Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg was filled with the celebration yesterday as Spain defeated Honduras 2-0. The team played like champions, especially striker David Villa who scored twice for Spain. After a disappointing 1-0 opening loss against Switzerland, the win against Honduras is settling some of the team’s nerves. Spain now has three points and the possibility of advancing out of Group H if they can beat Chile on Friday. If the teams draw, Spain could also move forward, since Honduras only has one point so far.
17 minutes into the game Villa was dodging defenders left and right to get a shot in at Honduras keeper Noel Valladares, who grazed the ball trying to stop it but wasn’t able to keep it out of the net.
Yesterday’s match saw Villa attaining a personal achievement, scoring his 40th international goal (in 60 appearances) in the 51st minute. Villa has a scored a total of five World Cup goals in his career. Villa is tied with four other players for the position of second highest scorer in Spain, following in the footsteps of Raul Gonzalez’s 44 record goals.
Villa’s shot was deflected off a defender and flew over Valladares’ head, just out of his reach. Vila’s attempt at a third goal didn’t work out; he shot the ball wide right on a penalty kick in the 62nd minute.
Of their next game against Chile, Villa said “We think this first group is very difficult and we have a tough game against Chile”. Spain’s striker hasn’t let his team's win against Honduras go to his head though, stating, “Being world champions is a long way down the round, there’s a long time to go, and many matches as well”.
Midfielder Xavi was on top of his game controlling the play and powering the rest of his team onwards with great passes.
The only disappointing element from Spain’s performance was Fernando Torres who, granted, made his first starting appearance on the pitch since undergoing knee surgery in April. Still, he failed to wow the crowds or teammates by doing anything exciting with the ball. He had the chances, but didn’t take full advantage. In 33rd minute he shot the ball too high and heading over the crossbar. Poised for a perfect shot inside the area, Torres also missed a pass from Villa just before half time.
Spain maintained a dominant possession of the ball throughout the game. They touched the ball a total of 780 times while Honduras only had 536 times. “Our loss to Switzerland is water under the bridge” Villa said whilst comparing Spain’s performance in both matches, “Today, we played in the same style, we attacked with short passes and we had some very good chances”. Spain had an 88.8 percent passing accuracy, the fourth best single game mark in the 2010 tournament. Despite losing to the Swiss, Spain’s passing accuracy rate in that game Switzerland was 89.5.
As for Honduras, the team is barely hanging on by a thread as their stay at the world cup comes closer and closer to an end. “We lacked conviction,” said Honduras’ Coach Reinaldo Rueda, “There’s nothing else to say except that we had a superior team in front of us”.
Surprisingly Honduras’ star striker David Suazo was not present at the match, at least in terms of playing power. Though his teammates struggled to obtain and maintain possession of the ball, in the brief moments they did Suazo wasn’t able to freeing himself to get a kick in at the ball.
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