Iniesta's Invaluable Performances Added Up
Spain and FC Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta has had a few immaculate seasons in recent years. For both club or country, the 26 year-old midfielder is the playmaker by whom nearly all attacks are orchestrated.
It is Iniesta who inspires movement, creates openings for his teammates, and every so often, finishes an offensive move by scoring.
Since 2008, Iniesta’s successes have piled up on each other. He has won the UEFA European Championships, two Spanish La Liga titles, one Spanish cup title, and one UEFA Champions League title. Furthermore, on Sunday, Iniesta scored the extra time-winner that won Spain their first ever World Cup final.
Iniesta joined Barcelona’s famous youth ranks at age 12. Originally playing in a defensive midfield role, Iniesta was soon moved up a notch to become an offensive midfielder.
Only in this position could his passing vision, clever and inspiring movement, and blistering dribbling skills be fully utilized.
The senior Barcelona squad were first introduced to the shy kid from Albacete when he was only 16 years old. Iniesta had been invited to train with the team for one day.
Josep Guardiola, current manager of Barcelona, stunned by Iniesta’s natural ability, approached his younger midfield colleague Xavi Hernandez.
“You’re going to retire me,” Guardiola allegedly told Xavi, “but this kid’s going to retire us all.”
Only five feet and seven inches tall, Iniesta’s game is not so much about physical presence as it is about sublime technique. He does not score many goals, claiming six in his highest scoring season for Barcelona, but his movement, passing and vision creates something spectacular to see.
Ten years have passed since that day on the training ground, and it is now Xavi and Iniesta that have made Barcelona the most enviable team in football.
Along with captain Iker Casillas and veterans like Carlos Puyol, they have been instrumental in Spain’s nearly unmatched success in the 2008 European and the 2010 World Cup. Only West Germany has ever won the World Cup as European champions, and that was in 1974.
The pair’s finest moments for Barcelona arguably came in the 2008/2009 season, the season after their creativity from midfield into attack had led Spain to its European Championship win.
That season, Barcelona won the Champions League by defeating Manchester United in the final. After the game, United striker Wayne Rooney described Iniesta as the best player in the world. Barcelona had also won the Spanish league and Cup titles only weeks prior.
So it was on the back of tremendous individual and collective achievements over the past years that Iniesta entered the World Cup.
Due to a calf injury, the midfielder missed Spain’s opening game against Switzerland. The team was visibly impaired by Iniesta’s absence, losing 1-0 to an inferior Swiss side.
In Spain’s decisive third game against Chile, though, Iniesta returned, scoring a delicately placed winning goal after a free-flowing build-up.
Against Paraguay in the quarter-final, Iniesta delivered another trademark performance.
The game was at a second-half standstill when he skipped past two defenders and played a delightful pass with the outside of his foot to striker Pedro, who had the rebound of his shot converted by David Villa.
In yesterday’s World Cup final, after keeping possession well throughout the game but being on the receiving end of many of the Netherlands’ HOW MANY fouls, Iniesta proved his worth to the Spanish team in extra time.
It was not his delicate through ball to Cesc Fabregas that turned out to be the crucial moment, because his fellow midfielder failed to convert his one-on-one opportunity. Instead, Fabregas turned provider and played in Iniesta on the right hand side of the box, kept onside by the Dutch's Rafael van der Vaart.
The Spanish genius took one touch that sent the ball up in the air. Before it was able to come back down, Iniesta had struck a volley beyond parrying for Dutch keeper Maarten Stekelenburg.
After the game, the shy playmaker remained modest as ever. “I had the opportunity to score that goal which was so important to my team,” Iniesta told reporters after picking up his man of the match award.
“It's something absolutely incredible. I simply made a small contribution to my team.”
Added up over the past few seasons, Iniesta’s decisive contributions to both Barcelona and Spain have been beyond truly incredible.
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