Champions League drama has given international teams tough act to follow

A spirit of adventure swept through this season’s Champions League, serving up a record number of goals and almost non-stop drama when the top teams collided.

It was club soccer at its most thrilling. Fans might never have had it so good.

So can the World Cup come close to matching it?

History suggests we shouldn’t get our hopes up.

“National teams often lag behind the clubs, and it’s understandable why,” said Jonathan Wilson, author of Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics.

“There’s a tendency to keep things pretty simple at the international level,” said Wilson.

“I think there will be a lot of teams with eight men behind the ball and just seeing what happens. It could be pretty unedifying.”

This viewpoint stems from the simple notion that international coaches don’t get as much time with their players as their club counterparts, and that it’s easier for the weaker nations to organize a compact defense instead of a fluid attack.

There are other factors in play, too. The best coaches are often found in the club game because of the financial riches on offer. And there’s often an in-built conservatism at major tournaments.

Carlos Alberto Parreira, Brazil’s World Cup-winning coach from 1994, is now a member of FIFA’s technical study group, and he predicted an approach that will see teams “defend with as many players as possible” and play on the counterattack.

“Very compact teams, with lots of players behind the ball, closing down space and playing at pace on the attack,” Parreira said.

FIFA, of course, is hoping for free-flowing soccer and plenty of goals in Russia, following on from a World Cup in Brazil in 2014 that the governing body’s panel of coaching experts said saw teams “play positively and do everything to win a game rather than merely not lose”.

There were 171 goals in that tournament at an average of 2.67 per game, tying the record set in France in 1998. In 2002, ’06 and ’10, the average did not get above 2.52.

In this season’s Champions League there were 401 goals at an average of 3.2 per game rising to 3.6 per game in the knockout stage. It was the highest total since the tournament’s rebrand in 1992, with only the 1975-76 European Cup delivering more.

Dutch great Marco van Basten, FIFA’s chief technical development officer, thinks soccer has been played more positively since Barcelona’s recent success using the approach first implemented at the club by Johan Cruyff in the 1990s and previously by Cruyff’s Dutch coach Rinus Michels with his “Total Football” philosophy in the mid1970s.

“As a consequence of the sporting successes Barcelona gained with that playing style, many coaches like their teams to play attacking football,” Van Basten said.

“For fans this is definitely more spectacular. I think it is very positive that everyone appreciates this attractive style of play, but in the end results count as well.”

The most common formations this summer will be 4-23-1 and the 4-3-3 used by Liverpool and Real Madrid on their runs to the Champions League final.

However, the three-man defense has made a comeback of sorts this year, with England, Argentina and Belgium among those set to adopt it in Russia.

Most coaches will play with one out-and-out striker and will want to dominate midfield. Having a pressing game is the vogue tournament favorite Brazil has opted, with Spain, Germany and England expected to follow suit.

“No team will win the World Cup without pressing,” Wilson said. “But I think there will be a far greater tendency to sit deep and try to absorb pressure.”