Tuesday 15 June 2010

la furia roja

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 (1981-05-20) (age 29) 104 0 Spain Real Madrid
12 GK Víctor Valdés 14 January 1982 (1982-01-14) (age 28) 1 0 Spain Barcelona
23 GK Pepe Reina 31 August 1982 (1982-08-31) (age 27) 20 0 England Liverpool

2 DF Raúl Albiol 4 September 1985 (1985-09-04) (age 24) 23 0 Spain Real Madrid
3 DF Gerard Piqué 2 February 1987 (1987-02-02) (age 23) 16 4 Spain Barcelona
4 DF Carlos Marchena 31 July 1979 (1979-07-31) (age 30) 59 2 Spain Valencia
5 DF Carles Puyol 13 April 1978 (1978-04-13) (age 32) 83 2 Spain Barcelona
11 DF Joan Capdevila 3 February 1978 (1978-02-03) (age 32) 46 4 Spain Villarreal
15 DF Sergio Ramos 30 March 1986 (1986-03-30) (age 24) 60 5 Spain Real Madrid
17 DF Álvaro Arbeloa 17 January 1983 (1983-01-17) (age 27) 15 0 Spain Real Madrid

6 MF Andrés Iniesta 11 May 1984 (1984-05-11) (age 26) 43 6 Spain Barcelona
8 MF Xavi Hernández 25 January 1980 (1980-01-25) (age 30) 87 8 Spain Barcelona
10 MF Cesc Fàbregas 10 May 1987 (1987-05-10) (age 23) 50 6 England Arsenal
13 MF Juan Manuel Mata 28 April 1988 (1988-04-28) (age 22) 8 3 Spain Valencia
14 MF Xabi Alonso 25 November 1981 (1981-11-25) (age 28) 69 9 Spain Real Madrid
16 MF Sergio Busquets 16 July 1988 (1988-07-16) (age 21) 13 0 Spain Barcelona
20 MF Javi Martínez 2 September 1988 (1988-09-02) (age 21) 2 0 Spain Athletic Bilbao
21 MF David Silva 8 January 1986 (1986-01-08) (age 24) 36 7 Spain Valencia
22 MF Jesús Navas February 26, 1985 (1985-02-26) (age 25) 6 1 Spain Sevilla

7 FW David Villa 3 December 1981 (1981-12-03) (age 28) 58 38 Spain Barcelona
9 FW Fernando Torres 20 March 1984 (1984-03-20) (age 26) 73 24 England Liverpool
18 FW Pedro Rodríguez 28 July 1987 (1987-07-28) (age 22) 3 1 Spain Barcelona
19 FW Fernando Llorente 26 February 1985 (1985-02-26) (age 25) 7 3 Spain Athletic Bilbao

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