郑道锦
Germany
breaks Spain reign, football trend
maintains
Spain's football empire tumbled, while new king
Germany rose in 2014. The "Mannschaft" stunned the world in the
famous 7-1 semi-final demolition over hosts Brazil to show their
unparalleled power and continue the trend of world football, not
only in their Tiki-Taka-like technical style, but also in their
advantageous youth training system built 12 years
ago.
Before the rise of Germany, the world football
has been ruled by spain. From 2008 to 2014, "La Roja Furia" took
three major trophies consecutively with their special philosophy,
the tiki-taka tactics, and a core of stars epitomized by Xavi and
Iniesta. But after the success of Euro 2012, the Spaniards seemed
to be troubled by their drop of form, the growing of age and some
questionable tactics by Del Bosque(especially the 433 formation
which lacks flank defence and weaken the midfield possession, and
also the overlook and wrong-position of Cesc Fabregas when Xavi was
not in form), wihch led to their 2013 Confederation Cup and 2014
World Cup's heavy defeat.
But the fall of the Spain Dynasty did not change
the trend of world football. The German success is technically
based on the Spanish style, and La Masia's youth training system
gave some inspiration to the German youth academy of different
clubs. Germany national team coach Joachim Low has been learning
the Spain's style ever since their 1-0 defeat in the 2008 Euro
final, and the Germans traditional style has been changing greatly:
from the efficient, direct, fast and resilient style to the
cutting-edge style which stressed absolutely advantageous ball
possession, position rotation, accurate short passes, quick
thinking and the pressing defence.
And Pep Guardiola also contributes greatly to the
Germany World Cup victory, after he came to coach Bayern Munich,
the German internationals could get deeper to Tiki-taka's true
philophy and technical details. As we can see in the the matches of
Germany vs Brazil and Germany vs Argentina, Bastian Schweinsteiger,
Thomas Mueller, Toni Kroos, Mario Goetze and Philipp Lahm formed a
formidable attacking and passing group, together with Mesut Oezil
and Sami Khedira, Germany took the "tiki-taka" to a different level
by their physical advantage, which is not owned by the
spaniards.
Besides the technical view, Germany also set the
tone for the future of word football by their youth training
program, which was an outcome of their disastrous 1998 World Cup
and 2000 Euro tour. After that, the Germans began to reform and set
up a new academy system in 2002, with all 36 clubs in the two
Bundesliga divisions olbiged to operate centrally regulated
academies before given a licence to play in the league, and
required that each academy must have at least 12 players to be
eligible to play for Germany. The new structure has resulted in a
resurgent young German side, which never missed a last-four finish
in the last five major tourmanents from 2006-2014.
The youth training program generated a dozen of
super stars like Muller, Ozil, Khedira, Boateng and Neuer. And
every academy adopts a clearly defined philosophy: they play
systems of 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, basic attacking football and always
going forward, which is in accordance with the favoured system of
the "Mannschaft".
Germany's revolution in both techniques and youth
training also reaped greatly in the club level: four Bundesliga
teams qualified for the knock out stage of the European Champions
League for the past two consecutive seasons. In the meantime,
Spanish clubs also did some great job. Real Madrid and Athletico
Madrid cruised to the final of the 2013-2014 Champions League in
convincing style, and Sevilla clinched the title of that season's
Europa League. Although both sides from Madrid did not play the
"tiki-taka" system, but they also attach importance to neat and
deft individual skills, quick and pre-thinking on the pitch, which
are also the basic elements of "tiki-taka". Of course, Atletico and
Chelsea's more physical and efficient style will remain as another
strong faction of world football to challenge the German and
Spanish "tiki-taka".
Germans' success has urged other nations to
reform their football system. After the world cup, the media of
England, France, Italy and Brazil all discussed the possibility of
copy the German style. The English Football Association and The
Confederation of Brazil Football has already lauched some reforms
in youth training. As the hosts of Euro 2016,
France also payed more attention to youth training and now has a
promising squad who can play some nice passing
games.
In Asia, Japan has been sticking to the passing
and controlling sytle for many years, and their success in Asia has
inspired more teams to copy their style. In Aftica, most teams have
a natural love for attacking and techinal football. While in South
America and North, Central America and the Caribbean areas, the
pursueing for the attacking style is even more obvious. Chile and
Colombia both showed great attackin power and nice build-up games
in the World Cup. So the German style based on the Spanish
"tiki-taka", which has furthur roots of the Oranje's Total Football
thrived by Rinus Michels and Johan cryuff in the 1970s, will be
more likely to lead the world football in the coming
future.
Although world football has stepping into a new
era of highly cooradinated team work technically, it still needs
individual brilliance to add some sparks and fireworks. In 2014,
Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were the
three most stable and shinning stars. In the World Cup, Messi
helped his country reach the final almost single-handedly, and he
nearly killed the German dream in Maracana. In the Primera Liga and
the Champions League, although Ronaldo had some better performance,
Messi still made a stunning breakthrough by netting his 75th goal
at the Champions League, which bettered Raul's record. Ronaldo
showed marvellous continuity at club level, and he also surpassed
Raul by took his 72nd Champions League goal. However, Ronaldo had
some awkward performance with Portugal in the World Cup, which
affected his overall performance in 2014. For Ibrahimovic, the
Swedish striker convinced the world that he is among the top
footballers in the world by a lot of solo performance. The tall ace
player missed the Brazil World Cup, but was like an ever-shinning
star in Paris Saint-Germain.
There are last two things to mention for this
year's world football: First, we must thank team Costa Rica for
their astonishing performance in the World Cup. The small nation's
football team was undervalued before the World Cup and was
considered by the media and fans to have no chance to survive from
the "super group of death". But they brought one surprise after
another in the whole process, incredibly notching the first place
from three former world champions Italy, England and Uruguay, and
beat Greece before lost to the Netherlands merely in the
penalty-shootout. Costa Rica's fighting spirit, unbelievable
courage and technical positives have set a model for those small
teams to battle against the giants and work wonders. Second, the
bite of Luis Suarez on Giorgio Chiellini's shoulder was something
unforgettable in 2014, which proves that one can always get
surprises and entertainment from the beautiful
sport.
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