Squad Announced for Next two WC2010 Qualifiers

It’s been a while. A while since I’ve wrote a post on this blog and a while since us supporters of La Furia Roja have been privileged enough to see our boys in action. No worries though ladies and gentlemen because not only am I back, but so is Del Bosque and co. as we look to continue our flawless streak in World Cup qualifying.

A few days ago Vicente del Bosque named the players which would be included in the squad for the next two qualifiers against Belgium in A Coruña and Estonia in Merida.

We’re currently ranked second in the world behind heavyweights Brasil due to their success in this past year’s Confederations Cup and our crash out of the same tournament. The ranking system doesn’t really make sense to me (as well as probably most of the other people who pay attention to it) as to how a team who won over 30 matches in a row and had a choke hold over world football could possibly not be ranked 1st in the world after one mere defeat. Regardless of what I think, that’s what it is and only a win in the World Cup next year would get us back where we belong so it all starts Sepember 5th when we take on Belgium.

Some good news for us as our holding midfielder and Villarreal superstar Marcos Senna is returning to the squad after missing our Confederations Cup campaign. He was a massive reason for our lack of stability in the centre of midfield in South Africa this past summer and to have him back is a massive boost for us. We all saw at the European Championships last year how much of a match changer he really is and I have no doubts that nothing has changed from then until now.

A surprising addition to the squad was Cesc Fàbregas who is usually included in the squad but last weekend picked up a knock against Portsmouth and was apparently ruled out a minimum of 3 weeks. I guess Del Bosque has deemed him fit enough to play but its surprising that Arsenal let him go considering his circumstances. I’m sure Del Bosque won’t risk him if Xavi and Marcos Senna are doing a sufficient job in the middle as they usually do.

There are only two usuals who are excluded from the squad this time around which are Sergio Ramos and Andrés Iniesta who are both still recovering from their injuries with the latter being a long-term one.

Ramos is replaced by Nacho Monreal who is an up and coming left footed defender and plays his club football with Osasuna. Iniesta is replaces by (and when I say replaced, I don’t really mean it because no one can ever replace little Iniesta) Juan Mata of Valencia once again who scored a goal on the weekend in Los Che’s 2-0 victory over La Liga rivals Sevilla.

The full squad called up looks like this:
Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas, Pepe Reina, Diego López

Defenders: Álvaro Arbeloa, Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Carlos Marchena, Raúl Albiol, Nacho Monréal, Joan Capdevila

Midfielders: Cesc Fàbregas, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Xabi Alonso, Marcos Senna, Albert Riera, Juan Mata, David Silva

Forwards: David Villa, Fernando Torres, Dani Güiza

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