Styles of Play in International Futbol

[flux82]

I'm pretty familiar with the styles of play of the United States and many of CONCACAF teams, since those are the ones I see the most. However, I am not as astute to the various styles of other regions of the world. So I want to start a thread where fans who are more familiar with the international game discuss styles from around the world; it can one nation's style or the style prevalant in an entire region. Here are a couple of examples of a question I would ask:

What is the style of play with the German National Team?
or
What is the style of play that prevails with teams from Scandanavia, or say Southeast Asia?

I hope to get a lot of responses to this, because I myself want to learn more about the international game than I do now.

[CyphaPSU]

I've seen a couple of people in England say that the style of play in the U.S. is attractive because attacking is more direct than it is in England/Europe. I'm not sure how true that is, but that's what I've read before.

[Kaushik]

I'm pretty familiar with the styles of play of the United States and many of CONCACAF teams, since those are the ones I see the most. However, I am not as astute to the various styles of other regions of the world. So I want to start a thread where fans who are more familiar with the international game discuss styles from around the world; it can one nation's style or the style prevalant in an entire region. Here are a couple of examples of a question I would ask:

What is the style of play with the German National Team?
or
What is the style of play that prevails with teams from Scandanavia, or say Southeast Asia?

I hope to get a lot of responses to this, because I myself want to learn more about the international game than I do now.


Style of play is not constant for a particular team. It largely depends on the coach (manager) and the quality of players in the team. However, there are other determining factors as well. For example, Inter Milan played ultra-defensive football in the 2002-2003 season and in the early part of last season. However, with the addition of Dejan Stankovic and, especially, Adriano, they changed their strategy and started playing more attacking football. In the past, England used to rely on playing mostly long balls, the so called 'kick and run' football. With the introduction of several good foreign coaches in the English Premier League and their National Team, they started playing with shorter passes. Portugal, before the generation of good wingers, would have attacked mostly straight down the middle, relying less on wingplay. Brazil, the team that plays the most entertaining brand of football, played defensively in the 1974 World Cup because of lack of quality attacking players (the ones present were out of form and older).

In addition to the type of players in the team and the mentality of the coach, expectation from the supporters and the media also determine the style of play. If Brazil or Real Madrid started playing defensively, the coach and his players would be lynched! Moreover, the situation the team is in, determines the style of play. If one needs a draw, you would not expect the team to go into an all-out attack mode. It must, however, be stated that, European teams will not play like Brazil, because of the difference in skill level, technique and the method with which success was achieved in the past. Also, South East Asians will not play the way Western Europeans do.

Within a certain constraint, the greater the variability in a team's style of play, the more are the chances of success. A team employing the same strategy or style in every game has less chances of success. However, to create variability in style, one needs versatile players. The foundation of such versatility was probably laid down by Johan Cryuff's Holland in the 70s.

[billyireland]

Ireland play a mixed game, we defend a good bit (mainly because during You-Know-Who's absence, we lacked a true ball winner), but when we have the ball we tend to be a good team to watch with Damien Duff's dribbling, Andy Reid's passing, a couple of pretty creative young-to-youngish guys who can produce some great moments, and Robbie Keane's overall flair & creativity. If we had a top drawer finiosher (there are a few prospects) and if Duff or Reid could be as effective on the right, we would be a lot more interesting, mind you. That infamous longball, "Put 'Em Under Presha" crap went out the window when Mick McCarthy took over in '96.