THE midfield is football's king. And Spain again showed why on a night when they used patience, control and emphasis on the collective to breeze past a team of stars filled with flair and individual creativity. For over a month in the US, Mexico and Canada, France had been the team to beat thanks to their attacking strengths. But there was always this fear of whether their midfield would be overrun when facing a technically superior side. France had a very clear blueprint; most of their goals in this tournament had come on the transition and the space in behind. So what would happen if they couldn't carry that danger?
It came to pass in Dallas on Tuesday afternoon. Even when the game was taking shape, it had become pretty apparent that Spain's midfield three — Rodri, Fabian Ruiz and Dani Olmo — would exert their influence over France's two of Aurelien Tchouameni and Adrien Rabiot. They passed amongst themselves, denying France the oxygen they desperately craved on the transition. It also didn't help that Lamine Yamal won his mini-battle against Lucas Digne so early in the piece; going for a clearance inside the box, the former could only kick Yamal to concede a penalty. It was Yamal who had bought the penalty with his speed of thought.
If the penalty was the moment the game visibly changed, what affected France's already disadvantageous midfield combination was Rabiot picking up a yellow after a clear foul on Olmo on the edge of the box inside the first 10 minutes. Against the Spanish midfield passing carousel, you are asking for trouble. With Rabiot reduced to chasing shadows, the midfield triumvirate started bending the game to their will. Think of it as an updated version of the 2010 side: possession-oriented football, but in 1.25x. More fizz to their passing, some verticality and use of full-backs in attacking zones.
In football, the tendency is to describe the goal. But it's not the same thing when the reigning European champions score one, for the move may have started over a minute ago. A quiet pass at the back. A touch by the goalkeeper. A simple five-yard pass between the left-back and the centre-back. It's what happened a full minute before Pedro Porro's second goal. Marc Cucurella, Aymeric Laporte, Unai Simon and Rodri had all touched the ball in the sequence.
For the viewer, it may have looked like passing for the sake of passing, but it's what they do. They have this natural inclination to pass and move, to paint vivid triangles and other geometrical shapes on the green canvas. Thanks to this early sequence, whatever structure Didier Deschamps had had collapsed within itself. Now, Spain didn't even have to smuggle the ball through the backdoor. They took it through the front door because they were that good, coupled with Les Bleus losing their organisation.
After the game, Mbappe would be fairly critical of their tactics. "We were three against two in midfield and against Spain, that's hard," he said. "Fabian and Rodri had plenty of time to play. There was a lack of communication on the press. I think we should have done man-to-man press and forced them to run with us."
They could have used Manu Kone’s engine over Bradley Barcola’s attacking threat down the left. But when Kone was ultimately used as a sub in the second half, it was in place of Rabiot. Kone, though, was reduced to the status of spectator in the minutes before Spain's second goal. After bringing it in via the front door, one Alex Baena shot from outside the box had rebounded back to him. An attempted Rodri cross came back to him. The lock, though, was about to be picked.
Rodri picked it up and laid off to Ruiz, who passed it to Porro. Suddenly, the possibilities were opening up. The right-back preferred to use Olmo as a wall. The Barcelona man knew exactly what to do, and his first touch was a pass around the defender. The weight on it was inch-perfect. It was so delicious that when Porro met that pass inside the French box, he was the only outfielder in the French box. His side-foot finish was emphatic.
2-0 and game over. Over a minute, almost 50 touches and 19 passes between the time Cucurella gathered the loose ball and passed it to Laporte. In all this time, the 11 France players between them had two touches of the ball — a block and a headed clearance. On Fox, Thierry Henry broke this down. "I have experienced when playing for Barcelona," the player-turned-pundit said. "You need to understand that the ball moves and everybody needs to stay in their positions. Trust your teammates and let the ball fly… sounds simple, right? It doesn't matter who comes in (in that Spanish team). They know what they need to do since the age of nine."
When the rest of Europe fell in love with the idea of physicality and pace, Spain doubled down on the production of technically gifted midfielders. It wasn't any coincidence that their first great generation of the 21st century had Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Sergio Busquets, Cesc Fabregas, David Silva, Juan Mata, Xabi Alonso and Santi Cazorla. Most of them played a hand in them winning two Euros and the first World Cup in 2010.
Now, with Rodri as leader, another great Spanish midfield generation — Ruiz, Olmo, Pedri, Gavi and Martin Zubimendi among others — stand on the edge of greatness. Immortality.
