{"id":56452,"date":"2026-07-17T11:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T11:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/56452\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T11:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T11:50:14","slug":"spain-have-reclaimed-their-football-identity-but-is-their-style-boring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/56452\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain have reclaimed their football identity but is their style boring?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As the Spain <\/a>players stepped out onto the Dallas pitch on Tuesday, they were driven by more than the prospect of a World Cup<\/a> final. They wanted to get there in a way that said something more; that settled a debate, as much as a semi-final.<\/p>\n

Spain were naturally aware of all the excitement<\/a> about France<\/a>\u2019s attacking, to the point the European champions were commonly dismissed as some lesser side.<\/p>\n

They were not just intent on proving they were superior, then, but also that they had a superior idea.<\/p>\n

What was so striking about Spain\u2019s 2-0 win<\/a> was how they confirmed it with their chests out.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s no mere figure of speech.<\/p>\n

Despite the fear most felt at that exuberant French attack, Luis De La Fuente\u2019s team were willing to take the ball on in the tightest areas and still play. It was bravery, in the truest football sense. Forget big headers under pressure. Every pass forward was a statement, but was also seen within Spain as bringing la seleccion full circle.<\/p>\n

\"SpainSpain celebrated an impressive semi-final win over France (Getty)<\/p>\n

The showpiece second goal, culminating in Pedro Porro\u2019s wondrous one-two finish, was seen as a mirror of the move that first announced Spanish supremacy.<\/p>\n

Back in October 2007, as Luis Aragones\u2019 side were still enduring so many old doubts after early 2006 World Cup elimination, they started to move through the gears in a Euro 2008 qualifier away to Denmark.<\/p>\n

From the 39th minute, a 28-pass move would flow into Sergio Ramos sumptuously lifting the ball over Thomas Sorenson. An idea had form.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s why this Porro goal, even more so than the effervescent intensity of Euro 2024, has been cast as the grand re-affirmation of that idea; enhanced and given modern form.<\/p>\n

\"PedroPedro Porro\u2019s goal was the culmination of the footballing idea at Spain\u2019s very core (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Elements of the entire display similarly reminded of the Euro 2012 final, and this will to prove a point.<\/p>\n

Are you not entertained, Porro might well have roared as he clenched his fists in celebration. Because it\u2019s not just a Spanish idea that has been restored but also a wider debate around it.<\/p>\n

As in the 2010 World Cup and especially Euro 2012, there have been growing rumbles about how \u201cboring\u201d their possession is. That seemed even more pronounced against the expressiveness of France, which gave extra edge to Spain\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

While it should be acknowledged much of this will simply come down to subjective emotional response to what people see before them, the reality of how it works has always been more complicated.<\/p>\n

Some of this was a touch harsh across 2010-12, as if it was only the Spanish play being assessed. The push-pull of how tactical evolution works has often being overlooked.<\/p>\n

\"IsIs Spain\u2019s impeccable ball retention and passing actually boring? (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s Euro 2008 winners had after all been talked about in similar terms to France and their own Euro 2024 champions, but that was essentially because opposition weren\u2019t prepared for them. They stepped out, and got cut up.<\/p>\n

By 2010, that had drastically changed, an entire era influenced by how Jose Mourinho\u2019s Inter Milan approached Pep Guardiola\u2019s Barcelona. If Spain were going to just have the ball, one solution was to not allow them to have any space around goal. They met more extreme defensive responses than any team had yet seen. Would Brazil 1970 have looked the same against this?<\/p>\n

It led to many of these long nights of the soul, Spanish anxiety further played upon by how their high line left them susceptible to sudden breaks. Vicente Del Bosque\u2019s response was a double pivot in Sergio Busquets and Xabi Alonso, shifting Xavi and Andres Iniesta up but also removing a wide player.<\/p>\n

Spain would get you on the carousel but it wasn\u2019t long until they were going round in circles.<\/p>\n

\"AfterAfter a trophy-laden spell from 2008 to 2012, Spain became stale (Getty)<\/p>\n

From 2014, when a historic team finally just became stale, they were also too dogmatic. Spain became so obsessed with keeping possession they never let loose. This resulted in the nadir of elimination to Russia in 2018 and the failure to win a World Cup knockout match for 16 years, until it was finally realised they had to evolve.<\/p>\n

Luis Enrique started this process but it is instructive \u2013 and fitting a theme of this World Cup \u2013 that the best current club manager couldn\u2019t take it all the way.<\/p>\n

By 2022, and elimination to Morocco, there was too easy a regression from the release of Euro 2020.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Luis Enrique wasn\u2019t as in tune with the idea as De La Fuente.<\/p>\n

The current manager has been working in the national system since 2013, which was also when Uefa held a study group that saw every other association flock to the Spanish. A brilliant piece in AS details how coaching supremo Gines Melendez was willing to share virtually everything except the \u201csecret formula\u201d \u2013 and that out of \u201cprecaution\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"LuisLuis De La Fuente took the ideas to the next level as Spain coach (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Some of it isn\u2019t so secret but just impossible to replicate. Spain has a long culture of small-sided small-space street games, that their football infrastructure began to institutionalise after the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.<\/p>\n

Generations of players were organically developing the most supreme technique, that was then augmented with the best coaching.<\/p>\n

This is what De La Fuente now taps into, an idea that is even more ingrained. It of course helps he has Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal, but helps even more he knows them so well.<\/p>\n

De La Fuente has had virtually all of these players through multiple youth teams. Seven of the current squad started the 2020 Olympic final (held in 2021) under him. That depth of understanding brings amplification of an approach.<\/p>\n

It was never more needed than at the start of this World Cup, when Williams\u2019s injury was the worst of numerous fitness issues in attack. There was no verticality.<\/p>\n

\"DeDe La Fuente knows Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams well (Getty)<\/p>\n

Amid the 0-0 with Cape Verde<\/a>, Spain looked like they might suffer the same problems as in so many modern tournaments. De La Fuente instead returned to the core idea, but with his knowledge ensuring it went to higher levels.<\/p>\n

Rodri personified this. Opposition sides, unable to execute an idea in the same way, again had to go deep.<\/p>\n

Hence it\u2019s not necessarily about Spain being \u201cboring\u201d but excellent technical execution against imperfect response. France showed the risk of stepping out. Spain won\u2019t pass sideways. They\u2019ll play through you.<\/p>\n

Those who work in European football development add that Spanish talent and coaching is evolving, too. They are struck by how comfortable young players are in tight positions \u2013 as against this French attack \u2013 and with their touch and decision-making getting better.<\/p>\n

Very few countries can produce players like this, as Thomas Tuchel found, but Spain is now producing squads of them. They have just walked the under-19 Euros.<\/p>\n

Tuchel would love to be bored like this…<\/p>\n

\"EnglandEngland boss Thomas Tuchel may be looking enviously at Spain (Getty)<\/p>\n

A twist to this final is that Argentina football<\/a> can actually respond in another way, and it is maybe the closest to Spain\u2019s. Lionel Scaloni has overseen a welcome return to \u201cLa Nuestra\u201d, the uniquely Argentine idea that favours short passing.<\/p>\n

The great wonder is whether he will take on Spain on those terms, or seek to dig in and battle in the way the world champions can do better than anyone.<\/p>\n

Argentina are well capable of frustrating the world champions in the way they hate, and then adding more on top of that. All of which is why the Spanish approach gives them the best chance of victory but is far from a guarantee.<\/p>\n

They may be technically excellent but they\u2019re not perfect, and have gaps to pick at. Spain may have to be at their most assertive, at their bravest, to play through it.<\/p>\n

An idea still needs form, after all. There is no form in football like the World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4700,23098,10187,5442,23099,934,3357,3358,6522,556,16938,22803,5441,18621,16980,6279,5444,6404,21642,3402,5448,8537,1743,17,6551,6521,314,5446,3443,19568,1511,5947,19991],"class_list":["post-56452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-alex-baena","tag-arlington-texas","tag-celebration","tag-color-image","tag-cowboys-stadium","tag-ferran-torres","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-france","tag-france-national-soccer-team","tag-france-national-team","tag-horizontal","tag-international-match","tag-international-team-soccer","tag-match-sport","tag-medium-group-of-people","tag-national-team","tag-number-7","tag-people","tag-photography","tag-semifinal-round","tag-soccer","tag-spain","tag-spain-national-soccer-team","tag-spain-national-team","tag-sport","tag-sports-team","tag-stadium","tag-success","tag-texas","tag-usa","tag-world-sports-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}