SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

[steveeeeeeeee]

Tiki Taka should be a João Moutinho wet dream. He preys on teams who believe they can knock the ball around midfield without fear. He buzzes around the midfield prepared for the smallest error, upon which he strikes, intercepts and sets free an attacking player with one majestic touch of the ball.

There aren't many players in the world with the unique skills of Moutinho, in fact I'd say there's nobody like him. This will be the night in which he uses those unique skills to put Tiki Taka to bed for a nice long sleep.

[Edie St Pierre]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Tika taka is football as a nice long sleep isn't it? It reminds me of those long Spanish guitar pieces that sound a bit like nursery rhymes, but go on and on and on, get a bit spooky through repitition, slow down, speed up a tiny bit, but then slow down again, slow down, slow down, speedup, knock it to the far post, score, 1-0, that was knackering, let's go to sleep again.

[dalliance]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Portugal to sit as deep as they did in 2010 and counter attack at pace when they can get out their own half. To be fair, few teams can get the ball from end to end as quickly and accurately as they can, so it might not be a bad tactic.

Will Portugal wheel out the staffeta once more, firstly Postiga and then Almeida in a relay designed to lull Spain into a true sense of security.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Catenaccio


Tiki-Taka


Same shit on the same time line

[steveeeeeeeee]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Moutinho didn't go to SA2010, dalliance - they won't play that game again. Moutinho is the player that provides probably the quickest and most accurate transitional play in world football - press Spain constantly when they have possession, win the ball, score a goal.

Almeida should start, probably the most useless striker at the Euro. I've always got time for Postiga, he gets goals and he gives it his all, Almeida is just sh*te.

[dalliance]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Well, I think that the very reason Moutinho is quite good at facilitating quick transition for a team is the reason that sitting very deep and playing on the break is a sensible and viable tactic from Portugal that I think they will follow. Like Germany they look best as a counter attacking side and Spain is an opponent that encourages this like no other.

Certainly will be interesting to see if they do something different.

I wish I could see what you see in Helder Postiga. I think he's just awful and appearing to be playing with absolutely no confidence from his body language. He is like a Wooden Horse of Portugal, a slow moving thing with a huge turning circle put in up front by the management as a cunning deceit to attract the attention of the opposition.

As other teams gaze at him curiously wondering what he is and what he is there for, then all the materially useful Portuguese players sneak in and try and score.

[Bored Of Education]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

You really like Moutinho, don't you, steveeeee.

I am really looking forward to this one. There can be no losers. Well, obviously the losing team and their supporters but, aside from that. Unless, like I say, there is a all-in Iberian dive-and-gesticulate-fest

[steveeeeeeeee]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Bored of Education wrote: You really like Moutinho, don't you, steveeeee.

He is incredible. The constant conversation I've been involved in over the past week or so is based on a mutual Moutinho love-in that everyone seems to be experiencing in Portugal. Few players unite the country like him. Even the Sporting fans I know are clinging to his ownership, whilst forgetting the disrespectful exit they gave him out of their club. If he'd stop crying like a baby when he's fouled, he'd be perfect.

Regarding Postiga, in the grand scheme of things he's sh*t. You could say Portugal should play Ronaldo up front, but Ronaldo clearly doesn't want to play in that position otherwise he would be. I saw Postiga a lot when he was at Sporting and his main quality is "guts" or garra as they call it in Portuguese. The Portuguese love guts, Paulo Bento really loves guts, Sporting love it so much they have the word painted on their stadium. So when it comes to guts, Postiga's got them by the bucket-load and he beats any other contender by a mile. The only other contender would be Nuno Gomes, who is actually quite a tough player physically, but he'd rather do a photo-shoot for a new Barbie doll than play football. No guts.

Nelson Oliveira is easily the most talented Portuguese striker at the moment and he has guts. But he's made just a couple of starting appearances for Benfica this season and about 9 or so substitute appearances. In an A Bola poll today, they asked who the public wanted to start up front, it was 68% in favour of Oliveira and 32% for Hugo Almeida. Everyone knows Almeida is sh*t, far more sh*tter than Postiga because at least Postiga does score goals. But Oliveira is raw and even in his impressive sub appearances in this tournament, he's turning up in deep positions that make you scratch your head and wonder.

Oliveira to come on in the second half is the best bet, Almeida to start is the grim reality.

[jason voorhees]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

You can find me in an Ironbound pub
bottle full of Sagres, mama
I got the cataplena cause it's good as takin' drugs
I'm into singin "Portugal Allez" I ain't into makin love (On Wednesday night at least, with my wife being a Mardileña and all)
So come give me a hug if you into Spain getting drubbed

[scratchmonkey]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

My head says Portugal. Arbeloa's a tidy little RB; however, Spain has been relying almost completely on their FBs for width, so their options here are to have Arbeloa pinned back the entire game and no width up that side (and no guarantee that it will work in any case) or Ronaldo running free at a backline that includes Sergio Ramos (no guesses as to how many times Ronaldo has beaten him during training and has every single one committed to memory). If Del Bosque wanted to make a cojones move, he'd start Navas and fight fire with fire.

Oddly, my heart also says Portugal. I never really got the 'homeland' going on before, for some reason the verve of this team and the desire to root for the underdog is getting to me. Bisavó, I'm carrying your flag for this one.

[Satchmo Distel]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

When Portugal break could they not also in turn be exposed on the counter? Spain are masters at getting the ball back.

[scratchmonkey]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

In theory, sure, except with the 4-6-0 there aren't players getting into the advanced positions that make a good counter. There's a lot of getting the ball just past midfield and then passing it sideways until the defense is able to reset.

The few times that they've been able to counter effectively has been when Torres was playing and resulted in him blowing a number of chances against Italy.

[steveeeeeeeee]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

satchmo76 wrote: When Portugal break could they not also in turn be exposed on the counter? Spain are masters at getting the ball back.

There are usually at least 3 players left deep even if Portugal are attacking: Miguel Veloso, Pepe and Bruno Alves. Veloso still has his flaws but he's been really disciplined throughout the tournament and is demonstrating a huge increase in maturity since his move to Italy.

[Hofzinser]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Even the Sporting fans I know are clinging to his ownership, whilst forgetting the disrespectful exit they gave him out of their club.

Um, did Moutinho not basically demand that they sell him to Porto, after he'd been nurtured for 10 years at Sporting (who were happy to give him a move but wanted more time to hear other offers)? What did they do that was more disrespectful than the way Moutinho treated them?

[Magik]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Who was last Portugal's decent number "9"? Fernando Gomes? Some will say Nuno Gomes but he was not very good, wasn't he?

[Hofzinser]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Pauleta's their all time top scorer, isn't he? He'd surely have a case.

[Magik]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

oh yeah how could i forget Pauleta! He scored three past us in 2002....

[steveeeeeeeee]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Hofzinser wrote:

Even the Sporting fans I know are clinging to his ownership, whilst forgetting the disrespectful exit they gave him out of their club.

Um, did Moutinho not basically demand that they sell him to Porto, after he'd been nurtured for 10 years at Sporting (who were happy to give him a move but wanted more time to hear other offers)? What did they do that was more disrespectful than the way Moutinho treated them?

Moutinho left during Costinha's crazy spell as director of football and José Eduardo Bettencourt's utterly impulsive and short spell as club preseident. No player had served Sporting like Moutinho had in recent memory and there were no notions in the press that Moutinho wanted to move to Porto.

Costinha got paranoid for little to no reason, started to claim Moutinho was a bad influence in the dressing room. Most likely Moutinho had started calling Costinha out for the incredibly sh*t work he was doing as director of football, overseeing the signing of players like Simana Pongolle and getting into fights with regular players.

Then the impulsive Bettencourt made the famous "Rotten Apple" quote - "He's a rotten apple and we can't carry on with rotten apples, so we get rid of them immediately to stop them contaminating our squad. We've had zero proposals for zero euros for this player since 2008". FC Porto president Pinto da Costa, a huge fan of Moutinho's for a long time, bought him the same day for €11m - Sporting retain a percentage, I think it's 20%.

Costinha would be fired that summer, Bettencourt would walk out a few months later, both of whom were utter disasters for the club. Moutinho would move to Porto, win two league titles, a Europa League and a Portuguese Cup. He and AVB were the only additions to the team which had flopped so badly the season before.

The idiot President was just trying to prove a misguided point, that "Sportinguismo" is bigger than any player. But Moutinho was the epitome of "Sportinguismo", hard working, dedicated, free from temptation, keen to improve himself. He'd have left eventually, but the way they threw him away was incredibly disrespectful and an insult to the time he'd given to the club.

[Moonlight Shadow]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Costinha went to to prove what an incompetent tool he is at my club. He is also gone now...

[Hofzinser]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Fair enough, I'll shut up now...

[steveeeeeeeee]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Yeah, he was at Sporting for about 5 or 6 months and I'd say they still haven't truly recovered from the damage he caused. The fact that they also had a spectacularly awful president at the same time only made it worse.

Moutinho epitomised everything Sporting represent and he'd brought them glory in several cup competitions. He's not a player you throw away or insult, but I get the impressions Costinha was doing a hell of a lot sh*t stirring in the background. In the end, it was a great move for Moutinho, the making of him because it toughened him up a lot as a person and a player.

[Steve GNR]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Apparently Pepe has only committed one foul so far in the competition. That's pretty impressive.

[Gangster Octopus]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

So, it seems that most people want both sides to lose. I'm just hoping for an entertaining game.

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

Tikitaka is a funny old one isn’t it? Here’s my (probably) batshit theory on it.

There’s no doubt it’s a completely new way of playing the game but as I’ve watched Barcelona and Spain over the last few seasons it’s dawned on me that tikitaka is variation on a theme- catennacio. Guardiola and del Bosque have channeled the spirit of Rappan, Rocco and Herrera at the same time inverting it. Up the other end of the pitch.

Whilst the original catennacio was about preventing goals through an iron clad defence, tikitaka is about preventing goals through the use of an iron clad midfield/forward line. Look at the last World Cup. The much derided (for their finals antics) Holland actually scored 5 more goals on the way to the final than the saintly “attacking” Spain (12-7). Spain ground out four 1-0 victories in an inverted 1960’s Inter Milan stylee- from last 16 up to and including the final.

Tikitaka is not about scoring more goals than the opposition in a free flowing cavalier attacking revolution, it’s about not letting them in- by passing the opposition to death in their own half.

Tikitaka is catenaccio by any other name. It's all about nullifying the opposition through the prevention of goals and whilst both take immense skill and talent to play, both at the same time are dull and spirit crushing to watch. I for one am rooting for Portugal.

[jason voorhees]

SF1 - Moutinho destroys Tiki Taka

It's possession soccer. Personally, high school teams in New Jersey were doing it since the 70s.