A general impression is that Vicente del Bosque has presided over the funeral of Tiki-Taka football -a brand that has conquered everything to do so in football. Even great Maradona has seen the end of the art that Pele once wistfully thought he would love to be a part of if he still played the game. The arguments brought forward in favour of their conclusion, critics have cited the humiliating defeat of Barcelona to Bayern Munich in the last year's European Champions Trophy semi-final. Again, under Pep Guardiola, the same Bayern has suffered a similar defeat to Real Madrid in this year's Champion's trophy at the same stage. Additionally, they put forward the argument that Spain's defeat in the same Maracana Stadium in the Confederations Cup last year exposed that the days for Tiki-Taka was over.
One cannot deny the grain of truth inherent in the team's weak performance but it is more a weakness of the team rather than the weakness of the art or brand or style. True, Spain has adopted the Barcelona style and captured the world under a mesmerising spell. But why people forget that Real Madrid has never adopted the style. When del Bosque coached Real Madrid, the present Dutch coach Van Gall was the Barcelona boss. In a head-to-head meeting it was Bosque-supervised Real Madrid that had the better of Barcelona.
So the anachronism of the argument is evident. Over the past six years, Barcelona's or for that matter Spain's Tiki-Taka prevailed because it showed its strength. Now that it has lost steam is not because coaches around the world have anatomised Barcelona's game correctly and they now know the moves or passes are predictable but because the core of the team has aged and tired during this time. New blood has not been infused, except one or two young players and they were not considered for the World Cup. Players like Puyol have already made exit from the team. Xavi Hernandez and Iniesta are no longer the agile, reflexive and accurate selves of their youth. Their superb reflexes have gone. Or, how else can one explain the wrong passes or their failure to keep the ball to their feet? The team is made up of the majority players from Barcelona and Real Madrid. It is a generation of players which took the game to a new height. Now their physical capacity has declined and they cannot cope with the demanding manoeuvrability and skill.
The very art of Tiki-Taka has not lost anything but players have. There lies the answer to the demise of the art. Whether the age-group camp has produced a comparable army of proponents of the style will really decide the future of Tiki-Taka or even of Spain. This generation has given what they could do when they were at the peak of their forms. Now they will leave the centre stage for their successors, if any. Why blame the art, blame the coach and others who have overestimated the ability of players? In sports and games, players cannot continue to shine beyond a certain age. Even the most gifted ones have to take leave when in other careers people just improve their skill at an advanced age.
The fluent game with maximum possession of the ball cannot be outdated. Players know how to make space for them in so coordinated a manner that opponents even have no clue to the movement. To bring about perfection in this style, physical fitness and skill with superb reflex matter. If a well-knit team of 11 players can do justice to this fluent style, there is no reason why the art will be a thing of the past.
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