ponsaelius

Neymar's rolling around before was ridiculous but it's going to happen all the time now with VAR. For something sly and hidden like what Layun did, players now have a justified reason to put on a display and try and get the video referees to look at it.

A quick check of his goal record and you would have seen I was being facetious.

Looks like a real goal machine from midfield.

150th cap today

FWIW I don't really include the 2008 Spain side in my assessment. It was Del Bosque who was the arch villain.

Class

Fucking missed it.

A rare occasion.

Keeper still has one foot on the line when Aspas strikes it. Seen far worse than that tbh.

He's only off his line on the 2nd save. Spain probably gan oot anyway.

Scored more goals in this World Cup already than shitty Spain did in 2010. Because rank teams like Russia sat back against them for the full tournament. Still won the whole thing as well. They won it through anti-football. Alonso and Busquets in the middle, Xavi and Iniesta wide. Monopolising the ball for 90 minutes, playing at walking pace, no width or directness and grinding out 1-0s. Easily the most boring successful side of my lifetime, just ahead of Greece 2004. So other teams not bothering to press them is Spain's fault? Yes. Spain have loads of amazing players with off-the-chart technical ability. They have generally used it to dominate the ball (by packing the midfield, playing without width, and without forwards), slow down the pace of play, and constrict the natural life and flow out of games. Even good sides against them have been resorted to camping and countering. It's certainly impressive and successful, but it's also absolutely as negative as a team that sets up to just defend. I put the 2010 team more negative than Greece, because at least Greece had an excuse for it with their extremely limited player pool. The Euros teams either side were marginally more entertaining, especially 2008. Constrict the natural life and flow out of games? What is a natural life and flow in a game anyway? You say that good teams have been resorted to camping and countering, as if Spain gets to pick the tactics and strategy of their opponents, instead of the truth which is that teams chose to play that way against Spain. At the end of the day they played to the strengths of their players, which were exceptionally strong in the midfield. If you find a way to play all of Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets and Xabi Alonso, then of course you're gonna do that. Playing a bunch of holding central midfielders isn't negative then? Righto. The way Spain plays creates games that are unwatchably dull.

I hate Greece 2004 btw. They robbed the Czechs who were a genuinely entertaining side.

Glad to have some support on this. Feel like I've been shouting into a void for the last decade

Scored more goals in this World Cup already than shitty Spain did in 2010. Because rank teams like Russia sat back against them for the full tournament. Still won the whole thing as well. They won it through anti-football. Alonso and Busquets in the middle, Xavi and Iniesta wide. Monopolising the ball for 90 minutes, playing at walking pace, no width or directness and grinding out 1-0s. Easily the most boring successful side of my lifetime, just ahead of Greece 2004. So other teams not bothering to press them is Spain's fault? Yes. Spain have loads of amazing players with off-the-chart technical ability. They have generally used it to dominate the ball (by packing the midfield, playing without width, and without forwards), slow down the pace of play, and constrict the natural life and flow out of games. Even good sides against them have been resorted to camping and countering. It's certainly impressive and successful, but it's also absolutely as negative as a team that sets up to just defend. I put the 2010 team more negative than Greece, because at least Greece had an excuse for it with their extremely limited player pool. The Euros teams either side were marginally more entertaining, especially 2008.

There's a huge difference between Barca 2008-2012 and the Spain team of the same time. One of them has Messi for a start, but generally always played a front 3 and a balanced midfield, with lots of runners and moving the ball at pace. Spain just packed their midfield and played width-less, paceless dirge.

Scored more goals in this World Cup already than shitty Spain did in 2010. Because rank teams like Russia sat back against them for the full tournament. Still won the whole thing as well. They won it through anti-football. Alonso and Busquets in the middle, Xavi and Iniesta wide. Monopolising the ball for 90 minutes, playing at walking pace, no width or directness and grinding out 1-0s. Easily the most boring successful side of my lifetime, just ahead of Greece 2004. Imagine accusing Spain of playing 'anti-football' after just watching them spend 120 minutes trying to break down a team with no interest in actually playing football. Not the first time either. Spain are the very opposite to that imo. Why is it seen as standard to think possession football = good football by default? It's inherently negative if you do it in the way Spain do, with no intention to play with real vigor or allow natural transitions in a game. It's absolutely no better than the way Russia set up, especially when you consider the ridiculous talent pool Spain have. You can be fair and say it's certainly been very successful for them after years of failure, but good to watch? Inherently good football? Not for me. It's attritional murder by a thousand paper cuts.

Scored more goals in this World Cup already than shitty Spain did in 2010. Because rank teams like Russia sat back against them for the full tournament. Still won the whole thing as well. They won it through anti-football. Alonso and Busquets in the middle, Xavi and Iniesta wide. Monopolising the ball for 90 minutes, playing at walking pace, no width or directness and grinding out 1-0s. Easily the most boring successful side of my lifetime, just ahead of Greece 2004.

Scored more goals in this World Cup already than shitty Spain did in 2010.

Spain are lucky Akinfeev is hopeless

Was 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

Well done ref. Don't bow to these dirty Spaniards.

Wow somebody moved with the ball.

Of course the teams sitting back take some of the blame. But Spain are always equally to blame for creating these terrible spectacles because their entire way of playing is about creating borefests of this nature.

Firmly believe Spain are every bit as negative as Greece 2004 and all the other teams who have successfully played with a camped defence. Monopolizing possession endlessly, slowing the game down to walking pace, removing all natural transitions of play from the game, and making almost no clear cut chances. 2010 were the most boring, low-scoring World Cup winners of all time and they're still the same now. It's truly awful to watch and just another form of anti-football. And I say this as somebody who loves Spanish football and greatly appreciated the great Barcelona team of Xavi/Iniesta. But the national team are just fucking turgid.

There'll be a weak side if Spain get through. They're fucking shite and truly dreadful to watch.