Match date: 13 June 2014

There is only so much that one can said about Spain at this point in their history. They’ve been the best international team in the last six years, winning Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, and Euro 2012. They come into this World Cup as having perhaps the best chance of any reigning champion to defend their title, but are far from favourites.

Del Bosque named an expected starting XI, which included Brazilian-born Diego Costa, making his competitive debut for Spain. Iniesta and Silva played in wide areas, but were always likely to drift inside, meaning that the full backs in Jordi Alba and Azpilicueta were tasked with providing width.

Coming into the World Cup, Louis Van Gaal was unsure of his best formation and how to get the most out of his side. For this match, he opted for a 3-5-2 and it worked exceptionally well.

Van Gaal’s Tactics, 3-5-2 v 4-3-3

The Dutchman showed why he’s had such a successful coaching career. His tactics were able table to nullify Spain while exploiting their weaknesses. By setting Netherlands out in a 3-5-2, Van Gaal’s side put on a masterclass of how to play against a modern day 4-3-3. At the beginning of the match, you could see how Netherlands were going to make it difficult to play through the middle by overloading the midfield and forcing Spain to play the ball wide to Alba and Azpilicueta. Below, you can see just that. The first thing to notice is that in his particular screen capture, Martins Indi has followed his man into midfield, which gave Netherlands even more numbers up in midfield and makes it seem like they are playing with a more traditional four at the back rather being in a 3-5-2. Throughout the first half, in particular, the Netherlands centre backs were man-marking, which often saw Indi and De Vrij moving out past the midfielders to follow their man.

Above, you can also see the high line being played by the Netherlands to help squeeze the space in midfield and the pressure on the ball from De Jong. As the match went on, Netherlands maintained a relatively high line and defended in a midblock. The high line was exploited by Spain on numerous occasions in the first half, but it helped squeeze the midfield, which consisted of Nigel de Jong, Jonathan De Guzman, and Wesley Sneijder in the middle, all of whom pressed well in their zones and were willing to get stuck in and commit fouls. While they committed a lot of fouls in the middle, the overload of players forced Spain to play into wide areas, allowing Netherlands to have triggers for pressing and tackling in those areas of the pitch.

Many of those tackles on the right were made by Stefan De Vrij, who was successful in all eight of his attempts. De Vrij and Martins Indi’s willingness and ability to track their men and cover in the wide areas of the pitch allowed Blind and Janmaat to keep Spain’s full backs from receiving the ball in dangerous positions; they allowed them to receive the ball in the middle third, but restricted their space in the final third. Going forward Blind and Janmaat provided good width to spread Spain’s back four, but more on that later.

Spain were able to play through the midfield, however, when they increased their tempo at times and showed their technical superiority. A lot of their best opportunities early on came when David Silva and Iniesta found themselves on the same side of the pitch, just outside the penalty area, allowing them to combine quickly to penetrate. This create a few chances for both to get into the Netherlands penalty area and look for Diego Costa or a midfield runner.

Their combination, deeper in midfield, lead to Spain’s penalty. Iniesta and Silva combined, drawing in De Jong and De Guzman, while Martins Indi tracked Silva, drawing him out of position. This allowed space to open up between the Netherlands back four and the midfield, which Xavi exploited. Vlaar stepped out to Xavi, but before he was able to close the Spaniard down, Costa made a run on the back side of De Vrij and Xavi delivered a perfectly weighted ball to the new Spanish striker.

Spain had other chances to exploit the Netherlands high line. Silva had one opportunity where he was unable to pick out a square ball to Costa and then later, a minute prior to Robin van Persie’s goal, Silva had another chance as he broke the high line, only for Cillessen to tip the ball over. At that point Spain could have been two or three up, but their wastefulness allowed Netherlands to stay in the match.

Netherlands Going Forward

While Van Gaal’s tactics at the back proved effective in the end, again somewhat aided by Spain’s lack of efficient finishing, the Netherlands were able to exploit Spain going forward. With the way the two sides were setup and with the personnel, it was always going to be narrow except for the Netherlands’ wing backs and Spain’s full backs. With Alba and Azpilicueta getting high up the pitch when Spain had sustained pressure in the attacking third, it effectively allowed Robben and van Persie to have a 2v2 against Ramos and Pique, which was exploited later in the match as Spain pushed forward even more.

Spain seemed unable to stop the Netherlands ball circulation through the middle of the pitch, despite being so narrow, and then were far too slow closing down the players in the wide area. One of the best attributes of Spain and Barcelona at the height of their successes was winning the ball back quickly and high up the pitch often. Against Netherlands though, they were outdone by the width from Blind and Janmaat, which stretched their back four and shifted the players, which created the holes that Robben and van Persie were able to exploit. Spain’s defensive movement was all reactionary rather than defining which spaces Netherlands could play into when they had the ball.

Netherlands first and second goal came from the wide areas through Daley Blind. For much of the season, the left wing back has been playing in a defensive midfield role for Ajax after playing the at left back for the last few years, but in the national team setup, he finds himself, at least for now, as a left back. Due to the tactics of the match, he was always going to be able to provide an outlet for his defenders and midfielders and was going to have time to pick up his head and look for the runs of Robben and van Persie. Blind’s passes were almost identical for the first two goals, the second one was a great one touch pass, but they both exploited Spain’s high line and rewarded the direct runs of van Persie and Robben.

Interestingly, despite scoring five goals, Sneijder was relatively uninvolved, but it was the nature of the match. With all of Spain’s possession, it made sense for the Netherlands to play past Sneijder and to play quickly into the forwards to try to exploit the space by Alba and Azpilicueta as well as the 2v2 against Ramos and Pique. Even Sneijder’s assist for Robben’s second goal was from very deep within his own half and was just a quick ball into the space behind Sergio Ramos. Robben was then able to beat Ramos and Casillas, another side of the match that Netherlands were far better in than Spain, the ability to beat a man in 1v1s.

Conclusion

The scoreline is certainly a surprising one considering these two sides met in the final of the last World Cup with Spain winning 1-0. Netherlands looked to be a completely different side to the one that lost 2-0 to France in March of this year. Against Spain, they were quick, efficient, and ruthless when they went forward. Van Gaal’s tactics won the match for the Netherlands as much as Spain have themselves to blame for losing as they pressed the ball poorly, lacked positional rotation and discipline, and were not able to take their chances when they came.

Even if Diego Costa is eligible for Spain’s next match (he may be suspended retroactively for his head movement towards Martins Indi), it will be interesting to see whether or not del Bosque sticks with him or not. He is not the type of striker that Spain have looked at their best with; they need someone that can contribute to the build up play and can play the type of intricate passes that Spain so often look to play and have to play as opponents drop deeper and deeper in their penalty area. Costa should not be the only one dropped, however, as there were others that underperformed for the reigning world champions, with Casillas left embarrassed on more than one occasion.

Despite the scoreline, this does not mean the end of Spain. They usually react well to disappointment and criticism under del Bosque and still have a very good chance of finishing second in the group. The Netherlands will feel invigorated by the result, however, and will look to push on against Australia and Chile and it will be interesting to see whether or not Van Gaal sticks with his tactics.