Football and the fickle aura of invincibility

Spain’s sustained dominance was the reason of their undoing in the Confederation Cup final

The best teams create an aura about themselves. Opponents become so terrified by the thought of playing a great side, so scared of being on the end of a hiding, that they play without confidence, they become over-cautious. As a result, the best teams can often stroll through games at half pace as opponents sit deep against them, particularly if they score an early goal. At times it can seem as though an informal understanding has been reached: we won’t attack you if you don’t hammer us.

The problem is that in those circumstances, it can become very easy for teams to forget how to defend. When you control the majority of the games you play, when you face massed defences, when you spend the whole time, even as a defender, working out ways of outflanking or puncturing the opposing rearguard, it’s very easy to forget how to defend. Igor Biscan explained this was why Dinamo Zagreb always seemed to underperform in European competition: they were so much better than almost every other side in the Croatian league that they weren’t used to scrapping for a result, and so even when they faced a foreign side who were slightly worse than them, they couldn’t cope.

To an extent, that was the position Barcelona and Real Madrid found themselves in against Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League semi-finals last season: against teams who attacked them with pace and verve, who pressed with cohesion and energy, they were left groping for skills they had forgotten how to apply. Spain, in the Confederations Cup, have found themselves facing similar difficulties.

The problems, really, were there from the off. With better finishing, Nigeria could easily have troubled Spain. Italy missed a number of chances against them in the semi-final. After all the focus on control at Euro 2012 and the World Cup, this was a strangely lax Spain. Perhaps they were missing Xabi Alonso, but it’s not as though Sergio Busquets, Xavi and Andres Iniesta are an untried trio. You wonder too whether Alvaro Arbeloa’s time as a regular may be coming to an end. Brazil clearly targeted him as the weakest Spaniard on the ball and, while he has defensive quality, his replacement at half-time in the final with Cesar Azpilicueta had a feel of something definitive.

But while there are clear concerns for Spain, for whom the 3-0 defeat was their greatest in a competitive game since 1985, there should be no panic – and nor should Brazil draw too much confidence ahead of next year’s World Cup. Although Brazil probably deserved to win, 3-0 was no reflection of the game: Julio Cesar made two outstanding saves, David Luiz cleared a Pedro effort spectacularly off the line and Sergio Ramos missed a penalty. The space behind Marcelo remains a major weakness.

What Brazil clearly do have is, in David Luiz, a monstrous defender capable of clearing up after Marcelo at least most of the time, in Oscar, one of the hardest-working, cleverest creators in the game and, in Neymar and Fred, forwards capable of punishing sloppiness. Spain, though, will feel they gave them far too much sloppiness to work with. Their biggest problem now is that their aura has gone and, and as teams attack them, they will have to learn how to fight again.