Spain came out with a chip on their shoulder today. I don't know if it was because of other defenses packing the back or lack of lineup cohesion, but the Spanish team was half asleep and in practice mode throughout the entire tournament. Not only was this their best game of the tournament, but it showed they aren't going anywhere for a long time when they have the right amount of intensity channeled into beautiful, sharp passes. In that aspect, I see a lot of similarities between me and the Spanish team. Very stylish, stick to their principles when things aren't going smoothly, can go through things other people find very important in cruise control and still win ugly, but when the heat is on... they come to the kitchen with their favorite apron on, ready to go. Congrats to Spain. Can't wait for Brazil 14, France 16, and Moscow 18... I'll be at all 3 barring an unforeseen circumstances.
Disappointed by that. Spain played well, though I hate when a game is ruined by red cards of injury. Would have been interesting for the spectacle to see what Italy could have done with 11 men on the pitch. Nevertheless, Spain are worthy winners despite their run of luck during the tournament. 3x in a row can't be called coincidence! Feel bad for the Italians, 4-0. Ouch. It's funny to think we (Holland) were even at this tournament. Feels like such a long time ago! Lol.
Spain played great the Final game, congrats to them, I dont think the defenders are that great, just have an amazing goalkeeper. but they shouldnt have advance because the ref robbed Croatia of two penalties, which they would have eliminated Spain.
First of all, congrats to Spain. They were the deserved winners last night against Italy and therefore of the tournament overall. That said, they were lucky several times to even get that far (penalty shoot-out against a Portugal team that played better for most of the game, lucky ref decisions against Croatia, etc.). But that's how it goes in these tournaments - luck is part of it, and all other things equal, it will sort of balance out over time and the winners will be deserved. Xavi and Iniesta came up big when it counted most, in the final. After his performance in the final, Iniesta is my player of the tournament once again (would have been Pirlo up to the final). There is grace in defeat and grace in victory. You have neither. When Barca won, you gloated bigtime. When they flamed out and didn't win anything this season, you pretty much pulled a disappearing act after a lot of boasting beforehand and failed to acknowledge the winning teams. You are a bandwagoner who is not even Spanish, but from El Salvador, and who does not know much about football ("offsides"), but who at some point decided to start "supporting" the teams that at the time happened to already be the most successful in the world. You have been on this site since 2008, but suddenly in 2010 (after they had already started being very successful) started posting about soccer and made various claims about having been a Barca/Spain fan since age 12 or age 14, respectively. Once again, the camaraderie and mutual respect between the soccer fans on this site has been great, and there is exactly one person ruining it with the style of his gloating. That would be you.
This is good for Spain, they can use the winnings to pay off their debts instead of going into default.
That's what I said. I think I've gloated as much as I have JUST because of ATW and his backhanded compliments and sportsmanship "disrespect" of the Spanish team. I've very emotional and when you walk around saying Spain gets "Lucky" for 4 years I'm going to let loose when they come out on top yet AGAIN, AGAIN and AGAIN. Just like I do with Knicks fans after 94. Win with grace? How about kiss the ring *****. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4Gg8HReLapE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Lame excuse. You have been acting equally classless when it came to Barca, when nobody said anything to "disrespect" their success. As I said, same type of fan like some random guy from Iowa who suddenly decides he is a Lakers fan in Kobe's prime, then a Heat fan now and goes around and gloats about something he obviously has neither contributed anything to nor any real connection to. Nobody said that Spain got lucky for 4 years. What I said was that they were lucky to have gotten to the final, which is true - Croatia was robbed and they luckily beat Portugal, who were the better team for most of the game, in a penalty shoot-out. They did great in the final, though (especially after any hope for Italy for a comeback was thwarted after they were reduced to 10 men due to injury, but already before that). Once again, you contributed zero to this, you have no real connection to it, you are a bandwagoner who picked a team from another country in its prime to make it "his" and then acts on an internet forum as if he is responsible for their success. You are like that awkward relative one is always a bit embarrassed for.
I really hope the way Spain plays get adapted by more teams, I love that read and react style of it.....would be great to see the USA do it, but I don't think we have the class on the pitch at this time to pull it off. DD
no team in the world can pull it off. it all started with barcelona. who spent years to perfect it. w/o Barca, Spain would be the same group of underachievers they have always been in their history. My favorite team, Roma, tried to adopt the system under Barcelona's youth team coach. It didnt work out because you really need a special group of technical midfielders. Barca/Spain have the two best in the word - Iniesta n Xavi. Most of Barcas success is due to those two. Every1 thinks Messi carries that team but they are wrong. They are the engine that makes Barca and Spain churn.
oh and just to add, it could not happen with national teams because you have very little time w/ the players b/t tournaments to perfect a system like that. it works for spain because a majority of their key players play for barca
I disagree if it were more prevelent on club teams then you could run it on national teams as well. I do agree about Barca being the heart of it, but the Netherlands played a somewhat similar style called Total Football before.... Those are the two styles I like to watch the most = very exciting. DD
Barca learned it from the Dutch. Cruyff first brought it there, van Gaal was involved in bringing out Xavi and Iniesta, Rijkard was their coach for a few years.
