Catalans are very close to Castellanos, and most Catalans don’t want our own nation. Although some sort of autonomy, as most of Spain’s wealth comes from Barcelona and is distributed to less productive areas of the country that with all do respect, abuse the socialist system. And btw our Catalan National team would be ranked in the Fifa top 20

great article.

1. Brazil/Spain/Argentina
2. Holland/England/Germany
3. Paraguay/Russia
4. France/Portugal(yes, I think they’ll make it)/Croatia/Italy
5. Turkey/and perhaps some other outsiders like Uruguay

David Villa seems to perform much better for Spain than Torres does; at least when it comes down to consistency. Regardless though, I do think they are definitely the best striking partnership on the international stage right now.

I like the little low-blow you gave Italy there too, haha.

If we do play Holland no doubt it will be match to remember with possibly the two best attacking teams going head to head, it couldn’t be anything less. We both had something in common until last summer and that was choking when it came down to important matches. We went through when we defeated Italy which ended our streak but you guys continued yours when you lost to Russia.

Holland has a solid squad but all things considered I still believe we’re the team to beat. By the time WC2010 rolls around, things should be very interesting.

I was just thinking about a possible Holland – Spain matchup somewhere in the worldcup.
First I was thinking sort of along the lines of a Real Madrid – Barcelona rematch, but only this time we will have ALL our dutch players like the Hunter,Robben,Sneijder trio and for example Kuyt en vPersie on the field and Spain won’t have the likes of Messi and Eto’o. That still looked doable.

Then I remembered Torres, ouch!

That’s going to be one interesting match if it ever happpens. I don’t consider Villa to be as top-notch as Torres, but I do think most people in Spain underestimate the quality of the Hunter,Robben,Sneijder trio if they get to play the full 90 minutes together supported by the right type of players like Kuyt en vPersie. At Real they don’t get that chance very often and the type of players like Raul and Higauin (did I spell his name right?) are very different from Kuyt en vPersie.

I still think Spain got us beat though, especially when it comes down to the goalkeepers.

Would be a great match to watch, I enjoy watching the attacking and risktaking teams the most, like Holland, Spain, Brazil, Argentina.

On the other hand I can’t stand to watch the cowards like Italy, Greece, France in 2008 (and to a lesser degree in 2006).

Damn, Spain got a fearsome team!!!

I do however understand your very valid points in regards to confidence fluctuation due to the competition we’ll be facing off against. Our group is RATHER simple and I just hope that doesn’t affect us once we go through to play the harder teams like Italy and Brasil.

The consequences of one such tournament are obvious (i.e. injuries etc.) but in the end, the glory is well worth it. I mean how sweet would defeating Italy or Brasil be to lift the Cup? We would then have more substantial proof to our claim that we’re the best in the world.

A. Bolster false confidence (they got placed in a relatively fluffy group).

B. Hurt confidence (if they get beat by relatively fluffy teams).

c. Cause injuries (this not so much: players will have plenty of time to recover).