Spain Spain Spain. Really. REALLY?
So….i get home…thinking….it will be great to compare Spain to Brazil. I think those are by far the best teams from top to bottom, and by far the favorites for the tournament.
And what happens. WHAT HAPPENS?
Spain lose. They lose. To Switzerland. I mean…Switzerland are not a bad team. In fact that are a fairly well drilled team, coached by one of the more respected German coaches Otmar Hitzfeld (don’t check my spelling). But still…Spain must have had, oh, i dont know….85% of the posession, and end up losing 1-0. Seriously. What. The. Hell.
So now they have to win the final two games to even hope of qualifying for the 2nd round. The other bracket that will play the 1st and second placed teams (Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast) must be loving it, because if they can avoid having to plan Spain in the 2nd round, that would be fantastic for them. But…if spain can finish 2nd, then I’d hate to be the team finishing first in the other group. Getting Spain in the 2nd round is a lot more scary than Switzerland.
Chances are that Spain won’t mess up again….so it will be like poking the bear. Bad idea.
But…considering France bowed out of the World Cup in 2002, after having won it in 1998, it’s not unheard of to see one of the favorites go so quickly down hill. I think the difference though, is that Spain played really really well. They just didn’t score. France…when they lost….well…they played like crap form start to finish. Spain has a much better chance of finishing in the top 2 of their group, and shaking off a bad start.
I guess these are the interesting things that make the world cup so intriguing. It doesn’t matter what your rank is. It just matters what you do from the first whistle to the last. 9 times out of 10, spain will beat switzerland…but on this occasion, when it counted……the result went the opposite way.
gotta love soccer.
