the World Cup: Spain

ThisDrinkingLife and The World Cup: Spain

A new manager, Julen Lopetegui, but pretty much the same Spain we are used to seeing at International football tournaments these days. A team that plays lovely one touch football, with players that always impress. Ok it went a bit flat last time, but the current Spanish team are playing again with flair and confidence and they have notched up some good performances recently to put them in line as one of the main contenders for this years World Cup.

From back to front they look strong, and still have some of the old guard that we know and love (or love to hate) so well. David de Gea in goals is up there with the best, Piqué and captain Ramos in defence still going strong (albeit in Ramos’ case not strong enough to take a tackle), Andrés Iniesta in his last World Cup, with David Silva and Sergio Busquets in the midfield. Up front we still have Diego Costa hoping to improve on his last showing in the WC.

Beating Italy 3-0 in a qualifying group where they won nine out of ten games, drawing the other, and hammering Argentina 6-1 and drawing with the World Champions Germany 1-1 in their backyard all has confidence up. Added to this are a bunch of young Spanish players that have been playing well recently and you can see why people are beginning to talk about Spain again. There mojo is back.

In a relatively easy group, you would imagine they would take care of Morocco and Iran without too much bother. It just is the small matter of can they beat Portugal in what on paper are two relatively similar teams only separated in the fact that Spain don’t have a star quality striker like Ronaldo. It will be a tight game and a bit too early for me to call at the moment. I might go with Portugal if pushed. But to be honest I can see a pathway for Spain to go far in the competition even if they finish first or second. Russia/Uruguay are waiting in round two, both manageable, France and Argentina in the last eight, again both can be beaten by Spain when they play to their full potential. If they can get that far in the competition then it is likely they would play either Brazil or Germany in the semis. This is where I think their journey would end. Good but not good enough, but to be fair I think a last four position would be considered a success for a fresh man in charge and the heralding in of a new era of Spanish football.