World Cup Final

First, the better team won the World Cup final. There's no question that Spain outplayed the Dutch. One might even be tempted to say that the victory of the most technically proficient side in the world over one who resorted to anti-football almost immediately is a victory for football. However, let's be clear: Spain's victory was not a victory for attacking football.

Lazy analysts seem to think that Spain victory always = attacking football. This is simply not the case. Spain's quick, passing style, tiki-taka, is, as Sid Lowe has pointed out on Football Weekly, as much a defensive strategy as it is an attacking strategy. In the final, Spain dominated possession, and looked good doing so, but very rarely actually created goal scoring opportunities. David Villa wasted the one genuine chance that they created, after Jesus Navas' great run and cross (let it be said, though, that bringing on Navas to run at Giovanni Van Bronkhorst was a great substitution by Vicente del Bosque; had Navas been more consistent with his delivery, Spain might have created many more chances). Holland, on the other hand, had two great chances, both squandered by Arjen Robben.

As in most cup (especially World Cup) finals, both teams prioritized not conceding over scoring. The strategies by which they did this looked very different, but both are fundamentally a waiting game. Holland sat back, tried to break up play, tried to foul Spain out of their rhythm, and waited for a mistake by the other team or moment of individual brilliance from one of their creative players (and by that I mean their one creative player, Wesley Sneijder). Spain too played a waiting game. They passed. And passed. And passed. Spain played keep-ball for most of the game and, like Holland, waited for a mistake or a moment of individual brilliance. The goal came from a combination of both.

This is not to say that Spain can't or don't play attacking football; they just did not in this particular match. A good comparison might be Barcelona's victory over Chelsea in the 2009 Champions League semi-final. Barcelona played more attractive, more technically proficient, football, but it wasn't necessarily any more attacking. And like this match, that one was settled by a great goal by Andres Iniesta. Make no mistake, Spain did not play anti-football the way Holland did, but they definitely played defensive football. It was more attractive, more technically sound, and, ultimately, better football than Holland played, but it was in no way more attacking.