Italian Style: This style is characterised by slow careful build-up play and especially in Italy, ruthless close marking and defending. Patience is the name of the game and Italian teams are often accused of negative defensive minded play. Many passes are exchanged between the defence and midfield with forwards coming deep as well to maintain possession. The aim is to make the opposition work hard and draw defensive players out to make an opening. The Italians do tend to rely on their N° 10 or playmaker being the difference, Roberto Baggio in the 1994 World Cup being the classical example. The recent Euro 2000 competition showed their ruthless defensive qualities as well as the ability to strike the all important winning goal.

AC Milan v Sampdoria 1992: Goal - Albertini This schematic representation helps demonstrate the difference between Italian slow build-up attacks and Norwegian direct long ball attacks. Overall 11 actions take place before the ball is finally played into the penalty area and the goal is scored. We can see how the play is constantly moved forwards, backwards and sideways around the pitch.

South American Style: The great Brazilian 1970 and Argentinean 1978 World Cup teams are excellent examples of how this style can win competitions. If we take the example of Brazilian players, their game is all about combining short accurate passes, artistic tricks, great technique and the ability to explode unexpectedly into life through a penetrative run or pass. However, before the 1994 World Cup, Brazil had not won the competition since 1970. One of the reasons suggested being the inability to place individual skills within an organised team structure. Without a good structure and discipline, teams will always struggle in the long run. However, over the last few years, more and more Brazilians have been playing in Europe, keeping their individual flair but asked to play within such a system. This may have led to them being more structured in their approach to play. The World Cup winning team of 1994 was quite defensive and well structured but allowing freedom to flair players such as Romario and Bebeto to cause havoc and score goals.

African Style: The African style may be described as being unorthodox in the way players use their bodies, seemingly always off-balance. Teams use high physical standards combined with good rhythm to create chances. However, wayward technique and nerve in scoring or difficult defensive situations does sometimes leave them at a disadvantage. Although in the last decade, many African players have successfully moved into European club football where the experience gained has rubbed off on the national teams.

An excellent example of African football was the Cameroon team from the 1990 World Cup led by the forward Roger Milla. In the 2nd round match against England, spectacular penetrative attacking play leading to 2 goals scored was marred by clumsy challenges (producing penalties and red cards) leading to 3 goals conceded. However, nobody will ever forget the enthusiasm and interest this team brought to the tournament and how it opened the way for other African teams.

For a summary of statistical soccer match analysis studies on the effectiveness of different playing styles, click here !