Confederations Cup 2013

[ArdeeBhoy]

Which happens with all great sports teams. Besides the cyclical nature of many, in terms of having access to such talent, human nature is to persist with those who're successful without integrating new players when signs of weakness occur, eg. losing 0-3 to a hitherto unimpressive Brazil team.

Spain don't need to throw out the baby, but do need to look at finding a replacement for Puyol and a decent young goalscorer, as stated up thread, for instance.

[Closed Account 2]

'Clean up' refers to recent run of Euro championship victories at u19 and u21 level.
These competitions are no walk in the park, never mind win it in the manner Spain do.


The Euro U21s is a reasonable tournament, but the U19s is a bit flakey. You say the competitions are not "a walk in the park", but it's worth noting that, for U19s in the last decade you have seen teams like Greece (twice: last year and 07), England (twice: 09 and 05), Scotland (06), Turkey (04) and Ukraine (winners in 09) get to the final. With respect to all of those teams none of them are powerhouses of national team football (well perhaps there is a debate over England). The whole qualification process for the U19 tournament is stilted, instead of the normal 6-team-group home and away games spread out over 1-2 years (which is what happens for all senior tournaments, and the Euro U21s) you have a series of mini tournaments each taking place over 5 days.

For example the Irish U19s played a 3 game tournament (over 5 days) in Luxembourg with matches against Germany, Luxembourg and Macedonia. Then six months later another 3 game tournament (again 5 days) this time in Serbia, with matches against Slovakia, the Swiss and the Serbs. The top 3 seeds (this year Serbia, Spain and Turkey) skip the first tournament. Top put it in simple terms, to qualify for this years U19 tournament Spain only had to play three matches (W 1-0 Poland, W 2-0 Greece, D 1-1 Croatia) in five days - I think Serbia got through with 1 draw, 1 win and 1 defeat.

As I say the Euro U21s is more of a standard tournament (in terms of team strenght and qualification process - it's never as simple as 3 games in 5 days to qualify), additionally over time U21 players are more likely to make the step up to the senior team than U19 players. But it's worth noting that the Spanish U21 at the Olympics last year had a spectacular failure. 3 games (Japan, Honduras, Morocco), only one point, and unable to score a single goal (Spains men's team and the Colombian womens team were actually the only teams that didnt score a goal). Their squad had some high profile players like De Gea, Alba, Javi Martinez, Mata and Isco yet it lost to Japan and Honduras and couldnt beat Morocco. On a global level it's fair to say that Spain have strong youth teams, but all this guff about a clean sweep is false and misleading.




"Spain edged out Germany 1-0"
One could interpret a 1-0 stat as the losing team being edged out, indicating a close encounter, a slight edge.
If you watched the game you might well have written that Spain were thoroughly deserving winners, Germany were outplayed and fortunate to keep the score down with a resolute rearguard action (with a few forays).
If you did watch the game and still stick with "Spain edged out Germany" then there's nothing more that can be said in conversation. :)

I watched the game, and it was a close encounter, until the last 5 mins it was 0-0 until someone changes the rules of football if a game is 0-0 then it's close... The Germans were not hugely positive, but they were never really hanging on, even on the UEFA site it has shots on target as 3 to 2. Leno, the German keeper, didn't have much more to do than De Gea. It was symptomatic of Spanish footbal, a lot of possesion, but a failure to convert a big share of the ball into concrete chances.

(http://www.uefa.com/under21/season=2013/matches/round=2000188/match=2010951/postmatch/lineups/index.html)

[ArdeeBhoy]

Cheers Edmundo, you know your stuff.

[Stuttgart88]

Similar discussion of Spain here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23125937

Some of the readers' comments underneath the main story are quite funny.

[OwlsFan]

Not even a consolation goal for Spain last night, when things go wrong, they go all the way wrong. That was an utterly dominant performance by Brazil.
Not a bad tournament and a taster of what Brazil will be like at the WC with that fanatical crowd behind them, no need for the vuvuzela there.

I didn't see any of that Tournament or how Brazil played. How come their form apparently took such a huge dip or perhaps Spain were just very poor and had no interest?

[Stuttgart88]

The standard of participant in the Confed cup would be weaker by and large. Spain were knackered.

[geysir]

There was that element at the confed cup and Brazil were motivated, also Brazil played a different game there, Neymar played out wide, cutting inside.
At the WC, all of a sudden it was Neymar who played the central role and Oscar was put out wide, midfield was always an issue.
Though Brazil benefitted from a few kind decisions against Croatia, didn't dominate the games on their path to the semi final, were missing Neymar and Silva, but all that still doesn't explain to me just how far they slid down the path to resembling a bumbling inept team in a matter of days. That collapse by a team who had made it to the semi finals of the WC was unprecedented.