Despite never coming close to engineering a cohesive team performance, Didier Deschamps possesses the World Cup trophy for the second time. Individual talent, shining through at both ends of the pitch, dragged France to glory. Croatia, who executed their gameplan to near-perfection, can only reflect on what might have been. Continue reading
Little of the laudatory coverage hailing Roberto Martinez’s apparent tactical victory over Brazil made any sense. Belgium’s haphazard hybrid shape offered up chance after chance to Tite’s wasteful troops on Friday. France, just as defensively sound as Brazil here, simply did not suffer the Selecao‘s incredible misfortune. Finally, therefore, Martinez was made to pay for his hubris-fueled tactical codology. Continue reading
Having allegedly swapped “la garra charrua” for “o jogo bonita“, Oscar Tabarez reverted to type here. Uruguay’s ultra-defensive outlook made for a depressingly dire spectacle from which France, still less than the sum of their star-studded parts, were still fortunate to emerge. Continue reading
Tactics Truck v2.0 