Posted by Stephen Kuzner

By Stephen Kuzner - WFD Fan Correspondent



Switzerland's defeat of Spain gave us our first World Cup shocker. The Swiss played not to lose and ended-up winning. del Bosque's comment that the Swiss win was an "excessive prize ... considering the football they displayed" may be unmerited, but may not necessarily be inaccurate because as well as the Swiss executed their plan to perfection, the Spanish were a half step behind in executing their own plan.



So far, we can call this the "2010 José Mourinho World Cup". Success breeds copy-cats. Mourinho's Intermilan was good enough to beat the Barcelona with a well organized defensive counter-attacking style. And like Intermilan, the Swiss beat Barcelona, being that Spain started six Barcelona players (Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets, Villa, Pique, and Puyol) and brought on a seventh in Pedro, with a well organized defensive counter-attacking style.



Ottmar Hitzfeld wanted two compact lines behind their strikers, to not lose too much energy fighting for the ball, and to focus on their defense and wait for the counter attack. They stuck to this plan and made their own luck. When you score against Gerard Pique and Iker Casillas, arguably the world's best center-back and goalie, via a mad scramble with players tumbling and tossing on the ground, a little luck is involved. To be fair, we'll call it well-earned luck.



The reality of the situation though is that Spain was a half-step or inches away from running away with this one. I stopped taking notes on the near misses at one point. Villa was just short of connecting on a lot of chances. Without Torres most of the game, Villa was out of sync. Iniesta was menacing, but not venomous. Navas brought a lot of energy to the right wing. The 67th through 69th minutes brought a number of chances but no goals. Torres looked not himself and had a few heavy touches.



So even if Spain had chances, despite an unfit Torres, is there still something wrong in the Spanish camp? Xavi flailed his arms in disgust a number of times at his teammates for not making passes. And, things aren't going right if Gerard Pique is coming forward into the box throughout the game and he's producing some of your best opportunities.



Spain moved from a 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 in the second half. Why not use the 4-1-3-2 that won the Euro's? A lone striker may not be the best option when you are playing a possession game versus a team that throws ten behind the ball or uses back five hoping for a counter-attack. Zabi Alonso or Busquets could fill the role vacated by Marcos Senna. Until Torres is fully fit, Pedro could blend up front with Villa.



Still, at the end of the day, the 24th ranked team in the world beat the 2nd ranked team in the world. Perhaps we should not read too much into the Spanish slip-up. 8% of teams that have lost their 1st Game have advanced past the group phase, including 1990's Argentina that lost to Cameroon in their first game and eventually advanced to the final. Spain with all that talent should be fine, right?



Nevertheless, all this makes you wonder. If with a little luck, Switzerland can beat Spain playing an organized defensive counter-attacking brand of football, how can anyone stop Brazil if they do the same thing?