In football, Playing the world champions and winning them would provide a psychological succour to any team. Football is unlike boxing where a single challenge and victory transfers the belt of championship to the victorious challenger. All the same we have had such jokes as," they are now the world champions" as was the case in 2002 when Senegal beat France. That was the reaction of the then Senegalese president. Yesterday such reactions re echoed when England "hammered Spain" 1-0.
What a "hammer" :!: :!: :!: :!: . Nothing would have been so special about it since it was only a friendly game. Only the joy of players and fans would have mattered but Spain are the world champions and parade a solid and formidable squad comprising players who have won most of the trophies in football, including three 1st team goalkeepers.
Now England is pushing quite hard to place themselves "among the nations of the world" in football and a draw against Spain would have bee consolatory enough. But now victory came their way. This victory came for a number of reasons and which can be summed as ;
THE PHILOSOPHY:
This philosophy of home guard tactical approach is translated in football as defence before attack. We know there exists a common dictum that "the best system of defence is attack" .Conversely ,"the best system of attack is defence". Translating the later in modern football tells us that a formidable team deserves respect in the way it is approached and attacked. Defence then becomes a word very enough for the wise. Defence as the best system of attack translates into,

THE FORMATION;
In deciding to take on a formidable team, more so world champions like Spain carrying such an awe sum composition, the rear and the midfield demand more attention than all other departments. These cry for fortification, stabilization and sustainability in the whole course of the game. Knowing that, we saw England yesterday adopt the now 4-5-1 formation in their game against Spain. Many analysts had questioned why a home team should adopt such a 'conservative approach' to a match being played before her own fans.
In 4-5-1 you must be ready to absorb enough pressure and you depend more on occasional counters as your attacking style. In most cases, if victory will come it will be by set pieces, and or corner kicks. Stabilization and sustainability of that formation is the;

THE DISCIPLINE;
Discipline is maintaining the formation as it is planned and playing the tactics as briefed. Of course the opponent will do very much to break the formation and obtain victory but stability of the line must tally in conformity with the mentality of those charged to man it. If any were to leave the plan in an attempt to play the first dictum" attack is best defence" then the line will collapse and the objective defeated. When the discipline is maintained, stabilized and sustained, the equations converges at ,

THE RESULT;
The result is that the objective will be realised. In many times, this philosophy and formation are put in place, shame is removed and victory ensured. Many many times, we get a slim victor like in yesterdays' 1-0 against Spain. Whatever is the scoreline, victory is victory. :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: