They've done this for years. They bored their way to winning Euro 2012. They will bore their way to winning the World Cup. This sort of football used to be considered "attractive". Ticky tacky has become a 4-2-3-1, false 9, no pace bore-fest. Unfortunately, it's quite a good system to win stuff, especially in hot climates.
Don't get me wrong, I respect them for creating a system that fits their strengths and allows them to win. I just don't understand the people who hate the Greeks for their style and love Spain. Honestly it is almost the exact same thing, Spain is just "defending" all game by playing keep away instead of soccer. Spain are like that high school basketball team that just passes around the back court all game because there is no shot clock and they are trying to limit possessions and win a 8-6 game. I can respect giving your team the best chance to win by playing some inherently limiting/negative style, but as a spectator I would rather watch something else.
The juxtaposition between Spain love and Greek hate is what confuses me. I'm convinced that most people just don't actually watch Spain play. They watch like 5 minutes of cool passing and then leave and watch the highlights later. If that's all you see, it is a thrilling style! Meanwhile, I watch every minute of Spain's games because my wife has a boner for them, and I end up yelling at the TV for them to fucking take a shot. I've seen them literally pass up a free shot from inside the box so they could dump it back to Xavi and work it around some more. FUUUU.
The thing that really pisses me off most is when they are in a tied game in the second half and they still do fucking short corners when they have Pique and Sergio Ramos on the roster. Look, you cunts, this is like the one time you can legitimately use your big guys who are good in the air and you piddle dick it short instead. You have some of the most accurate corner takers in the world and a couple of the most prolific scoring defenders and you don't try to score on these set pieces? (and spain get about a million corners per game too) FUUUUU. I understand short corners when they have the lead (more time wasting possession) but when they are trying to score a goal against a team that is bunkered, why not bring up Ramos and give him a chance? My favorite part about the corners is that I swear to God they only sent like 2 normal corners in properly during the whole 2010 world cup, and one ended up as the huge goal Puyol had to give them the lead against Germany (and the other he almost scored but was just off target)
In 2010, they at least had Villa who would take a chance from outside the box. During the 2012 Euros they were impossible to watch.