Spain’s World Cup exit embodied the true meaning of tiki taka football
Spain are out of the World Cup after losing a round of 16 penalty shootout to Russia and passing — a lot.
There is a difference between tiki taka football and the possession football that led Spain to successful domination of Europe and the world between 2008 and 2012. Many of the pundits, analysts and commentators who have combed over and will comb over Spain’s round of 16 defeat to Russia will draw comparisons between the game and the tiki taka style of play that Spain and more so, Barcelona, have brought to the fore since the turn of the decade.
The term tiki taka was coined during the 1980s by the legendary Athletic Bilbao coach, Javier Clemente. Clemente’s Basque side had won two league titles on the back of rough and direct football, personified in Clemente’s favorite player, the center back Andoni Goikoetxea, who gained the nickname “the butcher of Bilbao” for a dangerous and cynical tackle on Barcelona’s Diego Maradona during a league game in 1983. Maradona had already been struggling for form in Catalonia and the resulting broken ankle set the Argentine’s Barca career back even further.
Clemente was at constant odds with the visionaries at Barcelona, who were naturally horrified by the Basque manager’s approach and style. It was during one of these debates that Clemente first coined the term tiki taka in Spain. According to Clemente, tiki taka football was pointless or aimless passing for its own sake. Though the original meaning of the term hasn’t stuck with fans or experts, it still has a bad connotation among the proponents of effective possession football.
Among those who still use tiki taka as Javier Clemente first used it is Pep Guardiola, who has distanced his own philosophy from it. He told Martí Perarnau during an interview for a book on the Catala, “I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiki-taka. It’s so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the opposition’s goal. It’s not about passing for the sake of it.”
Tiki taka is a poor description for Spain’s golden era, however, it’s the perfect term for Spain’s performance against Russia and perhaps for their approach throughout the entire tournament. La Roja attempted 438 passes in the first half. By the time the full time whistle had blown, they had reached over 1000 passes, with both statistics being a first in the tournament since 1966. Of those 1114 passes Spain had, only about 15 of them went inside the Russian penalty area. Heading into the last 10 minutes of the match and the Spanish were still yet to make a pass into the D outside of the Russian penalty area. Diego Costa managed just 30 touches, and three of Spain’s three of Spain’s four man defense had over 100 touches of the ball.
It was quite startling to see how flat and bereft of attacking intent Spain compared to the side who had beaten Argentina 6-1 in a friendly in Madrid in March or the side who had managed to score in every one Julen Lopetegui’s games in charge. Who is at fault for this sudden drop in form depends on your perspective, Isco got plenty of the flack on social media during the Russia game, which makes sense considering Isco was the only Spanish midfielder outside of Koke to pass 100 touches and, unlike Koke, had the ball in more advanced positions. In reality, Spain’s problem wasn’t a single player spoiling a Spanish attack, the issue was there wasn’t a single player consistently in an dangerous position. Spain’s problems were schematic, which falls on the shoulder of a manager who had little or no intention of coaching the national team before he was thrown into the job a day before the tournament began.
Blame will likely fall downhill starting with Fernando Hierro. The former Madrid defender will have to face a lot of the flak for Spain’s exit, despite showing incredible bravery in taking the job in the first place. David DeGea has been the scapegoat for much of Spain’s defensive troubles (he had conceded just three goals across 10 games in qualifying) and looked without confidence during the penalty shootout. He will head into the next qualifying campaign with all to prove again. There is then, of course, the retirees with captain Andreas Iniesta joining a long list of greats whose legendary careers finished on a sour note at a World Cup. Gerard Pique has also promised to retire after the World Cup, though his errors during the tournament and his outspoken political views will mean he won’t get as warm a send-off as Iniesta will in the Spanish press.
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However, the real culprit in this disastrous World Cup for Spain is the football federation president, Luis Rubiales. It was his decision to sack Julen Lopetegui just a day before his nation’s opener with no back-up plan outside of Hierro. There is no doubt that the manner of Lopetegui’s departure was inappropriate, but as Eduardo Alvarez said during a podcast following the announcement, “the cure was worst than the disease.”
How much blame that Rubiales will receive is yet to be seen and Rubiales will need to make positive moves quickly if he wants to survive this. Spain arrived in Russia in chaos, they now depart it in even more chaos and uncertainty. It is a truly astonishing turnaround for a team who was everyone’s favorite to win the whole tournament just a fortnight ago.