The tiquitaca is a concept that defines the way La Roja has played in recent years and with which it has impressed everyone. Not surprisingly, it helped him to accumulate three consecutive titles: the 2008 and 2012 Euro Cups and, above all, the 2010 World Cup.
More ominous are the memories of the World Cup held just two years ago in Brazil, in which Vicente del Bosque’s men were eliminated at the first exchange after defeats against the Netherlands and Chile in the first phase of the competition.
But let’s go back to more pleasant matters, that is, to the question we asked ourselves at the beginning: who invented the tiquitaca? Tiquitaca is a style of soccer game that, broadly speaking, consists of a bet on the possession of the ball and the touch , which translates into fast and short passes between the players of a team, which in turn remain in continuous movement to seek the uncheck and thus facilitate the rapid movement of the ball.
Apparently, the term was used for the first time by the Basque coach José María Maguregui, a classic of the benches of the 80s who bet on direct football, defensive and very physical. Maguregui, who coached Espanyol between 1980 and 1983, referred to himself by the name of tiquitaca – from touching and touching – to the football that Barcelona did at the time, which had very technical players, such as Schuster and Landáburu. The Biscayan used the expression contemptuously, arguing that this was a boring game.
However, when the late television commentator Andrés Montes popularized the term again, around 2006, he did so praising that same style , although in a more evolved version, the one already pointed out by Barça trained by Dutchman Frank Rijkaard (2003-2008) and that defined the Barça team under the baton of Pep Guardiola (2008-2012).
At the same time, the Spanish team led by Luis Aragonés (1938-2014) adopted the same pattern, which Vicente del Bosque would later inherit. Both Barcelona and La Roja made that way of playing profitable with many titles and impressed the planet by adding strong pressure to the contrary and deep solutions to successfully reach the opposite area. Iniesta’s goal that gave Spain victory in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was the apotheosis of tiquitaca.
