After a fantastically attacking Euro 2008, football fans everywhere could have been forgiven for thinking that attacking football was back in business. After all, Spain’s win at the UEFA tournament was followed by an imperious Barcelona side (in 2008-09) that won the treble scoring well over a 100 goals in all competitions.

Then we saw an English Premier League season which was the highest-scoring in years, with an exciting three-team title race. But it appears the biggest indicator of the latest tactical trend was Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan, who won the treble in 09/10, with a re-working of the catenaccio style of Helenio Herrara’s Grande Inter.

The Portuguese tactician has perhaps brought back defence into fashion but we cannot really blame the self-styled ‘Special One’ for the lack of attacking intent in this tournament. The opening round of fixtures have seen only Argentina, South Korea, Germany, Chile show some form of style and pace. The pressure of not losing the opening game was huge and seems to have caused a dearth of goals.

In the 2002 World Cup, 161 goals were scored (2.52/game), while in Germany, four years later, there were only 147 goals scored (2.3/game). This time, however, the goal average for the games so far has been every low, with only 28 goals scored so far in 17 games (1.65/game).

Another reason is possibly the widely lambasted Jabulani ball, manufactured by Adidas. A lack of practise with the ball has caused many sides to struggle, except for Germany, whose domestic league used the ball all of last season. England manager Fabio Capello weighed in with the criticism:

“When you shoot you can see it is difficult. When you play on the floor it’s good but when you play the ball longer it’s more difficult. It is good when you play short passes but when you try to switch the ball it is really difficult to understand the trajectory. The big problem is that sometimes this ball is impossible to control. For me, it is the worst ball I’ve ever seen.”

The conservative tactics adopted by most sides means that any out-ball to relieve the defence of offensive pressure is generally a long ball. Consequently, the pass tends to be inaccurate and hopeful due to inexperience and the strange movement the ball is said to take by many players.

Teams who play with shorter passes, like Spain, dominated possession and moved the ball well, but not into dangerous areas. Surprisingly the pre-tournament favourites lost due to a well-organised Swiss side and a lack of luck. Perhaps such an upset is exactly what this World Cup needed to stop it from becoming the worst international tournament in recent memory.