Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
Greeces 2004 championship is way back and did not end up being the way the game is played, quite the opposite really.
Right after that in 2006 Italy won the championship being one of the only major countries playing with more than one striker, the other being Germany who finished third. France finished second with a team no-one would call defense oriented.
Then of course from 2008 to 2012 Spain won two Euro championships and the world cup with possibly the most dominant ball control game football has ever seen.
In 2014 Germany won, again lead by their dominant midfield / ball control.
...and frankly calling Portugals style "anti-football" is just silly. And this is coming from someone who would rather not see Ronaldo or Pepé (probably the reigning diving champion in football) ever win anything.
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It didn't change the way that big teams play but IMO it did change the way some of the smaller nations in the World Cup play.
I feel like smaller nations used to come out with much more of an attack minded focus and maybe the game would end up being 3-1 or 3-0 but the smaller nations would play positive football and still try to win.
But once Greece proved you could potentially actually win the title as a smaller country by parking the bus and playing a purely defensive shell I feel like the smaller nations did see that happen and have tried to emulate it to get deeper into tournaments.
Immediately after that 2004 Euro Cup both the 2006 and 2010 World cups had record low Goal Per Game stats.