Not that anyone could have quite predicted what happened to Spain last night, I'm still willing and able to hold my hands up and admit how horribly inaccurate my prediction of how that game would go down was. I saw a comfortable Spain victory and like many I watched on as the game unfolded, mesmerised by Holland - particularly Robben - on the break.
One of the reasons why footballing analysis in England is so poor is this fear with getting something wrong. It says everything about our attributes and attitude toward the game itself if we are afraid to express an opinion on something for the sake of being made to look foolish. If it's possible to be right about football all the time, the game isn't quite as magical anymore. The element of surprise - as we saw so spectacularly with Holland last night - is why it's so special.
I'm going to be paying close attention to those who are overly enthusiastic with their criticism of Spain. Far too many are quick to base their entire opinion on ninety minutes of football and as such will be lauding what happened with feint praise for the Dutch. For me the result said more about Van Gaal's team and their intent to cast off this image of a poor side that even I was guilty of painting them as. Spain are just as likely to come again as Holland are to fade away. After all, they did lose the first game in 2010 as well. I'm not quite ready to call for the death of tiki-taka just yet.
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