{"id":548676,"date":"2026-07-19T07:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T07:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/548676\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T07:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T07:25:16","slug":"masters-of-time-and-space-spains-dominance-comes-from-deep-rooted-principles-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/548676\/","title":{"rendered":"Masters of time and space, Spain\u2019s dominance comes from deep-rooted principles | Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

We talk about individuals too much in English football. Football is about the collective. Spain\u2019s semi-final dominance over France was not built on individual brilliance but on a shared understanding of space, timing and their core principles. That is why they are the most exceptional team in the world and why I think they will win the World Cup<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

It is not about Rodri, Lamine Yamal or Pedri. It\u2019s about the whole midfield, the collective. Spain will find positional and numerical superiority in whichever way they can, because doing so has been deeply ingrained from very early ages and they are the masters of time and space on a football pitch. Against France<\/a> they were rewarded for that culture by generating so many moments of four-versus-two numerical superiority in key spaces.<\/p>\n

In the buildup to the final you may well read articles lauding Rodri as the best in the world at what he does \u2013 and yes, he\u2019s technically, tactically and psychologically superior. But trust me, his world-class abilities are not the reason for Spain\u2019s dominance. Think back to the Euro 2024 final. At half-time, Rodri had to go off. Mart\u00edn Zubimendi came on instead and the Spain<\/a> midfield were able to maintain control, because their very clear methodology has been built over time, not by one individual, nor by changing from manager to manager to manager. They do it at aged eight to 23 until they become the kings.<\/p>\n

How? Well, in Spain each and every player \u2013 male and female \u2013 is brought through a system with a set of beliefs underpinned with a clear methodology, and the development of all the playing principles within that framework positions them to do things at the highest level. It starts with the very basic premise of a 4-3-3 structure in possession; that\u2019s their starting point in all age groups and they do not deviate from that. Yet they are also flexible in their positioning. Look at 2024, when they played with a No 9, \u00c1lvaro Morata, and this summer they are playing with a false 9, Mikel Oyarzabal, who excels between the lines. They\u2019ve made both scenarios work.<\/p>\n

In this World Cup, with Rodri, Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz, Dani Olmo and Oyarzabal combining together, it\u2019s less about fixed positions and more about Spain\u2019s intrinsic ability to arrive in space at the right time. They rotate, they exchange positions and they move into areas to create advantages all the time. They also read each other to help create situations where they have one more player in a specific area of the pitch, no matter where it is on the pitch. And if they can\u2019t create that extra number, they ask themselves: \u201cHow can we create a positional advantage with rotation?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz helps Spain create overloads all over the pitch. Photograph: Lars Baron\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It is a culture that goes back to Johan Cruyff\u2019s early Barcelona days and the Spanish national teams do it better than any nation in the world in both men\u2019s and women\u2019s football. It is why they have won a record nine Under-17 Euros titles, reached the past three Under-19 European finals, and won a joint-record five Under-21 Euros. It is a similar story in the women\u2019s game where they have a record eight Under-19 women\u2019s Euros trophies, seven of them since 2017, including five in a row. In Spain it is mandatory by law for athletes to accept a national call-up, at all age groups. In a lot of countries that is simply not the case. But youth national team exposure is essential to developing players\u2019 understanding of their roles within those principal positions under pressure in major tournaments.<\/p>\n

Argentina are also a true collective, but in a very different way. I liked what the sports psychologist Daniel Abrahams wrote on his social media accounts this week. Of Argentina<\/a>, he said they \u201csing their national anthem with gusto\u201d and are \u201cas aggressive in the press and in duels as you\u2019re going to see. Slightly bending the rules. Being nasty [and getting] in their opponents\u2019 faces, competing with so much passion and adoration for each other and with so much want and will and determination that there\u2019s no room for anxieties\u201d.<\/p>\n

We must not underestimate how difficult it is to accomplish that collective mindset. The intensity of that commitment, the sign-up to the brotherhood, the adrenaline that is required and their connections between each other and their fans is like nothing else in sport. Their manager talks about how they respond to adversity. It\u2019s a nation that does well in adversity. They are the warriors of international football. For that reason, they\u2019re never out of any game, even if they don\u2019t dominate the ball, and they will fight to the last moment of this final.<\/p>\n

Spain masterfully shift the ball to one side of the pitch in order to shift midfielders across the pitch to then bring it back and exploit the very zones they wanted to access initially. You think going man\u2011for\u2011man against Spain might work? No, they\u2019re press resistant, they know how to break pressure. And they have evolved. They are unafraid to go long and be direct, to put balls into spaces. They have mixed their game up. They are the best team in the world. Before a ball was kicked in this tournament, I wrote in the Guardian<\/a> that they were my favourites for this title and I\u2019ll stand by that.<\/p>\n

Argentina\u2019s players belt out the national anthem before their semi-final against England. Photograph: Michael Regan\/Fifa\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

For England, watching Sunday\u2019s final will be painful. Why can\u2019t we cross the line? Is it to do with our social, cultural makeup? I believe it is to do with the mental part of the game. At the highest level you have to train your muscles in your brain as much as you train the rest of your body, to be able ensure emotion doesn\u2019t plague your performance under pressure. We have to ask ourselves, why are Argentina so successful at delivering when it really matters and we\u2019re not?<\/p>\n

This is not about tactics, it is not about substitutions. We are being shortsighted and emotional when we discuss those things straight after a semi-final defeat. Long term, we have to ask what is it in our psyche that we haven\u2019t addressed as a nation to overcome this? And how do we all contribute to that; players, coaches, fans, media, clubs \u2026 all of us?<\/p>\n

Argentina never lacked belief against England. They stuck together like an unbreakable bond, without seeking to blame or find fault. Our natural behaviour is to find fault, dig out an individual or heap praise on one individual. We have to buy into the idea that when we win, it\u2019s the collective and when we lose, it\u2019s the collective.<\/p>\n

That is why Argentina and Spain are in the final. They are, after all, two nations that have unbelievable clarity about their identity and the two most collective teams in the tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We talk about individuals too much in English football. Football is about the collective. Spain\u2019s semi-final dominance over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-548676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}