TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Euro 2012, ‘tiki-taka’ and soccer evolution
Euro 2012, which kicks off today, will offer an opportunity to soccer enthusiasts all around the world to witness the possibility of a new record being carved out in the history of the most popular sport on earth
Change Size
E
uro 2012, which kicks off today, will offer an opportunity to soccer enthusiasts all around the world to witness the possibility of a new record being carved out in the history of the most popular sport on earth.
Should the reigning European and World champion, Spain, win the month-long tournament, it would achieve a feat no other country has. Defending the European title while still holding the World Cup would catapult Spain — already a soccer superpower — to new heights. The Spanish have consistently topped the world rankings since their World Cup triumph in 2010, outstripping more traditional powers like Brazil and Argentina.
Spain’s domination, at least in the last five years, has been largely down to the team’s tactics and playing style, popularly known as tiki-taka, a strategy that has come to fore recently due to FC Barcelona. Several Barca players are of course part of the Spanish Euro 2012 squad.
The way that Barcelona plays has been influential and is seen by some as a new standard of soccer. It has certainly got pundits talking, seduced by the beauty of a possession-oriented, hard pressing and fluid game pattern. The attacking game has earned the Catalan side 14 titles in the last four years.
Surely we are all aware that such domination can only attract challenges. Nothing lasts forever and sooner or later a better system will emerge. Barca’s failure to retain their La Liga and Champions League titles this year, as well as the resignation of Barca manager Pep Guardiola may mark the end of an era. In fact, their defeats this season, most notably to arch-rival Real Madrid and Chelsea, show how opponents now seem better able to adjust to the merits of tiki-taka.
The combination of well organized defense, mental strength to endure heavy pressure, along with quick counterattacking proved to be just the tonic for dealing with Guardiola’s men.
The same questions could be raised in relation to the La Furia Roja armada heading into European battle. Performing superbly in the qualifying stage by winning all group matches, Spain will now face the best teams in Europe and those who are more than eager to end the Spanish domination. The result will be decisive not only for the sake of history but, more importantly, for how soccer tactics and strategies develop over the coming years.
Beautiful football, such as that demonstrated by tiki-taka, has been the dream and obsession of many, but as a consequence propagators of the style have always had to fight other teams committed to a more pragmatic and result-oriented way of playing .
Historically, it has been the stuff of an intense “ideological rivalry” since the era of Johan Cruyff and the Netherlands’ so-called “total football” — which many say is the precursor to the tiki-taka of Barca that we see today — and Italy’s super defensive catenaccio style of the 1970s.
The historic success of English Premier League club Chelsea in the Champions League over the more attractive Barcelona and Bayern Munich has ignited criticism and has even been cited as “unfair”.
One could question whether this success would inspire England to adopt the same approach due to many of their key players being left behind and given the short adaptation period available to work under their newly appointed coach Roy Hodgson.
Looking back to 2004, Greece was ultimately victorious playing very defensive and pragmatic football and whoever takes on teams like Spain will be tempted to resort to this method.
Meanwhile, if not on Spain, lovers of beautiful soccer can pin their hopes on other sides with enough potential and technical proficiency to entertain and win. Germany and the Netherlands are among the top rivals for Spain with their collection of young, talented players and, more importantly, their records of progressing to the last rounds. France also looks promising under manager Laurent Blanc.
Just like in politics, ideas in football are contagious and each struggles to survive and find its own followers. The clash between tiki-taka and a steely pragmatism is the main driver of soccer evolution, which will also mark Euro 2012.
Let’s just hope that advocates of attacking soccer will come up with a new and spectacularly crafted “tiki-taka 2.0” to answer the negative soccer that simply sees most players defending around the penalty box.
As for many of us in Indonesia, the upcoming tournament will revive the classic question about whether our domestic soccer could embrace the same level and quality as European standards.
Above all, beautiful soccer is about process and management, of nurturing and training talents over a long period of time. Stars like Messi, Iniesta or Xavi did not appear overnight.
Evidently, clubs with beautiful soccer traditions like Barcelona, Ajax or Arsenal all have excellent youth systems. Above skills and technique, it is fundamentally about how to imprint a common concept and paradigm on group of young minds and to help them achieve to the best of their true potential.
With a protracted dispute plaguing our national soccer governing body, the recent fatal assaults on supporters and poor management of our competition, apparently Indonesia still needs to wait until it can watch its national team play at good level in World or Asian competition. True, Indonesia today is not a major soccer power even in Southeast Asia.
But during the weekend as I watch kids playing soccer on a street near my house, I know that a country as big as Indonesia will never run out of talent. With a sincere and strong commitment, as well as good management, hopefully someday we will be the proud masters of our own tiki-taka.
The writer, a Master of Science in urban management and development from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, is a regular football writer for Jakarta-based Topskor sports daily.
