Keshi’s strategy to beat Spain

Contrary to what some think, the squad to beat world champions Spain, which Brazil recently displayed in the Confederations Cup final at the Maracanã, was not invented in Rio de Janeiro.

The strategy was invented in Africa and started with Stephen Keshi, the manager of the Nigerian team. He showed the way to beat Spain but when Nigeria used him, the Super Eagles were unable to realize the chances they created and squandered.

It was then copied by Italy (this was admitted by their Manager Prandelli) who went one step further and took Spain to the limit but fell short.

In the final, Brazil combined the two strategies and produced the perfect game plan and thus won.

Nigeria was the inventor while Brazil was the innovator.

As world champions, Spain has been pointed out as the team to beat. His strength is his short passing possession game (tiki – taka). They dominate possession, especially in their own half, so their opponents can’t get the ball, and if you can’t get the ball from them, you can’t attack them.

Teams have often played Spain’s game by allowing them to have the ball, backing into their own half, relying on massive defense and resorting to counter-attacks, in effect inviting Spain to attack.

Needless to say, this strategy has not worked, as was clearly illustrated in the first round when Spain played Uruguay, who attempted a massive defense and had very little possession of the ball throughout the match. The Spanish players use their immense technical skills and positional play to eventually break down defenses.

But no matter how good a team is, it is not easy to penetrate a mass defense and that is why Spain is not characterized as a team with many goals. For example when they won the last World Cup, in 7 matches they only scored 8 goals.

Spain’s weakness is that their players are not particularly big in size, not tall in stature (except for Pique) and they don’t have pace. Football is constantly changing and Spain’s tiki taka is being challenged by the aggressive combination of tactical skills and muscle.

Keshi’s strategy is to attack them in their own half and prevent them from latching on to the ball by outplaying, outplaying, jumping over and cutting off their passing lanes. If they are busy defending you, they cannot attack you. But there is a risk attached.

The risk is that with Keshi’s strategy you are left open behind and vulnerable to counterattack. In their recent meeting with Spain, Nigeria paid dearly for this risk. And it happened again in the Brazil game when at the end of the first half Spain counterattacked and Brazil only saved themselves when the ball was kicked off the line by David Luis.

Brazil knew how to dominate Keshi’s game plan because they have very good technical players and they scored first and put Spain at a disadvantage. They overcame the pressure from Spain and outplayed them with today’s Brazilian style of play that combines tactical skills, pace and steel.

Barcelona (the Spanish champion) is like Spain in that most of the Spanish players are from Barcelona; That’s why Spain is called “Barcelona without Messi”. The squad to beat them both was on full display in the Confederations Cup final.

There is no doubt that from now on, when a team plays against any of them, the Keshi strategy will be used against them. We will have to see how the Spanish will change their style of play to counteract it. He has to change, otherwise he will return to the Spain of the 80s and 90s.

The upcoming football season and the upcoming World Cup should be very interesting.

Victor A. Dixon

July 1st 2013