gamblers were involved in these accounts were never identified publicly, leaving them free to continue their efforts.

This is, of course, pure speculation, based on an investigation that was terminated. But unless it is proven that those mysterious bank accounts are a myth, or were unrelated to match fixing, the doubt will always linger. That is perhaps Cronje's greatest crime against cricket: creating a nagging suspicion, that seems unlikely to be lifted any time soon.

CS Film Club: Sugar

Corinthian Spirit is back (sadly not in pog form). To celebrate, here's the first in what may turn into an occasional series of recommended sports films.

Currently available on the BBC iPlayer for five more days, is the 2009 film Sugar. The story of a young Dominican baseball player trying to make it to the major leagues, Sugar is bittersweet and largely free of the clichés of the genre. Though the titular character thinks he's chasing sporting success, the film is more about loneliness, alienation and the search for a place in the world, as well as the contrast between different ways of pursuing the American dream.

 

Though not perfect, the film has a gentle pace and naturalistic style, as well as a melancholy tone, which makes it stand out from the usual pomp and self-importance of the average 'triumph over adversity' sporting dramas. Thanks to some beautiful cinematography, the film is genuinely cinematic, but the directors (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck) pull off the difficult trick of making the United States, in its many different guises (multicultural urban jungle, picture postcard countryside, neon-lit diner), appear simultaneously romantic and foreign, illustrating why Sugar feels so lost, just when he should be finding success. This is also due to the performance of Algenis Perez Soto, who totally inhabits Sugar, with his confusing mix of hopes and fears, and growing unease at his surroundings. Soto has yet to appear on screen since, and whether he is capable of matching this performance in the future, or whether this was the one role he was born to play, remains to be seen.

Sugar is light on sporting action, but aside from its universal themes, it offers a glimpse into the world behind the world we know, and it should be easy to draw parallels between this story of a young sportsman alone in a foreign land, and any number of other sports. In particular, football fans used to seeing African players plying their trade in Europe, might see the similarity.

On Hiatus

The more astute of you will have noticed the distinct lack of action on this blog in the last few months. One or two posts of decent length aside, things have been very quiet since the end of February. Whilst I would like to keep up the same rate of activity that I had prior to that, sadly the real world has been getting in the way, and I have come to the conclusion that I need to face facts and accept that nothing's going to happen on Corinthian Spirit for a while.

The sum of all this is a vague plan to restart activity at some point in September, but no promises. It depends on work and, just as importantly, being clear in my head about what I am trying to do.

In the meantime, if you find yourself visiting this page in search of sporting discussion points, take a look at the blogs listed on the right hand side of this page, for some suggested reading.

Maybe see you in September,
Andrew

World Cup 2010: Gyan's Grief, Ghana Gone

Asamoah Gyan has been one of the stars of the World Cup so far, scoring three goals in Ghana's march to the quarter-finals, but sadly for him, their defeat to Uruguay on penalties will probably haunt him for some time to come. It felt fitting that the star of the dramatic second round extra-time victory over the USA was given the chance to repeat the feat by stepping up to take a penalty with the last kick of the game before a shoot-out, his third penalty of the tournament.


Gyan was distraught after Ghana's elimination

Both sides had had their chances throughout the 120 minutes of regular and extra time, and either could have rightfully claimed victory at any time. But when in the 120th minute, Luis Suarez cleared the ball off the Uruguayan line with his hand, Gyan had the chance to take Ghana into uncharted territory: a first semi-final not only for his country, but for any Africa team.
His resulting miss took the match into a shoot-out that Ghana would lose, but the most impressive sight in the entire game, even more so than two wonderful goals, and the high drama of the shoot-out, was Gyan stepping up to take his country's first penalty, just minutes after his previous attempt had crashed into the crossbar. That took a lot of courage, but his confident finish took even more.


Fernando Muslera celebrates Gyan's miss, to the Ghanaian's horror

Gyan plays for Rennes in France, and one must assume that a bigger club somewhere in Europe will make them an offer they cannot refuse. Whether he goes onto bigger things, or never quite lives up to his World Cup performances (like El Hadji Diouf), only time will tell, but his skill, physical prowess and mental toughness will have been noted by many.

Meanwhile, Uruguay live to fight another day. They have been one of the most impressive teams in the competition thus far, and Uruguayan football as a whole is a remarkable story. The relative success of the Slovenian team, despite a population of only two million is marvelled at, but Uruguay have held a fairly regular position at the top table of world football since the international game first took off in the early twentieth century, despite a population of only three million. Whilst they have not been a major World Cup power since their last semi-final in 1970, they have played some of the best football seen this time around (a grim opening match against France aside), and deserve more attention than they have been getting, while Diego Forlan has been possibly the best striker at the competition.

Forlan never seems to get enough credit in England, where memories of his ineffective spell at Manchester United prevail. Nonetheless, he has scored goals consistently throughout the rest of his career, and at two World Cups has looked like a world class forward. What is interesting is that he has mastered the Jabulani ball better than anyone else in the competition, as evidenced by the quality of his set pieces.


Forlan equalises with a trademark set-piece

The sheen is somewhat taken off Uruguay's World Cup after Suarez's handball. It was instinctive, but ultimately cheated Ghana out of a winning goal. Yes, Gyan should have scored, and Ghana had their chance, but in a week where the talking points have been the gross injustices that befell England and Mexico, despite both sides being second best in their respective games, it seems wrong that Suarez's act of cheating will keep him in the tournament, whilst the excellent Ghanaians go home. He will miss the semi-final, but should Uruguay make the final, he will be back. After all the opprobrium directed at Thierry Henry last year, it would not be right to let this go unnoticed.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs, this World Cup has kept improving since that uninspiring first week. It got going in week two, and the drama has built steadily since then. If tomorrow's quarter-finals are anything as good as today's double bill, then fans will have been spoiled.

Football: The Kop

There was an interesting short piece at the end of tonight's BBC coverage of the Spain v Portugal second round match, about the often overlooked link between South Africa and English football lore. The famous Kop end at Anfield, actually one of many stands at football grounds around the country with that name, was named after the site of a battle in the Boer War.

The segment, presented by Mark Lawrenson, provided a rather sudden change in tone from the fairly light-hearted coverage of the match itself, but was rather poignant and very informative, and is well worth watching whilst it is on the iPlayer.