Spain- Possible Contenders or destined to fail once again?

As a start to this football blog, I’d like to introduce myself. I am Jason Pereira, a fledgling sports journalist trying to make his mark in the world by talking about the sport he loves best, football. Having supported Spain at the last two World Cups, I was grateful when World Cup Blog gave me a chance to cover their highs and lows during the next few years. I will start by detailing their mission to win the trophy for just the second time at the upcoming Euro ‘08.

Throughout history, Spain have always promised much yet delivered little. Known as the perennial underachievers on the international stage, the last time La Selección won the European Championships was way back in 1938- long before most of us were born. Since then, golden oldies such as Ferenc Puskas, Alfredo Di Stéfano and Michel as well as modern greats such as Raul, Fernando Hierro and Luis Enrique have all tried to bring success to Spain on the international stage, and all of them have failed miserably. During the last World Cup Spain were thought to be one of the tournament favourites, especially after easily winning their group while conceding just a solitary goal. However, when it got to knockout time and they faced France in the round of 16, Spain choked yet again- allowing the eventual finalists to come back into the game even after Villa had put them 1-0 to the good.

Despite this setback, I and the rest of the large army that support the Spanish national team will all feel quietly confident going into the European Championship of 2008. Precocious youngsters such as Cesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres and Antonio Puerta will all have another year under their belts while continuing to improve at an impressive rate , and it is hard to see Spain lacking experience this time. With wise heads like Marcos Senna, Raul and Carlos Puyol in the camp- men who have experienced the summits as well as the very foot of the mountain that is football, they will ably guide the youthful Spain through the losses and victories they will achieve in this tournament soon approaching. Although Spain started their qualifying campaign in a bit of a rut, they fought back strongly to climb to second in the table, just three points behind Sweden and qualifying easily in their own hands. Their crunch ties come against Sweden on the 17th of November and against Northern Ireland on the 21st of November, however since both games are at home it is hard to see Euro 08 without the presence of Spain, and more importantly the Spanish girls that come along to support their country- such as the one shown below (although I doubt you’ll see her in the crowd

With this picture, I sign off. I look to hearing your thoughts on both this blog, and Spain’s challenge for the two upcoming international tournaments.