How Rodri WON The World Cup For Spain! — Transcript

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1. 0:00Spain won their second World Cup
2. 0:01yesterday, and they did it in a way that
3. 0:03somewhat mirrored their first World Cup,
4. 0:06more so than perhaps you would first
5. 0:09imagine. But Spain are the best team in
6. 0:10the world for two main reasons. One,
7. 0:13they have a very strong national
8. 0:15identity of how they want to play and
9. 0:17play it extremely well. And two, they
10. 0:20got the best player in the world when
11. 0:21he's fit. And it's not Lamine Yamal. So,
12. 0:24let's begin with Spain's national
13. 0:26identity. And we all know what Spain's
14. 0:28national identity if you've been
15. 0:29watching football for more than a couple
16. 0:31of years is. It's to control the game
17. 0:34via a possession-based approach. We're
18. 0:36going to have the ball, and if we have
19. 0:38the ball, you can't score. And we very
20. 0:41much saw that in this World Cup, of
21. 0:43course, because Spain only conceded one
22. 0:46goal during this entire World Cup in
23. 0:48their 2-1 win over Belgium, right? And
24. 0:52Spain are known, as they have been, for
25. 0:54winning like they did in the World Cup,
26. 0:561-0. That is a very Spanish way of
27. 0:59winning by having pretty much all of the
28. 1:00ball and then just scoring towards the
29. 1:03end of the game. They also did it
30. 1:04against Portugal in this game just here.
31. 1:07The thing is, Spain actually started off
32. 1:08with a bit of a disappointing
33. 1:10performance against Cape Verde, not
34. 1:12winning, then winning their two other
35. 1:13group games, and then never looking
36. 1:15back. Weirdly enough though, that very
37. 1:17much mirrors what they did in 2010,
38. 1:19because in 2010, they also started off
39. 1:22very poorly with a loss to Switzerland
40. 1:24just here. They then beat Honduras, they
41. 1:25then beat Chile, and then they won every
42. 1:28single game from then on in all of the
43. 1:30knockouts, 1-0. And so, in the two times
44. 1:33that Spain have won the World Cup,
45. 1:35they've conceded two and then one goal.
46. 1:39That is quite impressive. The thing I
47. 1:41find particularly impressive though, is
48. 1:43the way that Spain have managed to
49. 1:45bounce back quite quickly from really
50. 1:47what I thought was kind of an
51. 1:49earth-shattering,
52. 1:50completely monumental
53. 1:52dismantling of how Spain play and what I
54. 1:56would call the death of tiki-taka. And
55. 1:59this happened in the 2018 World Cup,
56. 2:01where most club teams had moved on from
57. 2:03that kind of style by this point, but
58. 2:06the Spain national team was still kind
59. 2:08of sticking to it. And you might
60. 2:09remember this game, the 1-1 draw with
61. 2:11Russia, where they eventually lost on
62. 2:13penalties. And in this game, Spain
63. 2:16completed 1,093
64. 2:20passes.
65. 2:21And they had 80% of the possession. And
66. 2:24you might remember that game or recall
67. 2:26it in the back of your mind of Spain
68. 2:28just essentially passing it around quite
69. 2:31a lot, not really being able to do too
70. 2:34much with the ball, and eventually
71. 2:35losing to a Russia side who, let's be
72. 2:37real, they should have been a lot better
73. 2:38than. And that really probably should
74. 2:40have been the death of tiki-taka. And to
75. 2:43an extent, it was, because Spain, of
76. 2:45course, were forced to change, and we
77. 2:46saw that somewhat in the game yesterday
78. 2:48as well. You know, they were trying to
79. 2:50score, right? They weren't just passing
80. 2:52for passing's sake, but they still very
81. 2:54much have kept the idea of, "If we have
82. 2:56the ball and you don't, you are not a
83. 2:58threat to our goal." And we see that
84. 3:01again yesterday. They had 853 passes
85. 3:04yesterday, if you're wondering. And they
86. 3:07had 65% of the ball, and they were on
87. 3:09top for, you know, almost all of the
88. 3:11game. And the thing for me is, there is
89. 3:13one man who really allows Spain to do
90. 3:17what they are doing. Maybe back in 2010,
91. 3:19it was, you know, the Xavis, the
92. 3:20Iniesta, the Busquets. Well, now there
93. 3:22is one man really at the heart of what
94. 3:25Spain are doing. And the fact that he
95. 3:27had such a good tournament, I think, is
96. 3:29the reason why Spain won the tournament.
97. 3:31I'm, of course, talking about the player
98. 3:33of the tournament, Rodri. And of course,
99. 3:36we all know Rodri when he's on form is
100. 3:38very good. He won a Ballon d'Or. We all
101. 3:40know how good he can be. But I think
102. 3:42when you see him play like he did at
103. 3:44this World Cup, where he seems fully
104. 3:46fit,
105. 3:47he is the best player in the world,
106. 3:49because he completely controls games.
107. 3:52Now, if you just take a look at some of
108. 3:53the things that Rodri did yesterday,
109. 3:55somehow the player ratings on this only
110. 3:57gave him a 7.4 and gave him a Malo 7.8.
111. 3:59Don't know what game they were
112. 4:01particularly watching, to be honest,
113. 4:02because Rodri I thought was absolutely
114. 4:04immense and just looking at some of the
115. 4:06things that he did, he had, you know,
116. 4:08almost the most touches in the game, 116
117. 4:11touches. His pass success rate here was
118. 4:15106 total passes, 101 of those were
119. 4:18accurate. Again, the six uh second most
120. 4:21in the game. He had the most tackles in
121. 4:23the game of anyone.
122. 4:25He just completely dictated the game. He
123. 4:27did not let Argentina really have a kick
124. 4:30and as we saw, they didn't even have a
125. 4:32shot on target in the game and he to me
126. 4:35was a large reason for that. Because we
127. 4:37all know that Rodri on the ball, he can
128. 4:40pass the ball about. He can control the
129. 4:42game. I think we're all aware of that
130. 4:43when he's in possession, but I think
131. 4:45particularly when he was out of
132. 4:47possession for this Spanish team, he
133. 4:50really just came alive even more and
134. 4:52I've got a couple examples for you here
135. 4:54of him, you know, this is like a time in
136. 4:56the game, 13 minutes in, Lisandro
137. 4:57Martinez is going to clear this ball.
138. 4:59Who's there to get it? It's Rodri. He
139. 5:01gets the ball back, Spain keep the ball.
140. 5:03Here's another example, McAllister is
141. 5:05running through, the ball gets poked
142. 5:07out. Who Who's going to get it back? Oh,
143. 5:09it's Rodri, he's in the perfect place to
144. 5:11get it back. This moment when Martinez
145. 5:13clears the ball, who's there to mop up
146. 5:15instantly and get it back? Oh, it's
147. 5:16Rodri and also plays a first time pass
148. 5:19that unfortunately I think this would
149. 5:21have been given offside, but
150. 5:23Ayaz Abel is right there with a chance.
151. 5:24Another example here, the ball is played
152. 5:26out. It looks like a player who you
153. 5:28think might be quicker than him, Alvarez
154. 5:30is going to get it. Uh no, Rodri is
155. 5:32there, gets in front of it, wins a foul,
156. 5:34Spain get the ball back. And it's not
157. 5:36even that as well. This is an example of
158. 5:38him commanding his team. For instance,
159. 5:39you're going to see in a second him and
160. 5:41Fabian Ruiz, this ball is going to come
161. 5:43back here and they're going to try and
162. 5:45push up just here and what is going to
163. 5:47happen Fabian Ruiz he's kind of lacking
164. 5:49a bit he's slacking he's a bit tired he
165. 5:51doesn't want to go running up here Rodri
166. 5:53instantly is telling him bro you got to
167. 5:55get up here okay we got to be up here
168. 5:58together you know you can't be hugging
169. 6:00your Defenders this close whilst I'm up
170. 6:02here that what happens is Fabian Ruiz
171. 6:04actually goes up he then leaves this
172. 6:06space in behind cuz again he's kind of
173. 6:07slacking he's blowing a little bit here
174. 6:09so we get Messi on the ball and this was
175. 6:10kind of the one time
176. 6:12in the first half where Messi was able
177. 6:14to get the ball in a bit of space you
178. 6:17know in the attacking third and just
179. 6:19watch what Rodri does here again because
180. 6:21if you watch him Messi's going to play
181. 6:23this ball in just here and then he's
182. 6:24going to continue this run so Messi's
183. 6:26played the ball he's now going to
184. 6:27continue his run he's looking dangerous
185. 6:29and Rodri is not having any of it okay
186. 6:32Rodri is not going to let Messi get away
187. 6:34from him he is going to trail him all of
188. 6:37the way and it's going to end up in this
189. 6:38situation here where we get this
190. 6:40crossing and eventually gets blocked out
191. 6:42but you see that Rodri has dropped all
192. 6:43the way back in here with his defensive
193. 6:45line he's making sure there's no way
194. 6:48that you know somehow someone's going to
195. 6:50sneak in here and get a goal and those
196. 6:52were just some examples from the first
197. 6:54half I mean this went throughout pretty
198. 6:56much all of the time that Rodri was on
199. 6:58the field he dominated the second half
200. 6:59as well I am just going to quickly show
201. 7:01you that in this moment here we get a
202. 7:03good example of of him you know beating
203. 7:06out Enzo Fernández at this in this
204. 7:08instant this is you know in the 81st
205. 7:10minute and he was just doing this
206. 7:11throughout the entire game this is
207. 7:12actually the moment that Enzo Fernández
208. 7:14got his yellow card his first yellow
209. 7:15card was because he lost another
210. 7:18challenge to Rodri and you know
211. 7:20eventually you know waved at the ref and
212. 7:22and got booked for descent in this
213. 7:24moment so I mean the impact that Rodri
214. 7:26had on the game was even more monumental
215. 7:28than you might have thought because he
216. 7:30also managed to get Enzo Fernández
217. 7:31booked by essentially just bodying him
218. 7:33and honestly this whole game anyway just
219. 7:35felt like a matter of time before Spain
220. 7:38eventually scored right even from the
221. 7:40very first parts of the game we're all
222. 7:42just waiting for Spain to score so that
223. 7:44basically the game could kind of begin
224. 7:47because Argentina were clearly just
225. 7:48digging in and wanting to play at that,
226. 7:50but Spain in these recent years have
227. 7:52kind of mastered this art form. If they
228. 7:55need to just completely control the game
229. 7:57and pass it around, they will, but they
230. 8:00have added, I think, you know, since
231. 8:02kind of the down days of maybe, you
232. 8:04know, the 2018 World Cup, they have
233. 8:06added a little bit more incision, you
234. 8:08know, a little bit more precision in
235. 8:10terms of their attacking and finding
236. 8:12space and finding that kind of incisive
237. 8:14path a pass to create a chance that
238. 8:16maybe they were lacking for, you know, a
239. 8:18brief while after kind of, you know,
240. 8:20that generational team of the early
241. 8:222010s, you know, late 2000s kind of
242. 8:25retired. They were left a little bit
243. 8:27unsure of what they wanted to be and
244. 8:29they have found it in spades, right?
245. 8:31Because now you do have a Nico Williams
246. 8:33or L who can, you know, create a lot of
247. 8:35chances and take chances and score goals
248. 8:38for you, but you still have your
249. 8:39cultural identity of controlling the
250. 8:42game through a possession-based approach
251. 8:44and Rodri to me is the reason that works
252. 8:47and without him,
253. 8:48I don't think it works nearly as well
254. 8:50because without him, they don't have
255. 8:52that player who off the ball
256. 8:54can still dominate games, right? And
257. 8:57still always be in the right position
258. 8:58and always win the ball back. Yes,
259. 9:01Fabian Ruiz, Pedri, you know, they might
260. 9:02be good on the ball still and they, you
261. 9:04know, have other talents as well,
262. 9:06but are they going to be as good as
263. 9:07Rodri in terms of enforcing the game?
264. 9:10No.