spain 4 russia 1

spain and holland have both employed a particularly interesting system for a period of their respective games, namely an attack without a true out-and-out striker.

which is particularly devastating for spain, partly because of the lack of quality in the russian defence, and partly because with the score at 2-0, russia were going to have to push up and in doing so leave gaps behind. anyway this is very interesting because it is so fluid. villa is often on the left flank, and then silva, xavi, iniesta and fabregas can all go in. the concept is a little like what roma does, except that villa is not the playmaker(unlike maybe totti), and villa is much faster than totti, and villa doesn't have to hold the ball but play it for the other attackers.

Senna is not the best defensive midfielder there is. but xavi and iniesta are superb in filling the gaps in midfield. in fact, Spain's problem in defence is not about the focus on attack, but on the poor positioning of the central defence.

and i feel that whoever plays upfront, torres or villa, doesn't really matter. both forwards have quality, although torres is abit more a striker. what matters is that xavi and iniesta can run the show. the way they hold the ball and dictate play. absolutely wonderful. so the key to stopping spain is actually to stop these 2 from playing. which is not very easy.

anyway villa has gotten the first hattrick of the tournament. and well-deserved too.

spain are proving me right, although this is only the first game. in 2006, they turned on the style against ukraine in the opener, but went out early. Spain's defence has to be much better against stronger opponents. russia were without their two best attackers and yet still could create some panic.

but then again, the three teams which i highly rate so far all have shaky defences. in fact, of the 14 teams so far, nobody has a defence that i can say is truly solid.

but in terms of passing quality and attacking, holland and spain have been most impressive.

alas, even if these two teams, which have the idiosyncracy of self-destructing, keep their cool and grow into the tournament, and the footballing gods willing, only one of them can go to the final.

that semi-final then would surely be considered as the dream final by the purists.