D Touches Match Observation...A Fluke win but I doe care...Go Connection

[Filho]

Teams winning while maintaining only a small amount of possesion is USUALLY the exception rather than the rule.... any doubters to that observation?

In any given game a team can adopt a counter attacking posture and may have less possession.  Doesn't mean they less likely to win.

e.g.  teams playing us just sitting back waiting for us to make a major mistake.
If a teams strength is an explosive attack they don't necessarily need to have majority possession.

wha yuh say?

Thanks my friend,nothing is considered the norm anymore.......... 

Anything can happen in a one-off, but most times attacking teams with greater possession will win. Look at the majority of leagues and their Champions

1) EPL - Chelsea, ManU, Arsenal - these recent champs outplay most other teams in the table. Even if you argue that Arsenal is a more 'attacking team' than Chelsea for example, that is just relative to each other. Chelsea dominate possession against most teams in the EPL
2) La Liga - Barca, Real Madrid, Valencia - Barca and Real are historically entertaining attacking teams. Valencia...not so much. But they don't win La Liga nearly as much as the other 2
3) Holland - Ajax, PSV - total football
4) Germany - Bayern Munich - far greater attacking prowess than most of the table (not so much this year). Somehow, still very dull and boring to watch  .
5) France - Lyon is a very attacking attractive side
6) Portugal - Porto, Benfica, Sporting all play attractive attacking football in Portugal.
7) Italy - Juve, AC Milan - AC Milan has fallen short of Juve for a couple of years, but this is Italy - catanaccio rules as often as not. But the unstoppable Milan of the 90s...attack, attack, attack

Look at WC Winners

2006 - Italy wins doing what they do best. One for the catenaccio boys
2002 - Brazil wins playing some of the loosest, attacking ball since 1986. Start Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo and Juninho together in the early stages
1998 - France hammer Brazil by coming out of their defensive shell and sending wave after wave of attacks forward. Even defensive midfielder Pettit gets forward to score.
1994 - Brazil wins. THo' not the slickest Brazil ever...not one team played attacking football against them except Holland. The Brazilians domiante possession in every game they play and desrevedly get past Italy in a PK shootout
1990 - Germany beats the worst, most defensive minded Argentina in history
1986 - Argentina beats Germany with a free flowing team led by Diego, but it was typically Argentine with the requisite hard men in the back and in the midfield to protect the genuis

I could go on. last years Champion's League was between the two most attack minded teams in Europe.
I think if a counterattacking team like Italy meets a total football team like Holland, where bothe teams have players of high technical ability and tactical discipline, it is really difficult to separate the two. But it seems to me that except for the odd win here and there (Greece in Euro 2004) you hardly ever see the winner of major leagues or tournaments not be a balanced team that aims to maximize possession.

[kounty]

1986 - Argentina beats Germany with a free flowing team led by Diego, but it was typically Argentine with the requisite hard men in the back and in the midfield to protect the genuis
[\quote]

yuh have mih real smiling here...at the time I was a staunch platini/Tigana man, but this Argentina team will go down in my mind as the favourite of all time.

[Ponnoxx]

All I have to say Greece....Euros 2004 was a perfect example of what it means to use defensive football and win

[Filho]

All I have to say Greece....Euros 2004 was a perfect example of what it means to use defensive football and win

Ponnoxx..wha' happen? Yuh doh read first or what...That exact point and exact example was made in my post earlier. Noone says that teams that play defense first do not win. They just do not win as often as teams that try to maximize possession. Just look at the examples I gave and try to refute that. Of course, there must be a balance. A so called defensive team with no attack wins nothing. Greece scored from the run of play in regular time in every game they played in Euro 2004. And a potent attacking team with a weak defensive system can't win either - Brazil 1982 anyone?
You can't make a point using one or two far fetched examples when for every one there are five or six that show the opposite. We are not talking about what is possible we are talking about what is probable and history shows that you are more likely to win if you try to deny the other team possession..ie. what we loosely call attacking football

[JDB]

All I have to say Greece....Euros 2004 was a perfect example of what it means to use defensive football and win

And where are they now?

Lightning will only strike the same place so many times. Greece were fortunate that their brand worked for them in 2004 but as subsequent results show you can only go so far playing defend and hit on the break from minute one of every game.

Ultimately the most successful teams, long term, are those that possess the ball.