It’s not often that a single strategic decision decides a football match, but that’s what happened yesterday, when Chile played Spain. The high defensive line played by Chile let Spain off the hook.
Chile play a very unusual system, in which they attack without cease for every minute of the match, and play what looks like six wingers. Sometimes, personalities or luck or athleticism decide which team wins a match, but because the Chileans are so novel, they almost always win or lose based on tactics.
One risky aspect of Chile’s game is the high defensive line they play. Chile shrink the field so they can make the short, angled passes that spring their wingers into space,, but to do this, their defenders need to stand very close to their attackers, so they can start their passing game with accuracy. Long passes are notoriously hard to complete and give defenders time to organize their shape. The virtue of Chile’s system is the claustrophobic terror it creates for defenders, and Spain were petrified today, at least for twenty-four minutes.
The offside rule makes it hard to attack a team like Chile, unless you have a very fast and technical attacker who can chase long passes into the channels, which, it just so happens that the Spanish center forward Fernando Torres loves to run. I have been immense on the virtues of Torres in this space, and while he’s still very rusty after surgery on his knee, his reputation was enough to ruin all of Chile’s plans. In the twenty-fourth minute, Spain played the ball out of the back and down the left touchline. Torres chased, and Chile’s goalie, Claudio Bravo, came flying off his line and out of the box. (Another thing the high defensive line requires is aggressive goalkeeping.) It looked like Torres was contained, but just the mere idea of him racing at the goal made poor Bravo lose composure. He didn’t clear the ball very well, and Spanish forward David Villa volleyed in a goal from a cool fifty yards.
David Villa is an incomparable player. His skill, speed and vision have made him, to my eye, the best player of the group stage. Every time he gets the ball it looks like he will score. Spain has fairly staggered through the group stage while he carried them, and his goal here killed the match. Thirteen minutes later, he assisted Spain’s second goal, which Andreas Iniesta stroked into the net.
No other team in the world would have the gall to attack the Spanish in this way. Now we know why. To beat Spain, you have to thwart David Villa, who loves to run behind Fernando Torres. Chile enabled him.
