2010 FIFA World Cup: The Jose Mourinho Effect

As the second round of the group stage in the FIFA 2010 World Cup comes to a close there is a long shadow being cast over the tournament by one Jose' Mourinho.

Mourinho's Inter Milan side engineered a stunning treble this season past, winning the Serie A, the Italian Cup and their first UEFA Champions League title since the 1960s.  Along the way they registered a surprising victory over FC Barcelona who, if not the best, are certainly the most fancied club side in the world.

How did they do it?  How did they contain an arguably superior attacking team led by a player who is arguably the best in the world over two legs? 

By sitting back, letting the opposition possess and defending like mad.

Inter Milan put on a clinical display of how a team need not dominate possession to win a match.  With a backline made up of some of the strongest defenders in world football including the likes of Lucio and Walter Samuel, they made it difficult to impossible for their opponents to score.

Add to that one of the most effective counterattacks in the business in the form of midfielder, Wesley Sneijder and striker, Diego Milito, and you have a very effective formula for success.

Judging by the results of this summer's World Cup thus far, it would seem as if coaches around the world were watching Inter closely.  Many, it would seem have taken careful notes of Mourinho's tactics.

North Korea played an ultra-defensive game that seemed to utterly confound Brazil for more than 45 minutes.  The Brazilians tried every trick in the book to get a goal before finally breaking through and netting themselves a 2-0 lead.  But then North Korea launched their own lightning counterattack to pull one back and show the world they are nobody's doormat.

Serbia employed similar ultra-defensive tactics to register a 1-0 victory over the superior German team.  Granted the Germans were down a man for much of the match.

Even the Netherlands, who practically invented pass and possession football, have had a very difficult time netting goals in this tournament.  Denmark and Japan have both sat back like Mourinho's Inter, while the Netherlands have passed themselves to near exhaustion.  They've won their games, but they've hardly been allowed to play the kind of free-flowing total football their fans enjoy.

But it is perhaps Switzerland's surprise defeat of Spain that is the best example of the Mourinho effect on the World Cup.  The unfancied Swiss sat back for the better part of an hour and let the Spanish enjoy their very Barcelona-like pass and possession game.  The Spaniards passed themselves silly, growing ever more frustrated with the Swiss doggedness.

And then, in a flash, the Swiss scored on one of the scrappiest counterattacks in World Cup history, leaving Gerard Pique bleeding on the pitch and the ball firmly in the back of the Spanish net.

Jose' Mourinho has done a very good job of demonstrating that a team need not possess the ball to win the match.  By working hard off the ball, defending doggedly and counterattacking with speed, inferior teams can achieve results against technically superior opposition.

Unfortunately when game stifling, ultra-defensive tactics like these are employed effectively, there are often two losers.  One obviously, is the team who falls victim to the tactics.  The other, however, may be the fans that tune in to watch an open, entertaining game of football.

Not to knock Mourinho, who after all is very good at what he does, but one has hopes that as the tournament progresses games will open up more as teams are forced to come out of their shells and take more risks.