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Confederations Cup Game 1: New Zealand v Spain Preview – Sunday 2pm, CBC/ESPN2

June 14th, 2009 | By: Anthony | 13 Comments »

It’s the moment every football fan has been waiting for – the start of the 2009 Confederations Cup. We kick things off today against Oceania champions New Zealand in Rustenburg, South Africa. Going in as European Champions and the number one team overall in the world, obviously high expectations are going to imposed on La Furia Roja but then again, we have played some solid competition since our triumph in Austria/Switzerland last summer and continue to come out on top.

Having said all that, New Zealand won’t be any pushovers. Last week they pushed Italy to their limit when they took the lead in their friendly but ended up losing 4-3 by a late goal. We will definitely keep in mind that winning this match will stretch our unbeaten run to 33 games, having last lost a friendly to Romania way back in November of 2006. We will also have in the back of our head that we are only three undefeated games away from Brazil’s all time record of 35 matches and going undefeated in the qualifying round will see us equal that impressive tally.

We have actually never appeared in the Confederations Cup but at the same time we are also the only team ever to be at the top of the FIFA World Rankings without ever winning the World Cup, emphasizing our superiority on the footballing world over the past year.

Unlike us, this is New Zealand’s third appearance in the tournament having previously lost all their 6 matches. To be honest, I see that streak continuing today.

In our friendly against Azerbaijan last week, Vicente del Bosque started a considerably weaker lineup but knowing that a win versus the All Blacks is crucial to start off our campaign, Señor del Bosque will most likely start a full strength squad with the exceptions of Marcos Senna and Andrés Iniesta who are obviously out due to injury.

Cazorla is the favourite to start in place for Iniesta on the right flank while Xabi Alonso is set to take Marcos Senna’s place in the centre of the park. Gerard Piqué is nursing a slight injury and will probably start today’s match on the bench with Raúl Albiol starting in his place.

The lineup is set to look something like this:
Iker Casillas
Sergio Ramos, Raúl Albiol, Carles Puyol, Joan Capdevila
Santi Cazorla, Xavi, Xabi Alonso, David Silva
Fernando Torres, David Villa

We’re ranked first in the world while New Zealand sits at 82nd, is there really any hope for them? I would say this is going to be a cake walk for us but this is fútbol and stranger things have happened. Having said that though, Xavi alone is enough to dismantle a team. If our little playmaker can control the game like he does so often I don’t see any chance in hell of us even conceding a goal but rather winning by a really emphatic margin.

They might have gave Italy a run for their money but we’re on a whole other level. Bring it on.

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Comments

By Seth | June 14th, 2009 at 11:32 am

Viva España!

By Sol | June 14th, 2009 at 12:05 pm

Good luck, allthough you guys don’t need much luck to win this.

I hope to see some kind of weakness in your team this tournament though, being our main competitor for the WC and all.

But of all our competitors, I think Spain deserves the WC the most and I respect them the most as well.

So good luck winning this tournament, surely you can’t win all 3 tournaments (EC, Confed Cup, WC)? If you guys win this tournament, chances go up for Holland, Brazil and Germany to win the WC.

Posted from Netherlands

By Johonna | June 14th, 2009 at 1:50 pm

Oh man. 18 minutes in and Torres already has a hattrick. This may get really ugly.

Poor New Zealand.

Posted from United States

By Seth | June 14th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

Spain are on fire (or do NWZ just suck?). Is this the same New Zealand side that the “World Champions”, Italy, were desperately struggling to beat?

By jazzy | June 14th, 2009 at 2:38 pm

im starting to feel sorry for NZ..;)
this is great. but i see we are not that comfortable at the back. maybe pique could patch things up once he recovers.
and xabi alonso made some bad passes in the 1st half. bring on sergi busquet..
this coming from a barca fan..:D

Posted from Indonesia

By Nick | June 14th, 2009 at 2:39 pm

Trust me NZ just really sucks.

By jazzy | June 14th, 2009 at 2:44 pm

yes they suck.
but we still struggle in our backline against them. thats something del bosque needs to work on in the up coming match.

Posted from Indonesia

By Sol | June 14th, 2009 at 3:49 pm

It seems the only thing you were missing in the back was a little height for easier clearing of those long high passes (not many, but there were a few).

Other than that, I don’t really understand that to some this game comes as a surprise because of the Italy – NZ game. Don’t you people know it’s ITALY that never was any good (not in 2006 and not now). All they know how to do well is defend, they’re experts at that, I’ll give them that. But they got lucky in 2006 and there were many other better teams, including France, Brazil, Portugal (at full strength including Ronaldo), Spain and even Holland perhaps.

But their B-team playing 4-3 against NZ is no real surprise and it didn’t say anything about the strength of NZ vs Spain, which is not only stronger than Italy, but an entirely different style (offensive).

Posted from Netherlands

By Craig | June 14th, 2009 at 7:23 pm

I hope fifa does something about those horns during the world cup!!!! They are doing my head in. I ended up watching the second half on mute

Posted from Canada

By Vicent | June 14th, 2009 at 8:43 pm

Excellent win. Viva Espana!!

By alexa | June 14th, 2009 at 10:51 pm

What a beast.

Posted from United States

By Armando | June 15th, 2009 at 1:49 am

Okay, i know you guys won 5-0 so it’s hard to criticize, but some of those starters i would disagree with. I think Marchena should start in front of Albiol (as longas Marchena is not injured), and possibly even be a regular starter, as he certainly did good in the Euro for Spain and is overall a very good defender. With Senna and Iniesta injured, the selection in midfield gets alot easier, but i wouldnt start Cazorla. And Villa and Torres i obviously agree with, as i firmly believe theyre the two best pure strikers in the world today. And i would either put Fabregas on the right wing using a 4-4-2, or switch to a 4-1-3-2 like this with the only attacks from the wing coming from Capdevila and Ramos, and sometimes Silva when he drifts there.

———-Casillas
Ramos–Puyol–Marchena–Capdevila
———–Alonso
–Fabregas–Xavi–Silva
——-Torres–Villa

By ken | June 15th, 2009 at 4:46 pm

Does anybody know when does Spain face Brazil? Thanks

Comments are closed