Perhaps a refusal to accept fault is a required trait for champions...
"The pitch did not benefit us much," moaned Sergio Ramos after Spain's unexpected draw with Italy. "Lamentable," said Cesc Fabregas of Gdansk turf they considered too long and too dry for their carousel passing football.
It was the same in Durban two years ago when Spain lost to Switzerland in their opening World Cup tie. The fault wasn't with the favourites' strategy or application, but with a pitch tournament organisers had failed to manicure in their favour.
Eventually that argument was put more subtly. If Fifa wanted beautiful football from Africa's first World Cup they'd better start cutting the grass shorter and dousing it with water a hour or so before kick-off. The Spanish got their wish.
With Polish organisers unimpressed by Spain's insistence that pitches be set up in their favour, the holders might want to consider other reasons for Sunday's failure. Italy's tactic of congesting the centre of the park and placing Daniele De Rossi's distribution skills at the heart of their defence caused real problems. "We let them have more of the ball, but it was inevitable," said De Rossi. "You cannot aim to beat them in ball possession, but you can beat them in other ways."
Spain's decision to forgo a conventional central striker added useless beauty to their distribution "It's not good to keep on passing between Xavi, [Andres] Iniesta and [Cesc] Fabregas without creating a big threat on [Gianluigi] Buffon's goal," commented the watching Jose Mourinho. "Yes, there was a big effort from the Spanish midfielders, but without a striker the team was sterile."
