Main Trends of the World Cup-2018 – Sports Mail.Ru

"STANDARDS" – OUR ALL

Just numbers: 73 goals out of 169 (43%) were scored after the standard positions, 22 of them – from the penalty spot. This is the highest figure in the history of world championships. Four years ago in Brazil, on the "standards", 48 goals were scored on 171 (28%) and the previous record belonged to the tournament in France in 1998, when the national teams were marked with 62 balls.

Only two teams – Senegal and Peru scored after the "standards" ever. The absolute record of the championship was the British, of which 40 were hit out of a total of 88 (45%) after the penalty and the corner, and that is how the nine heads of the "Three Lions" came from 12 . Fan-tas-tic!

England, Uruguay, Spain, Sweden, Colombia, Australia, Morocco, Iceland, Panama, Poland, Iran, Senegal), at least one third of all their strikes were inflicted with "standards", a number of 39, other teams are approaching this mark. And the Sunday final once again highlighted the trend of modern football: two goals were scored after free kick tests, one more – from the penalty spot.

Why are the numbers so impressive? First, there is nowhere to move away from the VAR factor, which has increased the number of recorded violations. 29 penalties for a championship – this is also a record of all times and all peoples. Secondly, we talk about the specifics of the tournament for teams that, unlike clubs, do not have a lot of time to debug combinatorial football to perfection. It is much easier and faster to build a defense and give time to simpler attack elements.

The dominance is nothing different

The second most striking aspect of the World Cup was the failures of many teams preaching offensive football and seeking to suppress rivals by a positional offensive. The top ten in terms of average ball possession, according to WyScout, are Germany (67.5), Argentina (64.6), Spain (64.2), the US Saudi Arabia (58.6), Croatia (55.6), Brazil. (55), Morocco (54.7), Japan (54.6), Mexico (53.9) and Switzerland (53.3).

Germany, Saudi Arabia and Morocco fly away after the group stage. Argentina and Spain made their way to the playoffs in with difficulty, but they have already left the race in 1/8 finals. And only Croatia of these ten can be called a really successful team, an exception to the rule. The winner of the world champion team of France took possession of the 18th ball out of 32.

The numbers on the possession do not always characteristically characterize the style of the teams, because one can miss a match after which the opponent gives you ball, and the percentage increases artificially. However, the general trend is still evident. Suffice it to say that Russia and Sweden took 30th and 31st places at the end of the group stage, but that did not stop them from reaching the quarterfinals.

If there are a lot of brilliant teams at club level then in the teams for the reasons mentioned above, the defense prevails over the attack, and the cold calculation – on the courage. You want to win – saturate the center, always leave behind an obadik, ask not to risk the extreme defenders with connections, do not overdo the pressure, especially if you do not have the time to work and you defend and defend even the central striker

FLEXIBLE COMMANDS 19659002] This trend gently follows the previous one. Flexibility means the ability of the teams to change from match to match, depending on their own condition, strength and characteristics of the opponent, combine position and counterattack styles, succeed in the match. one of them. But during the tournament in Russia, almost all the teams followed the original path and did not depart, even if the situation required it, and could not combine different styles.

Let's give some examples

the desire to play combinatorial football with a lot of short transfers across the center is extremely risky because of a low clbad of performers. However, Pizzi did not give up the experience, he did not want to simplify the game – and in the first game he got 0: 5 from Russia

Mexico seems to have prepared all year for the first game against Germany. She managed a quick defense exit in the attack after the interceptions, reached almost perfection in this area – and tore the champions still acting on the fast counterattacks. But in the next meetings, with Korea and Sweden, had to act first, as the rivals politely gave the ball. It was then and it turned out that with flexibility and positional football, Mexicans have big problems. If the Asians beat one way or the other, the Swedes burned 0: 3 without no chance and miraculously finished in the playoffs

be yourself, but have not noticed how his football has turned into a huge amount of sterile equipment, not leading to an aggravation of attacks. This led the Spaniards to collapse. Russia, Denmark and Sweden in every game had little possession of the ball, relied on the strength of the counter-attacks and did not give up their style even when they encountered a comparable rival in clbad or even underneath

. finalists – France and Croatia. "Three-color" showed that they can play as positional football (which, however, they get a little worse – we could see it in the group stage), and easily drop the ball and watch coldly the rare chances of "standards" and counter-attacks (which led to success in the decisive match).

THE SYSTEM WINS SUPERSTAR

If you built your team around a football player, giving too much power to that – a failure is imminent. Even if this player is the best in the world. The main thing that brings success in modern football is balance. National teams whose coaches have too much faith in their superstars have lost that balance.

Argentine football seemed gray, pale and predictable – and even the Messi genius, which the partners were constantly looking for on the ground and believed that it was sorting, did not save it. Cristiano saved for Portugal the first match with Spain, only it was an abnormal game, when the attacker stole everything. Then the champions of Europe regressed, Ronaldo was mocked, and Fernando Santos did not think to diversify football.

And finally, Brazil. The main puzzle of this championship. His matches without Neimar, while he was being treated for injury, was even more interesting to watch. In Russia, the attacks of the "Pentacampons" have invariably fallen to the left, although Tita has had many excellent developments. Take at least the connections Paulinho and Renata Augusta from the depths in the center of the penalty area to the front center position! But the Brazilians rarely used them, they often transferred the ball to Neimar or Coutinho and waited for miracles from them.

At the current world championships, individual stars have proved powerless against the system. And the best player has been consistently recognized Modric – the most commanding of all top players in this championship.