Spain hits the wall, Costa Rica goes right through it
Barcelona and Spain established their status as the world's biggest teams, but over the last year something has changed. Going back roughly eight seasons, both Barcelona and Spain revolutionized the way football is played. Much like the Dutch did in 1974, the Spanish put their trademark onto the football world. Tiki-taka was born.
Spain's six-year run of winning tournaments showed us that you can dominate the game packing the middle of the pitch with technically gifted midfielders playing a ball possession game featuring short passes. They demonstrated the idea that playing with undersized, positionally flexible footballers could still keep you competitive and not only that, but win.
Spain’s passing football was an evolution from the Dutch style and the links between Spain and Holland are well known. Spain's approach to unrelentingly retain the ball, with the idea to draw defenders out of position and provide space for their players, playing narrow and without a true centre-forward was, at the end, amazing and revolutionary at the same time.
But no revolution lasts forever and it has to face the perils of constant analysis and attempts of being overthrown. And It has happened this summer.
After years of domination with a patient passing game, Spain hit a wall. From this moment, playing against more physical, defensive, fast-breaking sides was no longer easy. The first signs of a solution to this relentless passing was demonstrated by José Mourinho during the famous 2010 European Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Inter.
That game signaled the first rumblings. The solution was easy: close down the middle of the field, counter-attack if you can, play direct football putting emphasis on set pieces and exploit the opportunities that your opponent leaves you. You can face tiki-taka by pressing high up and breaking their build-up, or you can beat it by sitting deep and closing the channels.
In both cases, this is a proactive style. Both Chile and Holland did it. But another team caught the eyes by playing a similar approach.
It has been Costa Rica.
Costa Rica’s win against Italy pushed CONCACAF’s record to 4-1-1 at this World Cup. Four wins from the first seven matches played at Brazil 2014, with Honduras being the only CONCACAF team to have lost.
This is an amazing record and shows how CONCACAF’s level of play has grown, especially considering Africa and Asia were expected to shine in Brazil. Instead, it is Central American soccer that is flourishing. Costa Rica was thought to be one of the worst teams at this World Cup.
No way.
Costa Rica earned six points out of their first two games and advanced out of a group including Italy, Uruguay and England. How did they did it? They accomplished this result playing simple, direct football - in another way counter to tiki-taka.
Against Uruguay and Italy, Costa Rica were comfortable sitting back and looking to break. But they didn’t do it by parking the bus. In fact, they pressed into the centre of the pitch, using a nice counter-attacking approach and taking advantage from the set-pieces situations.
Against Italy, Costa Rica successfully utilized their midfielder to put pressure on the Italian central midfielders, Daniele De Rossi, Andrea Pirlo and Thiago Motta, reducing their time on the ball. In a tournament of successful three-man backline, Jorge Pinto’s side made no exceptions.
But Costa Rica’s defence played different from, for example, Mexico - another side utilizing a three-man backline - as they stayed high up the field, closing down the spaces between the midfield and centre-backs.
It was a risky proposition, as they were a bit exposed to Mario Balotelli’s ability to break through. But in the end it worked, allowing Costa Rica to nullify Italy’s passing play and to win the ball high up, exploiting Joel Campbell’s skills to create headaches for a shaky Italian defence.
That was with Costa Rica out of possession. On the other side, with the Central Americans controlling the ball, they pushed the ball high forward as soon as possible, attacking with speed and with numbers. They absorbed Italian pressure the same way they did against Uruguay in the opener.
Costa Rica defended actively, repeatedly running through the channels when occasions
presented themselves. Their display was impressive, especially considering how they were rated before the World Cup.
Pinto called his team's defence against Italy tactically "perfect" and it was. Assistant coach Paulo Wanchope told reporters that the coaching staff knew their players would have been able to score against anyone.
Costa Rica’s success so far has been the case of a Colombian coach building a balanced side around a solid defensive game and a fast counter attack. It has worked in their first two games and we’ll see soon if it is the right approach to get them deep into the knockout round.
Michele Tossani is a football tactician with a Ph.D. in History. Michele resides in Florence, Italy and is a tactical analyst for Futbol-Tactico.com
|