A few days ago Vicente del Bosque named the players which would be included in the squad for the next two qualifiers against Belgium in A Coruña and Estonia in Merida.

We’re currently ranked second in the world behind heavyweights Brasil due to their success in this past year’s Confederations Cup and our crash out of the same tournament. The ranking system doesn’t really make sense to me (as well as probably most of the other people who pay attention to it) as to how a team who won over 30 matches in a row and had a choke hold over world football could possibly not be ranked 1st in the world after one mere defeat. Regardless of what I think, that’s what it is and only a win in the World Cup next year would get us back where we belong so it all starts Sepember 5th when we take on Belgium.

Some good news for us as our holding midfielder and Villarreal superstar Marcos Senna is returning to the squad after missing our Confederations Cup campaign. He was a massive reason for our lack of stability in the centre of midfield in South Africa this past summer and to have him back is a massive boost for us. We all saw at the European Championships last year how much of a match changer he really is and I have no doubts that nothing has changed from then until now.

A surprising addition to the squad was Cesc Fàbregas who is usually included in the squad but last weekend picked up a knock against Portsmouth and was apparently ruled out a minimum of 3 weeks. I guess Del Bosque has deemed him fit enough to play but its surprising that Arsenal let him go considering his circumstances. I’m sure Del Bosque won’t risk him if Xavi and Marcos Senna are doing a sufficient job in the middle as they usually do.

There are only two usuals who are excluded from the squad this time around which are Sergio Ramos and Andrés Iniesta who are both still recovering from their injuries with the latter being a long-term one.

Ramos is replaced by Nacho Monreal who is an up and coming left footed defender and plays his club football with Osasuna. Iniesta is replaces by (and when I say replaced, I don’t really mean it because no one can ever replace little Iniesta) Juan Mata of Valencia once again who scored a goal on the weekend in Los Che’s 2-0 victory over La Liga rivals Sevilla.

The full squad called up looks like this:
Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas, Pepe Reina, Diego López

Defenders: Álvaro Arbeloa, Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Carlos Marchena, Raúl Albiol, Nacho Monréal, Joan Capdevila

Midfielders: Cesc Fàbregas, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Xabi Alonso, Marcos Senna, Albert Riera, Juan Mata, David Silva

Forwards: David Villa, Fernando Torres, Dani Güiza

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Despite not being able to write anything about the match, I definitely did watch it and although it was only the consolation match and not the final, I’m happy we pulled off the victory – albeit in interesting fashion.

Just a personal observation but I think that the World Cup next year is going to fail miserably. The stadium for our matchup was barely filled and I just think that if South Africans won’t even go see their own team playing, who will they pay to see? I know it was only for third place but regardless, you would think a nation would get out and support their team. But who am I to talk? We’ll have to see.

Anyway back to the important stuff which is the match.

A Katlego Mphela goal put the hosts ahead in the 73rd minute and at this point I was seriously scared. Not only had we not advanced to the dream final to play Brazil but we also were looking as if we were going to lost the consolation match! Not to worry though as my man Dani Güiza who has previously come on as a substitute scored in the 88th minute to level us up. Two minutes later with a bit of luck, Dani added another and being the 90th minute I said to myself “okay, definitely time to relax now”. But there we went again with our complacency and Mr. Mphela grabbed another in the third minute of stoppage time to crash our party and send the home fans (or lack of) crazy.

Credit to South Africa as they came out strong in extra time and controlled possession although they didn’t have many dangerous chances. We however, created the more dangerous opportunities through the likes of Riera, Capdevila, Llorente and even David Silva when his shot was blocked by the South African defender’s clear handball but the referee seemed to be uninterested and kept on playing. Finally though we got what we deserved in the 107th minute when Xabi Alonso hit a perfect freekick past the South African keeper and put us ahead which was eventually for good.

With the exciting 3-2 victory, we clinched third place in the FIFA Confederations Cup and while that is a feasible achievement for any other nation, for us it is a great disappointment. We went into the tournament as favourites and failed to live up to all the hype losing out (possibly choking) against the U.S. in the semifinals.

Now sure, it isn’t the World Cup and had little significance but when you have every continental champion as well as the world champions and the next host nation, it is definitely a chance to prove your worth. Unfortunately we didn’t and as a result we have slipped to second place in the FIFA World Rankings. We’ve occupied the number one spot for the past year and to lose it is someone uncomforting.

All we can do from here is focus on our World Cup qualifying campaign in which we have a flawless record. We may not have a 35 match undefeated streak or a 15 game win streak but I still think we’re a solid powerhouse in world football. All excuses aside, no Iniesta, Senna and Silva (for most of the tournament) certainly does limit your options. We still have a class lineup but it was evident that we weren’t playing with the same confidence that we had during the Euro’s.

See you in South Africa.

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Having said all that, New Zealand won’t be any pushovers. Last week they pushed Italy to their limit when they took the lead in their friendly but ended up losing 4-3 by a late goal. We will definitely keep in mind that winning this match will stretch our unbeaten run to 33 games, having last lost a friendly to Romania way back in November of 2006. We will also have in the back of our head that we are only three undefeated games away from Brazil’s all time record of 35 matches and going undefeated in the qualifying round will see us equal that impressive tally.

We have actually never appeared in the Confederations Cup but at the same time we are also the only team ever to be at the top of the FIFA World Rankings without ever winning the World Cup, emphasizing our superiority on the footballing world over the past year.

Unlike us, this is New Zealand’s third appearance in the tournament having previously lost all their 6 matches. To be honest, I see that streak continuing today.

In our friendly against Azerbaijan last week, Vicente del Bosque started a considerably weaker lineup but knowing that a win versus the All Blacks is crucial to start off our campaign, Señor del Bosque will most likely start a full strength squad with the exceptions of Marcos Senna and Andrés Iniesta who are obviously out due to injury.

Cazorla is the favourite to start in place for Iniesta on the right flank while Xabi Alonso is set to take Marcos Senna’s place in the centre of the park. Gerard Piqué is nursing a slight injury and will probably start today’s match on the bench with Raúl Albiol starting in his place.

The lineup is set to look something like this:
Iker Casillas
Sergio Ramos, Raúl Albiol, Carles Puyol, Joan Capdevila
Santi Cazorla, Xavi, Xabi Alonso, David Silva
Fernando Torres, David Villa

We’re ranked first in the world while New Zealand sits at 82nd, is there really any hope for them? I would say this is going to be a cake walk for us but this is fútbol and stranger things have happened. Having said that though, Xavi alone is enough to dismantle a team. If our little playmaker can control the game like he does so often I don’t see any chance in hell of us even conceding a goal but rather winning by a really emphatic margin.

They might have gave Italy a run for their money but we’re on a whole other level. Bring it on.

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Three goals by David Villa, and one a piece for Albert Riera, Dani Güiza and Fernando Torres stamped our tremendous superiority on the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, so much so that even the home fans stood up and applauded.

An eight minute time frame decided this match as on the 34th minute Torres set up Villa for his first; his second followed four minutes later when he converted his chance which he created by his own sheer brilliance; finally his third came on the 42 minute as Fàbregas was fouled in the box which resulted in a penalty and of course it was easily taken care of by Villa, Villa, Maravilla.

It was a friendly match prior to playing in the Confederations Cup in South Africa, but there was a scare when Casillas just about dodged a kick mid-air when he made a brilliant save.

I guess we can’t boast about the victory too much considering it took over half and hour to get a goal which is pretty ridiculous considering it was the champions of Europe against a modest, Asian side. Then again, Ramos, Piqué, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta and Silva who are the core of our squad, weren’t in the starting XI. Without our infamous playmaker Xavi, we relied more upon wing play through Riera and Cazorla which made the game a lot quicker than usual and overall was actually highly entertaining to watch (as usual, of course).

I’ll give Azerbaijan credit – they had heart, desire and faith but you can’t expect much against Champions.

We dominated from beginning to end but failed to create any dangerous chances until around the half hour mark where something just seemed to click. Their goalkeeper Valiyev made a few difficult saves before finally on the 34th minute Villa and Torres hooked up perfectly like they usually do and showed why they’re the best international striking partnership around. After that it was like the flood gates just burst open, because 4 minutes later El Guaje smashed a left footed strike which left Valiyev motionless as we celebrated our second goal. The completion of his hat-trick came on the 42nd minute when he converted a penalty with the greatest of ease. An eight minute hat-trick.. not too shabby.

The humiliation on the faces of the Azerbaijani players and coaching staff was evident and being a typical kind-hearted Spaniard, Vicente del Bosque acted accordingly. He took off David Villa for Sergio Ramos, Sergi Busquets for Cesc Fàbregas and Xavi for Joan Capdevila. He even introduced Pepe Reina to give San Iker a rest.

These substitutions only proved just how deep our squad is because on the 68th minute Riera scored, and three minutes later Güiza added another. Pretty boy Fernando Torres finished off the match as he added more salt in the wounds when he hit a picture-perfect chip over Valiyev which had even the Azerbaijani fans jumping on their feet to applaud such class.

La Furia Roja won, and pretty damn overwhelmingly too. Is there really any surprise? Probably not, but it’s still never a dull moment to watch such beautiful football being played. It’s also definitely a good foot to start out on before beginning our quest for the Confederations Cup later this week. This now means our glorious unbeaten run is stretched to 32 games – absolutely legendary.

While Villarreal hard-man Marcos Senna is out indefinitely, his teammate Santi Cazorla gets the call up to the squad despite only having played his first game upon his return from injury this past weekend. Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Andrés Iniesta and David Silva who all are currently suffering with minor injuries were also called up the squad in hopes that they will completely recover by the time our first match against New Zealand which takes place on June 14th.

There is 5 changes to the squad from the team that travelled to and conquered Austria/Switzerland last summer. Sevilla duo Andrés Palop and Fernando Navarro are out as well as Juanito, Sergio Garcia, Marcos Senna and Ruben de la Red. Stepping in are Diego Lopez, Sergi Busquets, Gerard Piqué, Juan Mata, Albert Riera and Athletic Bilbao hitman Fernando Llorente.

The full squad looks like this:
Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Pepe Reina (Liverpool), Diego Lopez (Villarreal).

Defenders: Raúl Albiol (Valencia), Álvaro Arbeloa (Liverpool), Joan Capdevila (Villarreal), Carlos Marchena (Valencia), Gerard Piqué (Barcelona), Carles Puyol (Barcelona), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid).

Midfielders: Xabi Alonso (Liverpool), Sergi Busquets (Barcelona), Santi Cazorla (Villarreal), Cesc Fàbregas (Arsenal), Xavi (Barcelona), Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona), David Silva (Valencia), Juan Mata (Valencia), Albert Riera (Liverpool).

Forwards: David Villa (Valencia), Daniel Güiza (Fenerbahce), Fernando Torres (Liverpool), Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao).

Before we travel to South Africa we travel head over to Asia to take on Azerbaijan in a friendly on June 6th. This match will most likely be easy enough to consider it a warm-up for what is to come in the Confederations Cup.

Other News:
Today the FIFA World Rankings were released and obviously, we top them once again. We’ve had quite the glorious year ever since winning the European Championships back in the summer of 2008 and with our undefeated record in World Cup qualifying thus far, there’s no signs of us slowing down.

Our group in the Confederations Cup is rather weak consisting of New Zealand, Iraq and South Africa but the real test will occur as we progress to face either Brasil or Italy, the two most successful teams of all time. Regardless of who we encounter, if we continue playing like we have over the past several months, I have no doubt that we can clean up in this tournament. While Italy and Brasil have been very successful in past tournaments they have both had their little struggles in qualifying thus far.

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¡¡Qué viva España!!

This victory really couldn’t have come at a better time as today the February FIFA rankings were released and once again, since July of last year we’re ranked number one. Sure these are just numbers given by football’s governing body using a questionable method but today when we stepped out on the pitch of El Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán we showed just why we topped the list again. This also marked the 29th straight match of our impressive undefeated streak which is quite an achievement all on it’s own.

Both teams started without a few of their key players as England was missing Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard, Manchester United and England captain Rio Ferdinand and his domestic teammate Wayne Rooney.

Meanwhile we were also missing our captain and star centre back Carles Puyol as he picked up a knock in his match for Barcelona against Sporting Gijón on the weekend which as a result made him withdraw from the squad that played today. We also missed Real Betis defender Juanito as he picked up an injury while training with the squad earlier this week.

At first I questioned Del Bosque’s lineup as it looked something like this:
Casillas
Sergio Ramos/Gerard Piqué/Carlos Marchena/Joan Capdevila
Marcos Senna
Xavi/Xabi Alonso/Iniesta
David Villa/Fernando Torres

No left footers causing Andrés to play on the left flank and Xavi who usually plays a central role started on the right flank. Despite all my doubt these two men impressed as always and showed just how valuable they are to La Selección.

Overall the game was a comfortable victory for us but the opening moments were pretty scary as Agbonlahor and Gareth Barry had chances to put England up but missed, luckily for us.

The Three Lions were probably left to rue these missed opportunities as on the 36th minute Xabi Alonso who was dominating the midfield put a perfect through ball to the feed of Euro 2008 star David Villa who then beat Everton defender Phil Jakielka and slotted it past David James. El Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán exploded as the fans realized how much this goal meant. Alonso and Senna both had decent chances before the half ended as well, but nothing doing.

Pepe Reina came in for Palop who was solid throughout the first half. Not sure why Beckham was in the England squad but none the less, he did come on at half time. Even with the LA Galaxy star midfielder, the visitors never created any decent chances right away and the game was swinging more in out favour than ever.

Not long after Villa was substituted for his Valencia teammate David Silva who didn’t start because he came back from his injury not too long ago. Fernando Torres was also substituted by Athletic Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente. Our two best top strikers off and we still manage to score again, that’s a sign of a top class team.

Xavi was the provider for the final nail in England’s coffin when he sent in a perfectly weighted free kick on which new boy Fernando Llorente put his head through and this goal coming in the 83rd minute sealed The Three Lions’ fate.

England and West Ham front man Carlton Cole had a perfect opportunity in the dying minutes of the match when he dribbled around Reina but Carlos Marchena was lucky there to clear the ball off the line. That was as close as England would get as the referee blew his whistle to call the game to a close and sealed our 29th straight game in which we have been undefeated.

The city of Sevilla is naturally one which is rich in culture, tradition, and is always bound to be buzzing at all times of the night. The city after this victory was much different however, it was more full of live (if that’s possible!) and people were singing and dancing through the streets. The people were absolutely ecstatic, it was simply amazing.

A point that has to be said about yesterday’s match is this – Xavi is the best play maker in the world. If you watched the game you can’t not agree, the boy is pure class. He was the MOTM by miles and even though the team was pretty flawless, Xavi was in a class all on his own, what a stunning performance. He does everything, he’s a workhorse in the midfield running all over the pitch, breaking up plays, recovering balls, going in hard to win every 50/50, truly is the lynchpin for our squad.

If anyone was questioning our ability I can assure you it is still there and it proves the depth in our squad when we have players like Silva, Güiza, Árbeloa, Fàbregas (when healthy) and Cazorla coming off the bench. The win at home to a team of England’s stature is definitely a sign that we still have what it takes and can defeat some of the best teams around. It also proves that size doesn’t matter seeing as England has (physically) one of the largest squads but we danced around them like it was La Fería.

The only bad news last night was that Llorente after scoring his first goal for Spain did limp off the pitch and will miss his match for Athletic Club this weekend against Recreativo de Huelva.

Usually I would sit here and write more about things from La Furia Roja’s perspective, but this time I’m going to critique the match. England were awful, they may have started good but really lack the pace and appear just to be no more than an average European team. I don’t think anyone can be serious when they say England will be serious World and Euro challengers in the next coming tournaments because they’re clearly weak. I don’t care that Rooney, Ferdinand, and Hargreaves were missing, sure they may have helped a bit but the outcome would have probably been the same. Also it doesn’t matter what fans consider the “stronger league” because even though 3 of the last 4 teams in the Champions League were English they still greatly struggled yesterday in Sevilla. Domestic and international football are two different things, look at the foreigners in La Liga compared to the foreigners in the Premier Leauge. Needless to say the influx is definitely in the Prem.

I think we can definitely look forward to the coming months ahead when we continue on the road to South Africa 2010. We have the best squad in history and the highest confidence to go with it too, who will stop La Furia Roja is what I want to know…

Both of our nations have produced countless stars who shine ever so brightly domestically but when we step out there in those major tournaments we just seem to crumble. This year around we put some of those critics back in line as we convincingly won the European Championships under the leadership of Luís Aragonés in Austria/Switzerland. England on the other hand, failed to even qualify for the tournament.

Aragonés stopped the hurting for all Spaniards when we claimed out first piece of silverware for over 40 years but can Fabio Capello do the same for England? They’ve definitely had a resurgence since he’s taken over but playing against the defending European champions is a whole other ball game.

There is not much to say about this match because I’ve pretty much said everything that needs to be said in the previous two posts here and here.

Just a few bits of team news though. Carles Puyol did pick up an injury over the weekend and has therefore pulled out of the squad that will play The Three Lions, his Barcelona teammate Gerard Piqué will most likely slot in at centre back due to his absence. Real Betis defender Juanito will also not play due to a knock he picked up in training earlier this week. As scheduled Fernando Torres will play even despite Rafa Benítez’ rant earlier this week.

The squad will therefore be like this:
Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas, José Manuel “Pepe” Reina
Defenders: Raúl Albiol, Álvaro Arbeloa, Joan Capdevila, Juanito, Carlos Marchena, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Ramos
Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Sergi Busquets, Santiago Cazorla, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Albert Riera, David Silva, Marcos Senna
Forwards: Daniel Güiza, Fernando Llorente, Fernando Torres, David Villa

I think it will be a close match but playing at home The Lions have probably bit off more than they can chew.

Forget that, let me lay it down for you plain and simple right here.

We outplayed and knocked you out of the European Championship this past summer albeit on penalties, but you try scoring against 11 defenders!!…

Of course we also went on to win the Euro 2008 Championship as well.

We’re currently ranked number one in the world by FIFA, a full 3 places higher than Italy.

We sit first place in our World Cup qualifying group with a total of 12 points from four matches, a record of 100%. Italy sits in first with 10 points, BUT!! luckily scraping past Cyprus (anyone remember that last minute fluke?) and Montenegro with scores of 2-1, and also drawing Bulgaria 0-0. Less than convincing to say the least.

Earlier this week, UEFA announced their “Team of the season” and no Italians were good enough to make the cut while 6 out of the starting XI were Spanish. Speaks volumes really.

Iker Casillas
Sergio Ramos
Carles Puyol
Xavi Hernández
Cesc Fàbregas
Fernando Torres

Those were the players that made the list. Others included John Terry, Phillip Lahm, Cristiano Ronaldo, Franck Ribéry, and Lionel Messi, all of which ARE NOT Italian.

Sorry Italy, your Mediterranean brothers are simply better than you are.

Before any Italian fans come on here full of rage and ready to post offensive comments, well, think first. The title clearly says “we’re” which is present tense, meaning we are better than you on the current moment, I’m not speaking history so don’t come on here telling me about how good you’ve been in the past.

I really couldn’t care less, its 2009 not 2006.

¡¡Qué viva España!!