Santi Cazorla is a marvelous soccer player in the prime ofhis career. Whether you take an aesthetic approach to the game or try to counteffectiveness on a slide rule, he has topped the bill in the English PremierLeague since moving to Arsenal this summer. Yet take him home and Cazorlaslides back to being third in line on the Spanish national team.
He accepts it. Though he can play on the right or left sidewith equal skill, and though Arsenal has given him licence to be the team’sstrategist from central midfield, he has grown up in Spain in the shadows ofhis own role model Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez. Such riches, interchangeability and so muchtalent. Cazorla, though, would not be a reserve in most other nations. EvenBrazil, the five-time world champion, is looking for a pass-master. That is why Brazil coach Mano Menezesrecalled Kaka. His return demonstrateshow much Brazil need a controlling midfielder. And Cazorla’s side-lining, alongwith the play of Cesc Fabregas, shows how many qualities Spain has inabundance.
Menezes acknowledged as much this week when he admitted “I’mnot trying to copy Spain. The ball control they’ve acquired is amazing. They’vegot it all.” Got it all, and in Cazorla’s case, it might almost be a case oftoo much. This is a little man, standing 1.68 meters, or 5-foot-6, built in themold of Iniesta, Xavi and so many more of the current generation. Their styleof play, called tika-taka, is tailored to their strengths.
Some critics, myopic folks, called them boring during theEuro 2012, when they retained the European championship in July. We should beso bored! When Arsenal lost Fabregas the summer before last when he went hometo Barcelona, there was a struggle within the London team to recreate themovement that its coach, the Frenchman Arsene Wenger, craves. Wenger wentshopping 12 months later and paid around 18 million pounds for Cazorla. Twoforeigners arrived in the English league, they were unknown quantities in theleague until Wenger decided to put them together and to trust their skills. Itis often said that Wenger is a teacher; a better word is a liberator. He doesnot tell Cazorla where to pass, and he cannot tell Podolski when to run. But inthe words of Podolski, an experienced international player with more than 100appearances for Germany, “I like to play with Santi. I am looking for him andhe is looking for me.” It is in the mind’s eye and it comes together throughthe instinct of a coach able to envision what they might create together. InCazorla’s case, it may latent, but the talent was always there. Spain’s styledid not start with the Euro 2008 title; it was schooled by a coach, nowretired, Jose Ignacio Saez. Saez is a father figure of tika-taka. He coachedSpain at youth levels for a decade, and his pupils included Iniesta andCazorla.
