Spain’s Steady Euro 2016 Start Can Be Accelerated by Subtle Alterations

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: June 15, 2016

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The whistle blew, the three points were theirs and thoughts everywhere were the same: We've seen that one before. 

On Monday, Spain opened their Euro 2016 campaign in Toulouse, France, with an absolutely-dominant-everywhere-but-the-scoreboard 1-0 victory over the Czech Republic. In tune with their recent history, it was the most familiar of contests and the most familiar of scorelines.

Throughout, Vicente del Bosque's men enjoyed the majority of possession and dominated the shot count. Their defensive responsibilities also bordered on non-existent, and yet, as has often been the case for La Roja, their triumph was secured by the narrowest margin there is. 



That won't bother Spain. Monday's win was one that needed to be secured regardless of how given the wider picture that has surrounded them. They will also point to their glory years and rightly say there's nothing wrong with narrow victories: In 2010, four consecutive 1-0 wins took them to a World Cup title in South Africa.

There are some basic truths that are relevant here, too. 

When your dominance in general play nullifies the opposition's threat to such an extreme extent, you only need to score once. That dominance also takes a physical and mental toll on the opponent, making that single goal more likely as the game progresses. 

"We've played plenty of similar matches and we just need to keep pushing our opponents until they slip," Andres Iniesta told Mediaset (h/t Marca) after Monday's victory. "This is the way to go, we've been very successful with these tactics."

Subtly, or perhaps not so, Del Bosque in the post-match press conference also reminded that "our style hasn't been too bad in recent years."

There are questions that linger, though: Does Spain's now-faded sense of supremacy change things? Does this outfit have the players in key areas to execute the way pre...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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