by John Carlton
Most of the commentary surrounding Switzerland's shocking defeat of Spain has revolved around Spain's inability to get good chances on net. But where have we seen this before? The USA-Spain 2009 Confederations Cup Semi-final, that's where.
Critics of Bob Bradley should concede at least one point: his game plan for Spain was spot-on. If you're playing Spain, you have to concede that they will have the bulk of possession. The Spanish short passing game is second to none. At the same time, passing the ball around in midfield does not necessarily lead to goals. The Spanish have a glaring deficiency - they are a team of smurfs.
Just like the USA played Spain in South Africa last year, so too did the Swiss. Stay compact. Let Spain have the wings. Let them cross the ball into the box. Then clear the ball out and wait for a moment to counter-attack. It worked for the USA in the form of a 2-0 win last summer, and it worked for Switzerland on Wednesday. Spain simply has no aerial threat to turn their relentless crosses into goals. Whether it was Silva, Capdevila, Ramos or, later, Navas, every cross the Spanish players launched into the box was met by the head or feet of a Swiss defender. So easy the task, it looked as though the Swiss defense were enjoying themselves.
Spain themselves know about their aerial deficiency. That's why from the 78th minute on, central defender Gerard Pique spent all of his time in the Swiss penalty area, desperately trying to get on the end of a crossed ball.
Switzerland needs to publicly thank Bob Bradley and his staff for showing European squads how to cope with Spain's passing prowess. In football, it's mandatory that you take advantage of physical mis-matches. When the USA faced Spain in that Confederations Cup semi-final in 2009, the blueprint to victory necessitated that the American defense forced Spain out to the wings and used the height of Onyewu and the tenacity of Demerit to clear every cross from the penalty area, and in the process produce lethal counter-attacks. On Wednesday, the Swiss copied that blueprint and showed the world once again how to beat Spain.
Update: Here's the Swiss coach, Otto Hitzfeld, on the victory: “We saw how the Americans played against Spain with a lot of interest,” Hitzfeld said. “You know that if you are going to have a chance against [the Spanish] you need to do certain things very well.
“The USA did not try to do everything. They accepted the fact that Spain has pace and width and simply made sure they kept the center of defense as tight as they could. It is not a perfect system, but it was a very interesting tactic and it worked.”
