Is Beautiful Football Working For Spain?

The Spanish national team has the greatest collection of skill players in the world.

From top to bottom they are just fantastically skilled and have technical ability that is incredibly rare.

But for years they have watched the team with all this talent fail to reach expectations in major tournaments.

And here we go again.

Coming out of the gate the Spanish looked incredible against Russia blitzing up and down the field and torching the up-and-coming Russians 4-1.

But then it took a moment of brilliance in their game against Sweden for Spain to avoid a very disappointing tie.

Spain is known for their incredible passing and ball control and against Sweden they showed this in spades with a demanding control in possession.

But for much of the game the possession and beautiful passing lead to nothing.  And it has become clear that the "ticki-tacka" style of Spain does not work.

Sure it is amazing to watch and shows the skill of the players, it does not lead to goals and seems to frustrate all the Spanish players.

During Euro 2008, Spain has scored six goals and not one of them has come out of the half-field style of ball control that Spain employed for most of the game against Sweden.

When Spain is at their best is when the field is wide open and the players are running at defenders. This team has such skill that when they get out in the open their superior skill is on display and they score goals.

Against Russia, Spain scored three counter attack goals and if they are to make any further strides in this tournament Aragones is going to have to let the team open up and utilize their incredible school.