Spain vs Tunisia

PHB

Torres wants the golden boot

RuggieBear

i put a million on spain winning 3-1, scoring a penalty and being behind 1 nil at half time.....

besty

You have to feel for the Tunisians. They really didn't deserve to lose 3-1

Aquos76

Torres 3-1 now penalty

KdjaCL

You dont give penos for that

3-1 torres.

kdjac

Aquos76

PHB wrote:

Torres wants the golden boot

And hopefully a move to Man U

MisterAnarchy

Another goal for Torres.
I like Spain but I hope he doesnt score anymore as Man Utd may foolishly buy him.
£25m for him would be madness as he isnt a prolific scorer.
How many more players will Ferguson buy after a major tournament based mostly on performances in a few matches.
Not a wise policy.

Aquos76

MisterAnarchy wrote:

£25m for him would be madness as he isnt a prolific scorer.

Would have to agree with you on the price, but I would love to see him at ManU

Pighead

RuggieBear wrote:

i put a million on spain winning 3-1, scoring a penalty and being behind 1 nil at half time.....

Ha Ha. Ruggies got the hang of this after timing lark Ruggie that is a classic After Timer. Well done my son.
And well done to Pighead whos World Cup betting thread is saved from bankruptcy by the skin of hisballs. Ole Torres!

Guy:Incognito

Cmon lads. Give me my 4th . It's the difference between a fiver @ 11/5 and 11/1


Damn you Torres, quit messing with my money, should have stuck that away.


Final whistle.boo.

KdjaCL

MisterAnarchy wrote:

Another goal for Torres.
I like Spain but I hope he doesnt score anymore as Man Utd may foolishly buy him.
£25m for him would be madness as he isnt a prolific scorer.

He is that good, he destroyed barcelona in the Nou Camp this season as he has done every season vs them but this season he scored a hatrick and could have had more and created almost everything himself.

25 Million is his price and will probably go up every 2 million for every goal he scores.


Entertaining game, Spain showed they can be patient and break down very well organised defences and have the players on the bench to add to a decent 11.




kdjac

PHB

I think Spain showed tonight, why they are contenders for the World Cup, strength in depth.

Their subs:

Raul - Goal and an assist(the cross for the peno)
Joaoquin - Lots of running at defenders, which created their first goal
Fabregas - An assist, and set up another 1v1 chance for Torres

All these will probably keep their places, except Joaoquin, who will come on when they need width.

p.s. Where is Reyes? Is he gona get a chance at all this World Cup? I think that's a testament to Spain's depth

---

As for a move to United,
I think 25 million sterling is a good price, assuming we get about 15 million sterling for Ruud. [Aside from replacing Ruud, I'm fairly sure it would keep Ronaldo at United for many years to come, in order to play alongside an incredible young attacking trio of Ronaldo - Rooney - Torres]

He prefers a move to the premiership and he is availible. If Ruud is sold, considering Fergie's long standing interest, we could see him at United. But I'll believe it when I see him in a shirt, oh wait...

DOLEMAN

Brilliant game! Spain are a class side. They just won me €380!

evilhomer

PHB wrote:

p.s. Where is Reyes? Is he gona get a chance at all this World Cup? I think that's a testament to Spain's depth

He doesn't really fit in the system and Arregones will always pick Villa or Raul ahead of him up front.

I agree though spain have tremendous strength-in depth. Even at the back with a little shuffling about (e.g. for a centre-half, Ramos to the centre and Salgado on the right), they are well covered.

mike65

Were Spain that good though? The Tusinian keeper blew it twice for the first two goals and the third was a peno which on another night may not have been given and was nearly saved.

Mike.

ps anyone else spot that Roger Lamere looked like Pat Short when he had his hood over his head.?

kinaldo

ffs I tried to put my €20 free bet that I got from some random German bookie that was posted on the bargain alerts forum on Spain at HT, except they don't do live betting for some reason. I'm sure I woulda at least trebled it.

Absolute class from Spain and a great demonstration of their strenght in depth. To be able to bring on Raul, Fabregas and Joaquin is quite astounding when you really think about it. The likes of England and Italy just cannot compare.

Edit: sorry I missed PHB already making that point about their subs

Memnoch

KdjaC wrote:

You dont give penos for that

3-1 torres.

kdjac

why not?
i'm sick of watching rugby when I turn on the tele for a game of football.

The defender made no attempt to get the ball but instead had his arms around torres pulling him back and finally dragging him down preventing him from connecting with the header.

It's a clear, illegal, impeding offence inside the penalty area.

Now by which rule book do you say it's not a penatly.

I quite frankly don't care that it's not given. I think it should be given more often, then maybe we can start seeing some actual football and skill than rugby on the football pitch.

Pepe LeFrits

I thought Spain were pretty decent for most of the game but lacked a cutting edge, though that was largely due to the good organisation of the Tunisians.

The quality they brought off the bench was simply astounding though, reminiscient of Argentina a few days ago.

I believe Aragones has said he will rest the entire first XI against the Saudis, which gives Raul and Fabregas the ideal opportunity to cement their places in the first eleven, particularly as Garcia and Senna probably had the weakest grip on their places in the first place. I wouldn't be surprised if they absolutely hammer the Saudis, their second team is so strong (see below!) and they'll all be eager to stake a claim for the knockout stages.

Reina/Canizares, Lopez, Juanito, Marchena, Salgado, Fabregas, Albelda, Iniesta, Reyes, Raul, Joaquin.

Vokes

Spain will beat the Saudis 7-0 easily*





* well, according to my predictions for the league in work, not sure what i was thinking of there

Pigman II

SofaKing wrote:

Spain will beat the Saudis 7-0 easily*

Wouldn't be surprised if they did. Imho Saudi are (for the second time in a row) the worst team at the world cup.

mchurl

Spain will destroy the Saudi's, they are a terrible team, and the Spanish are dark horses for the trophy imo.

Guy:Incognito

Surely Mick McCarthy will lead the saudis into the 2010 world cup to help them cement themselves as the worst team in world cup history.:)

Pigman II

Don't be so sure. Mick McCarthy is undefeated in the World Cup finals as a manager.

However I reckon a Brian Kerr / Roy Keane combo could possibly do the trick for Saudi if that's what they're after. Kerr to sink them on the pitch and then Keane to complain after the game about them not been good enough .

ErinGoBrath

Was I the only one that thought Cesc came on and turned the game around?

The kid is unreal. His vision in passing is incredible.

If that hasn't earned him a place in the starting 11 nothing will :rolleyes:

PHB

Was I the only one that thought Cesc came on and turned the game around?

Not alone, but he was absolutely outstanding, along with great help from Raul and Joaoquin.

county

PHB wrote:

I think Spain showed tonight, why they are contenders for the World Cup, strength in depth.


what a joke,where you drunk watching the game tonight,spain were poor and lucky in the end to come away with 3 points,i would`nt put a penny of my own money on them to win it:p

ErinGoBrath

county wrote:

what a joke,where you drunk watching the game tonight,spain were poor and lucky in the end to come away with 3 points,i would`nt put a penny of my own money on them to win it:p

Your joking aren't you?

county

ErinGoBrath wrote:

Your joking aren't you?

no
edit/you do remember they were playing tunisia,yes the mighty tunisia

ErinGoBrath

I really don't see where your coming from. Spain are a fantastic bet and proved that they could come back from a goal down to easily win the game. They played great football and showed that they have every chance of winning the world cup.

/edit
Yes I do. They wouldn't be in the WC finals if they weren't a formidable opposition. There have been a few shock results already proving that the underdogs are more than up for it. It will be interesting to see Spain against higher ranking opponents however I still think they'll do really well.

evilhomer

county wrote:

no
edit/you do remember they were playing tunisia,yes the mighty tunisia

It's always hard to break down a team that work hard for each other and get 10/11 in their own half everytime the opposition have the ball.

While I'm not sure Spain have the mental strength to win the world cup (after all it would take something phenomenal to overcome the tag of perenial underachievers that spain have "earned" over the years)

Spain have 3/4 of the most creative and best passers of the ball in the World Cup in Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Fabregas and Iniesta.

7 goals in two games isn't a bad haul by any stretch of the imagination. Lets not forget how patient Spain were in their build up play. Great to watch.

masterK

I was pretty impressed with Spain when they finally got going, it took 3 subs for that to happen. One big compliment I would pay them even when they were 1-0 down they never once resorted to long ball type play, they kept playing their game and were eventually rewarded.

Before the game I was puzzled to say the least by Garcias inclusion in the starting 11, his first half performance compounded my puzzlement especially when you seen the quality they had on the bench. I think their best team is probably the 11 they finished with.

PiE

county wrote:

no
edit/you do remember they were playing tunisia,yes the mighty tunisia

Show me a team that wouldn't have trouble breaking down a big physical side with 10 men behind the ball at all times.

jester77

I'm still not totally sold on Spain. OK they have scored 7 goals so far but the opposition were not exactly too hot. Was at the Ukraine game yesterday and I can see why Spain knocked 4 by them. They have a poor defense that were made look ok by easily the worst team in the world cup. Any good team would knock in a few goals by them. Tunisia were stubborn but you would expect a team like Spain to easily beat them. Remember Tunisia only drew with Saudi! They have potential but I think their history of under achieving may affect them. They will easily run up a large score againsts the Saudis but that won't mean much. It will be very interesting to see how they play in the second round, really looking forward to that game. They are a nice side to watch and can really turn it on. I would love to see them against the Argies, that would be a potentially mouth-watering clash!

redspider

Spain did well last night and showed resilence. But I think people should not get too hyped about them. That was a class finish by Torres (outside of right foot) but the goalie was very questionable for two of the goals, the first and 2nd for Spain which effectively ended the match as a contest. The third was just icing on the cake. Spain will have much sterner tests later on in the tournament. I would be very very surprised if they won the WC. I have them in the top-8. I forget who they are likely to meet at that point but I would doubt very much that they would get to the final.

I felt sorry for Tunisia who put in a good display, not all of it physical. Some of their players can play football. I think they will test Ukraine as well who got it relatively easy against the Saudi's. They have enugh capability to draw with them, but as they need a win, it could backfire against them and they could lose. Ukraine will go out though at the final-16 stage (if not before). (Could they do a Greece and be a real dark horse? - I sure hope not). I was glad to see Shev score, but the Saudi defence was woeful it has to be said.

redspider

Mitch Connor

I think Cesc did brilliantly last night, but it was purely down to the way spain play that he changed the game - He is an AM, and for the formation spain play to work, they need an AM (which none of Senna, Alonso or Xavi are) Guti prob would have changed the game the same way. Don't get me wrong, Cesc did do very well, he did what was asked of him and more, but if the Spanish manager had played a properly balanced side from the start they may not have requeired saving.

Kingp35

Lads I think you are all getting slightly carried away with this Spanish team. They were poor in the first half and lacked the cutting edge. Their defence looked shaky against a very poor Tunisia attack. Things improved in the second half with the changes that Arragones made. Luis Garcia should not be in that Spanish side. He gives the ball away far too much and Spain have far better options than him. Fabregas was excellent when he came on and I think he will start ahead of Senna now who didnt do an awful lot when he was on the pitch.

Tunisia made it hard for the Spanish with their tactics and it took too goalkeeping mistakes for them to get the goals to turn the game around. Once they got the first goal they relaxed and could play but up until that point they were not ding the business against a Tunisian team that only managed a draw against the woeful Saudis. Spain put in a decent performance but thats it.

Mitch Connor

Kingp35 wrote:

Fabregas was excellent when he came on and I think he will start ahead of Senna now who didnt do an awful lot when he was on the pitch.

i would bring Cesc in for Alonso, personally.

Alonso is a great player, but not right for the job that should be getting asked of him.

Play Senna as the DM, Xavi as the CM and Cesc as the AM. Bring alonso on when winning and just wanting to keep the ball.

PHB

It is interesting to note that Xavi and Alonso are very similar players, and perhaps can't work together in the same midfield.