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Spain looks for one last bit of magic

Kevin McCarra

Germany all geared up to cash in with Loew’s expressive style

Vienna: Spain was undergoing a crash course in success on Friday. After gentle training at Austria Wien’s ground there were even milder questions, but Xabi Alonso was still nonplussed.

The Liverpool midfielder was asked to make a comparison between the current line-up and the indefatigable spirit of the Spain team that won the European Championship in 1964. That was 17 years before he was born.

He answered as best he could, with conventional remarks about the morale in the dressing room these days. The squad are coping with a degree of attention that has been unknown to Spain for a couple of generations.

Bookmakers’ favourite

Bookmakers, sceptics by profession, make it marked favourite to beat Germany in the Euro 2008 final. All it takes is one more win to destroy the caricature perceptions that cluster around the side.

Luis Aragonés, for instance, had appeared a coach who was as much of a danger to Spain’s composure as any opponent.

There may have been confusion this week but it is widely thought that he has agreed a two-year deal with Fenerbahce. Results, however, show that this has not distracted his men.

Taking credit

Aragonés takes credit for sending out a side which has played the most refined and modern football at the competition. There is not even a younger adviser whispering bright ideas to him. He would not tolerate any such person for a second. As Aragonés likes to remind his audience, he has a lot of experience.

His numerous enemies cannot ignore the fact that Aragonés’s side has a superior record to Germany in defence and attack during this tournament.

Intimidating fighters

Germany did, it is true, live up to its heritage as intimidating fighters when it found a way to beat Turkey but no one should go on to speak of Teutonic discipline.

Joachim Loew has aimed for a more expressive style and that has been Germany’s salvation. It survives not so much through endurance as by spurts of flair.

Colin Kazim-Richards might have slipped at a key moment but Philipp Lahm’s winner against Turkey was the culmination of a beautifully articulated move.

Even so Spain’s 3-0 win in the semifinal was a cautionary tale for Loew. Aragonés’s team had the expertise to eliminate Russia’s threat before wearing it out with flawless passing.

Spain’s doctor said that David Villa, Euro 2008’s leading scorer, would not recover from a thigh injury but the team made his departure, after 34 minutes, look like a boon.

Cesc Fabregas came on but there was no clutter to the five-man midfield. The effect was to make Spain more fluid and the elusiveness baffled a fatigued Russia.

Different approach

Germany will surely take a very different approach to that line-up, which looked confused and disappointed that it was impossible for it to play as it had previously.

Loew’s team cannot, as Russia did, show a benign acceptance of Spain’s artful patterns. Germany is the bigger side and it is its entitlement, if it chooses, to employ force. The duo of holding midfielders and, for that matter, the well-built Michael Ballack can introduce the abrasiveness that Aragonés’s side was largely spared on Thursday.

For all that, Germany is weak in some respects. Jens Lehmann, against Turkey, appeared bent on highlighting the wisdom of Arsène Wenger in disposing of him as Arsenal goalkeeper.

All that could be said on behalf of the veteran was that anyone would be on edge if he had no more to guard him than the centre-half duo of Per Mertesacker and Christoph Metzelder.

Spain, it is true, may conceivably fold. If the contemporary Germany line-up does not cow it, the legend of the German team just might. This is a nation with three World Cups and three European Championships to its name. The last task of Euro 2008 for Spain is to be obstreperous and iconoclastic. Aragonés can give it a few tips. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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