2014fwc_tsg_report_15082014_neutral

62TrendsTRENDSAttacking footballThe 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil confirmedsome, if not most, of the trends that hadalready been observed a year before at theFIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013. Thecompetition was characterised by the top-classattacking football on display from practicallyall 32 participating teams. With a total of171 goals, Brazil 2014 equalled the recordgoal tally of France ‘98, while the few gameswhich ended goalless were mostly of excellentquality, entertaining and attractive to watch.The trend is for teams to play positively anddo everything to win a game rather thanmerely “not lose”. Pushing up the field toscore was considered more important thanplaying for safety. The result was attackingand enjoyable football throughout the wholetournament. This is a tendency and philosophythat is very positive and promising for thefuture development of football worldwide.Power, pace, skill and composure were keyfeatures of play at the 2014 FIFA World CupBrazil. Speed, technical skill and mobility, aswell as short passing and a strong team ethicto play as an ambitious collective unit were keyfactors for success. The tempo of the game wasimpressive – Brazil 2014 was one of, if not thefastest World Cups ever played. The standardof physical fitness and the commitment of theplayers were very high. In addition to beingskilful, mobile and fast, players have to bestrong all-round athletes to meet the demandsof competitions at this level.Counter-attacking was crucial in thetournament although the physical and highintensitybrand of combination football ofrecent years is still prominent.The magic momentTransition is the “magic moment” in agame and a key factor in modern football.Its execution can often decide whether ateam wins or loses a game. There are variousmethods for doing this efficiently – however,the method chosen always depends on theplayers that a coach has at his disposal and thetactical route of the team. The most commonapproaches were to have a fast player runningwith the ball into the opponent’s defensivearea, to play two or three passes forwardquickly or, to a lesser extent, to send longballs towards the front players behind theopposition defence.Particularly in the early stages of thecompetition, there were numerous goalsscored through fast counter-attacks following