Spain 1, Colombia 0, Or, Mediocrity and Naivete

February 10th, 2011 | by: Ade C. | Comments Off

Goalscorer Silva seems to agree with me in his lack of excitement...

Not only because it would have been fairer on our opponents, but because a win conceals the fact that we had a pretty crap match against an inferior rival. We hid behind excuses for our dismal friendlies against Mexico, Argentina and Portugal (Jet-lag! Messi! Cristiano Ronaldo!), but here, here we should have faced the fact that -friendly-wise, at least for now- the team is not working.

Marquis Del Bosque played, for this friendly match, smack in the middle of La Liga season and only one week before half of his team plays a Champions League match… the same team that played the World Cup final, except for the injured Puyol: Casillas, Ramos, Piqué, Albiol, Capdevila, Alonso, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro and Villa. No Llorente, who’s been so remarkable for us whenever he’s played; no Silva, no Torres, no Navas, no… you get my drift.

In the meanwhile, ‘Bolillo’ Gómez (and his remarkably active assistant coach, Leonel Álvarez, he of the great hair) played Ospina, Zúñiga, Yepes, Perea, Armero, Anchico, Abel Aguilar, Guarín, Giovanni Moreno, Ramos and Dayro Moreno. You see that? They didn’t even play all their stars, leaving people like Falcao on the bench!

The match started and Colombia pretty soon surrendered possession to Spain, while holding onto a very physical, tidy defence to make sure that Spain’s possession game wasn’t a danger to them. And it wasn’t. While Spain controlled most of the match, it was Colombia that had the better chances in stray counters that only Saint Iker’s blessed reflexes (and the woeful accuracy of the Colombia forwards) kept from becoming goals.

Villa had two incredible chances in one to, once and for all, break Raúl’s goalscoring record with La Roja, but he first hit the goalpost (fifth time that happens in the last six matches with Spain) and then sent the rebound juuuuuust wide. Raul’s record will have to wait until later.

Don Andrés, light of my life... and of this dreary match.

Things were not good by the time the first half was over and everything continued all goalless and drab, with only Iniesta’s gorgeous passes and control to cheer up our existence. With one imagines must have been a rumbling sigh, Del Bosque conceded defeat and made subs: Villa out for Fernando Torres, Capdevila out for Arbeloa, Xavi out for Cazorla.

This didn’t really improve anything: Torres was anonymous (as he has been later, and not only with La Selección), our LB problem is not going to be solved by Arbeloa, who although hard-working, is no less average than Capdevila, and although Cazorlita did try to put more attacking force into our midfield, he came up against the fact that the Colombia defence was forcing a very active Pedrito almost onto the midfield (and Torres, seriously, didn’t do anything).

It was almost an hour after the match had started that an idea ponderously made its way across Our Wise Walrus’ brain: Iniesta came off for Navas. Well, I never said it was a brilliant idea, but Navas’ speed did help open up the Colombia defence a little. The change came later, when Xabi Alonso came off for David Silva, freeing us from the weight of the double-pivot and pushing the game forwards; it did give Colombia more opportunites, but Saint Iker saved us all, and slowly, Spain actually got into the game of threatening Ospina’s goal.

The goal came at the 86th minute, a slicing Navas‘ cross into the box that Silva nicely buried past the keeper; even if he hadn’t, Llorente -who hade come in for Pedrito- was there at hand, and he then then had a splendid shot that Ospina just managed to save.

(video courtesy of 101GreatGoals)

Funny enough, Silva and Llorente are Spain’s top goalscorers since the World Cup, with four goals each, even though Del Bosque never puts them on the starting XI and only brings them out when the going gets tough. Does this tells you anything about how this team is going?!

A win, yes, but it leaves such a bitter taste in our mouths. Yes, it was a friendly. Yes, most players were more likely saving their energy for the weekend’s matches. Yes, it doesn’t really matter. And yet… it’s such a waste of La Roja’s talent, such a waste of opportunities to test young players!

I am very unhappy with Our Wise(?) Walrus. He needs to do something. He needs to let go of the dead weight (here’s looking at you, kid Niño), needs to bring up new people (people like Granero, Pedro León, Monreal, who are kicking their heels while others like Xavi, Alonso and the like must see these friendlies like nothing more than a tiresome duty), he needs to use better the brilliant players he does call up (the day Llorente and Silva start, won’t that be wonderful?)… he just needs to do something. Before I get fed up and go out to try to pick a fight with the first walrus I come across.

(The Spain World Cup Blog does not condone picking a fight with marine wildlife)

Anyway, this is the only walrus I feel like kicking on the shins right now...

Anyway, what’s your opinion? Am I getting too worked up over a meaningless friendly -after all, Spain has won all its competitive matches since the WC-, or is this really a symptom of bad things to come? What did you think of the match?