Introduction
Having each lost their opening fixtures 1-0, both teams were looking for victory in an attempt to calm their nerves and give themselves an opportunity to reach the last 16.
Honduras where playing in only their second World Cup ever, ironically their first being in Spain in 1982. Spain meanwhile have come under immense pressure from their own media about their style of play following the opening defeat to Switzerland.
The current European Champions being criticised for their fluent movement and attractive flowing football seems hard to comprehend, but when the World Cup is at stake and expectation high, even the silky skills of ‘La Roja’ can be questioned!
Spain Starting Line Up:
Spain AttackingSpain played with a 4-3-3 formation but not in the conventional variations one might think off.
They had a flat back four. The midfield consisted of one deep sitting player, Sergio Busquets (16) a player who played slightly ahead of him, Xabi Alonso (14) and another who played further up, Xavi (8).
In advanced areas they had a player who gave them some width on the right, Jesus Navas (22) and a central striker, Fernando Torres (9) and the number (7) David Villa, who played very wide on the left touchline.
The Spanish built up all their attacks from the back and then through the midfield three who had an excellent understanding of how to interchange and find space to receive and then play forward passes.
The Spanish passing was quick and incisive. They were prepared to either attack centrally were Torres (9) would play in the spaces between the back four looking to exploit the holes or when the Honduran defence became compact to prevent this they would then switch the ball wide to Villa (7), who gave the Honduran full backs real problems in 1v1 situations.
When on the rare occasions that Honduras had an attack Spain also had the ability to a counter attack very effectively once possession was regained particularly through the movement and pace of Torres and Villa.
Spain was guilty of over indulgence in front of goal and may come to rue the number of goal scoring opportunities they failed to take on the night against less able opposition.
Spain Second Half finishing line up:
Spain: DefendingOn the night Spain did not have a great deal of defending to do because they dominated possession.
Their biggest challenge defensively was to defend the counter attack once possession was lost; they always had one deep lying midfield player to protect the back four whenever they attacked.
The defence would become compact with the full backs recovering very quickly from advanced areas to achieve this. The Spanish back four all looked quick and agile and capable of dealing with 1v1 situations.
Spain’s strategy was to press early and they would do this once possession was lost. The central striker Torres would often instigate this by pressing a centre back and forcing him in one direction with the rest of the team responding by pressing in unison.
Honduras starting line up:
Honduras: AttackingHonduras attacked in a 4-1-3-2 formation, adapting from their defensive strategy on gaining possession of the ball by pushing Walter Martinez(15) into the front line.
This initially left space for the right back Sergio Mendoza(23) to also move ahead into midfield. This became the backbone to their attacking style with play developed through the sitting midfield player Wilson Palacios(8).
It was also to be their undoing as Spain’s David Villa did not track back and eventually this limited Mendoza’s opportunities to link up with the midfield. Support from midfield was slow for the strikers but then the ball was not held up well by David Suazo(11) whose 36 years showed in this game.
Limited in ideas they mainly opted to play into Martinez attacking down the right with pace if they had enough time on the ball to deliver a quality pass.
In the second half Honduras reverted to a 4-2-3-1 formation, not to attack but to be stronger in defence. This reduced their attacking opportunities even more and with Spain being so dominant, Honduras had very limited time with the ball but when they did there was so little movement ahead of the ball they were too often caught in possession.
Honduras Second Half Line Up:
Honduras: DefendingAt the start of the game a clear strategy emerged to their defensive play. Suazo (11) would force the Spanish centre backs to play wide and then as a team they would press very quickly in their own half.
This ploy seemed to work for a while with Palacios (8) screening Torres and allowing the two centre backs to keep their shape at the back. It was their adventure in attack which was however to be their downfall. Spain frequently exploited the free space occupied by Villa who did not track back with Martinez (15) when Honduras attacked.
With Spain moving the ball quickly Honduras did not get tight enough to the opposition and had no idea how to prevent the Spanish attacks. They neither stemmed the supply of passes from Alonso who hit diagonals to Villa, nor did they assist their right back in his 1v1 challenge against the same player.
As Suazo tired, Spain attacked centrally which made Palacios (8) lose his sitting midfield role as he was often drawn into closing down free Spanish midfielders.
Spain then exploited the spaces left by centre backs Osman Chavez (2) and Maynor Figueroa (3) as they chased Torres who showed either short for the ball or played in the space now vacated by the right back.
In an attempt to stem the flow of Spanish attacks they made an alteration to their formation at half time, deploying two sitting midfielders to assist the full backs who effectively went man to man against the Spanish wide players. They looked much more solid but were then hit on the counter attack by Spain and effectively the game was over.
Sadly for Honduras they were void of ideas in attack with little or no movement, were technically inefficient on the ball, lacked fitness and were weak in the challenge.
Against the might of Spain these shortcomings were exposed way too easily and by the time they managed to devise a way to try to deal with the problems caused, Spain were in free flow and unstoppable.
