world cup is here haunting us again. once again, being no longer a dark horse, my all time favorite team, spain is tipped as favorites to lift the cup there in south africa. currently they sit in first place in fifa world ranking ahead of brazil and argentina. and there goes the pressure mounting on the players and so do the supporters.spain, lavished with bunch of talented players to pick from. they have the strongest squad all the way from the goal keeper to the top strikers, some said. they are relatively young with age average of twenty four, an exciting blend between young guns and old horses in the likes of barcelona's pedro and carles puyol respectively. they are technically sound, high work rate, their skills and ability are exemplary and they have been playing together for quite sometimes resulting as perfect gelled teamwork.
with san iker casillas between the goal posts, sergio ramos galloping at the right flank, with xavi hernandez, andres iniesta, david silva and francesc fabregas mastering the middle park, and power forward david villa up front, spain surely looks unstoppable. they have their own style of play, a total possession domination, tiring their opponents with short and neat passing, ready to electrify the atmosphere.
i've been supporting la furia roja or the furious red since i was 11. they had always been disappointed and disappointing in big tournaments, a total big flop, underachiever, it's like they couldn't replicate their club forms in the likes of valencia, barcelona and real madrid, until they finally broke their jinx in last euro 08 in austria, when iker casillas lifted the trophy eliminating all the rumors that there were politics issue in their dressing room saying that the barcelona captain puyol should be the national captain instead of the real madrid keeper since there were only 2 real madrid players in the team i.e casillas and sergio ramos (ruben de la red were still loaned to getafe during that time) compared to barcelona's xavi, pique, iniesta, etc. nevertheless the victory somehow sent a message to the big boys of world football e.g. brazil, argentina, france, italy or england that they were not to be taken lightly again.
but humility is the essence of success in this world cup for the spanish team as said by their sporting director come assistant manager, fernando hierro, former real madrid and spanish captain. they have to maintain their feet on the ground, focus and play like how they want to play their game. i am sure that they have learned from their past mistakes e.g the painful exit in previous world cup back in germany when france destroyed their hopes in the second round and failure to advance from group stage in both euro 04 and world cup 98 when hierro himself and raul were in the team.
whatever it is, just like what kinka said, rain or shine, viva espana! we'll see how their progress to the final, where brazil and italy are the potential opponents in their upcoming knockout stages. llueva o truene, vamos espana siempre!
| No. | Pos. | Player | DoB (Age) | Caps | Goals | Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GK | Iker Casillas (c) | 20 May 1981 | 104 | 0 |  Real Madrid | ||
| 12 | GK | Víctor Valdés | 14 January 1982 | 1 | 0 | Barcelona | ||
| 23 | GK | Pepe Reina | 31 August 1982 | 20 | 0 |  Liverpool | ||
| 2 | DF | Raúl Albiol | 4 September 1985 | 23 | 0 | Real Madrid | ||
| 3 | DF | Gerard Piqué | 2 February 1987 | 16 | 4 | Barcelona | ||
| 4 | DF | Carlos Marchena | 31 July 1979 | 59 | 2 | Valencia | ||
| 5 | DF | Carles Puyol | 13 April 1978 | 83 | 2 | Barcelona | ||
| 11 | DF | Joan Capdevila | 3 February 1978 | 46 | 4 | Villarreal | ||
| 15 | DF | Sergio Ramos | 30 March 1986 | 60 | 5 | Real Madrid | ||
| 17 | DF | Álvaro Arbeloa | 17 January 1983 | 15 | 0 | Real Madrid | ||
| 6 | MF | Andrés Iniesta | 11 May 1984 | 43 | 6 | Barcelona | ||
| 8 | MF | Xavi Hernández | 25 January 1980 | 87 | 8 | Barcelona | ||
| 10 | MF | Cesc Fàbregas | 10 May 1987 | 50 | 6 | Arsenal | ||
| 13 | MF | Juan Manuel Mata | 28 April 1988 | 8 | 3 | Valencia | ||
| 14 | MF | Xabi Alonso | 25 November 1981 | 69 | 9 | Real Madrid | ||
| 16 | MF | Sergio Busquets | 16 July 1988 | 13 | 0 | Barcelona | ||
| 20 | MF | Javi Martínez | 2 September 1988 | 2 | 0 | Athletic Bilbao | ||
| 21 | MF | David Silva | 8 January 1986 | 36 | 7 | Valencia | ||
| 22 | MF | Jesús Navas | February 26, 1985 | 6 | 1 | Sevilla | ||
| 7 | FW | David Villa | 3 December 1981 | 58 | 38 | Barcelona | ||
| 9 | FW | Fernando Torres | 20 March 1984 | 73 | 24 | Liverpool | ||
| 18 | FW | Pedro Rodríguez | 28 July 1987 | 3 | 1 | Barcelona | ||
| 19 | FW | Fernando Llorente | 26 February 1985 | 7 | 3 | Athletic Bilbao | ||
No comments:
Post a Comment