World Cup 2014 Preview, Predictions: Can Spain Defend Its Crown?

Is Spain capable of defending its World Cup crown and performing a historic feat of four straight international trophies?

While they are certainly favorites heading into the tournament next season, their recent play has shown otherwise. Their recent friendly matches with Equatorial Guinea and South Africa were frustrating, to say the least. Spain should have defeated both sides with relative ease but failed. The match against Guinea saw the champs struggle to find their way into the penalty area to create chances. The Guineans clogged the midfield with players and forced Spain to the outside consistently. South Africa actually managed to shut down Spain completely and even defeated them 1-0. In this case, the strategy was the same, but South Africa also took advantage of its speed.

Speed has seemingly hurt Spain recently. Speed was the difference between Brazil and Spain in the Confederations Cup final in July. Speed was the difference between Spain and Chile in a recent friendly; while that game ended 2-2, there is no doubt that the Chileans came away with the favorable result in that game.

While Barcelona has managed to shift its style of play to be more direct and quicker, Spain continues to engage in a passive-aggressive approach that leans toward the former more than the latter. Coach Vicente Del Bosque felt that the loss against South Africa was a fair result, but he never acknowledged that his team was simply not playing the quick tempo that gave it the two Euro Championships and the World Cup. Spain has yet to address the striker problem and until Diego Costa is ready, it does not seem that Del Bosque has a solution.

Spain's title defense will really come down to adopting a more direct approach. As the African sides showed, Spain can be destroyed by simply playing a disciplined and patient waiting game. The Chileans and Brazilians also proved that Spain under duress is largely ineffective. Spain needs to play with a quicker pace to win another title.

Can Spain defend its title? Should the team adopt a more direct approach or continue with its slow and methodical passing game?