Day 1: Rebuilding the Armada

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: