Group A is set to unfold in a high-octane fashion as the dark horses of FIFA Women’s World Cup, Spain look to claim their first scalp against the pacey South African team. Although neither of the two are dubbed to challenge for the title, their quality should not be underestimated. Spain are currently ranked as the 13th team and South Africa as 49th but at the biggest international stage of them all, that usually makes little difference.
This tactical analysis preview will analyse both teams and give you their tactics, weaknesses and ways in which they can exploit the opposition.
Squads
There is good news for both of the teams as neither seemingly have any major absences and will be able to deploy their gala lineups. The one to watch for Spain is definitely their forward and set-piece expert, Jennifer Hermoso while South Africa will largely rely on the skill and talent of Janine van Wyk, the experienced central defender.
This becomes even more interesting since the two are likely to constantly clash against each other in direct duels during the game, which is a timely metaphor for the whole game: can Hermoso lead Spains relentless attacks to victory or will van Wyk manage to keep her defence at the level needed against such a dangerous opponent?
Spain will look to establish dominance
At this point, we can already talk about a certain philosophy flowing through all editions of Spain’s national teams. Just like the men’s team, their “better halves” have a highly distinct, fast-paced, direct, technical and creative approach to their games. Following their traditional style, Spain will definitely look to dominate possession and build all the way from the back and through a series of short but accurate and penetrative passes.
During their build-up play, we can almost certainly expect Spain to push high up the pitch and position their players in different zones, enabling them to progress the ball with a multitude of open channels at the same time. Notice in the image below how their players are occupying different spaces and how each player offers multiple different passing options once she receives the ball.
Indeed, this is Spain’s most dominant trait and one they utilise to the fullest in order to string successful and piercing passes. But since they mostly face teams that have inferior possession of the ball, a defensive mid-to-low-block is often used to somewhat dampen their efforts.
In those cases, they will look to stretch the opposition and put players in-between the lines in order to find gaps in the compact blocks. When that yields unpreferable results, Spain tend to combat numbers within the opposition’s side with numbers of their own.
That oft
