In any normal game between two decent teams, you wouldn't really notice how many times your team lost possession, and it would probably even itself out with regards to the other team's loss of possession. But because the Spanish are so good at retaining the ball for very long periods, it exaggerates how bad your team is at doing the same thing.
I'm not sure I'd agree with you regarding a lack of energy by the Germans. I wonder if you mean that they were standing off the Spaniards a lot and just watching them. If it is, it is because they wanted to keep their shape and discipline. If they went in gung-ho to try and win the ball, the Spanish would rip them apart with their passing and movement.
Watch the final on Sunday. The Dutch will play the exact same way as the Germans, and try to contain the Spanish whilst hitting them on the break.
Agree (almost) completely.
The Germans were sitting back and letting the Spanish come to them, relying on breaking up the attack and hitting back with fast breaks, long passes, exploiting space where the Spaniards had come forward.
There's something similar in basketball where teams concentrate on defence and then try to score on fast breaks when the court is relatively empty.
Except it just didn't happen for them. The Spaniards flooded the midfield and held the ball, partly by exceptional close passing and dribbling skills and being extraordinarily good at taking the ball under challenge and holding it (something that Pedro, the replacement for Torres, did exceptionally well) partly by being incredibly patient -- not trying to split the defence with long passes or hoofing it over with a speculative cross into the penalty area. No doubt, they were too conservative -- that is, they could have turned their superiority in possession into more goals -- but it was a real "technical" display.
The Germans, in fact, are an incredibly fit and energetic side -- very young and well capable of undertaking the sprints you need to play on the break. But what they couldn't do was establish any kind of build-up. It seemed that they didn't get out of their own half of the field for 5 or 6 minutes on end in the second half.
Contrast that with the Germans' previous displays where they'd profited from letting teams come at them and then attacked with incredible precision and incisiveness.
My only quarrel with CD is whether the Dutch will play the same way. They aren't a sit back and break fast team -- more like the Spaniards, I'd say (but not as good!)
So I have the Spaniards as heavy favourites on Sunday, provided that they don't freeze up when something goes wrong for them.
