FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 15-30 June *** Spoilers ***

Dimi said:
Spain need the likes of Isco and Thiago to come through strong next year, they looked like the Barca we saw against Bayern.
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Thats basically exactly what happened, and Barca were getting beaten fairly easily by a only half decent Real team all season, Sociedad beat them, did Atletico get a draw, not sure on that. Barca struggled against bigger teams last season and the shift to Real winning games happened the year before.

Iniesta was turd tonight, consistently held on to the ball too long, tried to beat 3 players rather than make the simple pass, shot in stupid situations when he really has a terrible shot on him. Xavi doesn't dominate midfields like he used to, the season he got 16 goals 34 assists and played 70 games was just epic, a season maybe never to be matched by a midfielder... but he has been worse every season since(from being THAT good that still makes him a very good player, he's just not close to that level any more). Mata was non existant, Ramos and Pique always look clumsy in defence.

One of the main things was their absolute inability to adapt to the game. Both fullbacks conceded posession with insanely lazy passes into central midfield when deep in the opposition half largely because 99% of the time for Barca or Spain there is 3-4 Spanish players there who will get the ball easily, they can just pass inside when in trouble and find their own player 99% of the time with the opposition cowering in their own box. Today those passes were easily intercepted and launched into a quick counter attack. Torres was absolutely the wrong player to have on for this kind of team in this kind of game. They needed someone to get the ball and hold on to it for Iniesta , Xavi, Mata to push forwards, Fabregas being injured was a massive blow for them, Villa not starting in his place was absurd.

Navas was the same old Navas I've always seen, pace ability to drive down the outside, and crap delivery or crap shooting, not actually beating his man when it comes to it.

I laugh at everyone who predicted an easy win and proclaimed Brazil crap.... Brazil have for 20 years(at least I'm not old enough to remember before) known as a team that suck till they need to not suck. They often stumble through poor performances till the last couple games, sometimes the final, then turn it on and they've done that once again.

Home crowd advantage is huge though, if you've got a half decent team that can perform when it matters with that kind of noise and support behind you, or that kind of intimidation for the opposition, I wouldn't bet against Brazil for the world cup.

I didn't think Brazil would be that good, or Spain that bad, but assuming Brazil would be crap against Spain was always a silly prediction.
 
Derek W said:
Brazil haven't really shown much flair in this tournament yet. Take Neymar out of things and its a pretty ordinary Brazil side. Even with Neymar its an ordinary side with a brilliant diver :p.
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Didnt see much diving tonight by him;).

What an absolutely fantastic game, Brazil just destroyed Spain all over the park. Pressed them hard from the get go and Spain couldnt deal with it, first goal was just lol, Casilla's should have saved that..second and third were good goals.

Neymar as much as people in here say hes overrated, in the confed cup he has shown that he is a very very good player and better still hes only 21 lol. Just needs to cut out the diving and antics and hes set imho.

But Brazil were fantastic tonight, 12th man was the crowd....what an atmosphere. They have to be odds on favourites to win the WC next year especially with that kind of support behind them:p.

Spain were just poor, they were pretty poor against Italy in the semi as well.

Anyhow chuffed that Brazil won:D:D
 
A very ordinary Brazil team as I said :o ah well only missed another goal and a sending off by going to bed at half time!
 
Cracking game of football, nice to see Spain humbled a bit and Neymar have a cracking tournement - Barca should be very very exciting going forward next year.

Will be interesting to see how Spain bounce back too! Atmosphere at the World Cup should be electric.
 
Is Tika Taka dead? I laughed when they had to bring Villa on early in the second half. They need goal scorers in the side, not just pass masters. Glad to see Brazil playing great attacking football again, lets hope they can do that next year. I don't think they can get away with relying on Fred though, they need someone with the full package upfront.
 
Torres gets the Golden Boot. In the future Torres is going to be looked back upon as one of the greatest strikers of his generation lol.

World Cup Winner 2010
CL winner 2012
Euros 2012 winner and winning the Golden Boot
Euopa League winner 2013
winner of the Golden Boot of the Confederations Cup 2013
 
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Robert1986 said:
Is Tika Taka dead? I laughed when they had to bring Villa on early in the second half. They need goal scorers in the side, not just pass masters. Glad to see Brazil playing great attacking football again, lets hope they can do that next year. I don't think they can get away with relying on Fred though, they need someone with the full package upfront.
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Fred was excellent all around, particularly in the final game, as for tika taka, the problem was that Iniesta/Xavi/Mata/ Busquets passing was pretty much rubbish last night. It wasn't that tika taka was the wrong tactic or didn't work, they didn't play tika taka at all last night, it was disjointed rubbish.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Fred was excellent all around, particularly in the final game, as for tika taka, the problem was that Iniesta/Xavi/Mata/ Busquets passing was pretty much rubbish last night. It wasn't that tika taka was the wrong tactic or didn't work, they didn't play tika taka at all last night, it was disjointed rubbish.
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Probably because Brazil wouldnt let them settle into their usual boring possessional football. Loved how Brazil just kept pressing them everytime they had the ball, similar to how Italy played in the semi but unfortunately lost on penalties.

Got to say i dont know how the hell Luiz managed to clear the ball off the line when Pedro beat everyone and was about to put the ball in the net. Luiz was immense last night, made some timely tackles last night.

One thing Brazil cant do is defend, if it wasnt for a such a rubbish Spain performance..they could have had a few goals themselves. The Brazilian backs leave a lot of room as they like to shoot forwards...luckily for them Spain couldnt fully exploit that.
 
I think we can all agree that it was nice to see some decent attacking football dictate the outcome of the match than simply dominating possession.

Spain is past their best, and they are now faced with a similar situation to other teams a few years ago where they need to bring in some fresh legs.

As the logic goes: England beat Brazil in a friendly, Brazil beat world/euro champs Spain, therefore England = world cup winners! :D

:p
 
I still think the combination for Barca of the old direct, flair heavy, attacking Barca with the possession of Guardiola worked best, a new manager can't come in and remove everything the players were doing instantly, their drive and instinct. THe first couple years Guardiola was there possession was just half of their game, with a lot of the old direct team in there, the last couple years the old more direct team is all but impossible to see in the team now and its only possession. They are so much more one dimensional and predictable.

Spain have basically replicated Barca completely because the main midfield players who dictate the game are Barca players. I also think Barca/Spain are far more direct and have better movement with Fabregas in the team... probably a matter of time before he focuses more on possession and sitting back than getting forward quickly.

Thing is I think Messi and Iniesta have gone massively backwards in the past 2-3 years. Xavi gets forward less, and other than freekicks isn't a goal threat anymore and doesn't look for those ridiculous defence splitting balls, or balls behind, he's sitting too deep and always looking for the short pass. A huge part of the problem is Messi playing central and dropping deep all the time, thats where Xavi used to push into with a striker ahead and Messi running in from wide, worked so much better. With Messi upfront but dropping deep, Xavi sits deeper, and then for Spain Xavi is used to this deeper position and doesn't link up with a striker like Torres/Villa well because there is just too big a gap between them. When Fabregas plays he drops deeper like Messi and picks up the ball and gives them possession that 15 yards higher that lets Iniesta, the wide players and any other striker push forwards more.

Thats why so little of the SPanish play was near the edge of Brazil's box, their interplay was happening 15 yards deeper than normal. Spain's delivery from corners and setpieces was mostly abysmal too, Xavi taking a quick freekick but smashing it beyond the box... 4 years ago that would have been pinpoint on a Spanish head/foot and a chance on goal.

While Barca persist with a very one dimensional gameplan I think they and SPain will be predictable and fairly easy to contain(when they play someone good enough), there is a reason Barca/Spain are suddenly being utterly dominated... tika taka gone too far.

Seriously go look at the 5-0 or 5-1(forget which) utter smashing of Real in Mourinho's first season, it was SOOOOO much more direct with the style of goals, counter attacking, fast fluid attack. It was a mix of possession and direct and was epic, and truly brilliant to watch.
 
drunkenmaster said:
I still think the combination for Barca of the old direct, flair heavy, attacking Barca with the possession of Guardiola worked best, a new manager can't come in and remove everything the players were doing instantly, their drive and instinct. THe first couple years Guardiola was there possession was just half of their game, with a lot of the old direct team in there, the last couple years the old more direct team is all but impossible to see in the team now and its only possession. They are so much more one dimensional and predictable.

Spain have basically replicated Barca completely because the main midfield players who dictate the game are Barca players. I also think Barca/Spain are far more direct and have better movement with Fabregas in the team... probably a matter of time before he focuses more on possession and sitting back than getting forward quickly.

Thing is I think Messi and Iniesta have gone massively backwards in the past 2-3 years. Xavi gets forward less, and other than freekicks isn't a goal threat anymore and doesn't look for those ridiculous defence splitting balls, or balls behind, he's sitting too deep and always looking for the short pass. A huge part of the problem is Messi playing central and dropping deep all the time, thats where Xavi used to push into with a striker ahead and Messi running in from wide, worked so much better. With Messi upfront but dropping deep, Xavi sits deeper, and then for Spain Xavi is used to this deeper position and doesn't link up with a striker like Torres/Villa well because there is just too big a gap between them. When Fabregas plays he drops deeper like Messi and picks up the ball and gives them possession that 15 yards higher that lets Iniesta, the wide players and any other striker push forwards more.

Thats why so little of the SPanish play was near the edge of Brazil's box, their interplay was happening 15 yards deeper than normal. Spain's delivery from corners and setpieces was mostly abysmal too, Xavi taking a quick freekick but smashing it beyond the box... 4 years ago that would have been pinpoint on a Spanish head/foot and a chance on goal.

While Barca persist with a very one dimensional gameplan I think they and SPain will be predictable and fairly easy to contain(when they play someone good enough), there is a reason Barca/Spain are suddenly being utterly dominated... tika taka gone too far.

Seriously go look at the 5-0 or 5-1(forget which) utter smashing of Real in Mourinho's first season, it was SOOOOO much more direct with the style of goals, counter attacking, fast fluid attack. It was a mix of possession and direct and was epic, and truly brilliant to watch.
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So basically until they get a new manager who changes the system, only then will Barca/Spain progress again?

It makes you wonder what sort of system Guardiola will employ at Bayern after Barca. Whatever the system, if it works, you can be sure the German national team will be even stronger.
 
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