I'll make no secrets of my alliances. I'm a proud Madridista, but my first love and the team I'll support over any other will always be Spain. I may not be Spanish, but La Roja gave me a passion for the game at Euro 2008 that hasn't dwindled since they won it. I probably like them for the wrong reason (I thought Iker Casillas was really badass when he scratched his balls when ESPN did a close up of him just chillin), also the reason I like Real Madrid (as San Iker is my favorite player), but it doesn't change anything. They're my team, and I'll never stop supporting them. España hasta muerte.
However, Spain's recent high (and a rather low. . .low against the Americans in last year's confederations cup) may be catching up to them. As Phil Ball writes in his article written prior to today's game (which can be read here: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/columns/story?id=796467&cc=5901&ver=us) is a good introduction to the nature of Spanish Football: Fluid, possession football. But there's also the politics. In Barcelona, they hate Madrid. In Madrid, they don't care for Bilbao. Spain is so regionalized, it tends to carry over to the national team. Now that the team is so united, they've lost some of the passion that makes the Spanish, well, Spanish.
I'm not going to lie and say I was dazzled by their play, and I'm also not going to say I was disgusted. However, they did a lot of things right, but failed to finish the job. Their passing was solid, but they looked indecisive in the box, failing to really challenge the Swiss 'keeper Benaglio. Some sloppy play at the back, including odd foot first challenges from Casillas allowed the Swiss to sneak one, and almost a second past San Iker.
I'm still also not convinced with Vicente Del Bosque as manager. I really liked Luis Aragones' style which led them to the Euro 2008 Championship. Del Bosque is a minimalist, and despite the players training (most come from two of world's top teams, Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona), it takes an involved manager to make things right. He got the tactics all wrong, as Switzerland was able to exploit Spain's 4-2-3-1. Spain has been leaning towards the 4-1-4-1, which suits them perfectly considering Torres's state.
How Spain SHOULD play:
---------------Casillas------------------
-Arbeloa----Puyol---Pique--Capdevila-
--------------Xabi Alonso--------------
-Iniesta--Fabregas--Xavi--David Silva-
--------------David Villa---------------
Notable Subs: Sergio Ramos, Fernando Torres, Raul Albiol, Fernando Llorente, Jesus Navas, Pedrito
Will they listen to me? No. Should they? Most Likely.
Gana o falta, vida o muerte. . . La Furia Roja para siempre
On a side note, I was in such a funk after this game. No direction, no motivation, just in a daze. Forced to buy my sick stepdad some pepto bismol, I decided to turn on the XMU, the Indie radio station on XM, normally I don't go for a lot of modern music, but it left me with sort of an empty satisfaction. I heard from Electric Six, The XX, Vampire Weekend, some other random stuff, but Dance Yrself Clean from LCD Soundsystem's new album really caught me off guard (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoA0cTC228M).
A year ago, I never would have imagnined myself listening to this, being the most pretentious audiophile on the planet, but I now find myself enjoying things like Lupe, T.I., CuDi, Faunts, and a lot of other music from the last 5-10 years. Thank you, college. If you're wondering, I'm still pretentious: I just bought Rimsky-Korsakov's Le Coq d'Or on vinyl a couple days ago. Seriously, who does that?
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