Day 1: Rebuilding the Armada

October 7th, 2008 | By: Dancy | 5 Comments »

A rash of injuries marred the first day of international break for La Seleccion today.  Most of them are minor, but Diego Capel was reportedly in tears upon hearing his medical report that he’ll be out 3 weeks with an abductor muscle injury.  My heart goes out to him.  :(   The boy that’d dazzled me throughout the Denmark and Bosnia games, only to be benched for the Armenia game, was intent on improving his play and proving those critics wrong that he wasn’t a “team player”. 

But now the 20 year old Sevillan must pack his bags and go home.  In his place will come Albert Riera, the former Espanyol winger now with Liverpool.  Riera has 5 caps for Spain + 1 goal, but did not feature in the Euro team this summer.  This is pretty intriguing: now Liverpool has FIVE La Seleccion players (Torres, Reina, Alonso, Riera, Arbeloa), the most of any club for this gathering.

The other injuries are:

  • Santi – collided with Pepe and hobbled off the pitch, hopefully its not major (see training video below)
  • Puyol – didn’t train today due to foot infection
  • Albiol – trained by himself as he’s coming back from a knock, might train with the squad tomorrow.

Alright, on to the good stuff now!  Fernando Torres is back!!  And after his two braces recently, this makes me so giddy for the Belgium game, even if it is away in Brussels.  Cesc is growing his hair out, Pepe is putting the defensive moves on Sergio, and Iniesta gets a haircut that makes him look even younger than before, if that’s possible!  Here’s the training video:

 Photos:

 

 

 

  



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Comments
Username By Izzy | October 7th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
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I also hear Andres Iniesta has some aches and pains in his knee.

I’m sure Iniesta, Puyol, Albiol, and Cazorla will be fit by the 11th.

As for Albert Riera… I’m not too sure about him. I would have rather had Rubén de la Red take his place.

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Username By Bobo | October 8th, 2008 at 1:52 am
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Whoa, is Pepe Reina marking Fernando Torres? Or about to lift him up bodily from the ground?

Plus, I’m not so sure what you all find so dazzling about Diego Capel… a lot of flash, little end product. He might be technically excellent, but I suspect that his footballing IQ isn’t very high at all.

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Username By Dancy | October 8th, 2008 at 9:55 am
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Bobo, that is Sergio Ramos that Pepe is trying to lift off the ground :) Good luck to him!

About Capel – yeah, I’ve heard that argument. There’s some games where he seems to do a lot of running and not much else. But even in the Bosnia game that he got criticized for, he was the only real movement there, he was the one who repeatedly got us free kicks and corners. Plus, whats wrong with a little flash for the eye? Beats Italian football, that’s for sure! :D

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Username By Dancy | October 8th, 2008 at 10:04 am
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Izzy – I’m not sure about Riera either. Seems like as soon as a Spanish player makes it to a big club (esp in the EPL, see Arbeloa), they get picked for NT duty. But our options on the wing are thin, since Silva is out too, and Mata is on U-21 duty. Ruben de la Red is a midfielder, and we have plenty of those already. Well . . lets give his guy a chance. Benitez sure likes him!

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Username By elisa | October 8th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
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Riera has a lot to prove, but he is a good work horse a la Dirk Kuyt. The same also applies to Diego Capel, but the Sevillista is far more dangerous, gets a lot of fouls and free kicks and is lightning fast on the wings. Sure his final third needs polish, but I will take him any day. Gotta love the man love foto! I really think Del Bosque needs to tread lightly. He should have brought more backup in defense with the knocks and injuries going around. Our poor boys haven’t had a real break this year.

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