2010 World Cup Preview - SPAIN

Spain is undoubtedly the hottest international squad in soccer right now.  Spain have only lost one of their last 38 matches and had a winning streak of 15 consecutive match wins, before falling to the United States in the Confederations Cup Semifinals.  Strangely enough, a team with as much history has Spain has never performed well in the World Cup.  In the last 80 years, Spain have not finished better than 4^th in the competition, failing to even qualify 6 of 18 times.   This year will certainly be their best performance to date.

With four games remaining in their UEFA qualifying, Spain is firmly on top of their group and in this bloggers opinion a 100% shoe-in to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.  The 2006 World Cup looked promising to begin, however a Round of 16 match-up against France spelled disaster.  David Villa put Spain on top early but the lead did not last as France answered with three consecutive goals to knock Spain out before the quarterfinals.

When you have won as many games as Spain have in the last four years, you would expect one man to be leading the team the entire way however Spain had an unexpected change in management.  In 2008, Luis Aragones left as manager of the Spanish International Soccer Team and Vicente Del Bosque took over.  Many were unsure if Spain could continue their recent dominance and disbelievers were soon on the Spanish bandwagon as Vicente won his first 13 matches.  (Who would have thought the US would prove to be too much!)

The make-up of the Spanish squad should be well known to all soccer fans.  The same squad responsible for the dominating 2008 Euro performances will most like stay together for the 2010 World Cup.  Villa and Torres (When Torres is “right” in the head) is the most dangerous 1-2 striker combo in the world and if your plan is to win a shootout against Spain, you can pack your bags.  If it weren’t for Argentina, this blogger would have Spain winning it all.