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Spain vs. Ukraine, the player ratings

June 16th, 2006 | By: Ian | 29 Comments »

You’ve all had a chance to reflect on one of the most impressive Spanish national team performances in several years. How would you rate Spain’s national side?

Player Ratings
Iker Casillas: 6. Was never challenged. Wrongly left the net late in the match simply out of boredom.
Sergio Ramos: 8. An excellent performance from Ramos, who proved critics wrong with his performance on the right flank. Can he play right back? Yes sir!
Pablo Ibanez: 7. I believe he is Spain’s weakest link on the field, but when Iker Casillas left the box in the second half, Pablo came up big with a sliding tackle.

Carles Puyol: 9. His sequence to set up Fernando Torres’ goal was one of the individual highlights of the tournament. He is one of the best backs in the world and proved it.
Mariano Pernia: 7. Not the break-out performance I was hoping for, but nonetheless solid.
Xavi: 8. Played some great first touch passes. Mostly good with his corner kicks, although kept going to near post which I found annoying (however, it gave Spain its first goal).
Xabi Alonso: 8. Along side Senna, he was great and did well with his header for the opening goal. Was subbed out in the 55th, but only to preserve his fitness because he was so good.
Marcos Senna: 7. An underrated performance. Very mechanical and very consistent. I love what he brings to the Spain midfield alongside more flashy players. Did anyone else love the shot Senna took that roofed into the net? Sure it didn’t count, but it was pretty.
Luis Garcia: 7. I would’ve give him an 8, but he loses points for his glory-stealing celebration after the first goal. Still, his performance certainly merited a starting line-up spot.
David Villa: 7. Villa grabbed headlines around the world by scoring two goals, but really.. one was a penalty kick (drawn by Torres) and the other was a deflected free kick. Make no mistake though, he challenged Ukraine’s defenders all day. Very strong on the ball, he should be a top candidate for the Golden Boot.
Fernando Torres: 9. Must be Spain’s most feared attacker. I sense three more goals before the end of group play.
Sub, David Albelda: 6. Played well without ever really impressing.
Sub, Raul: 6. This is not your tournament my friend. Would’ve much rather seen Reyes come on instead.
Sub, Cesc Fabregas: NR. Would’ve liked to have seen him get more time.

Man of the Match: Carles Puyol, center back.

Tags: Carles Puyol, Player Ratings, Spain, Ukraine

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 29 comments.

Read the rest of the comments

By Maria | June 16th, 2006 at 1:19 pm

Pujol was excelent! I think I’m going to buy a t-shirt with number 5 on it!

By TheImmortalOne | June 16th, 2006 at 4:34 pm

I love all the players equally because as a team they are rock solid so who cares about individual performances?

Posted from United Kingdom

By Roland | June 16th, 2006 at 5:05 pm

This team is going to kick ass. You’ll see.

Posted from United States

By dogmode | June 16th, 2006 at 9:54 pm

i agree, bad move on the part of Casillas for leaving the goal, gladly he was saved by Pablo. And Ian I know Raúl is old and injured but I really think he provides good leadership for the team, the old work horse still has a lot to give.. heres to Spain going all the way! Viva La Furia Roja! Viva España!

Posted from Philippines

By U hooligan | June 16th, 2006 at 10:50 pm

Yeay, more crappy refferee calls.

Posted from Canada

By Ronan | June 17th, 2006 at 12:05 am

Yup, very crappy ref calls. Who care. Spain will not make it to the finals. I think it will be Argentina vs. Germany.

By Raul | June 17th, 2006 at 1:39 am

Crappy ref calls?????? LMAO….. did we forget Korea???? We deserve some ref calls. Also last I checked short pulling is an infraction…. an infraction in the book is a pk and if you are the last man and you commit an infraction its a direct red card…. good call ref!!! We will win this world cup cause we should have won the last one and Karma is a Bit*h

Posted from United States

By AD Dennehey | June 17th, 2006 at 2:14 am

Very impressive performance by spain - muy excellenté!

That was some performance and a great marker by Spain who will surley this time get rid of that “we always bottle it @ the Big Tournaments”.

All the spain players had a good game and the only moment Spain were in any danger was when Casillas came out and missed the ball completly - And even then the game was over.

Thought the midfield trio of Marcos Senna, Xavi and Xabi Alonso were brillaint, can’t remember them putting a foot wrong.

Luis Garcia also had a good game, his only blemish was having the cheek to celebrate Alonso’s goal…i dont think even greedy strikers like Lineker and Shearer would appeal for that goal. Other than that Garcia was impressive, he’s a good unpredictable player and offered good link-up.

David Villa n Torres were quite magnificent. Nice 2 See Villa score and put the doubters who think he can’t play at international level to silence.

But Fernando Torres….WOW that was a gr8 performance. He really is getting better and better every time i see him. He really worked hard and if Manchester United ditch Van Nistelorry, then this guy is the guy 2 get, and at only 22years old it really makes you wonder just how GOOD this guy can get.

Well Done Spain

Posted from United States

By Miguelinho | June 17th, 2006 at 7:50 am

Raul: “We deserve some ref calls.” Wtf, pal? Your solution to bad refereeing is to see more bad refereeing - as long as it benefits your team? Shouldn’t the dream be to have better refs?

The tug on the shorts happened outside the penalty box. If so, a free kick should have been given. Torres kept running and got his shot off. Basically, the referee let the game continue, then called for a penalty and gave a red card because he was disappointed Torres didn’t score.

Does that about sum it up.

Enjoy losing to Brazil in the quarter-final, fool! By the way, I don’t see how you should have won the last one.

Or is this just something Spanish people pass on eternally? You know, from great-grandfather to grandfather to father to you? Hahaha!

Posted from United States

By Miguelinho | June 17th, 2006 at 7:53 am

“We should have won the last one.”

Still can’t stop laughing!

Posted from United States

By Tara | June 17th, 2006 at 8:41 am

give raul a chance. aside from his dip in form and his knee injury he’s still the best player in spain and you know it.

as for casillas, that was a stupid move indeed, you could tell that he was relieved that pablo and puyol saved his ass. but he’s still a great goalkeeper, far surpassing any acheivements other keepers had at his age. he has yet to show what he can do. i say expect more from him this world cup!

Posted from Malaysia

By Carlos | June 17th, 2006 at 12:27 pm

Here Miguelinho, I think this article is what Raul was referring to:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2002/story/0,,742473,00.html

Its about “A series of refereeing decisions generously described as highly debatable saw two Spain goals disallowed…” in the quarter-finals game against South Korea in the 2002 World Cup.

So yes, there may be some merit in his saying, “We should have won the last one.” Having said that though, whether or not its team was robbed of victory in 2002, I believe it is this edition of the World Cup Spain should now be gunning for!

Posted from Australia

By TheImmortalOne | June 17th, 2006 at 1:03 pm

Its funny how people like miguelinho like to hate on people on the internet. what? You cant do it in front of a persons face? Quit your hating cos hating is a waste of breath. Nuff said

Posted from United Kingdom

By Raul | June 17th, 2006 at 4:06 pm

Miguelinho….. Brazil will have a hard time beating a tree in a race right now….. the short tugging started out of the box and ended inside. I dont care what you say… it was a pk….Yes we would have won the last World Cup if it wasnt for the officials….. oh yeah and your mother is a fool for fucking a jackass to create you……. I dont see why I need to be called names when all I was doing was voicing my OPINION…. but if you want to take it there we can. Like the Immortalone said…. people love to hide behind their PC. ……….Clown…..

Posted from United States

By Roland | June 17th, 2006 at 5:17 pm

Hey Miguelinho, quit whining. He pulled his shorts into the penalty box. The fact is Ukraine got it’s ass kicked and never had a chance to win that game. Deal with it.

Posted from United States

By Diego | June 17th, 2006 at 6:00 pm

After former dissapointments, I´ll never say Spain is going to win the cup, until I can see it with my own eyes.

But there is no need of being so imbecile with regards to people´s opinion, Miguelinho.

Posted from Spain

By TheImmortalOne | June 17th, 2006 at 6:08 pm

To all cabrons that dont belong here and just wanna hate go to your own teams blog and not any other teams. We are spaniards not brazilians. Stupid pringao!!

Posted from United Kingdom

By TheImmortalOne | June 17th, 2006 at 6:13 pm

damn straight diego, lets wait and see what spain can do and not get carried away cos we beat one team. Though I am optimistic

Posted from United Kingdom

By Raul | June 17th, 2006 at 6:28 pm

Very true. Lets just hope they continue to play well. I just feel like its our turn. I cant help but to want them to win. It will shut all the critics up.

Posted from United States

By Diego | June 17th, 2006 at 8:33 pm

You are right inmortalone, that´s exactly what I think. We have to behave wise. Personally, I am not optimistic.

It´s only that miguelinho´s attitude calling fool to those expressing their opinion results annoying to me.

Posted from Spain

By TheImmortalOne | June 17th, 2006 at 9:13 pm

We need to be optimistic diego not just the players but the supporters too. I’m not saying we are definitely going to win the world cup, all i’m saying is be positive and lets see how the tournament unfolds. Hopefully to our favour lol

Posted from United Kingdom

By jonathan | June 18th, 2006 at 3:10 am

that was the best performance i have seen by the spanish side at the world cup. i hope they do better.

Posted from Nigeria

By Roland | June 18th, 2006 at 6:26 am

We are going to kick ass because we control the midfield - and he who controls the midfield, controls the universe!

The goals must flow…

And the sleeper will awaken…

Posted from United States

By solo | June 18th, 2006 at 7:24 am

vamos~vamos~españa~~

Posted from Australia

By Jaime | June 19th, 2006 at 7:09 am

This a Team Effort guys,,, and 23 unbeaten matches,,, says something to Luis the Coach.

Luis has done something that no spanish coach has done before,,, The Team play so much like a Team of winners,,,team polotics aside, with a brasilian (Senna) and a Argentinian (Perina), spanish players now feel indirectly that its a TEAM Effort not a Challenge of what club they play for…

There is no Individual performance on the field Even when Iker Casillas on penalties needs his team mental support,,, It is a team Effort!!

Spain has the Quauilty they Need to believe in themselves NOW,,,and WIN El Copa Del Mundo!!!

Posted from Australia

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