But as a football fan, it fills me with hope.
This is a clip of the build up to Spain’s three goals yesterday against Scotland in their Euro 2012 qualifier. It’s five minutes long. Three goals. Five minutes. You do the math…or count the passes.
Spain play in another dimension. Or as Dani Alves said of Xavi, “Xavi plays in the future.”
Click through to see five minutes of what the game can look like and still be successful at the highest level (or at least the highest level that Scotland have seen for a decade or so).
mesmeric . . .
Un.Be.Live.Ab.Le.
Wow!!
I have forwarded your blog on to my players and parents based on this post alone.
I’ve sent it to my U17 girls and will be sending to my U10 boys team as well. That first goal is 42 passes if you count from the foul. Not once did a player try to dribble past another player. It was all done on the ground with ball movement.
I actually counted 43. There was one 1 v 1 duel but the Spanish player went backwards
So tonight in training I played 11 of my guys a 9(4-5)-1-0 like Scotland and I told them to give their 6-man opponents 8 yards of space, letting them see all 180 degrees in front of them, until they were 30m from goal. Oh, and I asked the GK to be poor and defenders to avoid blocking shots in the area.
And voila, or should I say Ole, my guys looked like Spain (and Scotland, I’m afraid).
I think just maybe Scotland should have brought along some of Gregor’s favourite parents to yell “PRESSURE”, with a nice roll of both r’s.
[OK, so I didn't see the game, only these highlights. And I made this all up.]
Shoot, I forgot a clever reference to Scotland’s “Dunsinane” defensive strategy. I can hardly believe there’s no other reference to this on the interweb. Yes, that is combination of dunce and inane.
Gregor….
you are not welcome in Scotland anymore… a wee man from Govan told me to pass the messsage on. Anyways its no big deal, it was the same in 82 when Brazil humped us 4-1! The one thing in common is the players probably had a good bevvy after the game!
You’ve been talking to my Uncle?
Biggest mistake in 1982 was scoring first and early. David Narey just antagonized them with that not-a-toe-poke goal. And that ’82 Brazil team is one of the few that could compare to this Spanish team. Nice that Scotland got to be trounced by both of them.
Narey went back to halfway line bursting with excitement to a very quiet and uncomfortable Archie G. Narey asked him what his problem was. He said “you just woke them up”
Yeah, it was pretty much a yellow and blue clinic after that. I think I saw a clip of ‘the best goals of the 1982 World Cup’ and three of Brazil’s from this game made the highlight reel. On that note, if you ever get a chance to see “Gol!”, the official film of the 1982 World Cup, narrated by Sean Connery, take it. It’s really, really good. Probably my favourite football film. Like most, I consider the 82 World Cup the best ever played.
where can i find such a movie ? is it on your bookshelf at home along side your 78 world cup scotland song ” were on the March wee Allys army?” did you know Colin wears his boot laces like Kempes to this day!
I got it, eventually, off a torrent site. Lost the files though when my last Macbook’s hard drive blew up. I may have it on a burned DVD somewhere though. If I find it, I”ll let you know and I can get it to you.
Don’t have the 78 World Cup song but I do have “Strachan” by the Hitchers
http://cowbell.fm/track/91136-john-peel-festive-fifty-1997-21-strachan-hitchers
No. 1 on “football’s greatest songs” according to whoateallthepies.com:
http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/lists/3649/footballs_great.html
Sheedy, stop giving my secrets away.