I still remember, about 2-3 years ago, English media blamed their national players not 'patriotic' enough as the main reason of all their below par performances in major tournaments. They praised their rugby players for the way they sang their anthem during the Rugby WC, which they won, and criticized their football players for not doing the same.

But as you can see in this video:



Spanish players were all dead silent as well when their anthem was played. Do patriotism influence the performance of a national football team significantly? I don't really think so.

This post has been edited by matyrze: Jun 22 2009, 09:54 AM

Now, it's plain for all to see, no? Xavi-Alonso-Cesc midfield combination has heavily exposed our defensive lines with dangers. Against S. Africa, New Zealand, yes we encountered minimal problems. Against the US, well, honestly they are not that good as well, but for them just having a certain Altidore gave them huge advantage over Pique and Capdevila. The midfielders have the responsibilities to cut all supplies for Altidore, and they failed to do that.

I expect del Bosque to do some changes. If not, surely he expects Spain to win with some brilliant set pieces or some lucky breaks. Winning that way is really not the Spain way nowadays.

Great turn from Altidore to beat his club teammate Capdevila in making his goal. At least the onlooking Spaniards saw one hell of a talent in La Liga has shown his stuffs tonight.

I am very agree

So agree with you.

I anticipated that this kind of situation would be coming during this tournament, when I first realized del Bosque brought only one DM to SA. I thought surely del Bosque would opt for more direct approach than usual. But then I was wrong, he sticked to usual tactics, and I know its coming. We can't play like usual without a DM. Just ask Arsenal. Today in particular, will be a bit better if Cesc was the only player who was allowed to roam forward, while Xavi instructed to help out Alonso. Instead, del Bosque played Alonso in Senna's role. That's a big big mistake.

And of course, I will be forever critical of Torres-Villa partnership. I've barked about it in previous thread, and I won't stop. This partnership is overrated and is not working in big matches. It would've surely been better had Llorente came on for Torres or Villa.

Managed to catch 2nd half of the match against Macedonia yesterday.

I was impressed with their performance, so I certainly have no idea how we failed to get a single goal during the 1st half. Maybe it was because Torres - Villa ineffective partnership again, huh? Maybe Villa was withdrawn at the start of the 2nd half.

Anyway, I should point out that Silva and Cesc brought a lot of creativity into the side. They looked very dangerous at the edge of Macedonia's penalty box. Spain didn't get more goals because Guiza missed several good chances.

But Pique's goal shouldn't be given IMO He had already strayed offside when Cesc shoot the ball.

Top performers for Macedonia were certainly Pandev and Popov.

Hi, nobody is watching? Spain start the match really fierce now. But still, no score.

Hoping that the first 2 matches in Spain shirt will be the start of a brilliant career for J. Navas. He has debuted for Sevilla reeeeaally long time ago, and he looks really promising since then.

Spain's provisional 30-men team for WC:

Goalkeepers:

Iker Casillas Fernández (Real Madrid CF)
David De Gea Quintana (Club Atlético de Madrid, SAD)
Diego López Rodríguez (Villarreal CF, SAD)
José Manuel Reina Páez (Liverpool)
Víctor Valdés Arribas (FC Barcelona)

Defenders:

Raúl Albiol Tortajada (Real Madrid CF)
Alvaro Arbeloa Coca (Real Madrid CF)
César Azpilicueta Tanco (Club Atlético Osasuna)
Joan Capdevila Méndez (Villarreal CF, SAD)
Carlos Marchena López (Valencia CF, SAD)
Gerard Pique Bernabéu (FC Barcelona)
Carles Puyol Saforcada (FC Barcelona)
Sergio Ramos García (Real Madrid CF)

Midfielders:

Xabier Alonso Olano (Real Madrid CF)
Sergio Busquets Burgos (FC Barcelona)
Francesc “Cesc” Fabregas Soler (Arsenal FC)
Andrés Iniesta Lujan (FC Barcelona)
Javier Martínez Aguinaga (Athletic Club)
Marcos Antonio Senna Da Silva (Villarreal CF, SAD)
David Jiménez Silva (Valencia CF, SAD)
Xavier Hernández Creus (FC Barcelona)

Forwards:

Santiago Cazorla González (Villarreal CF, SAD)
Jesús Navas González (Sevilla FC, SAD)
Juan Manuel Mata García (Valencia CF, SAD)
Pedro Rodríguez Ledesma (FC Barcelona)
Daniel González Güiza (Fenerbache SK)
Fernando Llorente Torres (Athletic Club)
Alvaro Negredo Sánchez (Sevilla FC, SAD)
Fernando Torres Sanz (Liverpool FC)
David Villa Sánchez (Valencia CF, SAD).

sos: sport.es

He is not needed. Those get listed are more than enough. I bet Pedro and Guiza will not be in the final squad. Negredo is a serious doubt too. I don't think any midfielder will be dropped except Javi Martinez.

Palop is not included as well, kinda understandable decision though. De Gea get the nod, but I think the fight for the 3rd GK slot will only be between Diego Lopez and Victor Valdes.

That is because all wingers are placed in the forward bracket. In midfielder list, all are CM, except Silva. I'm sure during WC, Spain will play with only 1 out and out striker. So it wouldn't be much problem if Spain only bring along 3 forwards to SA.

My preferred final selection:

Goalkeepers:

Iker Casillas Fernández (Real Madrid CF)
José Manuel Reina Páez (Liverpool)
Víctor Valdés Arribas (FC Barcelona)

Defenders:

Raúl Albiol Tortajada (Real Madrid CF)
Alvaro Arbeloa Coca (Real Madrid CF)
César Azpilicueta Tanco (Club Atlético Osasuna)
Joan Capdevila Méndez (Villarreal CF, SAD)
Carlos Marchena López (Valencia CF, SAD)
Gerard Pique Bernabéu (FC Barcelona)
Carles Puyol Saforcada (FC Barcelona)
Sergio Ramos García (Real Madrid CF)

Midfielders:

Xabier Alonso Olano (Real Madrid CF)
Sergio Busquets Burgos (FC Barcelona)
Francesc “Cesc” Fabregas Soler (Arsenal FC)
Andrés Iniesta Lujan (FC Barcelona)
Marcos Antonio Senna Da Silva (Villarreal CF, SAD)
Xavier Hernández Creus (FC Barcelona)

Winger/Wide forwards:
Jesús Navas González (Sevilla FC, SAD)
Juan Manuel Mata García (Valencia CF, SAD)
David Jiménez Silva (Valencia CF, SAD)

Strikers:

Fernando Llorente Torres (Athletic Club)
Fernando Torres Sanz (Liverpool FC)
David Villa Sánchez (Valencia CF, SAD).

This post has been edited by matyrze: May 12 2010, 06:49 PM

I fully agree. Sometimes I just can't stop wondering how much more quality can the late Puerta bring into the current squad.

But still, Arbeloa and Capdevila are good enough already. On paper, this team looks near perfect. Just have to wait how mentality strong they are on the pitch.

Seriously, I never thought VDB would pick both Pedro and Valdes (although I did list him in my preferred squad) Especially Pedro. From Spanish 3rd tier football, to the WC in just 1 year, that is just awesome.

Super team performance too Unfortunately Iniesta maybe is in for another injury set back

This post has been edited by matyrze: Jun 9 2010, 02:19 PM

For me, the mistake was done by replacing Busquets with Torres. I think he should replace Villa instead. The team did well by creating a many chances and openings, but Villa was ineffective, so Torres should be given the baton to lead attack. VDB should not change the whole system from 4-5-1 to 4-2-2. The later formation just forced Xavi to play deeper, and thus reduce his chance to play killer balls more often.

Was last night game the first time you watched Spain? How can you accuse him of poor form by last night performance?

Yeah. The Xabi-Busi-Xavi midfield is actually a bad choice. Either Iniesta or Cesc should take 1 of the places instead, while Xabi and Busi fight for the DM position depending on the opposition (against the Swiss, Xabi would be better option, as their striker are not good at closing down). But we can't blame VDB for this can we? Xabi-Busi-Xavi is the midfield system that he used during most of the qualifying campaign, and what a campaign it was.

Iniesta/Cesc-Busi/Xabi/Martinez-Xavi/Xabi

Both Pique and Puyol always did that kind of mistake while playing with Barcelona, but Valdes always came to Barca's rescue. So you can't expect them to play any better with Spain Barca have exactly the same kind of problem.

For the 4-4-2 system during Euro2008, I think the system only served us in the group stage, against Russia and Sweden, and I was not particularly impressed with the team performance against Sweden. And against Italy in QF, the 4-4-2 system scored a blank. If Spain want to continue playing Xabi and Iniesta, 4-3-3/4-5-1 is the system to be employed.

And when Spain played 4-5-1 they played their best games. I think the same can be said during the Euro as well. For instance during the match against Russia in the semis, they played badly at the start, but when Villa was replaced (Cesc came on iinm), Spain scored 3 goals. 4-4-2 is certainly not the way for the current squad.

I think Valdes would have read the CBs' movements better in that occasion, plus he is a monster in one-on-one situation. I'm not taking away anything from Casillas though. Generally the defenders did well. Spain's inability to convert good chances and movements into goals was the most glaring problem. I think by replacing Villa and Torres, and Iniesta for Navas, that would be enough. No need to compromise the system, and pulled Xavi farther from the Swiss' goal.

As Verx mentioned, the midfield combination was wrong. Iniesta or Cesc should take 1 of the 3 slots, to give Villa more support. Against the Swiss, Villa was very isolated, and he was actually having a bad game as well.

Bro, Navas' cross are not always useless. I've seen him delivered some very difficult crosses perfectly. If you say regarding yesterday game, you are right, he played poorly. But that doesn't mean he should be benched for next games, and certainly not Cesc going to replace him. Cesc has more pace? IMHO Navas is one of the fastest player in current Spain squad.

Fully agreed

With Cesc' tendency to play in the middle rather than widen up Spain's game, not only he himself is at risk of being ineffective, due to opponents overcrowding the central area (the dreadful bus parking tactic), their LB may have only Ramos to watch out as well.

And the thing about Navas is he doesn't only have pace, he also has his crosses, and quite decent shooting ability. He scored a long powerful drive in 1 of the warm up matches IINM. He is not like SWP or Lennon, I can assure you that. Capel is more similar to them.

Good win it was. And the team defended better than before, the most important improvement

Happy that Pedro did well for Spain, though I still don't get it, why on a WC semifinal match VDB opted for Pedro rather than a much more experienced Silva? Did he see something during training? I am so sure nobody could fathom such daring move from him before the match. But he is right there

Well, VDB could always advice Silva on what he should not do. Whatever, I would like to see what magic he'll conjure for the next game. Pedro deserve to play in the final, but I think Silva may get to squeeze in too. Time for the boss to tinker.

The fact that you've criticized Pedro harshly, didn't praise him for his generally good performance, and said 'not selecting him for the finals will be a great lesson' may make people wonder, why have you been so harsh? And in a hindsight, Verx may understand why