Spain are boring: Right, this is the easiest to answer. Can we stop blaming the protagonists for the inability of the lesser team to mount an attack? I realize that catenaccio has infiltrated England through the Mourinho jockstraps but there was a time that talented teams stretched themselves to the limit and forced their opponents to make mistakes. Even Italy don't play with two defensive stoppers. Can we bury this and try getting players to play with the ball instead of conceding it and hooping, praying for a counter?
Tiki-Taka is boring: it´s a matter of style and preference. There is a perception that a possession game is innately less pleasing to the eye. Granted, I wasn´t raised with the expectation, the almost Pavlovian need to lump the ball if it lands at the feet that Spain´s critics were, but I really don´t get how the more athletic and direct game is any more admirable than tiki-taka? Forgive me if I interject, but I hate the word tiki-taka. It´s onomotopeia, the sound that the ball makes when it is hit around, back and forth quickly. Yes, quickly. You create triangles of play and you exploit the prime advantage inherit in the game: the ball is quicker than the player. You need great footballers to handle the passing around the constant pressure that most modern teams employ. It´s a different focus and emphasis, away from what most of us are used to, but very familiar if you´ve been alive for more than a decade.
Chelsea proved they can be beat: this is laughable. You used to hear it all the time in the NBA when the Detroit Pistons ¨consistently¨ beat Michael Jordan´s Chicago Bulls. They crowed that they had solved the issue and contained or neutralized Jordan with a set of techniques they brilliantly called ¨the Jordan Rules.¨ It worked for a time, but Chicago and Jordan adapted their game and it became less effective. There is no permanent solution to a problem is what I am trying to say. Spain played an entire World Cup in 2010 against sides that were determined to use Chelsea rules to stop their play. They adapted their game and waited for their shot and when Andrés Iniesta took his they were deserving World Champions.
No goal-scoring: usually this comes with the example that David Villa is hurt and won´t be participating in Euro 2012. Alright, that´s a fair point, but critics are failing to examine that Spain have Fernando Torres. Sure, laugh all you want about El Niño´s past trouble scoring for Chelsea, but the kid is rested and relaxed and he has a supply-line for Spain that Chelsea can´t match: Xabi Alonso. I know it´s hard to imagine too, but Spain have other forwards on that line-up. Their names are slightly more difficult to read but Álvaro Negredo and Fernando Llorente both give Spain a different look according to the needs of the match, and their goal-scoring from other parts of the pitch is unmatched. I wouldn´t be worried about Spain´s scoring. Don´t believe me? See if their opponents open up the match. Give Spain some space and see how many goals they pour into their goal-mouth.
No plan-B: If they didn´t have a plan-B they wouldn´t have Fernando Torres on the pitch. They can play a direct game if needed with Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos pinging the ball around. They can play wide by bringing in Cazorla and Navas to cross to Llorente. It just so happens their plan-A is so effective, but even José Mourinho himself says that Spain are not FC Barcelona. There is some Real Madrid DNA, and I would add Athletic Bilbao, Malaga, Chelsea FC and Manchester City, as well.
No defense: this is usually presented, much like the goal-scoring with Villa, with the example of Carles Puyol who is himself hurt. I realize that these are usually the same people that have a hard-time coming to grips with basic tactics and still use the antiquated term ¨center-half¨, but football has changed and adapted itself to modern times and so has football defending. Sergio Busquets and Xabi Alonso are as much defensive stoppers as the line behind them. If you have to see things in a more traditional sense, the one constant over the last year under Vicente del Bosque is that Gerard Pique and Sergio Ramos are working together in central defense as a partnership. They are athletic, not as animated in leadership as the Catalan Tarzan, but their defense is not a weak. Arbeloa and Jordi Alba link up in attack and provide cover, but are not primary defenders. It´s what most critics harp on: Spain can be beat on the wings but teams rarely do. Why is that? Spain´s best defense is their possession game and their pressure. It is very difficult to get the ball off their feet and when you do they get it back even quicker. Their defense is so rarely tested because everything else is so dominant.
Strong dark-horses: I just read this the other day. ¨One of the reasons Spain won´t win Euro 2012 is because of strong dark-horses like Germany, France and England.¨ I think you can eliminate two of the three. Never discount Italy in a short competition, especially one with as much experience and young talent as they have, but does anyone think that two dour sides like France and England have any chance? France are suffering from their grand national disease: pronounced ennui; that listlessness and general lack of excitement that they rarely break through of. England are suffering from theirs: their inflated opinion of their own abilities. Germany I can understand though. They are tough, but they are no certain locks despite what they have shown so far. They have more holes in their game, especially in defense and uncertainty in attack, than Spain. Portugal? They will get found out by a strong opponent.
Spain are Cheats: the last resort for critics who´ve been shouted down at every other salient point. Do some players on the Spain squad have a harder time staying on their feet? Sure. Take Sergio Busquets. Much of his game is predicated on stopping play. He is a very good tackler and an effective passer of the ball, but if a team is going to focus on intimidating the smaller players like Xavi or Iniesta, then all bets are off. No one complains about a hard-tackle that skirts the boundaries of the laws of the game or outright wrestling that passes for goal-mouth defending in certain championships, but riding a tackle to the ground to win a free-kick isn´t? People complain about players writhing in pain on the ground and ten seconds later running as if nothing had happened, but refs rarely call a foul if the player gets up and keeps running. Sometimes you have to allow the referee to make the call. Like with most of this, it depends on where your footballing sensibilities were formed. I prefer the game I learned when I was a kid, the latin game. I have no problem with the part of the game that most people would call cheating.
The weight of history: it is most likely that Spain will not win Euro 2012, and you are sure to hear plenty of cheers from the same people who were disappointed at the last Euro´s and the last World Cup results. These people would disrespect Spain´s achievements no matter what happens today and over the next rounds of Euro 2012. Still, I think it would be historic to see this happen.
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