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Spain World Cup 2010 preview

GROUP H

Spain

Switzerland

Honduras

Chile

 

All eyes will be on Spain when the 2010 World Cup kicks off in South Africa at the beginning of June. The 2008 European Champions have never won the World Cup and are amongst the favourites to triumph in the summer. With a team containing stars all over the pitch, few would bet against Spain going all the way. A world class goalkeeper in Iker Casillas is well protected by the experienced Carlos Puyol and Carlos Marchena whislt Xavi and Andres Iniesta marshell the midfield. Fernando Torres and David Villa lead the line in what is arguably the most fearsome international strike partnership on the planet. All in all, Spain don’t seem to have a noticable weakness and have quality in reserve in case of injuries.

The Spaniards should have no problem in emerging from a particularly straightforward group. However, it will be interesting to see whether or not the team can handle the pressure in the latter stages or if they will buckle like they have done in previous World Cups. Should they top their group as expected, they will likely face a tricky 2nd round match against Portugal or the Ivory Coast. The European champions’ task looks to get no easier in the quarter finals as they are seeded to face defending champions Italy. A semi final tie could also potentially throw up either Argentina or Germany if all goes to plan.

SPAIN SQUAD

Manager Vicente del Bosque has a wide variety of top quality european based players to choose from going into South Africa 2010. It is likely that a large quota of Spaniards at prestigious football clubs will miss out due to the depth of quality available. Here are the players most likely to make the trip if fit!

GOALKEEPERS

Iker Casillas

Pepe Reina

DEFENDERS

Carles Puyol

Gerard Pique

Carlos Marchena

Sergio Ramos

Raul Albiol

MIDFIELDERS

Xavi

Andres Iniesta

Cesc Fabregas

David Silva

Sergio Busquets

Xabi Alonso

FORWARDS

David Villa

Fernando Torres

Alvaro Negredo

Daniel Guiza

PREDICTION

With an enormous strength in depth, it is extremely hard to find a case against Spain becoming 2010 World Champions. Injuries to the country’s ultimate players such as Puyol, Xavi, Torres or Villa could wobble the Spanish challenge whilst a European country has never actually won the tournament on a different continent. I actually think that Spain may fall in a shock quarter final or semi final defeat but for the purpose of this preview, I shall predict them to finish as runners up to Brazil.

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