Quote:
Originally Posted by Binkythefrog
I wouldn't call Spain a "defensive" team. Since they are so good in their midfield, their ball possession is top notch. Most teams you see them play end up packing tons of defenders in the box and hoping to counterattack and since teams are now aware of their style, their games can get pretty boring as Spain just pass it around while their opponents just sit back and defend. Spain also doesn't have a true striker as they have played Fabergas up front, who is more an attacking midfielder type since Fernando Torres is getting old and slow.
During Euro 2012 qualifying they scored 26 goals in 8 games (most of any team who played 8 games) only behind Germany (34), the Netherlands (37), and Sweden (31), who all played 10 games. Greece, which won its qualifying group only scored 14 goals in 10 matches and Italy only scored 20. 51 teams participated in qualifying.
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Spain is good at scoring against bad teams, but their offense is definitely lacking. Of the 26 goals they scored in qualification, 10 came against Lichtenstein (a country with fewer citizens than Boulder and roughly the same number of soccer players as CU) they have won only 6 of the 88 games they have played in official competitions ever and are the 3rd lowest ranked team in Europe, I don't think there is a single professional player on the roster.
In the Uefa tournament they repeated by scoring 4 goals against the worst team in the tournament (Ireland) and scoring a combined 4 goals against Croatia, Italy, Portugal and France - that is a lower per game scoring than teams such as Denmark, Germany, Russia, Sweden and the same as Greece, England, Portugal. Italy has scored 6 goals in 5 games but were gifted 2 by Ireland so their scoring is also 4 goals in 4 games against decent teams.
The 49ers used to have the most explosive offense in the league, but what they did have doesn't matter. In this tournament Spain has played boring and defensive and have scored a pitiful amount of goals against good teams - if it wasn't because they set records defensively they would not be in the final.