Games of 2010: 10-1
Jose Mourinho, back at Stamford Bridge with a win
The ten most interesting football games of 2010.
10. Arsenal 1-3 Manchester United
As strange as it might seem now, less than 12 months ago Wayne Rooney was playing superb football. Having spent the last couple of seasons playing second fiddle to Cristiano Ronaldo, in 2009/10 he was the man United based their team around, and he took full advantage.
For much of the season he played as a classic number nine – a pure poacher who stationed himself in the penalty area and waited for service – but in this game he was a false nine, dropping deep into midfield, drawing Arsenal’s centre-backs out of position, and using Nani and Park Ji-Sung to hit Arsenal on the break. The second and third goals both came because of Arsenal’s inability to cope with Rooney’s reverse runs, whilst the first came from Nani, who put in the best performance of his United career to date.
9. Inter 3-1 Chelsea (agg)
Did Mourinho put some kind of curse upon his former club? No, he simply out-thought Carlo Ancelotti with one of the finest tactical victories of the year. He started the game at the San Siro with a 4-3-1-2 shape which dominated the midfield and overran Chelsea, but when Inter went 2-1 up, he switched to 4-2-3-1 to pin the Chelsea full-backs back, and shut out the game. The defensive move was bafflingly described as an ‘attacking gamble that didn’t come off’ by one British pundit, a recent Premier League manager.
At Stamford Bridge Inter were not particularly attacking nor particularly defensive, but they controlled the game excellently – Wesley Sneijder’s influence grew and grew as the game went on, and he assisted Samuel Eto’o’s brilliant strike to send Inter through.
Full report of first leg | Full report of second leg
8. Manchester United 1-2 Chelsea
It’s a pretty brave move to leave your star striker out for your biggest game of the season, but that’s what Carlo Ancelotti did when he figured that Nicolas Anelka playing a false nine role would be the best way of unsettling Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. Didier Drogba had to settle for the bench.
Chelsea came to Old Trafford and dominated possession in the first half – Anelka dropped deep into space and linked up with the two wingers, Florent Malouda and Joe Cole, who moved high up the pitch between full-back and centre-back and provided a goal threat – Cole scored a clever opener.
In the second half United’s approach changed drastically – they pressed higher up the pitch and Chelsea couldn’t get into the same passing rhythm, meaning Anelka’s ability to link up was not needed. Instead, Ancelotti replaced the Frenchman with Didier Drogba, who held the ball up and waited for support, and then went on to score the crucial second goal.
7. Barcelona 6-3 Arsenal
A brilliant two-legged tie that had been hyped as the game between the two most attractive sides in Europe. The battle in the first leg was not about what the two teams did with the ball, however, it was what they did without it – Barca came to the Emirates and pressed relentlessly on the front, with Seydou Keita pushed up to a left-wing position and Pep Guardiola’s side closing down Arsenal’s defence to a quite terrifying extent, to the point where Arsenal simply couldn’t get the ball forward into the midfield.
That opening blitz could have seen Barcelona 5-0 up by half-time, but Manuel Almunia had a blinding first half to keep it 0-0. The second half saw Arsenal concede two almost identical goals – Thomas Vermaelen moved up the pitch, and two balls over the top for Zlatan Ibrahimovic to cooly finish put Barca into a commanding lead. Their heavy pressing early on had a clear negative effect towards the end of the game, though, when Barcelona clearly tired and the defence became exposed to the sheer pace of Theo Walcott, and Arsenal battled back to 2-2.
The second leg was a Lionel Messi masterclass – Arsenal couldn’t defend against him and he played all over the pitch, contributing all four goals in a superb performance.
Report of first leg | Report of second leg
6. Germany 4-0 Argentina
Germany had already flattened England, and this was a very similar performance – an early goal and therefore the license to sit back and play on the counter-attack.
The key to the victory was in Argentina’s full-back areas – Gabriel Heinze and Nicolas Otamendi didn’t look to get forward and support Argentina’s attackers, so Argentina’s diamond shape against Germany’s two banks of four was simply 5 v 8, all very narrow, all very easy to defend against (even with the presence of Lionel Messi, since Germany had spare man). Equally, the full-backs didn’t defend well either – their complete lack of pace was shown up time and time again as Germany’s strategy was to get the ball into wide areas on the counter, then centre the ball into the box.
Germany used the ball wisely – not countering when there was no need to and instead retaining the ball, and Argentina’s disjointed pressing opened up space for Mesut Oezil and Bastian Schweinsteiger to oull the strings.
5. Brazil 3-0 Chile
ZM had hyped up these as the two most interesting sides tactically before the competition – Dunga had Brazil playing a counter-attacking, lopsided 4-2-3-1 shape that opponents struggled to deal with, whilst Marcelo Bielsa had transformed Chile from no-hopers to the most exciting, attacking side in world football – playing 3-3-1-3, pressing relentlessly in the opposition half, playing with width, pace and no fear.
The clash between the two was excellent, despite being over in the first half – Brazil’s tendency to sit back before breaking was contrasted with Chile playing high up the pitch, and the entire game was a complicated (speed) chess match that effectively came down to one question – would Gonzalo Jara move up the pitch to close down Robinho? He did, and Brazil countered brilliantly to record a comfortable victory.
4. Germany 4-1 England
Considering Fabio Capello’s side had a clearly legitimate goal disallowed at 2-1, there really hasn’t been too much whining in England. There’s been the odd reference, of course, but in contrast to disallowed goals in previous tournaments – 1998 against Argentina, 2004 against Portugal – it’s been fairly muted.
The reason? England were completely outplayed by a side that was technically and tactically embarrassingly superior to them. Fabio Capello’s 4-4-2 offered no movement and no creativity, but on top of that the defending was atrocious – the first goal was like something out of a Sunday League game, the second saw the defence dragged all over the shop by some good German movement, whilst the third and the fourth were excellent counter-attacking goals from Germany.
Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney wandered around aimlessly whilst Mesit Oezil, Thomas Muller and Bastian Schweinsteiger combined attacking flair with the old cliched German efficiency – it was overrated individualists up against intelligent, cohesive team players.
3. Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid
The most memorable team performance of the year – maybe the only game in this list that will truly go down in history as one of the great football matches.
In a game hyped up so much that many expected only disappointment, Barcelona’s passing, pressing and patience completely stumped Jose Mourinho, who resorted to what looked like a damage limitation substitution at half time, removing Mesut Oezil for Lassana Diarra.
Lionel Messi played as a false nine which caused Real’s centre-backs problems in the main tactical point from the game, but the cohesiveness and understanding between Barcelona’s players was the main difference between the two teams.
2. Spain 1-0 Germany
We tend to remember only the goalfests as being brilliant games, but this (much like Germany’s defeat to Italy at the same stage four years previously) had the tension and technical quality that makes a truly great contest.
Spain were considered the best side in the competition, but Germany were the side who had hit the true heights with the huge wins over England and Australia. The passing quality on show here was wonderful, thanks to a midfield zone featuring Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Xabi Alonso, Mesut Ozil, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira.
The difference, though, was pressing. Germany had spent the tournament sitting back and counter-attacking – the games against England and Argentina allowed them to play this way thanks to an early goal in each – but Spain were much better at shutting down Germany moves before they’d crossed the halfway line, meaning Spain dominated possession and eventually went 1-0 up from a set-piece.
From there, Germany had to try and win the ball more quickly but having been outpassed throughout, they were now so tired (and so unused to pressing) that they found it impossible, and Spain passed their way to victory.
1. Inter 3-2 Barcelona (agg)
In any sport, you tend to find brilliant contests between two teams or players that are well-matched in terms of ability, but completely different in terms of style. This tie, particularly the second leg at the Nou Camp, was a great demonstration of that – Barcelona attacked non-stop whilst Inter sat back inside their own third and simply tried to hang on.
The Clasico was a fantastic display of football, but it was utterly one-sided and was over after 45 minutes. This game was literally not truly decided until the last kick – Barca had a goal disallowed in the final seconds that would have sent them through on away goals.
First, though, we must not forget the game at the San Siro – Mourinho was criticized for his defensive tactics in the second leg, but then he did arrive with a two-goal head start, and quickly found himself a man down. In the first leg there was no sign of defensive play from Inter – they attacked Barca so much it actually seemed to take the Spanish champions by surprise – Maicon bombed on down the left which Seydou Keita couldn’t quite cope with, whilst on the other side Goran Pandev came inside and dragged Dani Alves narrow, opening up space for Wesley Sneijder who moved left.
Inter were aided by a rare tactical error from Pep Guardiola in both fixtures – he started Zlatan Ibrahimovic when (a) the Swede was not fully fit, (b) Barca had been playing very well without him at that point and (c) Inter’s centre-backs were always going to be more vulnerable to an approach based around small, tricky players who link up well and offer good movement. Ibrahimovic gave Barca a different option when he was at the club, but it wasn’t one required at the start of these games.
The second leg was extraordinary – Inter produced one of the most defensive performances in recent football history after going down to ten men. Mourinho, remarkably, was so confident that this was the right approach that he didn’t even want his side to have possession, saying after the game, “We didn’t want the ball because when Barcelona press and win the ball back, we lose our position – I never want to lose position on the pitch so I didn’t want us to have the ball. We gave it away.”
In that sense, it was a brilliant battle of footballing ideology. Barca, having received rave reviews for their focus upon passing and pressing, were suddenly beaten by a side that didn’t press, didn’t attack, didn’t even look to have the ball. Joga Bonito advocates will look upon Inter’s performance at the Nou Camp with disgust, but tactically this two-legged tie was a truly epic contest.
Full report of first leg | Full report of second leg
Games of 2010: 10-1
*prepares self for abuse for not putting the Clasico first*
Pre-empting some “why isn’t this in here” etc:
First, it’s only games that have been covered on ZM
Man City 0-1 Man United – Not much to take from the game tactically or technically despite the late minute
Ghana 1-1 Uruguay – ditto
Switzerland 1-0 Spain – interesting at the time, in context it seems almost irrelevant; the Swiss didn’t do anything special in the game, Spain didn’t change anything afterwards
Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea – the list had already been written
I’m a barca fan and would’ve liked it more if the classico was first but I totally understand your point and agree with it to an extent.
Haha. Think you got it spot on – the Inter-Barcelona was the most tactically interesting game of the year by far.
Sorry for the corrections, though, but Argentina-Germany was 4-0(not 4-1) and it’s “joga bonito”
Pedantry aside, good stuff.
EDIT: despite not featuring on ZM, Celtic 9-0 Aberdeen would have been a good shout
[pedantry on] It’s “Jogo Bonito.” Ask a Brasilero/Brasilera.[pedantry off]
Actually it’s “Joga Bonito”. And it’s brasileiro/brasileira.
Well, the England vs. Germany match wasn’t very relevant either to be honest. The Three Lions being decades behind the top teams from the continent technically and tactically is not exactly a new insight and has been on display in pretty much every single one of the recent tournament finals.
Completely agree on the Ghana vs. Uruguay comments though, the South Americans didn’t have much more than a few brilliant individual efforts to offer and while Milovan Rajevac instilled a fierce defensive discipline into the Black Stars, they were absolutely terrible in every aspect regarding offense troughout the tournament. Shocking for a football nation whose pride is built on the ultra attacking agoro style.
“The Three Lions being decades behind the top teams from the continent technically and tactically”
Yet England is fairly consistently in the top 10 Fifa ranking of the world, and nearly always qualifies for tournaments.
I think the problem is that the fans expect too much. You expect premier league performance, because that’s what you see every weekend. This is impossible. International football can never reach the level of the top of the premier league. Not even Brazil comes close. The top premier sides feature the best players that money can buy, selected from a global pool of a few hundred million football players, and plays and trains together a whole season under the world’s most expensive coaches. The national team first has to make a selection based on the passport of the player, and the amount of money thrown at it doesn’t influence the choice at all. Based on that, over a long period of time, you expect England to perform about as well as countries on the continent with a similar number of people who play football, and it does.
nr. 1 is completely deserved.
bremen-valencia not even top 40 makes me a bit sad
and of course psv-feyenoord 10:0 is missing
Without seeing the match, I think the reason why psv 10-0 feyenoord isn’t included is because: a) he probably didn’t watch it. b)It was surely a good match, but the tactical aspect don’t seem very important in a ten goal trashing.
Werder Bremen – Valencia CF was a big game in terms of goals and great to watch, but was it a tactical good game? Also, I would say, Bremen played at least one match like this (against Sampdoria Genua).
i like you ZM but not including Ghana – Uruguay in the top 40 is a crime against humanity
It wasn’t an interesting game in tactical or technical quality, it just featured someone handballing it on the line and then someone missing the resulting penalty
For 119 minutes it was utter crap
I disagree. Handball aside it was an extremely passionate game with box-to-box action, both sides going for the win by all means possioble (the best of the tactics
).
By the way, did you change your mind? Back then you wrote:
“A game that got increasingly exciting, before an incredible finale.” (Zonal Marking)
Yeah, I was also surprised by ZM’s change of mind.
ZM, I don’t know if it was a great tactical game, but to call it “utter crap” seems strange. The entire match was tense and last 30 minutes were very exciting.
It didn’t seem really exciting from a technical/tactical point of view: “Ghana played even more defensively than usual. […] Uruguay were not playing particularly brilliant football, however. […] Uruguay created relatively little. […] At 1-1, the game became simultaneously stretched and cagey. […] In tactical terms over the course of the game, neither side got the better of the other, and a drawn game was a fair result.”
I admire you for not picking the obvious choice of Barca v Real as number 1 (not even number 2 either!) however I would have picked that game simply because it was a truly memorable performance from one of the best sides in history. Football is about moments and I think more people will remember that game than Inter v Barca.
Furthermore, I have a little comment to make about Ibrahimovic in the Inter game. Even if he was fully fit it would not have made a difference because he simply does not show up for big games. You’re right Pep should not have started him in either leg of the Inter tie but it’s not for the reasons you mentioned. It’s because he’s an overrated fool.
I’m going to remember Barcelona-Internazionale clash more than El Classico trashing. I mean, both Barça-Real and Barça-Inter games were epic, but second leg semi-final was a unique game and it deserves the first spot.
Although ZM point out that Pep made a tactical mistake in playing Ibrahimovic and this was the reason that Inter triumphed, I think people are forgetting that Milito’s goal at the San Siro was clearly offside, his first reaction when heading in was to turn to the linesman. Added to that was the disallowed Bojan goal at the Nou Camp. It wasn’t even close to being handball. I accept Busquets made a meal of the Motta incident to get him sent off, but Barcelona did enough home and away to beat Inter, but for the referee would have defended the Champions League.
From a neutral’s point of view, the CL game was much more memorable. It was amazing to see Inter willing and happy to give the ball away in Barca’s half, never seen that in a professional match before. El Clasico was a shock in its final score but wasn’t astonishing tactically. Both sides played expected lineups and styles.
“playing 3-3-1-3, pressing relentlessly in the opposition half, playing with width, pace and no fear.”
although chile played with determination and no fear in their 2 first matches at the WC, i thought they played like chickens against spain and brazil. they did not play the same against these 2, you could easily see that the fight, enthusiasm,and determination from the first 2 games were not there, and thats why you knew that they were always going to lose those matches once it hit the 10-15 minute mark.
Surprised you think that; I couldn’t disagree mroe!
maybe it was psychological playing against a “big team”, but i definitely didn’t see the fast and ferocious chile attacking from everywhere like the first 2 games. they played a much much slower tempo and they seemed scared to attack, even when losing.
And ZM i highly recommend you watch the euro qualifier match between france and belarus if you havent seen it. it was the biggest tactical master class of small team vs big team in 2010. not only did belarus defend well, but the way their midfielders found space and made runs were simply a joy to watch. it would have easily made it to the top 20 of this list.
That’s actually a good shout. I did a piece on it somewhere…
Dear ZM, Congrats a lot for this big effort.
I dont mind El Classico not there as No.1 (for me it was, but this is your opinion and I respect it)
But to accept Inter – Barca as tactically the no.1 game of the year, its a bit difficult to digest. Because there seemed to be only one tactic here from Inter – Park the bus and counter attack if you get the ball. As a lover of the beautiful game, this is all what I found. For me the Kopenhaegen – Barca game was better tactically.
Again the Germany – Argentina game – isnt it too high up on the list? Because this was the game with the most mistakes – Tactically, that too by one of the best footballing nations.
Anyways, congrats ZM. Wish you a happy 2011
Aggregate, buddy. Aggregate. (Nonetheless, I still find that second leg really, really fascinating.)
Thanks. But there wasn’t “only one tactic here from Inter”, as said in the piece – everyone only remembers the defending, but in the first leg they attacked and (I believe) were the first side to beat Guardiola’s Barca by two goals
So because Barca lose one game, the team that beats them takes all the plaudits. They are human, Barcelona that is. Defensively Barcelona were a shamble in the game at the San Siro too.
While other factors were certainly at play (personally, I think most of these are ever-so-slightly exaggerated by FCB supporters), there’s little point with insinuating that Mourinho doesn’t deserve to be applauded for a very bold, attacking first leg. Barcelona were a “shamble” defensively for a reason, and I think ZM has done a nice job explaining what exactly Mourinho and Inter set out to do to ensure such a result.
And the first to play them after travelling to a European away on the bus…
For my money it was the a fascinating 2 legs and a worthy 1st place. Still annoying that Barca’s disallowed goal was quite fair, and that the away leg they were outside their normal routine and that long journey…
Not only you got nothing out of the Camp Nou game, but you also got that “nothing” wrong. Inter didn’t want the ball to counter-attack. This is written stated in the current article…
As to what you missed out of the game – I’m not going to repeat myself. I wrote a comment about it under the “40-31″ article.
Barca vs. Inter had to be nr. 1… there is simply no other option. Anyway I am quite surprised to see Germany-Argentina and the classico so high up. Imho both games were pretty onesided and only a good performance by 1 team.
That doesn’t make them uninteresting, however.
Really enjoyed the series and have no problems with the rankings. I agree Barca v Inter has to be #1. I have no idea if this game was interesting tactically but this one deserves some kind of honorable mention for outlandishness
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/may/05/motherwell-hibernian-scottish-premier-league
My favorite part is that Motherwell missed a penalty to equalize at the 87th minute and still managed to pull even in injury time. If Spurs played a match like this I’m pretty sure I would fall over dead. One of those matches 100,000 will claim to have seen even though the official attendance was 6200 or so.
Where the hell is the two Manchester derbys..
Th 4-4 at OT?
The one Paul Scholes won was a poor game with little interest to speak of
I don’t remember a 4-4 at Old Trafford, which means either it didn’t happen, or it wasn’t interesting enough to stay in my memory
It was 4-3, the late Owen winner, a remarkable game, City tied it late and lost it in added time. Another should would be the Carling Cup clash between the two. City hoping for a trophy for the first time in 34 years and being crashed by another late goal.
All four of the Manchester derbies were very interesting games with a lot on the line. And 3 out of the four were very good games by themselves without the added importance of City’s need to overcome a rival and United’s show of dominance over upstarts from across town.
There was a lot of great football, some amazing drama and the games were quite important. I was surprised none of them made it.
Same goes for the Uruguay-Ghana clash.
But as with any list, none is complete, and certainly, none will satisfy everyone.
So whilst far from perfect, a nice list and a good way to remember some of the more important matches of this year. Happy new Year to you and everyone.
The 4-3 wasn’t in 2010 for starters
Carling Cup pah
Do’h, sorry, I keep thinking of years in terms of football seasons and not calendar. But as much as the Milk Cup is derided, and it would be any other season, it was quite important for City, and therefore important for United to keep them out of the final. United pt out a stronger line up for the semifinal than for the final itself. And many of us would not have been that bothered had United lost in the final, as we would be over a loss to City in the semis.
Totally agree with you on the best game this year being Inter vs Barca. Unbelievable display of grit and discipline from Inter over two legs, one of them with 10 men. I still smile when I remember back to watching it.
You’ll never please everyone, a good top 10 from a decent year.
Enjoyed the first paragraph of your England-Germany round up (Hope to God that it was sarcasm).
We all remember the portugese friend – the referee – at San Siro. It wouldn’t have been 3-1 – there ws offside, foul before another goal of Inter and disallowed penalty for Barcelona The disallowed goal of Bojan at Camp Nou was just a piece of cake:) I would have applauded to excellent tactical approach if the conditions were different…
Move on mate, I’m sure most Chelsea fans have, when you beat them the year before, completely and utterly without the ref’s help
Well, in the Chelsea tie Barcelona had two penalties turned down, and Ballack and Essien should have been sent off.
Also, Drogba dived around to the extent that Hiddink took him off because of a suspected injury.
(sorry for the double post)
So yes, Barcelona should have finished the home match at 1-0 and with Chelsea down to 10 men, and the red card for Abidal was ridiculous.
Despite all that and the fact that Mourinho had the Inter-Barca game refereed by a man he had known for 20 years, I agree that matches here should be analysed basing only on facts, and for a (tactically oriented) neutral it was the tie of the year.
I wonder what the new year will bring – probably a CL Barca match with a resilient opponent again, but who could it be this time? Maybe a final against Chelsea (an earlier tie would be quite repetitive) or a Man United match?
Or, perhaps, it will be Real Madrid finally playing a good CL game against a strong opponent?
How does the result change anything? The managers have to act according to the same score, and Mourinho did so in a very interesting way. Who cares if it was succesful or not – it’s the unorthodox (sp?) way it happened.
I mean, the result doesn’t change the fact that Mourinho played very agressively in the first leg, Guardiola made the same tactical error in both legs or that Inter’s approach was extremely unusual (=interesting).
Sure, Mourinho was able to sit back in the second leg because of the offside goal, but Guardiola had to act according to that score as well. If Inter loses on the Bojan goal in the end, it still would be #1 – because of the way Inter approached the game (after the sending off).
Also; move on already.
and inter had an offside call going against them in the opening mins for a fully legit 1vs1, while barcas 1-0 goal in the secound leg surly was offside, the red card in the secound leg was a hilarius mistake by the ref …etc
in all honesty the ref made an equal bundle of mistakes going both ways, which make it unfair to blame the ref for the outcome
ZM, more than anything, a HUGE THANK YOU for making this year’s football following much more informative and entertaining, both on this outstanding website and on Twitter. Cheers from a big fan.
PS. I know you don’t watch the Libertadores but the Inter-São Paulo and Chivas-Universidad de Chile semi-finals were epic matches, as well as the Inter-Estudiantes and Universidad-Flamengo quarters. The final, not so much.
Thanks, very kind
seconded – happy newyears!
Great call on Germany v Spain. Excellent tactical game, even though there were fairly few chances due to Germany’s disciplined defense. Against a lesser team that would have been 3-nil. Like el Clasico, Iniesta made Khedira look ordinary (he is not) and Xavi did well to both push forward to create chances and drop deeper to offer a safety valve. Spain had more and better chances and absolutely deserved their win. I emphatically disagree with Nick Robbins and side with you and Jonathan Wilson on this one. http://timhi.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/spain-germany-report/
For me, Muller being on the field might have pushed it to number one.
From a German perspective, that game was painful to watch. Germany most of the time looked sooo far away from attacking and scoring, because Spain’s (Barcelona’s) pressing was so damn good. On the other hand, despite their general superiority, Spain struggled and were puzzled in front of the German goal, their defence worked pretty well, even without any (!) yellow card the whole match. Compare that to the Netherlands who were simply lucky to hit half time with eleven players left.
About your point with Mueller, well, I deem him certainly better than Trochowski, both in defence and offence, so would have added to the game. Trocho is pretty one-dimensional (like Podolski, but lacking his shooting qualities), so that did not help Germany. I daresay that with Mueller (the yellow he got in the Argentina match because that basterd of Messi ‘begged’ the referee for it was a joke and a shame) Germans would have looked much better, probably even won it. On the other hand, Loew could have started (more central and more intelligent) Kroos instead of Trocho right from the beginning, would also have helped. Either way, the Spanish were better in total, and in that way kind of deserved to win it.
I think Arsenal-Porto over two legs deserve to be there more than Chelsea win at Old Trafford. That game was pretty much eventless until half way and was then decided by a flash of Genius from Joe Cole. On the other hand Arsenal-Porto was very similar to the El Classico this year. Porto came to the Emirates with the plan of defending well and taking Arsenal on the counters. But they were just given a footballing lesson n one of the most astute defensive displays keeping an inform Falcao, the powerful n skillful Hulk n the tricky Varela on check. Their midfield were given a run about and their defence were choking to the territorial advantage of Arsenal.
Except that the first leg was decided by two errors (one GK, one ref) rather than tactical astuteness.
The second was because Porto are a) poor away from home and b) took the wrong tactical option. Everyone knows Arsenal have a suspect defence so ‘going for broke’ would have been a lot more interesting than trying to sit deep and hold a 1 goal lead, particularly as Porto were poor in the first leg.
Essentially, the game was decided firstly by errors and then by the wrong choice of tactics. The Chelsea v Man United match was decided by using two differing styles of strikers to a) offer a different style to beat Vidic and Ferdinand and b) to change the approach when United overran Chelsea.
It’s far more interesting.
While the Barcelona vs Inter is truly memorable… I liked the Manchester United vs Bayern Munich more. In fact, I think that I remember the latter more than the former…
lol. nuff said.
But I won’t just complain about Ghana – Uruguay. First I want to congratulate You for the great job in 2010, and in 2011 I hope you review a few brazlian matches
I know it would have been fantastic to read this year your perspective on games like São Paulo 4-3 Santos (both sides going Kamikaze); or about teams like Fluminense (the deserved champion, even if somewhat boring to watch) or the greatest comeback history of the year, Grêmio: the team ended the first round in the relegation zone, but after their idol Renato Gaúcho assumed coaching the team ended their run in fourth place and a shot at Libertadores.
So I wish a Happy New (even busier) Year.
I must say this is probably as good a countdown of the top 10 games of the year that anyone anywhere could come up with. You featured all the obvious games as well as the most tactically interesting and most promising teams currently playing. The best teams of the year were obviously Inter, Barca, Germany and Spain and the countdown features and highlights that very well. Superb job!
Inter/Barca will go down as an all time classic at the European club level, tactically, from a story line point of view and in terms of football philosophies it’s unquestionable.
Spain and Barca have their places in history set already, as everyone highlights on a weekly basis, and justifiably so.
And Germany are in a sense the future of and continuation of the modern football Barca/Spain have set the bar for.
good to know, that the better teams do tactically interesting stuff, and not only the usual things better. So we will see development and not only the same boring tactics for the next years.
also, good to know that good games often involve good tactics, and not ‘only’ a moment of genius.
The top 10 definitely had the matches I’ve been looking for from World Cup & Champions League – nice selection. Ghana – Uruguay was fun to watch as well, but I don’t mind it being absent at all (given the emphasis on tactics).
Spain vs Germany was the match of the World Cup! Remarkable how Spain managed to contain the German offense which came in running hot after the games versus England and Argentina. Though I am still a bit sad that Müller missed the game as Kroos sadly wasted his big chance :/
Can’t wait for them to get more experience and see what they will do in 2012 & 2014 =)
Brazil vs Chile got me really excited as well – fantastic to watch as all Bielsa matches.
The 5-0 will be watched over and over again even after the current generation of players retires – upsetting mastermind Mourinho. However, I agree with the #1 pick as it was essentially a tactical masterpiece executed brilliantly by Inter and in the end lead to the CL title.
Thanks for this summary and of course for the whole year at ZM!
P.S.: Hope you get more luck with your picks for the Bundesliga. Quite a few surprises already. Especially Freiburg, Hannover and Mainz (e.g. 4-3 after being 0-3 down again McClaren’s Wolfsburg) did upset quite a lot of teams expected to be far ahead of them. While Slomka had a stint at a big club already, both Dutt and Tuchel are still fresher faces, likely unknown to fans outside the Bundesliga.
Klopp’s Dortmund played the strongest with an amazing record so far – yet the veterans in Heynckes at Leverkusen and van Gaal at Bayern (with Robben finally returning) are still lurking and will keep waiting for a slump.
It’s jog*o* bonito if you mean “beautiful game”. “Joga bonito” means “he plays beautiful”. (Forgive me, I’m a professor of Portuguese.)
your link for the first and second leg of the inter chelsea games were reversed.
“…it was overrated individualists up against intelligent, cohesive team players”
Interesting, because Matthias Sammer (now director for sport at the German FA) said a few week ago in German TV that the German approach “the team is the star” was a big failure in the 90s. Germany won the Euro 96 with great players (and injury problems) but everyone was pointing on the team spirit. team spirit is important but you need sparkling individuals, too.
Germany needed 10 years to recover from the “great team players” and lack of great individuals. Reaching the World Cup final 2002 was an exception proving the problem, because Germany reached the final of a poor tournament due to Ballack, Kahn and lucky drawing.
you misunderstood his statement. he did not mean it in regards to top level teams but to youth development.
the team first mantra was hindering the development of skilled individuals in Germany.
good team spirit is of course highly important for top level teams to produce results. (as results should be negligible at the grass roots level). the farce that was France in SouthAfrica is the best example.
I did not misunderstand the statement.
Of course you need a team and not 11 overrated individuals.
But I don’t think that team spirit has much to do with the individual skills.
Maybe English players are overrated? But are they less good then Algeria? player vs. player? No! as a team at the WC? Yes! So, the players are not that much overrated, but the team is. After a superb qualification, no surprise (after the poor preparation totally overrated).
France had no team, but still good players (with bad character).
I second your comment (or the statement of Sammer) in therms of youth development. But the problems got solved years ago in Germany. And Sammer also said you need the right mix of players.
Not having a team and having overrated individuals are two different things. take a look at Germany, it’s not about eigher / or, but about individual class and great spirit.
One of the things that always seems to go unmentioned when people talk about the Inter/Barca tie is that in the first leg, Dani Alves was given a yellow card “for diving” when he really should have been given a penalty. To be fair, Alves dove quite a lot last year, but it was still the wrong call. In the second leg, Bojan scored a goal and the end of the game to put Barca up on away goals, but it was disallowed because the ball had hit Yaya Toure’s hand. Again, it was the wrong call. It should have been judged ball-to-hand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPgD1SDz_Tw
I submit that if the goal had not been disallowed, we would all be talking about Barca’s brilliance in overcoming Mourinho’s “park the bus” tactics. We marvel at how a 10 man Inter defeated Barca in Barcelona, but we forget that Barca actually won that game and should have won the tie. Mourinho’s tactics didn’t actually work.
Take Spain, in the World Cup, the consensus was that Spain was always going to find that one goal they needed, no matter how late in the game. This is especially true of the Final against the Netherlands. I submit that Barca was in a very similar situation. I mean, no one’s talking about how the sheer physicality of the Dutch defeated Spain, right? But maybe we would be if Iniesta hadn’t scored that goal and the Dutch had won on penalties.
In sum: Mourinho’s brilliant tactics didn’t work. We only say they did because a tie-winning goal was incorrectly disallowed at the end of the second leg.
I disagree about Yaya Toure hand. It has not been played intentionally, but it still changed the direction of the ball (into the ground, instead of up in the air) and his hand was hanging in the air. What I mean, this was quite tricky and subtle decision to take and could go either way. That’s why I’m astonished you are able to be so positive of “how it should be”. It was on the edge just like the said off-side in Piqué’s brilliant goal, and we can’t really blaim the referee. I also don’t understand, why you are bringing that situation, while there is a much better argument for you to use – off-side Milito goal in the first-leg.
(Oh, and please, find a better vid of that handball – there was once a good vid of it @ youtube, with close zoom, showing how the ball changed direction and allowed Toure to play the ball to Bojan).
However, I’d like to give you props for your main thesis – that the tactics didn’t really work. I’ll copy/paste part of my other comment on this website:
“Is that game – paradoxically – the final evidence that it’s easier/better to attack than to defend in football? I cannot remember a team playing so cohesively in defence – yet, Inter has lost the game (0-1), and could only afford it because of 3-1 in Milan. I cannot imagine a better physical and tactical display in defence coming from football players – yet, they allowed Barcelona three 100% chances (without counting fantastic save from Julio César in the first half), which would all be converted to goals in 8 out of 10 matches. In case of 2-0 for Barcelona, Inter would be unable to transform effectively into attacking mode late in the game.”
I think Mourinho’s tactics worked (because Inter won the first game, but that was part of the strategy. and if Inter would have lost the first game, they had played a different style; but that did not happen). But it is correct, that even the right tactic does not lead automatically to a comfortable win (with all the ref decisions etc.).
Of course you need luck or fortune sometimes. but that does not mean, you made the wrong decisions. No one says Inter played beautiful football in the second leg, but they did what they had to do (what everybody should do with a 3-1 lead against Barca and the Inter squad), they did very well (not perfect), and they were a little lucky in the end (like others before and after).
Some people were disappointet about the 1-0 games of Spain at the WC. But I think Del Bosque had in his mind that a) the World Cup is played only every four years (who knows what kind of team you will have at the next WC), and b) you have only 7 games at one WC (one defeat and you might be out).
After losing the first game, Spain played more ‘reserved’ than people expected (but people expect special things; think about other teams). Who would put Xabi Alonso on the bench to play one extra striker? There was no need for Spain to play a more risky style.
The largest problem I have with hypotheticals (“so-and-so call was wrong, and therefore…”), is that it assumes that all other actions would have remained the same, aside from the changed incident. Who’s to say that had any of those calls would have been made Mourinho wouldn’t have adjusted his tactics accordingly? (This is not to even mention the contentious send-off and Pique’s goal, which, to my eyes, looks offside by an arm.)
I’m a Barcelona supporter, but Mourinho’s tactics worked because in the end they got the result they wanted. With the aggregate score and ten players on the pitch, playing Barcelona to 1-0 at the Nou Camp is a remarkable victory in an aggregate contest.
Mourinho’s tactics worked. No doubt about that. Pique’s goal that won Barca the match was clear offside. Some you ppl are bold enough to pick a dive from Alves n render it a certain penalty, but you could easily close your eyes to an offside goal that should never have stood in first place.
Then comes the WC final. The result would have been much more different than Spain winning had Robben not missed the two sitters. Robben along with Sneijder would have been Balon d’Or nominees by now. Iniesta n the whole Spain would have been once again the beauteous losers of World Football. Luckily, in a year in which Spain, as a country, has benefited the most from SPORT, the WC had to come there. It was written.
But Robben missed the two sitters etc. etc.
I have not problem with ‘if…’ or ‘would….’ (hypothetical). but not that kind of: If X wins and Y loses, then X would be world player etc.
When it don’t happen, it don’t happen.
Spain won. And there are people saying that a good goal keeper is part of the game…. (or that you have to score if you want to win).
I didn’t mention the Pique off-side goal because Milito scored a goal in the first leg from an off-side position. In my mind, the two cancel out. Had there been a missed penalty call against Inter, I wouldn’t have mentioned the Dani Alves incident.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHOkE14XHwg
This is the game of the year, the tactical win of the year, the game that will not be forgotten, the game that already became legendary…
Happy New Year, ZM.
Have u ever considered doing reviews of old games from the past?
I think it would be interesting…
Just to say a big thank you for your work throughout the year. I particularly enjoy the tactical side of football and your site is a huge source to increase my understanding. May 2011 be just as exciting.
The Barca-Inter match up was overall probably the greatest tactical battle between polar opposite style and footballing tactics that I have seen in the past several years. I suppose if you are a Barca fan, the Clasico beatdown of Madrid will be more important to you. However, for any true neutral, that Barca-Inter matchup was epic awesome. I wish we could see football like that more often.
I remember Dani Alves quote after the game – “We just got so tired after repeatedly failing to break them down, we had all the possession and time in the world, but we couldn’t convert anything.” That’s pretty much what he said. It shows you how truly magnificent Mou’s tactics were that night, that you had such a majestic player as Alves talking like that. Not to mention they had a man-advantage.
Pep may have gotten revenge against Mou in the clasico, but Mou got the Champion’s League trophy, while Pep only got another 3 pts.
Agreed. Lots of people have said to me that it was really ugly and ‘anti-football’, but I think this kind of tactical masterclass is wonderful (to quote Jonathan Wilson, “beautiful attrition”). It’s stupid to go out and try and attack Barcelona in open play, even with 11 men. A full strength Barca side in the Champions League mindset is undoubtedly the best attacking side in the world today, so you don’t try to beat them at their own game. You beat them by playing to their weaknesses.
My best memory from that game is probably in an interview afterwards with Mourinho, who when asked “you parked the bus, didn’t you?”, he replied “no, we parked the aircraft.”
I totally agree with you. Mourinho could afford to play like that because it was an aggregate match and he had a 3-1 lead. He would have played like in the first leg if it was the final.
That said, Im baffled by these anti-football people who praise barcelona for their possession football and blame Inter for the defensive approach. If you dont give the opposition any chance to get the ball and deny them any chances to have meaningful attack, whats the problem with Inter doing the same by strong defending ? Add to that the play acting skills of barcelona players, Inter did extremely well to win the match with 10 men. Would barcelona have won the match with 10 men if they were in Inter’s position ?
Mourinho is right when he says Inter is the best balanced team. Barcelona is an one-dimensional team which does not have a plan B when things does not work. Thats not tactics. Tactics is when you can adapt to different situations quickly without being disadvantaged. The only tactical improvement was bringing in Pique forward and that immediatelty produced the goal because Inter did not expect it.
I totally agree with the Barça – Inter tie chosen as the most interesting football game of 2010. And I agree with the outcome, Inter winning, which is almost a bigger point of disussion than its first place.
Barça lost the first match and repaired the positional faults in the second one, but the opponent had other plans by then. Was Inter’s third one an offside goal? Perhaps, but Barça chose to play an offside trap, didn’t play a great match and was on the wrong side of luck.
The second match was just astonishing. Inter played only for position, giving the ball away like they had invented a type of football that didn’t need a ball anymore. Starting with a 3-1 lead helps to take on such a position, playing with 10 helps a bit more, at least mentally. Would Mourinho have liked the sending off of?
The ultimate park the bus. But: only possible by winning the first leg. Deservedly. And so creating the space for that astonishing second leg.
How you did not include Fulham 5 – 4 Juventus in any of these games of 2010 lists is beyond me…
hi zm,
just wanna say thanks for maintaining this blog. loved every bit of it. hope 2011 goes well for you too!