Playing football well is not about playing in a flashy way. You can play beautifully and not be efficient or effective. You are not necessarily closer to winning by doing it that way or choosing this path. You can also do it in a way that is boring and tedious for the spectator and play football very well. That is the wonderful thing about this sport, the most democratic that exists, the one that offers you the most different paths to success or victory.
I think it has to do with the low score that decides games. I can shoot 40 times on goal and you can’t, and you can beat me. I don’t think that can happen in any other sport. That’s why football is magical. Spain has managed to combine the two things. It has played more beautifully than anyone else and, also, better than anyone else. It has captivated the entire country and half the world with its joy, its bravery, its self-confidence, its speed and its aggressiveness.
We spent too much time looking at ourselves complacently in the mirror. tiki taca And that cost us. We died slaves to our past success. Luis de la Fuente has managed to shake this off and offer total football, without complexes. A priori, there were teams with more potential if you looked at the squads. France, Portugal and England have, by name, better individualities, but none of them has enamoured us with their football. On the other hand, Spain has. Spain’s triumph and, above all, the way it was achieved, will have positive consequences on the path to follow.
Football, like almost all areas of life, works by imitation. If something works, then I copy or imitate it. If the stinginess of the proposals of some teams had triumphed, many others would have followed in their footsteps. Now let us hope that the trail left by the Spanish team will be followed by many others. And I say this because it has been a Euro that was somewhat poor in terms of proposals, talent, entertaining matches, players who generate magnetism and interest.
Tactics and physical work are increasingly reducing the gap between the two teams, and it is very difficult to overcome and beat any opponent, but fortunately, talent continues to prevail, and I think it will always be like that. In the semi-finals, with different sensations, there were: France, Spain, England and the Netherlands. If you include Germany and Portugal, who lost to Spain and France respectively, they are the six teams with the best footballers. In the end, the teams and national teams that have the most talent do, or usually do, as happens in the Champions League.
That is why it is a bit of a well-understood anger that some coaches are limiting the possibilities and abilities of some cracks who have been missing or far below their level in this great championship, it is worth thinking about. Finally, and emphasizing what distances, tactics and physicality have reduced, there will always be an antidote that cures all ills: the dribbler. Lamine Yamal and Nico have been unstoppable, undetectable, indecipherable. A species in danger of extinction. Let the children play freely, without rules, in the street, all against all… otherwise, this type of player, who gives us so much enjoyment, will disappear.
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