Испани дэлхийн аварга боллоо

Spain are world champions for a second time. And, as you may have predicted following another unerring victory over Argentina in the final on Sunday, they made it through the competition having taken more touches, completed more passes and attempted more shots than any other side along the way.

But perhaps a less celebrated aspect of their approach is a commitment to the grittier side of the game. That also shines through in the statistics: no team recovered possession more often in the attacking third, or allowed their opponents less time on the ball than Luis De La Fuente’s defensively disciplined side, pressing high and nicking the ball whenever they could.

Patient possession and free-flowing football springs to mind when you think of Spain, but equally critical to their consistent domination of World Cup games this summer has been a desire to win the ball straight back whenever a pass goes astray.

With the ball, Spain dictate the tempo, move the opposition from side-to-side, and force them deeper and deeper as they try to protect their goal. Without it, they snap straight into tackles to keep that pressure on.

That is exactly how they penned Argentina in from minute one in New Jersey, defending from the front and keeping Lionel Messi and company far away from their goal. The defending champions went 116 minutes before they managed a shot. They had only two over two hours of football.

As we can see from the territory plot below, where the pitch is shaded in favour of the team who controlled more possession per area of the pitch, Spain restricted their opponents to a pocket of space down the right, where Lionel Messi and overlapping full-backs would occasionally combine after long passes out to the flank.

Otherwise, the only area of the pitch Argentina truly commanded with the ball was their own penalty area, where goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez took 21 touches in the safety of his own six-yard box after goal kicks.

Spain sought to manage the flow of the game from the start, encouraging their defenders to push high whenever they had the ball. That helped to compress the space in the opposition half, meaning Spanish players were close by to combine with quick passes, but also able to collapse on the ball whenever it ran loose.

Even when their high line was briefly compromised with surging Argentinian runs forward on the break, sweeper-keeper Unai Simon was alert to cover the space they left in behind.

Here on five minutes, for example, Spain lose control of the ball, their deepest defenders momentarily caught up the pitch. But even as Messi looks to be set through on goal, Simon appears from nowhere to intercept the through ball, helping to keep his team on the front foot after an early scare.

De La Fuente’s faith in Simon was questioned before the tournament, particularly given David Raya’s stellar form for Arsenal.

The 29-year-old has made high-profile errors in previous competitions, notably letting a back-pass slip under his foot against Croatia at Euro 2020.

But he has been a calm presence with the ball at his feet this summer, and justified his selection through his sense of anticipation alone, completing more defensive actions outside his penalty area than any other goalkeeper this tournament.

That combination of a high line and defenders who consistently win their duels — even when pulled out of position — along with an alert goalkeeper who patrols the space behind makes it difficult for the opposition to escape.

Spain are always alert to ensure they defend as a team and lock onto the opposition when they can, and not only across the back four.

Data from FIFA Football Performance Insights’ enhanced data set helps to quantify their appetite to win the ball straight back. After a team loses the ball in open play, FIFA analyse the following two seconds and define the sequence as a “counter-press” if the team without possession puts pressure on the ball within that time.

No side at this World Cup have regained possession more often (51) from such counter-pressing sequences than Spain, nicking the ball back six times against Argentina alone.

Here is an example as a Spain attack breaks down following a loose pass from Mikel Oyarzabal. Argentina finally get a chance to take the sting out of the game, but as Alexis Mac Allister receives the ball, he is surrounded by seven opposition players.

Right-back Pedro Porro is tight to Nico Gonzalez — the only realistic out-ball given the Spanish pressure — while even centre-back Pau Cubarsi is involved to pick up the loose ball.

He plays it back to fellow defender Aymeric Laporte, and as the camera pans, it becomes clear just how many players Spain commit to the pressure, happy to take risks and leave only two players back if that helps to squash the time and space that their opponents have on the ball.

That energy did not wane as the game went on, as they race up the pitch to apply pressure on their opponents later in the second half.

Argentina themselves do well to force Porro into a long pass forward, but Spain are quick to pounce on Cristian Romero’s control, as first Lamine Yamal, and then Oyarzabal close down the ball immediately.

Nicolas Tagliafico shows composure to cut inside and play the pass to Enzo Fernandez in midfield, but look at the Spanish numbers surrounding the ball once again.

The back four pushes high, Fabian Ruiz and Alex Baena steam into the challenge, and Dani Olmo eventually comes away with the ball.

With little time to recover on the ball, such sequences only serve to exhaust Argentina, running low on energy to exert such pressure themselves. That allowed Spain to control more of the ball, something they gratefully accepted with their quality in possession, allowing them to further wrestle momentum their way.

After a demoralising first half in which they failed to take a single touch in Spain’s penalty area, Lionel Scaloni’s side began to resort to long passes to avoid losing possession close to their own goal.

That didn’t work too well either. Julian Alvarez huffed and puffed as he tried to run the channels, but he could not consistently offer the out-ball his team-mates needed. Messi also stayed forward, but lacked the pace and athleticism to latch onto bouncing balls up the pitch.

As we can see from Argentina’s passing network below, both strikers cut lonely figures at the top of the team, as Argentina struggled to build from the back under Spanish pressure, or find them with more direct passes forward.

Exemplary off-ball discipline and application goes a long way to explaining the pattern of this game, but the extent to which Argentina were smothered in their seventh World Cup final was a huge surprise. Even with Messi in inspired form throughout this tournament, they played for nearly two hours without taking a shot on goal.

Before extra time, Argentina managed 39 touches in the attacking third. Only on two occasions this summer have teams mustered fewer — Cape Verde against Spain in their opening game, and Qatar, who were reduced to nine men in a 6-0 defeat to Canada. Even Paraguay, much-maligned for their negative approach against France in the round of 16, were capable of one more.

Scaloni’s team had space taken away from them throughout — the finest example yet of Spain’s dominance both with and without the ball.