In anticipation of this year’s Euro 2008, I thought it’d be illuminating to look at the history of La Furia Roja, who’ve underachieved time and time again.
Their best finish ever at the World Cup was 4th place in 1950.
Their only major tournament victory was Euro 1964, a mere 44 years ago.
You could say [...]

This one might lack the drama of some other World Cup games and I for one am happy to have Spain playing in a game that should really just back a kickabout. Even though we are pretty much assured of winning the group it still would be nice to continue to play excellent football [...]

With coach Aragones unconcerned about the next round opponent, he is going to give his reserve players a chance to play against Saudi Arabia and I can’t blame him. Canizares is likely to make the start in goal and a guy like Inesta is hoping that some minutes in a largely meaningless game will [...]

What a great position to be in. Win, lose or draw against Saudi Arabia we are more than likely to win the group. This means that Aragones can use the Saudi game as an opportunity to rest some of the players and to clear the team of card accumulations.
Aragones has said that he [...]

Add Diego Maradona to the list of Cesc Fabregas admirers. Following Fabregas’ strong performance off the bench against Tunisia, Maradona said: “I hope he carries on playing football like that. He was spectacular. Cesc gave Spain the final ball that it was lacking in the first half.”
Fabregas also goes on to talk about the [...]

This is the Spain blog and this is World Cup football so how much rejoicing can we really allow here?
After the first set of two games, in my opinion the best teams in the tournament have been Argentina and Spain. We took apart a capable Ukraine team and showed a little moxy [...]

After a slow start, Spain woke up and punched their ticket to the knockout stages by defeating Tunisia. I must admit I was surprised to see Aragones use his subs before the 55th minute but it paid off with Raul using his strength to net the first goal and Fabregas sending the long pass [...]

Just as I feared, this game has turned out to be tougher than might have been expected. Tunisia’s goal came in part to a defensive breakdown early on. After they scored I thought our players looked a little panicked for the next 10 minutes before settling down and controlling the run of play.
On [...]

It is game day and I am excited to see how we respond. After playing so well against Ukraine I must admit I am a bit nervous that the team will have a letdown. From all indications, spirits have been good in the training sessions this week and the players are saying they [...]

Now that we have all had a few days to bask in the glory of Spain’s convincing win against Ukraine, it is time to turn our attention to Tunisia. The Carthage Eagles are an experienced team that is coming off a mediocre effort against Saudi Arabia.
This is a dangerous game for Spain. The [...]