“It’s not easy to beat a team that builds a wall,” Nolito said. In his first competition game for Spain the Celta Vigo forward had experienced something that has long since become familiar for his new international team-mates. Spain did eventually find a way round the Czech wall, as they have eventually overcome many of the barriers erected before them, but not until the 87th minute when the central defender Gerard Piqué headed in the winner.
Aritz Aduriz and Álvaro Morata were making their tournament debuts, too; they follow on from a long line of strikers Spain have tried and largely left behind. It is not that Roberto Soldado, Álvaro Negredo, Fernando Llorente, Michu, Diego Costa and Paco Alcácer are bad, it is that the striking role for Spain is more specific and difficult than it appears, as Morata and Aduriz saw in Toulouse. As Aduriz departed the municipal stadium, apple in hand, the question was direct: why is it so hard to score goals?
“It’s not easy when you play against teams that accumulate so many players so deep, so compact and intensely focused on defence, so entrenched,” he said. “We created a few chances in the first half that we didn’t take and maybe if we had that would have changed the game but as it went on they got stronger. It was hard, very hard.”
Spain’s style invites that kind of response, posing particular problems for the strikers; so too does their talent. Andrés Iniesta said: “Our style is very clear; the way we play is well known and opponents have that bit of respect when they play against us.” Respect is one word, fear another. It is pragmatism, too. The Czechs certainly had that. “Spain’s football is the best in Europe; that’s why we played so deep,” the coach, Pavel Vrba, said. “I don’t think we will be so defensive against the other teams.”
Aduriz said: “I don’t know if other teams will step out more. We have a characteristic that, whether you like it or not, means that opponents sit very deep. We don’t know what other teams will do but we have to be ready for everything.”
It is likely that they will have to be ready for more of the same; this is a recurring tactic. When Spain were beaten 1-0 by Georgia in their final warm-up game, Georgia’s coach, Vladimir Weiss, suggested the success of his team’s extremely defensive approach might have been a “clue” to Spain’s future opposition, but it was a clue they do not really need. It has been seen before. Spain’s style suits them but it does bring difficulties and the strikers are often the victims. There is a reason why they have occasionally opted for false No9s.
Before the last World Cup Juan Mata, who was omitted from the Euro 2016 squad, told the Guardian: “If you ask the strikers who have played for Spain over the last few years they will tell you that it’s hard. The way Spain play makes it difficult: you have to understand our play very well to fit in as a forward, where there is not much space, where the movement is important.” Vicente del Bosque has talked about mixing their game up, but the same largely still applies.
David Villa understood that better than anyone, although in 2008 his role was a little different, playing slightly to the left of Fernando Torres in a team that was yet to be “discovered” by opponents and was more direct than collective memory allows. The striker who was perhaps best suited to Spain’s style since seemed to be Paco Alcácer but after a difficult season at Valencia, he has not been included. Still they seek a solution. “Aduriz and Morata adapt well to this style,” Del Bosque insisted.
Spain’s coach says that Morata has “everything” you need to be a “great centre-forward”, even if on Monday he was denied. Aduriz, returning to the national team six years later, aged 35, is peerless in the air. He had two headers during his time on the pitch and almost scored with an overhead kick. “I didn’t catch it well; it was a pity,” he said. Iniesta said: “That’s another variant to our play; a well-delivered ball in the air is always dangerous.”
His perfectly delivered ball in the final minutes was dangerous, although it was a central defender who finally scored from it. “It seemed like the ball didn’t want to go in,” Piqué said.
And so the debate began again. Do Spain have a problem scoring goals, the sports newspaper Marca asked of four pundits. Two said yes, two said no. As one columnist at the other main sports daily, AS, said: “We have seen this lots of times.” But then he added something equally important: “We have also seen that almost every time Spain do eventually find a way through.”
Tomas Rosicky, who said the “bitterness” at conceding a late goal “will stay with us”, said: “You could see that the quality [Spain] have is exceptional and it is difficult to stop them when they have the ball. We tried to be compact and make it hard for them and we did well for a long period. You have to have the character to work for that. Other teams will try this; it looks easy but it is very hard [because] they can exploit one moment with their quality. They wait for the moment of the opening and go for it [and] they always create chances because of the quality.”
One moment can be enough. At the 2010 World Cup, Spain scored one goal in each of their knockout games, against Portugal, Paraguay, Germany and Holland. But each time they did get that goal and each time it was enough. Possession provides control as well as creativity. Against the Czechs here it created chances too, and although chances were not taken Del Bosque said he was satisfied. “The important thing was that we had shots,” he said. The performance had been good and eventually Piqué scored.
“The debate about goals will return,” wrote the coach Joaquín Caparrós, who has been talked about as a candidate to take over from Del Bosque. “But rather than looking at what’s missing, let’s focus on what we have got.” And Spain have got plenty. They have also got their first opening day win for three tournaments.
