Confederations Cup highlights: New Zealand 0-5 Spain, South Africa 0-0 Iraq

Ollie Irish

15th, June 2009

6 Comments

spainnzconfed1.png
Warning: these two men can severely damage your goal difference
The Confederations Cup (come on, I know you can feign interest with me…) kicked off at the weekend. Pre-tournament favourites Spain demolished New Zealand, thanks to a Fernando Torres hat-trick, while in the other game, hosts South Africa played out a scrappy goalless draw with Iraq.
There’s no doubt that Spain are the star attractions at the CC. There’s also no doubt – in my mind, anyway – that if the World Cup was to start now, they would win at a canter. Xavi and Andres Iniesta didn’t even play against NZ, but when you have players as good as Cesc Fabregas in reserve, you know you’re dealing with a seriously strong team; Spain boasts two dazzlingly brilliant strikers, a glut of world-class midfielders, a more-than solid defence and the best goalie in the world. It’s hard to see which other nation has the weapons to beat them.


I guess the usual suspects – Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Holland, Germany, France and, ahem, England - could run Spain close, but I doubt it.
OK, you say, New Zealand isn’t the strongest opposition (though they ran world champs Italy very close in a friendly last week), but I was amazed at how fresh Torres and his team-mates looked. They could have won 8- or 9-0, that’s how big the gulf in class looked.
Highlights of both games below (no idea how long they’ll be up on YouTube, so catch ’em quickly):

Posted in International football, Videos, World Cup

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6 Comments

  1. oahsd says:

    ITS IRAQ NOT IRAN!!!

  2. Ollie says:

    Doh! Iran on the brain, cause it’s in the news right now. Thanks for the spot.

  3. oahsd says:

    haha its fine, thanks for changing it.
    proud moment for iraqis like myself, even tho we played absolutley terrible. And i use the term Played very lightly. It’s a shame this is the first time you have seen us play and we perform like that usually we play like a poor-man’s spain but we will show that against new zealand [hopefully]

  4. Dickie says:

    Xavi did play, but not in the same spor he’s used to. Maybe you didn’t notice him ’cause he was playing ont he right.

  5. Louwrens says:

    You didn’t mention Parker’s goal-line clearance from his team-mate’s header! Made me feel very patriotic, that. And the Iraqi’s were playing for time and taking the ball into the corner five minutes from a GOALLESS DRAW against the 72nd ranked team in the WORLD. Disappointing.

  6. ManUtd_Fan says:

    i like the photo!!

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