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Not this team surely, Ant. There's very little of the cynical about them, for a change - how many fouls did they commit tonight, for example?


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What was Camacho saying, Ant?

What a let-down. Quite lidderally, no contest for the Spanish. Thank goodness for some quality slapstick moments from Torres to enliven the proceedings.

That was an excellent performance from Spain. It was a perfect example of a side doing their homework on their opponents, watching their previous performance, and making sure they didn't do what the previous opponents (Holland) did.

Spain's play was good. Great at times, but I was impressed with how they stopped Russia getting to grips with the game. Russia just couldn't play the type of football they played against Holland and Sweden. The square and angled passes into team-mates feet weren't possible today, with Senna's work deep in midfield and Xavi & Iniesta falling back to fill the channels that Russia have been exploiting. They got snuffed out. Spain's defence read the play well, rarely got caught out of position, and got stuck in with some good meaty challenges. Ramos, to my surprise, was brilliant.

I sense that the errors that Portugal and Turkey made when gifting Germany goals, won't be made by Spain.

russia let in 8 goals in the tournament, 7 of them to spain

The Spanish commentary team was a little raucous, but in general Camacho and co told me what I was seeing, namely a fantastic footballing performance. Obviously, with the sense of occasion, this analysis was conveyed with a little more fervour than normal.

Camacho is such a tub-thumping nationalist that his bias goes beyond the pale. A past master at the pot calling the kettle black, he studies a replay where a Spanish player is about two yards offside, and his blinkers won't let him see it. "Ooh, I don't know -I don't know." Ditto for fouls, corners, goal kicks etc.
In one of the group games, Silva put a shot from distance miles over the bar, and Camacho tried to justify such a failing by trying to make out the pitch was a bit uneven.

Irritating enough if you're Spanish, I imagine, but if you're not, it drives you absolutely mad.

If Aragones does as he did in the semi, then he must include Cesc in the starting 11 come sunday because Villa is out for the tournament according to Marca.

Cesc will get the start he deserves in the most important match of Spain's footballing history in spite of Aragones' errant scheming. Unless of course, he substitutes Villa with Guiza.

The cast iron law of this tournament, and indeed of most recent tournaments, is that the most impressive, swashbuckling team in each round fucks up in the next. This time it's applied to Portugal, Holland, Russia and you can't rule it out applying to Spain too.

It's a fascinating-looking final though, after what's probably the most convicing all-round performance I've seen from a Spain team since the 1986 World Cup. Tonight's game was all about Senna though wasn't it? Pivotal and utterly outstanding. Silva, too, has deserved more props than he's had in this tournament.

The Moral Animal wrote:

QUOTE:
Anyone else notice that ITV totally ignored the anti-racism stuff before the game, with Tyldesley just talking about the two teams instead? Nice touch, that.

Alan Green and (I think) Graham Taylor complained about it all taking so long. They probably didn't realise that ITV and the other commercial channels had a full set of adverts to get in between the anthems and the kick-off...

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Iniesta named Man of the Match.

Couldn't see that myself.


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Good post E-10.

erwin wrote:

QUOTE:
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Iniesta named Man of the Match.

Couldn't see that myself.


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No, surely Senna or Cesc.

Russia never got going to begin with, visibly threw in the towel after the first goal despite there being a full 40 minutes left, and were an absolute rabble by the end. Hiddink is a brilliant manager, but that sort of shite is completely ingrained in the Russian/Soviet football DNA and even someone as good as him can't hope to even half-eradicate it in a mere two years in charge.

Fabregas was very good in the second half. Arsenal could possibly have done with a bit of that during the business end of the last few Premiership seasons.

E10, if you're talking about the Denmark game in 1986, Spain were getting wellied until Jesper Olsen decided to pass it straight to Emilio Butragueno on the stroke of half-time. After that, the Danes threw everyone forward, fell beind, gave a stupid penalty away and lost 5-1, the final goal being another avoidable penalty. It was a big margin of victory but a "complete performance" it wasn't.

Have to disagree HOH. Spain was awesome and nasty. I close my eyes and some guy called the Vulture is picking this team that picked Uruguay to shreds to shreds.

Pfaff was also about as far off his line as any keeper that I've ever seen before a penalty in the shootout against Belgium.