Teams with pure defensive control outperformed those with more attacking output

[Tetu100]

So I think playing defensively is definitely a good idea, but taking it to an excessive level is not right either. Because then that can lead to the opposite danger.

For a team to be constantly playing a defensive game can only make sense when the team is already topping the game (when they have scored some goals ready), but defending when no goal has been recorded make no head way because if the other opponent are privilege enough to break in your defense you are doom and most times the defensive team can hardly equalize since that is almost what they are pretty good at. Personally, i rather prefer when a team possesses both qualities, actually a reinforcing attack when neccesary and defending when their is need to do so and not be one sided pattern in your game.

[Betwrong]

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‎My question is, are we seeing a time where national teams have to concentrate more on defensive control rather than attacking, in order to dominate and win major tournaments?
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‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

Amazing observation! I feel exactly the same way. You are talking about soccer, but I've noticed this in poker too. Aggressive players (Tom Dwan is a good example) don't stand a chance against defensive ones. And in some MMA fights, I've seen the same thing. I don't know, maybe it won't last forever, but for now it is definitely like you said in many sports, not only in football.

[Somegory]

‎The world cup has come and gone with Spain being the winner. While watching the match last night, I said to my friend that the first team to score first, would win the game, but he doubted me because clearly everyone thinks Argentina would score more goals as they have always come from behind in the final minutes to equalize and win all their matches so far.

‎What I noticed and have realized so far throughout this tournament is that, the teams who had the tactics of defense dominated those who had pure attacking output and this is exactly what Spain did right from holding the midfield and from the beginning of the tournament, that they only conceded one goal across 8 matches till they got to the final and won still.
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‎My question is, are we seeing a time where national teams have to concentrate more on defensive control rather than attacking, in order to dominate and win major tournaments?
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‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

Attacks, defences, these are just strategy, and they might not even work for you on the long run because in sports what matters isn't the performance but the goals, you need to win is different from you need to perform.

If you like defend like no tomorrow, if you like be very good at attacking, if your ball don't strike into the net 🥅 it still makes you a loser in the end, what matters is winning.

This is why I don't even rate Messi at all, not because I don't like him but because finals are different and will always be different, everyone are surely going to give their all, it's not going to matter who is the most skillful.

[swogerino]

‎The world cup has come and gone with Spain being the winner. While watching the match last night, I said to my friend that the first team to score first, would win the game, but he doubted me because clearly everyone thinks Argentina would score more goals as they have always come from behind in the final minutes to equalize and win all their matches so far.

‎What I noticed and have realized so far throughout this tournament is that, the teams who had the tactics of defense dominated those who had pure attacking output and this is exactly what Spain did right from holding the midfield and from the beginning of the tournament, that they only conceded one goal across 8 matches till they got to the final and won still.
‎
‎My question is, are we seeing a time where national teams have to concentrate more on defensive control rather than attacking, in order to dominate and win major tournaments?
‎
‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

The only times Argentina came from behind is when the referee clearly favored them against Egypt and when England got behind completely to park the bus which is absolutely against their nature, England is used to open attacking football. Now Spain clearly dominated the game against Argentina and they are not a defensive team, they also made France look like a second league team when they won 0-2 against them. Attacking teams always the best but also when they play like Spain with ball keeping and not like Argentina trying sudden attacks.

[Dave1]

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‎My question is, are we seeing a time where national teams have to concentrate more on defensive control rather than attacking, in order to dominate and win major tournaments?
‎
‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

Amazing observation! I feel exactly the same way. You are talking about soccer, but I've noticed this in poker too. Aggressive players (Tom Dwan is a good example) don't stand a chance against defensive ones. And in some MMA fights, I've seen the same thing. I don't know, maybe it won't last forever, but for now it is definitely like you said in many sports, not only in football.

Even in NBA, as there was a saying, defense wins game. So in any sports, it's very important that you have to play good defense and not allow your opponents to score. Just like what Spain did against Argentina. Spain did a tremendous job on having a great defense all throughout the world cup that's why they are the champion.

And what you have describe could be true as well in Poker, not just to read your opponents, but it's better to just fold early and not push and be aggressive. Of course, it's good to have a good offense, but there will be time that you will have to missed a shot, and not going to score as you used to have in the first half.

[free-bit.co.in]

Above all, Spain played a well condidated game and they control the ball possession pretty well, if we compare them to how Argentina player's composure and pressure was in the world cup finals, Spain defense through put the world cup tournament is strong and considering the low goals conceded through the knockout and semi finals of the world cup, Spain defense absolutely paved the way for the successful attacking and midfielder they hard through out the world cup and eventually winning the world cup.

I would like to praise the passing and receiving of the Spanish players. They  rarely made a wrong pass in this match. And some of their  attacks were very fast at the beginning of the match. And that is why argentina was under pressure. At the same time, we know that argentina is weak in counterattack. Fuente took  advantage of this opportunity  and created more pressure on the argentine players. As a result, the Argentine players lost complete control of the match. Even then, argentina managed to keep their  defense strong, which is why they only conceded  1 goal in the match.

[Filicius]

‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

I think having it balanced would be better. From the beginning of the world cup, Spain had this kind of settings that just made alot of sense. When it was time for attack they were all coordinated and when it was time for defending their home they were also ready on ground. Those kind of play was what made Spain turned out to be the best team on the world cup. Last night was really something else and they were able to use this same play to win over Argentina who were simply playing attack for a goal. Spain had their top defenders all over the place and strikers ready to move when the ball was out of the midfield. With such strategic moves, Argentina was already frustrated in the first half because Spain had the upper hand in all areas..

Very good comment Hatchy, I completely agree with all your words.

It is not about pure defensive control like the OP seemed to mean, but about balance. Spanish teams has shown that you can dominate several aspects of the game without totally conceding others. One could say that they played defensively because they didn't score many goals but conceded only one, but the fact is that in all their matches they dominated the possession, to the extent of preventing Argentina from shooting a single shot on goal for almost the entire match.

So who is the defensive: the one who has more than twenty shots on goal, or the one with only one?

[Cointxz]

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‎My question is, are we seeing a time where national teams have to concentrate more on defensive control rather than attacking, in order to dominate and win major tournaments?
‎
‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

This is true not only on football but also on other sports like Basketball(NBA)  that was once dominated by team that focused on offense alone but now team with strong defense(SAS & Knicks) dominate the game since they can win by making their opponent score less while they have an easy way on attacking the team that focused on offense only.

I noticed this on world cup after Spain beat France scoreless while France is very good attacker.

We are finally on the era that defense is once again the greatest offense. It’s fun to watch rather than a player scoring due to weak defense.

[AmaGold70]

I also watched this FIFA world cup finals between Spain, and Argentina. Spain dominated this match right from the beginning to the end, the Spanish team had more ball possession than the Argentina team, they also had more shots on target than the Argentina team, and this advantage actually lead to their victory against Argentina.
Looking at the defensive, and attacking strength, the Spanish team is good on both the defence, and attack, and that was the reason why the Argentine team could easily penetrate the Spanish defensive line.
In the case of the Argentine team, I would say they are better in  attacking than defence, and that was the reason they conceded more goals in the FIFA world cup tournament than the Spanish team.
Conclusively, a team with good defense line, and attacking line has better advantage than the team with good defensive line but poor attacking line, and that was the advantage that Spain had over Argentina.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

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‎My question is, are we seeing a time where national teams have to concentrate more on defensive control rather than attacking, in order to dominate and win major tournaments?

Yes, it happened in the FIFA World Cup finals of 1990 between West Germany and Argentina, the records are there, you just need to search for it. In that match, it was said that Argentina played defensively and the aim was so that the game was going to end in draw (0-0) and they will have opportunity for penalty shootout, it didn't favour them because West Germany ended up winning.

In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Italy also won the match because of how defensive they played (the match was tough), remember they scored all five goals in penalty.

[Inwestour]

‎The world cup has come and gone with Spain being the winner. While watching the match last night, I said to my friend that the first team to score first, would win the game, but he doubted me because clearly everyone thinks Argentina would score more goals as they have always come from behind in the final minutes to equalize and win all their matches so far.

‎What I noticed and have realized so far throughout this tournament is that, the teams who had the tactics of defense dominated those who had pure attacking output and this is exactly what Spain did right from holding the midfield and from the beginning of the tournament, that they only conceded one goal across 8 matches till they got to the final and won still.
‎
‎My question is, are we seeing a time where national teams have to concentrate more on defensive control rather than attacking, in order to dominate and win major tournaments?
‎
‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

Spain had 25 shots on goal, 12 of them on target, while Argentina had zero shots in the entire game. Are you saying Spain played defensively? Spain is a good defensive team, but it's a little different. They don't play defensively, they play primarily attacking football. I think De La Fuente has instilled a winning mentality in the team. This team hasn't lost in a long time, they're playing very well, but I expected the final to be a little different. Actually, it should have been, but Argentina decided to make some adjustments.

[The Founding Titan]

‎The world cup has come and gone with Spain being the winner. While watching the match last night, I said to my friend that the first team to score first, would win the game, but he doubted me because clearly everyone thinks Argentina would score more goals as they have always come from behind in the final minutes to equalize and win all their matches so far.

‎What I noticed and have realized so far throughout this tournament is that, the teams who had the tactics of defense dominated those who had pure attacking output and this is exactly what Spain did right from holding the midfield and from the beginning of the tournament, that they only conceded one goal across 8 matches till they got to the final and won still.
‎
‎My question is, are we seeing a time where national teams have to concentrate more on defensive control rather than attacking, in order to dominate and win major tournaments?
‎
‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

England played defensively after scoring against Argentina and at the end of the day they still lost to Argentina, no method is truly superior to the other, it's more about it's application than the method itself, you can play defensive today and win and then do the same thing tomorrow against a different team or even probably the same team and still lose, there is no certainty that because you are being defensive or offensive that you are going to win.

[Somto9Light]

The only times Argentina came from behind is when the referee clearly favored them against Egypt and when England got behind completely to park the bus which is absolutely against their nature, England is used to open attacking football. Now Spain clearly dominated the game against Argentina and they are not a defensive team, they also made France look like a second league team when they won 0-2 against them. Attacking teams always the best but also when they play like Spain with ball keeping and not like Argentina trying sudden attacks.

That's a very funny illustration but you are right, the way Spain played the game, its so surprising, they make sure that they don't give them back the ball and the movement there tells they really prepared themselves very well, as they have study the movement of every team, giving them the confidence to attack, knowing how to go about it and truly, they are good at it and assuming they give Messi the chance, he would have done a sudden magic. So, yeah Spain really proved that attacking teams are the best.

[danherbias07]

I don't think there's anything wrong with that. IMO, defense has always been a big key factor in winning. I mean, in many sports out there- basketball, hockey, the NFL, and more. Most of the teams that have high efficiency in defense can win games. A team cannot always rely on offense only. Even the great Michael Jordan achieved the Most Defensive Player of the Year in 87-88 to prove that he ain't only offense, but they can also rely on him in defense.
Now, if football is switching to something like a defense-focused team, why not? Defense can always turn to offense.

[Zlantann]

‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

To win games, a team must be good in all sections. You are right that Spain conceded fewer goals, but credit shouldn't just be given to the defenders alone. They had a good midfield spearheaded by one of the best players in the world, Rodri. He worked tirelessly together with others to control the game in the center. The attackers should also be given credit for continuously mounting pressure on opponents, thereby reducing their potential to come forward.

Argentina is known for mounting pressure on opponents if they are behind. But we didn't see many attacking runs from the former champions because they are scared that coming forward could expose them to the attacking power of Spain, headed by the young Lamine Yamal and others. A team is like a system; therefore, credit should be accorded to every subsystem for the success they achieve.

[rbynxx]

‎My question is, are we seeing a time where national teams have to concentrate more on defensive control rather than attacking, in order to dominate and win major tournaments?
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‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

Defense is just as important as offense, and this isn't new tbh, it's been the foundation of a lot of champion wins for decades and not just in football. In most knockout tournaments being on a defensive side is crucial because just one mistake it can eliminate your team. Teams that can control the games defensively can create more opportunities while also limiting the chances of their opponents, which I think more reliable than just purely attacking.

That being said, it's not like team have to abandon the offense entirely. It's all about balance, a dominant performance defensively combined with some threat of counterattacks. I think there has been a lot of national teams that have won major tournaments with this kind of approach and Spain happen to imitate it or probably make it as an inspiration. There are some seasons that an attacking system favors it, while others favors the defensive control or phase. But when it matters most especially to finals, the teams that balance it are favorable to win.

[Bryan jessy]

I don't think there's anything wrong with that. IMO, defense has always been a big key factor in winning. I mean, in many sports out there- basketball, hockey, the NFL, and more. Most of the teams that have high efficiency in defense can win games. A team cannot always rely on offense only. Even the great Michael Jordan achieved the Most Defensive Player of the Year in 87-88 to prove that he ain't only offense, but they can also rely on him in defense.
Now, if football is switching to something like a defense-focused team, why not? Defense can always turn to offense.

My point as well in sport games defense and attack are the major tactics to playing fairly in the game, a player defend to prevent the opponent from getting to them and winning them , players attack in order to have possession of the ball with the aim of winning, so this attributes are all strategic means that must be put in place in order to win a game, if we observe a game really well I am sure we will notice that the team with good defense and attack turns out the winner of the game, it is a competition so the players come prepared with good tactics, it might seem that they are playing the game effortlessly but there is so much energy challenged to the game.

[Promocodeudo]

‎My question is, are we seeing a time where national teams have to concentrate more on defensive control rather than attacking, in order to dominate and win major tournaments?
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‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

In football a team don't have to concentrate on a particular position, it should be an around thing, in that final between Argentina and Spain, Argentina was more concerned about their defense, they didn't come out rather they were always falling back with some players already manning their defense to avoid goals coming in, and many are of the view that, the decision they took help them not to conceive goals in the regular time.

The answer to your question is simple, a national team has to be good every where, starting from the defense, midfield and the attack for them to be a force in a competition like that of the world cup that do feature many talents.

We must understand that Both defense and attack are very important in football which means for a national team which is the major discussion here to do well, they must be good at the two including the midfield which I have mentioned earlier.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

‎My question is, are we seeing a time where national teams have to concentrate more on defensive control rather than attacking, in order to dominate and win major tournaments?
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‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

I am not very sure about this but I think the two work hand in hand, like both attacking and defense mode compliment each other where it's often one that leads to the other.. Well I know what I said is confusing, so let me explain..

In a football game, when one team is aggressively attacking, the other team that doesn't have the attackinf skill to match that of their opponent is forced to play a defensive match, this is in a bid to prevent their opponent from gaining chances and scoring.
In the Spain verses Argentina finals, I watched the first half of the match and from what I saw, Argentina were simply playing a defensive match because Spain attacking skills over powered theirs, this is why Spain has a better ball possession than Argentina.
If Spain had slowed down on attack, Argentina would have increased their attack which would have forced Spain into going defence mode, and in a match like this, it is always the team with players that has better tactics that end up winning.

[TastyChillySauce00]

‎My question is, are we seeing a time where national teams have to concentrate more on defensive control rather than attacking, in order to dominate and win major tournaments?
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‎Is defensive play returning to dominate the pure attacking tactics of play?

Absolutely disagreed with your statement above. The fact that Spain was best in both attacking and defense. They basically a balanced team in the upfront, midfield and backline. To conclude them as a defensive team just because you were watching their gameplay against Argentina is wrong.
The better you go see their WC recap, and you will see how they're dominant in term of attacking and defensive against their opponent in almost all of games. So the key to win the competition or major tournament must be good in attack and defense. Both must be balanced.

Beside that are you only seeing them play against Argentina?