World Cup preview: Spain
Coach: Vicente del Bosque
Key player: Xavi
Previous best: Fourth place 1950
How do you improve upon perfection? We’re about to find out.
After sweeping all before them in winning Euro 2008, gaining plenty of new fans along the way, Spain return to tournament football as the heavy favourites, and with good reason.
A world-class goalkeeper plays behind a solid, tough tackling defence, which backs up a midfield that will gladly keep the ball away from their opposition for the entire 90 minutes. As for their attack? It’s probably the best partnership in the world.
All very convincing then, and all indicating that there should only be one country to place your money on at this World Cup, but hold your horses.
Some less than convincing pre-tournament friendly results, including a 3-2 win over Saudi Arabia and a 1-0 victory against South Korea – the former coming from a stoppage time winner, the latter from one in the 85th minute – suggest that Spain aren’t exactly in the form that saw them beat Argentina, France and Austria 5-1 in the matches before that, and they didn’t fare too well the last time they were in South Africa either.
Fernando Torres’ 11-minute hat-trick in the first half of their first match against New Zealand proved to be the high point of Spain’s Confederations Cup campaign in the country last summer.
Unconvincing wins over Iraq and the hosts followed before a semi-final exit at the hands of the USA, a result that ended a run of 35 consecutive matches unbeaten.
After an injury-hit season at Liverpool, Torres is expected to be fit for La Furia Roja’s first game of this tournament against Switzerland, and his partnership with Barcelona’s new €40million signing David Villa is expected to prove vital to Spain’s chances.
Villa was the top scorer at Euro 2008, and the firepower possessed by him and Torres – easily the best strike partnership at the tournament – is tipped to make the difference in South Africa, not that they aren’t backed up by quality players.
Midfielders Andrés Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas and Xabi Alonso offer a bewildering amount of creativity, guile and elegance, and all are backed up by Barcelona’s Xavi, the conductor of this orchestra.
His probing passing, intelligent interplay and metronomic movement are the cornerstones of the Spanish side. Without him they don’t quite tick, but with him in the centre of the pitch organising and cajoling his team-mates, their favourites tag looks fully justified.
Pace and width is provided by David Silva, Jesus Navas, Juan Mata and Pedro – who has barged his way into Del Bosque’s plans after a remarkable season in which he scored 23 goals for Barça’s La Liga winning side. That kind of form simply couldn’t be ignored, and don’t be surprised if he’s forced his way into the first team by the knockout stages.
At the back stand the twin totem poles of Gerard Piqué and Carlos Puyol, yet more key figures in that all-conquering Barça side, with the likes of Sergio Ramos, Alvaro Arbeloa and Joan Capdevila all competing for the full back positions, while surely the only that needs to be said about the goalkeeping captain Iker Casillas is that his understudies are Pepe Reina and Victor Valdes. He’s that good.
Wins in their opening two matches against the Swiss and Honduras look like a given, and could set up an intriguing final clash against Chile, with the winner likely to come top of the group. Spain should beat them, but if they come second they’ll probably face Brazil in the second round, and what a prospect that would be.
All of which is a long way off though.
Spain should beat Chile, they should win the group, they should make it through to the latter stages of the competition. Maybe even the final, maybe they’ll even win it.
All that is certain is that they’ll entertain along the way.
Spain squad
1 Iker CASILLAS (Real Madrid)
2 Raúl ALBIOL (Real Madrid)
3 Gerard PIQUÉ (Barcelona)
4 Carlos MARCHENA (Valencia)
5 Carles PUYOL (Barcelona)
6 Andrés INIESTA (Barcelona)
7 David VILLA (Barcelona)
8 XAVI Hernández (Barcelona)
9 Fernando TORRES (Liverpool)
10 Cesc FABREGAS (Arsenal)
11 Joan CAPDEVILA (Villarreal)
12 Víctor VALDÉS (Barcelona)
13 Juan MATA (Valencia)
14 Xabi ALONSO (Real Madrid)
15 Sergio RAMOS (Real Madrid)
16 Sergio BUSQUETS (Barcelona)
17 Álvaro ARBELOA (Real Madrid)
18 PEDRO Rodriguez (Barcelona)
19 Fernando LLORENTE (Athletic Bilbao)
20 Javi MARTÍNEZ (Athletic Bilbao)
21 David SILVA (Valencia)
22 Jesús NAVAS (Sevilla)
23 Pepe REINA (Liverpool)
For previews of Spain's Group H opponents click here:
http://www.senore.com/World-Cup-2010-preview-Chile-a12473
http://www.senore.com/World-Cup-2010-preview-Honduras-a12474
http://www.senore.com/World-Cup-2010-preview-Switzerland-a12477
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