Spain: From the conquest at Johannesburg to the devastation at Moscow

Fernando Hierro and Spain: A ship without course

In the rush of the hour, Spain appointed Fernando Hierro as their head coach. Their World Cup campaign was dismal, to say the least. Teams like Argentina and Germany came under heavy criticism for their respective campaigns. Spain was just lucky enough to escape from it. Their group stage was a total disappointment.

They had complete superiority over Portugal, in terms of midfield and defense. Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed a point away from Spain, thanks to defensive lapses which were completely uncalled for. The tackle by Pique just outside the box, Nacho bringing Ronaldo down in the box, when he knew CR7 would look to go down. The second goal of Cristiano, largely owing to the defense not closing down on him and also David De Gea’s untimely mistake. Spain was a dictionary of mistakes that day.

Spain paid for their lack of game awareness as Ronaldo stepped up under pressure and hit the freekick with the utmost subtlety. Even in the following games, they weren’t up to the mark. They scraped past Iran with a goal. In their final group game, their lackluster defense almost knocked them out. They went from leading by a goal to conceding two from a spirited Morocco team. Spain barely escaped a scare, thanks to Iago Aspas’ late equalizer.

Their elimination from the World Cup just came earlier than expected from the hands of an unexpected opponent. The tactics of Hierro didn’t make any sense. No threatening attacks, no dragging defenses out of shape, no attempts to score more goals and also weak at the back. They got a goal thanks to the own goal, against Russia. But they still weren’t aware of the game, Pique handed a ball which could have easily been cleared.

Throughout the game, Spain just passed for the sake of passing. No purpose could be seen. Russia held their defensive line, they weren’t falling for the passing trap. They didn’t commit towards the short passes. If a sensible coach would have seen that, he would have tried to exploit the spaces out wide, with quick pass moves. Hierro just wanted to pass, Spain passed and passed, they tried to switch wings. What use was that? Sideways passing never does any damage. Russia wanted a penalty shootout, they got one. Spain and their tactics are to blame for it. They played Tiki-Taka for the first time in their history maybe. Yes. Tiki Taka is not what Barcelona played, they mixed it up with real purpose. Spain passed for the sake of passing, which is the real tiki-taka, you have to pass no matter what.

Spain vs Russia: Pass Map

Hierro and his team were stagnant at the midfield while having great creators like Isco and Iniesta and finishers like Costa up for prowl. They didn’t even try a lob or through ball to drag defense out of shape.

Their unreal pass map and heavy touches near midfield accounted for nothing. Aesthetically a very beautiful pass map, but as is evident, side passes are all that it has. Players are more or less occupying the same positions, weak positional play. A lot of touches, which has no attacking intent. Spain didn’t give a good farewell, to the man that scored the most important goal in their history. Iniesta was forced to look away from goal in pain, as Akinfeev saved the penalty from Aspas.