The myth of Spain

Devoid of humility or sportsmanship, self-appointed football ‘saviours’ Spain have nothing on the great international sides of the past.

By Emmet Purcell

Without a doubt, Spain are the best team in the world. They came to the World Cup as favourites and aside from a minor blip against Switzerland, lived up to their lofty reputation, comfortably beating the tournament’s second best side Germany in the semi-finals and keeping four consecutive clean sheets in the knock-out stages.

Yet days later, and having read a number of articles lauding the team’s achievements – including on this site – one can’t help feeling that in many ways the trumpeting of the quality of this side, and what they bring to the game, has gone beyond the pale.

Put simply, just because Spain are the best team in the world right now, and have won two international tournaments in a row, does not logically point to genuine comparisons to the great sides of Brazil in 1970 or Cryuff’s 1974 Holland.

Personally, I find it strange to think that Spain are currently being held in such high regard when people forget that the French team of 1998 and 2000 was infinitely more entertaining and fully comfortable in putting their opponents to the sword. However, with the media fawning in overdrive of Spain’s style of play, I found that it was time to put together a couple of points to attempt to redress the balance.

Tiki-taka – great in theory, tedious in practice

First off – this is not an interesting team to watch. The term for Spain’s style of play, is ‘tiki-taka’. Essentially this involves to a huge amount of meaningless passes, which eat up possession and ensure Spain’s defenders are in full control of the game throughout. This is undoubtedly a huge talent, and for purists is an admirable skill, one which ensures the side also has a unique style of play in the international arena.

However, this isn’t to say tiki-taka is an exciting style of football, comparable to the explosion of the unprecedented aesthetic beauty of Holland’s Total Football in 1969. On the contrary, I feel this style of play makes for dull, flat, but effective performances. Indeed, the best label I can apply to Spain’s World Cup performances would be ‘Diet Barcelona’ – lacking the cutting edge and dynamism of a Leo Messi to counterbalance the tedium with unforgettable moments of magic.

One of the strangest aspects of Spain’s approach in this tournament is that that unlike their relatively goal-heavy journey to Euro 2008 success, under Vicente Del Bosque they have settled for one-goal victories, with four successive 1-0 victories after conquering the group stages.

For whatever reason, Spain never tries to find another gear and destroy their opponents – once they have scored their single goal they are content to kill a game off entirely.

As an armchair viewer for the tournament, it was immediately evident that once Spain took the lead in a game, it was time to flick off and see what else was on – the team never lost a lead and on just one occasion in eight games did they score a second goal, finishing as the lowest-scoring champions in World Cup history.

Do we really want to compare a side like that to great Brazil team of 1970. And if so, how far has international football fallen that such displays are held in such high regard?

Arrogance

The Spain team can be quite a dislikeable bunch. Yes, this sounds like a very shallow statement but again, it’s another clear demarcation between this team and the all-time greats. Perhaps bred from the Barcelona-centric reliance of the starting line-up, Spain is one of the most painfully arrogant sides to ever kick a ball.

Witness the sight of Spain and Barcelona central defender pairing Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol forcing a Barcelona jersey over Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas during Monday’s celebrations in Madrid. Or lovable Pique finding great amusement from spitting on the Spanish FA delegate and former Valencia president, 72-year old Pedro Cortés, atop the celebratory bus.

 

As for Fabregas, Monday’s actions were another concerted episode in the side’s intense courtship of their former youth player. Barcelona have been trying everything they legally can to unsettle this player and undermine his current club – Xavi telling us it’s in Cesc’s “DNA” to rejoin the side, Barca captain Puyol saying he is “perfect” for the side, whilst Pique feels joining the team is something Fabregas “must do”.

The lack of respect from this side to another of their European rivals has been astonishing, indefensible. As for their domestic rivals, Real Madrid starting right-back Sergio Ramos recently told Spanish media that “when a player is the best in his position in the world and doesn’t play for Real Madrid, you have to consider it a waste.” This domestic club arrogance transfers over to the conduct of the national side, which has ably demonstrated a lack of humility in the past and manifested a team that are both poor winners and sore losers.

To quickly return to Barcelona, who else was appalled when the Catalan side switched on the ground sprinklers to abort the celebrations of Inter Milan players after the Champions League holders had been knocked out of the tournament at the semi-final stage? This profound lack of respect for their opposition is continuously ignored by the mainstream media, and even extends to when the national side reached their then biggest milestone in international football history, defeating Germany at the Euro 2008 final.

Observe defeated German talisman Bastian Schweinsteiger’s post-match interview for German TV, which is sabotaged not once, but twice, as a group of victorious Spanish players conduct a conga line behind the player in full view of the cameras – astonishing conduct from winners and criminally overlooked by Spanish apologists.

One gets the ultimate impression that Spain, overall, feel their style of football is so pure, so magical that had the team not won the trophy, if tiki-taka had not won out, it would have been a travesty not just for the country, but for football.

Cynical conduct

Thirdly, for a team that is supposedly such a pure footballing side, a huge amount of cheating, deceiving and time-wasting takes place in every Spain game.

Certainly no-one can excuse Holland’s disgusting, disgraceful and shameful display against the eventual champions on Sunday night. However, Holland’s actions have now seemingly wiped the slate clean on Spain’s own conduct throughout the tournament.

Fernando Torres’s blatant diving against Chile, Juan Capdevila’s exaggeration that led to the dismissal of Portugal player Ricardo Costa, Carlos Marchena’s continuous 92^nd minute wandering substitute appearances – all were tactics, cynical in the extreme, employed on a regular basis. Spain’s diving, referee cajoling and time-wasting appears bred in their culture and is now just as essential to their style of football as deep lying defenders and possession retention.

If Spain are such an aesthetically, tactically superior international side, their persistent deceit on the field undermines their philosophical approach to the game. Yes, plenty of the world’s greatest and most recognisable players dive (even English players, believe it or not), but as a collective, I genuinely didn’t see any country attempt to deceive a referee to the extent of Spain this summer.

Spain are devoid of humility, sportsmanship or genuine entertainment, but none of these drawbacks ultimately matter in the grand scheme of things – they grind out results and are producing an ever-emerging battery of young players to take over from the current side and ensure future dominance.

For these reasons alone, Spain will continue to be regarded as the major force in international football, which is a well earned feat. However, anyone participating in the current media circle knee-jerk, espousing the side’s achievements and aesthetic beauty alongside the likes of the all-time greats, are kidding no-one but themselves.