News: Tuesday, June 12, 2012

As sport moves to counter-attacking style, winning no longer looks ...

The main mistake the author makes is to use anomalous data as evidence of a trend but he also contradicts his own argument in his international example.

Using Chelsea as his "perfect example" he cites how Barcelona dominated Chelsea yet lost as evidence that more teams already have or will adopt a defensive style as it is a winning a strategy conveniently forgetting that Barcelona (an attacking team) have been the most successful in Europe over the last 4 years.
Chelsea by contrast finished 6th in the EPL and only with a great deal of fortune did they manage to win the champions league but that is the beauty of soccer, the best team does not always win.
Does he really expect Chelsea to go on to dominate domestically and in Europe with this style?

Using Holland as his international example of how talented attacking teams can be beaten by more organised defensive teams he simply proves this is not a trend but has always existed in football, he even admits as much, "

Although those types of games have always taken place, it seems more prevalent now because more prominent teams are doing it..."​

"Seems more prevalent" might be a reasonable stance but that is at odds with the whole premise of the article which wants us to believe it "Is more prevalent"​

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In truth the most successful teams have always has a blend of attacking philosophy tempered by the need for tactical awareness and sound defence. Occasionally you may get a creative attacking team that is so good they even overcome their tactical and defensive shortcomings and others you may get a very tactically astute and disciplined defensive team that can overcome its lack of creativity attacking shortcomings but in the main it is teams that manage to strike that perfect balance that are the most successful.​

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Finally as evidence that defensive teams winning is not a new trend you only need look back at the records but you will also see that not only do attacking teams win more but also that truly defensive teams that win tend to win one tournament or trophy before returning to obscurity - think Greece.​

The one exception maybe some of the Italian teams domestic and International - though who would argue they are not technically gifted or creative?​

The current Italian team looks very well balanced in this respect.​

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Rapids sign Moor to contract extension
ColoradoRapids.com

That's now Cummings, Larentowicz, and Moor that have been re-signed to multi-year deals this season. Mullan was signed to a multi-year deal in the offseason.