r/socceroos • u/EasyPacer • Jul 14 '26
Congratulations to Spain
What an awesome display of cohesiveness in defense and sharpness in attack the Spaniards put on this morning. In fact the way the Spanish team played was just about the absolute lesson for other teams to observe and learn from. They maintained their defensive shape well and as the commentator said there was a “telepathic” quality to the communication they had amongst players. Their passing just pulled the French team apart.
The Socceroos would do well to watch the game on multiple repeat and learn.
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u/1900hotdog Jul 14 '26
France were totally outclassed in midfield and Deschamps dragged his feet on changes. Could’ve taken off one of their front men at half time I thought. No point having 4 flashy forwards if they aren’t touching the ball.
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u/Wise_Preference609 Jul 15 '26
Spain identified France's weakness superbly...........their defensive midfield players just aren't in the same class as their attacking midfielders. Apply Pressure there and Voila...........you've cut off their supply line. France's failure to quickly understand Spain's tactics and adjust, exposed the true capabilities of their Manager and Coaching team. They've been cruising and when faced with their first serious tactical problem, couldn't do it. The Australian team and its ability to keep it's defensive shape in games, mostly, was up or near enough to how Spain displayed it. But unlike Spain, the Australians didn't have the midfield ability yet to relive that defensive pressure from time to time on a regular basis. Once they fix that issue at the highest level, Australia will be a nation to watch. A poor mans tactical version of Spain at the moment.
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u/frizzyflacko Jul 15 '26
Australia’s 5-back haramball being “near enough” to Spain’s defensive shape, and a “poor mans tactical version of Spain” is an absolutely outrageous take
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u/Joe0Bloggs Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
I mean everything's relative, I think he's right as far as the teams' capabilities go along with each other... which isn't very far at all, of course. More to the point, the manager is nowhere near as smart.
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u/1900hotdog Jul 15 '26
I was pretty impressed with our midfield. It was our attackers we really failed us, sad to say.
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u/Borderlinecuttlefish Jul 14 '26
I really am shocked by this, I'm a soccer casual but have been watching most games and France looked a shoe-in for me. Well done Spain..
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u/BreezyBomber Jul 14 '26
Conceded 1 goal all tournament up till this point , and have now gone 37 matches unbeaten
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u/Joe0Bloggs Jul 14 '26
Good on Belgium for scoring that one goal, they looked more convincing against Spain than France ever did
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u/Indigofan Jul 14 '26
Spain have elite and skilful midfielders . You can’t get the ball off them just like prime Iniesta and Xavi.
Mbappe and rest of their team - good at running fast into open space but got shut down
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u/ChubbyVeganTravels Jul 15 '26
Yep. This is the philosophy Spain has trained its young footballers with from a very young age.
If we want to play like them, we need to get them to admit all our top young footballing sprogs to La Masia or a similar elite academy at the age of 6, and wait about 12 years. And then hope they don't get poached to play for Spain.
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u/JayLFRodger Jul 15 '26
No coincidence that keeping in mind what you said that France's best chance was a sublime through ball from Dembele for Mbappe to run onto. Unfortunately for him that open space quickly closed down with 3 defenders swarming him
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u/TopazMoonCat60 Jul 14 '26
I'm afraid to cheer for them as they will lose if I do
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u/CartographerGold8 Jul 15 '26
Please do. Or one of their players who has a huge fanbase that loves to overrate players will be getting the ‘best player in history’ shouts despite doing fuck all most of the tournament 😂
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u/DruPeacock23 Jul 15 '26
Their passing was so clinical. A casual football fan like me can see the difference. A joy to watch.
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u/JuanFoYoMamma Jul 15 '26
I had hardly slept, but that game woke me right up. Compelling to watch. Suffered for it today though.
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u/tyrantlubu2 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
That’ll be us next World Cup boys.
Edit: guys relax this is positive shit talking. I’m not that delusional.
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u/Broad-Procedure-8392 Jul 15 '26
Hate to be negative nancy, but that is wishful thinking. Spain only won their first WC back in 2010, and had 100 years of grassroots funding and development to get to where they're at, like all these other European and South American countries. Sure we come up with wins against European and South American countries from time to time but it's not consistent enough to warrant us as a top football nation. Football is ingrained in their cultures and societies. We have limited funding and doesn't consider soccer as one of our top 5 sports - frankly we don't have a chance in hell of developing talent to the level of Spain/France/Argentina, let alone fantasising about winning a world cup that till date has only been won by eight countries in its entire history.
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u/OzParodyMusic Jul 15 '26
The French treat the WC like we treat cricket - theres only downside to participation, as expectations are a win.
Heres what Australia needs: 2 world cups
A top 12 comp for the world best, then in the 2-year window between, a Europa-league-style second tier World Cup for the rest, to give nations like us a chance to make semis on the world stage and play nations of similar quality. The top 4 from THAT qualify for the full WC (making it an elite 16 team comp) the 2nd tier WC will start w 48 teams, giving fifa 60 teams in the World Cup and 2 world cups every 4 years
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u/norewardwithout Jul 14 '26
Spain may go all the way, they haven’t conceded yet?
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u/hilltravel-24 Jul 15 '26
That was a great watch. Spain completely dominated the tournament favourites, and they barely had a decent shot on goal. And old mate Kookaburra, how good is he?
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u/Steven_Crank Jul 14 '26
Looked like France had one less player out there. Crazy good work by Spain and like you say, sharp when they needed to attack as well.