Spain vs Colombia Preview and Match Comment Thread

February 9th, 2011 | by: Ade C. | Comments Off

Another day, another friendly, another possibility for embarrassment.

And we've got posters and everything, how exciting...

World Champions Spain will face Colombia today (Wednesday 9th of February at 21:30 CET) for the first friendly of 2011 at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid. Our Wise Walrus has called up the same old faces (save for Carles Puyol, injured, and Cesc Fàbregas, with an -according to some sources- suspiciously-timed stomach flu) and we play at home with no long flight to blame for our jet-lag, so we have no excuse to put on a poor show.

Colombia’s coach, the veteran Hernán ‘Bolillo’ Gómez, doesn’t trust La Roja’s lackadaisical attitude towards friendlies, though, and is already getting the excuses ready: “Spain are a well reinforced Barcelona who play every eight days and we have not got together for four months with this team that’s going to play, so these are very big disadvantages against the best team in the world.”

On the other corner of the ring, and whether he wants it or not, Del Bosque is going to have to make some changes to his beloved starting XI, since, for a start, Puyol isn’t available to partner Piqué. Will Albiol fill his place? Will Marchenator? Will Ramos move to CB and let Arbeloa off the bench for once (not likely, but damn it, I want to see Ramos playing as a CB for once!)?

And what about the midfield? Without Fàbregas, the only options are a) play the same old Alonso-Busquets-Xavi-Iniesta, b) get Cazorla in for either Xavi or Iniesta, c) get Marchena in for either Alonso or Busquets, which limits our defensive options, d) change the whole design (bye-bye, Double-Pivot!) to accomodate Silva as a attacking midfielder and see what’s he learnt in the Premier. Or d) all of the above, but it’s Del Bosque we’re dealing with, one change every two years is already too much for him.

And the attack? Here we have plenty of options, for once. Play one of the Fernandos (Torres or Llorente, I’d go with the Bilbao man) as central striker, put Villa on the left, where he’s been playing for Barça, and either Pedrito or Navas on the right, or spare Villa and play Silva on the left, or put Villa in the center and then haul Llorente off the bench in the second half and hope he has goals enough to save us all.

And I vote that Reina gets a shot at goalkeeping for Spain again, to wipe from our memories his unfortunate outing against Argentina.

Friendlies are supposed to be opportunites for experimentation, either with old players in new positions, or with new players fitting in with the old, but since Del Bosque refuses to do one or the other, I just can’t bring myself to care. Why should I? We’re going to see tired players do the least they can and try to avoid injury in a match that means nothing to them…

… and yet, of course, wild horses couldn’t drag me away from the TV this evening. You can comment here during the match, and we’ll also be tweeting it live from @ESP_WorldCup, which should also be your source for all news of La Roja!

Also, yesterday, La Rojita beat Denmark’s U21s 2-1 in their friendly, with goals by N’Sue and Ander Herrera, and debuts by Iker Muniaín, Didac and Martín Montoya. After wasting several chances and after over an hour of play, Herrera gave an assist to let N’Sue score with his first touch on the ball of the match; Denmark drew level and got Víctor Ruíz expelled in the same move (he responded aggressively to a provocative celebration by the Danish goalscorer), but the team regrouped and Ander Herrera scored the winning goal not ten minutes later. Javi Martínez, World Champion and captain, and Thiago Alcántara were particularly good, but it was a good showing by most of the team, except perhaps for Bojan, Adrián and a Diego Capel who was excessively selfish at times.

(apologies for the lateness in this preview, WordPress was being feisty…)